The Good Ship Bison

Everyone got to work finishing the rest of their moving-in process, and making lists of things that would make ship life easier. Pat had no way of knowing what we'd need, after all.

First, we decided we needed some better cameras, if we were going to be looking at pretty things, it might be nice to take pics of them. Second, I wanted to talk to some experts on marine ecology and global warming, to know what we might be able to do about that.

The question of how do we help the global energy crisis got to be a life-changer.

Sitting around (we'd all gotten chairs and a big conference table for the bridge, by then), I asked, "Pat, I want to prevent the bad parts of global warming, maybe by reducing fossil fuel usage. Maybe, is there a way you'd suggest for that?"

"Most of the fast solutions involve harm to people. I can present them to you, but the ethical choices are difficult. Also, new technology can cause vast unintended consequences."

Beth suggested, "More PV cells? Those need pure silicon. Maybe... can we make that? Will that hurt the ship? Pat?"

"The Bison can melt any amount of rock, and as long as we can visit the Earth's surface every week, regardless of energy expenditure, it will not be harmed or depleted in any way."

Willa, normally somewhat quiet, asked, "Pat. Question about a refining method. Presume we pull some lunar regolith into high lunar orbit. Presume that regolith is primarily aluminosilicate rock. Can we melt that sphere of rock so it's just sitting there outside our ship?"

"Yes, easily."

"Can we spin that sphere, but allow the inside to be very liquid and the outside to be solid?"

"Yes."

"If we put a high rate of spin on it, and heat it to the point of ionization on the inside, could we separate it to constituent elements?"

"Only by jumping large voltages across a section, between interior locations. This is possible."

"Pat, How long would it take to refine enough silicon to affect global energy supplies?"

"Four days."

We all burst out with OHMyGod reactions.

"How much would we end up with?"

"From a medium-sized sphere of rock, approximately 175 times the current annual production of metallurgical grade pure silicon. For a large sphere, 5000x."

"If we sold that, how long until that silicon could be made into solar cells?"

"Between 2 and 20 years, depending on how much investment goes into building PV factories. The limiting factor is availability of saw blades capable of cutting this silicon into wafers. Constructing an ion gun, this could be done in several days, but I could not allow this use off-ship since it would have dual-use military applications."

"Are there other options to cut the silicon, for human factories?"

"Retrieving tungsten from a known source could provide enough saw blades to cut this quickly. There are large deposits on the planet Mercury to accomplish this."

"How long would it take to get there?"

"About 3 days."

"What would the mission profile look like, in stages? Can you put that on the wall?"

A chart appeared, with boost phase, our orbital trajectory, arrival, several orbits, refining time.

"Pat, call Marge, the NASA lady I met."

Ring. Ring.

"Hello?"

"Marge. Kevin Cooper."

"Wow! Oh my goodness! Long day for you?"

"Almost. Getting late. Question. If I was going to take a trip to, say, Mercury, and I was going to bring along some kind of orbiter or satellite or something, to take pictures, and just leave it there as a courtesy to NASA, would NASA have any such thing, like, in a closet somewhere?"

She laughed long and hard and said, "No."

Calming down, she corrected and said, "Now, hold on a minute. Here's an idea. How about you bring an old satellite, but a still-functional one? JAXA has a lunar orbiter now, it's busy taking pictures of the moon. Maybe if you wanted to bring that aboard, you could drop it into a nice orbit around Mercury. Trouble might be heat load, I'm not sure. It might be able to take nice pictures mapping Mercury's surface, though. Might be dicey with radiation, too. Heat load and radiation. Shiny metal foil might help, we could check on that."

It was on speakerphone, and Willa asked, "Won't Japan have an opinion about that?"

"They might like it, they might hate it. You can call our ambassador there, anytime. Hell, you can probably call their prime minister and ask, but conference with their lead engineer to tell you if it'll work. It's not my area - all engineers are NOT alike."

Willa said, "This is Willa Johnson. Yeah. Aware of that. Do you have the foil sitting around somewhere?"

"Yes, we have plenty, it's not expensive or complex."

Willa nodded and pointed to me again. I asked, "Marge, rather than us calling the prime minister of Japan on his personal cell, uh, can you have the head of NASA reach out to JAXA? Or, maybe look at your inventory, and tell me what to bring along? I have a lead on some mineralogy available on Mercury, looks like a good idea to head there to grab some. You have a day - 24 hours or so - before we leave. We'll be gone for about a week. If you don't have any satellites to bring along, we're just gonna leave without it and you'll be out of luck, try again later, that type of thing."

