day 13 of 30

NanoWriMo2005
J E D Cline

day 13 of 30

There were a lot of things to do for the four who were now staffing the Lunar StationBase1, yet mostly was monitoring the experiments set up by the larger crew. However, the need to suddenly leave the Moon, due to Rationallo’s impending sudden visit. left several major tasks yet to be set up and started. Most important perhaps was the aluminum extraction and processing system; structural components for the GEO space cities were to be mostly built out of aluminum coming from here on the Moon.

In fact, the task was such that it was to require six people out on the surface at once, to carry and set it up. So all four of them left the station to be outside at the same time, a situation felt quite unwise, yet the only other choice was to fail to have that important experiment set up and going, waiting until the next expedition here. Rationallo, among others, would demand to know the sequence of causes of the failure to speedily get that experiment going.

So all 4 were out tugging and pulling on the wheeled apparatus, an automated chemistry lab that would putter along the landscape, scooping up lunar soil samples and subject it to the two lunar ore processing paths built into itself. It first had to be gotten out onto the landscape and into the sunshine for power, and aimed generally in the direction it would continue to go. They were all out there, fairly exhausted but successful in positioning the huge ore processor and activating its startup sequence, when someone remembered that the station’s airlock had to be activated from the inside of the station.

It had been assumed that the station would always be manned, and that the station manager on duty at any given time would need to coordinate the opening of the airlocks with whatever else was going on at the time. But as of this moment, no one was in there, to activate the airlock sequence.

The aluminum ore processor having been started up and now moseying on its way, the four space suited people searched around the station’s airlock door, but no, there was no opener that no one knew about. Usually 3Muskateers made things to operate in multiple ways, as they realized they could not cover all contingencies; but this case, no redundancy could be found. They all retired to the Quinoa experiment hut, which had its own small air supply system, though mostly to extract oxygen produced by the plants when they were growing well. At least it was something Artesiana had created with extra loving care, a place to go to relax at times. The four conserved their space suit oxygen supply, relaxed in the warm sunlit greenhouse with the tiny Qinoa plants. All thinking, thinking of what to do next.

After a couple of hours, one noticed a light blinking; it was next to an audio plugin. Connecting to it, it was Artesiana, now at GEO SpaceDock1. “Just out of curiosity, may I ask why all four of you are wasting so much time in my greenhouse?”, she asked. She had spotted them there when during break time she thought to use the Holopresence nook to look in at her cherished experiment, and found them there. “Can you remotely activate the Station’s airlock from over there?” they asked a bit frantically. No, the activation switch was a manual pushbutton, inside the Station. Artesiana was able to use the Holopresence to explore through the now-deserted lunar StationBase1, even though all the TV cameras had been removed from inside. Artesiana also warned them that one of the TV camera robots was slowly headed their way, and soon would be in position to peer inside the greenhouse; apparently one of the news services had spotted their somewhat odd behavior, and was going for the news.

All were now physically rested up, so it was decided that two would remain to be seen tending the garden when the TV robot arrived, and the other two would be over by the airlock to the Station. The TV robot could not be in both places at once, and hopefully would not notice the two looking a bit forlorn at the airlock that was not opening for them.

Artesiana was working on getting the robot floor sweeper in the Station, to get over and bump into the airlock door switch. If she succeeded, someone would have to be there to get in immediately, thus the need to stand around there by the airlock door.

Artesiana was coaxing the robosweeper into action, depending on its decision making ability that normally was used to decide what needed to be swept up, vs what was legitimate stuff there. She could use the Holopresence to create flitting shadows in the view of the sweeper, and was trying various patterns of shadows to ascertain which ones got attention enough to initiate movement. Eventually she had the robosweeper weaving along the floor generally in the direction of the airlock switch, back and forth; it had its own ideas as to how to respond to the shadows, however. Eventually, she got its handle to bump into the airlock door pushbutton, and initiated an opening sequence. The airlock opened, the two waiting people scurried inside, took their space suit helmets off, and breathed a sigh of relief. One called the Quinoa greenhouse, advised them of success, and to stop putting on a show of gardening tediously for the robot TV’s amusement. Time to casually make their way back home, the candle was lit in the window and the door would open for them.

They agreed that one of the needed next steps was to put at least a hidden airlock switch outside the Station. It would have to be a radio operated switch, since there was no way to bore a hole through the basalt blocks, through which to run wires to the outside. And for longevity, it had to be a battery operated transmitter, charged by solar energy during the lunar day, to be useful all through the 2 week lunar night if necessary.







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