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“Good to know, but I suspect all that oxytocin coursing through your veins has made you impervious to my grumpiness.”
118
“I share your exasperation with the way the research is going.” She smiled at me.
“You know I love working with you.”
“Me too, Hadley.”
“Anyway,” she said, eyes shining, “I have my own plans for the next couple of weeks.”
“Really? Plans involving an extremely attractive and romantic engineer, by chance?”
Hadley’s face took on a slightly dreamy expression. “Andrea and I are going to the Earth. We’ve been talking about it, how it would be nice to meet the families face to face. Then this morning I got a message from our official Cruise Director, Izumi.”
I laughed, and the tension started to drain from my body.
“She said the Foundation was offering us a three-week, all expenses paid trip to the Earth, for me and Andrea. Can you believe it? Perfect timing, too.”
“So you and I will both be able to relax and think about something else besides warp bubbles.”
“Yeah, and when we’re both back, we can solve the collapse conundrum once and for all.”
“Okay, it’s a deal.” How could I have ever been annoyed with this beautiful human being? She was right, of course, it was the research that had been bringing me down, and I had projected my irritability onto everyone around me, especially Hadley. Except for my study groups, it was my first time collaborating so intimately with another scientist. Back when I was working alone, my negative humor only affected me, but here, on Shambhala, I needed to control my feelings of frustration, to remember I was a part of a community, a community I treasured. I smiled at Hadley, feeling my heart expand with love. “Are you nervous about meeting Andrea’s family?”
“Not at all.” She shook her head. Then she shrugged. “Okay, yeah, maybe a little.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, okay, you got me. I’m scared stiff.”
I smiled. “Only natural, but you’ll be fine.”
“I’ve already met her parents and her brother via holochat, but in person, that’s a totally different dynamic!”
“I’m sure Andrea is nervous, too, to meet your family, I mean.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about it on the way to Earth.”
“When do you leave?”
“Andrea is wrapping up a project she’s been working on right now, and she said she should be finished by this afternoon. We’ll leave tomorrow. What about you?”
“The same, tomorrow afternoon.”
She came over to me and gave me a hug. “We’ll see you on the shuttle then.”
◆◆◆
119
When we arrived at the Central Lunar Terminal, I took the metro train to Sector Sixteen. Hadley and Andrea stayed at the terminal, waiting for the transport to Tako, where they would catch the Terra-Luna Express to Earth Central and then continue on to the planet’s surface. After being on the space station for so long, I was having a hard time negotiating the lunar gravity. My body felt so heavy, and it took me a few minutes to remember how to walk. At least it wasn’t Earth gravity. When I stepped off the train, Berit was there waiting for me. “Berit, what a nice surprise!” Even my tongue felt heavy.
I gave her an awkward hug.
“Hi, Calli! Sook told me you were coming.” She grabbed my bag, then we went into the airlock. Once the outer doors had shut, she opened the door to Delphi Park, and I followed her inside.
I took a deep breath. The air on the space station was clean, thanks to the extensive filtration process, but, except for the farm, parks, and the gym, which all had an abundance of greenery, Shambhala had an almost sterile odor. Here, the air smelled clean and pure, with earthy undertones. “It’s beautiful here.”
“It’s true, sometimes I forget how special it is. Come on, let’s put your bag in your room and go eat lunch.”
Feeling clumsy, I followed behind, trying to remind my body how to respond in a gravitational field.
Berit looked back at me with a little smirk. “Space legs?”
“And then some!”
She opened the door to my room, and I took my backpack from her and put it on the bed, then we headed to the dining room.
“Nice to see food not all packaged in little balls,” I said as we loaded our plates.
We sat down at an empty table. I picked up my fork and managed to get a bite of food on it, but when I tried to put the fork in my mouth, I missed, and the food fell back onto my plate.
Berit laughed, and I glared at her with mock severity, “Berit! I can’t believe you’re making fun of my temporary disability.”
“It’s so weird, how the body forgets. But you’ll be fine in a few hours.”
“Yeah, if I don’t starve to death first.”
She laughed harder, watching as I attempted another bite of food, giving the action my full attention. Success! I chewed carefully.
“So, how’s it going on Shambhala?” she asked.
“Hadley and I are stuck on figuring out the warp drive, but other than that, fine.”
“And how’s Naomi?”
“Naomi? She’s good.”
Berit sighed. “She’s still with Evan, I suppose.”