"Understood."

"Hey, one more item. I just told some farmers in the Azores to build a space station out of a grain silo."

She laughed. It really was funny, we were kind-of laughing, too.

I continued anyway, "Yeah, I kinda did. Seriously. I told them, make it double-walled, pressurized with separate systems for interior and between-walls, safety feature. Then, revolving door airlocks, seals, and some big telescopes if they can buy some."

She stopped laughing and there was some silence. "You realize there's a lot more to it than that, right?"

"Like what?"

"Airlocks are... standardized? Big enough for spacesuits? Having spacesuits at all? Docking collars? Uh... water doesn't move by itself, or air - you need air handling, with super-quiet fans, and scrubbers, or some kind of CO2 to O2 conversion. Uh... bunch of stuff."

"I'd really like it if these guys could have a success-experience? Maybe, if some small group of NASA friends of yours, with that kind of engineering expertise, but very hands-on fast movers, could help out? Say, visit the Azores for maybe 2 weeks, and get something Really Freakin' Simple built? Spin stabilized with two counter-rotating lobes, for gravity, a tunnel between, and a third section in zero-g with a lab and a shit-ton of robo-telescopes, maybe Celestron or Meade, with go-Pro's and telecoms?"

She paused.

I didn't interrupt, I knew she was thinking.

Finally, she said, "Uh... I'll pass that on... I might know some people who would be... into that."

Willa said, "Ma'am, I know about 500 MIT students who would stay up all night for 2 weeks straight to get to work on it. And, that's just the people I've met."

Marge laughed, "And, about 5000 NASA engineers, too. But, too many chefs, right? And, this is supposed to be an Azores project? So, some good designs... but they do the engineering work, if I get your drift? You want us to just verify it?"

"Yep. This is a national pride thing for them. Can't steal it. Best if everybody we sent spoke Portuguese."

She laughed again, "Not a lot of those in NASA, as a percent, I'm thinking, but... I think I can work this."

"Appreciated. If you help with this and make them look brilliant, I can help NASA look brilliant doing something else."

"Excellent. Where is this place?"

I told her and she wrote it down, and we hung up.

It was getting late.

The girls were almost done with the moving in. We'd had a full day.

"Pat, wake me if anyone local gets close to the ship? Oh, and... we'll probably want to get to the moon to do prospecting for metals, right? So, the ship's time is 9 pm, let's have you take off sometime about 4 am, really gently so we don't all wake up, and head out at a steady 1 g to the moon? Then, lunar orbit so we can find some pure metals we can sell somewhere. And, stuff that will refine to silicon. Whatever you want to do to make this plan happen."

"Understood."

"Ship's night, lower light levels for the next 20 minutes until we're all in bed."

"In process."

We all stood up, stretched, and headed off.

Mads came up and kissed me. "So. We don't have a system yet."

"For?"

"Who spends the night with you."

I thought about it. "You decide. Appoint someone to coordinate, so everyone gets a chance, that wants one."

She thought about it. "What are your criteria?"

"Same as before." I looked her in the eye. She knew what I was talking about.

"Got it. Rotate around, fairly. Timing."

I had a thought. "Oh, dang it! Everybody, come on back a minute."

They hadn't gotten far, so everyone trooped back in the main room. Some had pajamas on, some were still naked (wow!).

"Pat, put up the health list, spreadsheet, up on the wall, just name and 'risks'."

The list appeared.

I spoke frankly, admitting to something. "So, crew. I'm confessing here - Pat has been spying on you. That is, medical sensors. Pat has incredible ones, and can do some predictions. Here's what we found."

They all looked down the list, probably first at themselves and then at each other's.

"You can see - everyone here had some common problems - arteriosclerosis from too much fatty meats, and other stuff. Dental misalignment. Insufficient enamel on your teeth, gum problems, some cavities and fillings. Eyesight problems."

There were worse things, quite a few of them.

"Pat is capable of operating as a medic, within the ship. Those of you who had these problems, they will be fixed soon. No one here has an unfixable problem."

Kara asked, "My eyes are already better, but it's maddening because my glasses don't work but my eyes aren't perfect yet."

We laughed.

I said, "Well, it'll get fixed. You can ask Pat what your ETA is for good vision. Pat, what is it?"

"Vision correction will mostly be done by morning, for everyone."

"Pat, there's some pretty serious things on this board - breast cancer, pancreatic cancer for Willa, wow - what are the ETA's for those?"

"Willa's incipient cancer cells have already been killed. They will be excreted over the next few days. Everyone here should drink at least one liter of water per day to flush out killed cells."

Around the table, something that at first looked like an academic idea, suddenly got very real.

I said, "One thing Mads noticed, about hair. Mads?"

Mads explained about pubic hair and everyone quickly said yes.

"Also, if you want to be able to deep throat safely and easily, raise your hand?"

They all raised their hands.

In front of them, I thought, hey, this is the right time and place. "Pat, is there anything that can be done to reduce pain levels for period cramps, pregnancy, and childbirth?"

"Affirmative for cramps and bloating, but tenderness will remain. There are no side effects. The change is similar to hypnosis in that the pain dial will be turned down but will still exist, for safety reasons. For the painless late-pregnancy and childbirth changes, the side effect would be an increased chance of having twins. Given that, no part of pregnancy will be painful or risky, nor will the actual birth. Risk of miscarriage is also much decreased, and the number of years of fertility will increase by about 20% over baseline."

Mads looked around, "Who wants this...?" She raised her hand and looked at me.

Every one of them immediately raised their hands.

"Pat, enable those changes."

"In process."

Something else occurred to me. "Pat, is there a way to control the aging process so we don't get old, like, worn-out old, as fast as other people?"

"Certainly. These are epigenetic and proteomic changes with some side effects. These are listed on the wall."

The list appeared.

Disinterest in super-fatty, super-sugary foods and increased interest in healthy foods.

Increased libido / sexual drive.

Increased maternal and paternal instincts.

Inability to gain weight to excess.

Desire to run and play sports on a regular basis, as a type of restlessness.

Increased breast density and size in women (+20%) due to increased ligament growth

More prominent, stiffer, upright, and high-seated breast shapes due to tighter breast ligaments.

Increased tendency to become bored due to increased intelligence and creativity.

Every 20 years, supernumerary dentition where new teeth replace old ones.

Back on the original list, another column appeared, showing 'probable expanded lifespan' and number between 210 and 250 years.

I said, "I want that."

"Changes will take approximately 1 month to be complete."

We all studied it, and everyone except Anna said yes. "Just want to be different." she said.

I said, "Everyone who wants that, say, 'Pat, enable long life for me'"

They went around and did it.

That was it. We sat and talked more about what a day it had been. I sent a text to my mom, "Doing good here. Hope you're okay. Love you."

We broke up the meeting and headed to our rooms.

I brushed my teeth and got into bed, and pretty soon Willa and Chris joined me.

Willa padded in carrying the next day's clothes in a pile, and right behind her, Chris, doing the same thing. I was amazed at how beautiful they were, and that they were in the same bed with me!!

The parade didn't finish, though, because Tina came in, too, dressed in bottoms but no top, and took off her stuff before shutting the door.

The button for the lights was just an area on the wall with a square that said, 'Lights', tapping it turned them off or on, and stroking across in any direction dimmed or undimmed.

The machinery of this place amazed me. I didn't know how the levitation worked. I didn't even get how there were lights in the ceiling that just glowed.

We all climbed into bed, the lights off but a small night-light on near the door that cast tiny shadows on us. In a ship like this, there was no reason for there to be any light whatsoever.

Willa was next to me. "So, Captain Cooper..."

"Formal in bed?"

"Sorry. What do you want?"

"Uh..." I thought. There were three girls in bed with me. "Sex. I think I want, sex. First, though, I want to lick someone, and the other two of you should lick each other, and trade off, until I've gotten everyone to have a good orgasm. Then, we can get with the fucking."

They laughed, and I liked it.

Good Stuff.

== ==

That night, I got to explore Willa's body, and then Chris', and then Tina's, sucking on soft dangling boobs, squeezing here and there, surrounded by skin, and licking clits all over the place.

Honoring the order that they came into the room, I gave Willa orgasms first, then Chris and Tina, and then lay atop Willa. "Is this what you want?"