“Nope, they broke up.” My fork felt very heavy. I set it down on my plate.
Berit sat up straighter. “She’s single now?”
“Uh-huh.” I squinted at her. “You’re not, well, interested in Naomi, are you? I mean, 120
romantically?” The blood rushed to Berit’s face, turning her olive skin even darker.
“Berit, you know she’s hetero, don’t you?”
“I know, I know. But those dreamy eyes.”
“Oh, Berit, I’m afraid you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“Not even a chance she’s a little bit bi?”
“No, I’m afraid not.”
Berit sighed again. “Why do I always fall for the straight women?”
“Naomi is pretty special, so I can understand.”
“You, too?” Berit asked, eyeing me distrustfully.
I laughed at her expression. “No, no, nothing like that. She’s my best friend.”
“Oh, well, that’s nice for you.” She shrugged, and took a bite of food, chewing thoughtfully. “Hey, you’ll be here for a while, won’t you? A few weeks?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan.”
“We should go out. There’s a fun bar in Sector Eight, mostly queer women.”
“Sure, I’d love to go.” I hadn’t been out to a bar in years, had never felt comfortable in the bar scene. This was a chance for me to break out of my old patterns, to open myself up to new possibilities. Excitement bubbled up inside me.
“Super. Usually, a group of us go out on Friday nights after work.”
“Sounds like fun.” Suddenly I couldn’t wait till Friday!
“Honestly, Calli, I don’t know how you can handle it, being on the station. There are only what, twenty people?”
“There are eighteen of us.”
“I could never do it. I need more social interaction.”
“I kind of like it.” I shrugged one shoulder. “It’s a nice community, more like a family.”
“It’s not for everyone.”
“No, I suppose not.”
121
It didn’t take long to readjust to the Moon’s gravity. All those hours in the gym made a difference. I took full advantage of my free time, sleeping in every day, then working out in the gym. The Moon still wasn’t the Earth, and after two hundred thousand years of evolution, human bodies were built for Earth’s gravitational field. It was a constant battle to keep from losing bone density and muscle mass, even in lunar gravity. After a late breakfast, I would sit in Delphi Park, enjoying the natural beauty and solitude, and later, help with the farm work. Working with the plants and learning more about the different lunar cultivars was relaxing, and I absolutely fell in love with the chickens.
Every day, I sat for a few hours in the chicken enclosure. The chickens would flock around me, and I always had a snack for them in my pocket. A few of the hens would hop up onto my lap or settle on my shoulder, and groom themselves or take a nap, tucking a feathered head under a wing. It felt so peaceful, being with them. Afterward, more often than not, I would have to change my jumpsuit because it would be covered in excrement. I didn’t care.
The daily entertainment for the hens, and, by extension, for me, was the cockroach feast. I was astonished when Berit told me she raised cockroaches on purpose. Roaches had adapted easily to the lunar gravity, and there was an ongoing battle to keep the Moon roach free. In general, the tenacious little creatures were winning that battle.
When she saw the look of horror on my face, Berit patiently explained they were easy to breed (as anyone with a cockroach infestation in their home could attest), they ate almost anything, and, most importantly, they were an impressive source of protein.
“Protein for whom?” I had asked, eyes wide.
Berit laughed. “The chickens, of course.”
I was a vegetarian out of compassion—why kill when there was no need? Even though the vast majority of meat for human consumption was produced in laboratories, there was a thriving market for “real” meat—chickens, pigs, even cows were raised for slaughter, to satisfy the primal urge to consume genuine animal flesh. I couldn’t imagine killing an animal for food, and the thought of synthetic slabs of lab-grown meat made my stomach turn. I had no logical reason for rejecting synthomeat, but couldn’t bring myself to eat it, possibly because, in my mind, synthomeat was too closely linked to the real thing. But I accepted that other animals needed to eat living creatures.
Farming cockroaches to feed the chickens was a great idea. Personally, I would rather eat an egg than a cockroach, but then again, I wasn’t a chicken. Each afternoon, Berit invited the flock into the “stockyard,” as she called it—a small, enclosed room attached to the chicken coop—and carefully closed the outer door. She would then release a couple of hundred roaches into the room, and the chickens would go wild. They were so enthusiastic, and although I empathized with the roaches, the chickens were blissfully happy, and it was impossible not to get caught up in their joy. Poor roaches, they didn’t 122
stand a chance—the room was empty, so no place to hide. The feeding frenzy lasted about five minutes.
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