"OH God Yes, Kevin. Stop-a talkin' and a-get a-movin." Her Louisiana accent came out every once in a while, not quite French, but definitely different than I was used to from Modesto patterns.

Willa had had few chances, I was only the second person to have been with her, and the second time as well, so she was uncomfortable to start with and I went slowly.

It worked out, though.

Chris had been in chorus with me, and had a huge chest, which made for a soft cushion to lie on. But, she was a virgin, and it's a good thing I stopped because we figured out it'd be better for her to be on top for the first time so she had control on the depth.

This didn't work. She couldn't quite work up the bravery to lower herself, so we switched and she lay under me, and we tried it face to face. Of course, she was way shorter than me, so I had to push myself up so we could see each other, but the idea applied.

As of that afternoon or so, I wasn't average-sized anymore, so I certainly understood it wasn't easy for her.

Tina had been dating Tom McCaul, I knew that, but when I asked, she shrugged it off. "We weren't serious. We went on dates regularly, and... full disclosure, yes, we had sex quite a few times. But, it wasn't that energizing for me, and ... he doesn't have a giant alien spaceship."

We all laughed, since she ended that statement with a lip-smacking noise and proceeded to lick my cock off from what I'd been doing with Chris, then pull it up and sit back on it to ride me cowgirl.

Very nice.

== CHAPTER: Moon Mining ==

The next morning, I got another ride from Willa, who wanted to try being on top, and to be frank I didn't have to do much work except lie there and enjoy watching her boobs sway while she rose and fell on me. That was, until she came and fell forwards on me in a super-tight hugfest of gasping 'YES!''s. This kept going until my own cresting distilled my focus into internal-happyville.

Coming back to consciousness is rude when you're locked into a dreamstate of joy. Everything real seems so boring.

I felt the ship shifting and I knew we were doing something, so as soon as we finished I got a quick toilet-and-shower, dressed-again, and returned to the bridge.

Being away overnight seemed like a sweet vacation. I'd slept there the previous two nights.

It was almost 8 am, we'd all slept a long time. Someone set breakfast out for us - ultra-pasteurized milk, corn flakes, banana, a small blueberry muffin, and OJ. We were eating in style!

Our entry into lunar orbit was done, and we were in a fast low orbit letting Bison do remote sensing. A detailed map was appearing as we circled, showing deposits of various ores. A clear deposit of granite - nearly pure silicon dioxide - wasn't far from a vein of rock that was high-grade vanadium-nickel with some iron in there, too.

The deposit really was a long-ago asteroid strike, and was about twice the size of the ship. There were other deposits like it, it was just under about 200 meters of lava that had flowed in after the impact event.

Of course, it was on the far side of the moon, so no one could see what we were doing. I wondered if it was the best site, but then I figured that most initial lunar mining would be on the near side so it was better to excavate on the far side.

Getting into the chair, I asked Pat to excavate around the meteorite fragments, then pull the iron up and out. Pat's method was to use force-spheres, but she did something else with many smaller spinning spheres, magnetized, and a shit-ton of small fragments started flying out.

Accumulated and lifted, the final mostly-iron sphere was a bit over 700 meters in diameter.

Seven. Hundred. Meters. Diameter. Pure. Iron. ... Wow.

The sheer mass of it boggled my mind.

I kept checking with Pat about whether I was subjecting Bison to any stress at all, and Pat's response was, "None whatsoever."

Throwing the iron sphere into orbit with us, we started heating it and spinning it up. When it was just barely liquid but sticky, we left it and went back to do the same thing for our quartz deposit.

That one, we melted and spun up also. With both of them spinning, then, at higher and higher rates of speed, we heated them again, past the middle of their liquid phase (but not quite to their boiling points), and increased the rotation speed again.

Pat showed us what this was doing to the elements inside, either sinking to the outside or rising to the center, depending on density.

After about 6 hours, we headed back for Earth and pulled them with us.

It had been a full day, for sure.

The next task was to grab a bunch of pure carbon - coal from an arctic undersea coal seam - and put it inside the liquid quartz, then run electric current through the whole thing.

The ultra-high heat and pure carbon grabbed the oxygen out of silicon dioxide and made just CO2 and pure silicon. Since lighter things went to the center of the spinning sphere, that made the bubble bigger and the centripetal force / artificial gravity on the outside higher.