Into Space

 

  A Novel about Space

 

 

 

 

  © 2002 Michael E. Valdez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreword

This is a novel about space, and naturally, it is all fiction. It could be called science fiction, but today that literary genre has degenerated into fantasy, suspense, horror, and similar topics. The content of science is limited. Most authors writing science fiction are very good writers. Most of them seem to only have the superficial science that is given in High School, while others apparently got their science instruction from television shows or movies. For this reason, this work is better described as fiction about science. The author is very careful in his extrapolations to respect the laws of nature. Some extrapolations might seem unwarranted, but if you think carefully, you will see that they are possible. It is even possible that some of them have become reality when you read this work.
M.E.V.

Part 1
THE BEGINNING

Chapter 1

Kristin entered her father's office without making any noise. She had opened the door carefully and she closed equally noiselessly. The carpeted floor silenced her movements. She waited close to the door, for her father to notice her. Her sight went through the room. She did not have too many opportunities to enter this room. She had never had the chance to look at it in detail. Her father's office was a very large room. It was furnished with elegance and good taste. It was clear that no thought was given to the cost of providing a sober elegance and maximum convenience. On one side there was a desk, facing the center of the room. It was a beautifully finished mahogany desk. Her father was sitting at the desk, absorbed on his work on some papers. The desk had the materials he was working on and a beautiful crystal desk lamp. He had several papers, drawings and charts spread on the desk. There was nothing else on the desk. Behind his swivel chair there were two large tables. One of them had a computer. Kristin was itching to get hers hands on it. Her computer was a discarded one she found in the shop. Her father's computer was of the latest model. It had a large display, a printer, a scanner, a modem and many other accessories. The other table was also covered with equipment. There was a complex telephone, a fax machine, several ticket tape machines. Another computer was sitting on this table. This computer analyzed the reports from the ticket tape machines and presented a display with the trends, using several curves of different colors. There were also many other devices Kristin did not know what they did. Kristin sight slid to the rest of the room. The wall opposite to where she was standing was totally covered by a beautiful bookcase that went from floor to ceiling. It had glass doors in small sections. A sliding ladder permitted to reach the upper shelves. It looked as if that huge bookcase was not enough. It was full and there were books all over the room. There were books on tables, sofas and chairs. Kristin thought on the library, where she spent so many hours, also full of books. There were sofas and chairs to accommodate at least fifteen persons in this office. It was clear that the room was never used as a conference room. It was used only as an office. The arrangement of the sofas and chairs was not in a single group. They were in groups of various sizes, evidently for different purposes. The other walls were paneled high with a dark wood. There were several original paintings on those walls. The room had a soft illumination that could be controlled from one of the devices behind her father's desk.
In contrast with the elegance and luxury that surrounded her, Kristin was dressed on a dirty coverall that had been patched many times, not always with a matching piece of material. Her hair was held by a baseball cap with a hole in one side. Her shoes were work shoes that were new a long time ago. Kristin waited patiently. She was used to do that.
Her father lifted her sight and saw her.
"Hi, brat. I did not see you coming," said her father.
"I did not want to disturb you."
"That is nice of you!"
"Dad, may I talk to you for a moment?" said Kristin.
"Yes, but make it quick. I am busy."
"I think you will not be busy when you see what I have," she said passing him several papers.
"What is this?"
"A technical paper."
"Where did you get this?"
"I got it from the Internet."
"You spend too much time on the Internet!"
"I find useful things there."
"Like what?"
"Like that article. I found it in one of NASA's web sites."
"Wow! This is something! From a guy with a Ph.D.!" Her father said when he read the title.
"Do not read the article. It is not worth. Read the comments at the end."
"Is this one of your silly jokes?" Her father said in bad manner when he scanned the comments. He was annoyed by the waste of time.
"Wait," Kristin said. "There is more to it."
"The comments say the guy does not know what he is talking about."
"Yes. That is what I wanted to show you."
"They say that the paper is full of errors and false assumptions!"
"Yes," Kristin said taking the papers.
"Why do you waste my time, brat?"
"Would you please listen to me?" said Kristin in a conciliatory tone.
"What do you want?"
"I know the guy does not know what he is talking about. I have gone through the paper."
"Did you read an article from a guy with a Ph.D.?"
"Yes. I corrected the errors that I needed."
"Did you corrected the paper of a guy with a Ph.D.?"
"Yes, I eliminated the wrong assumptions."
"Did you corrected that paper?" Her father repeated.
"Yes. I got something that works."
"Did you get something that works?"
"Yes. I developed a propulsion system like that guy dreams."
"Did you develop a propulsion system?"
"Yes. It is not close to what he says, but he gave me the idea."
"This does not make any sense!"
"I have tested it as much as I can. It is exactly as the theory."
"Have you tested the new propulsion system?"
"Yes. I run a simulation on the computer and it is perfect."
"Did you run a simulation?"
"Yes. I built a prototype."
"Did you build a prototype?"
"Yes. The problem is that I do not have a vehicle to really test it."
"Can you use one of the electric carts?" Her father said without thinking.
"Dad! I am talking about a space vehicle!"
"Look, I am not understanding you."
"My point is that I need a vehicle."
"A space vehicle?"
"Yes. Here is the drawing of the one I want to build."
"But this will cost a fortune!"
"John tells me that it will cost nothing in comparison to what you are thinking of paying NASA contractors for yours."
"Did John say that?"
"Yes. I only need to buy the parts. I will build it here."
"Will you build a space vehicle?" Her father started again.
"Yes. May I ask John to order the parts?"
"Yes, yes of course!" Her father said to get rid of her. "Now, go away and let me think about all this! You have my head spinning! This does not make sense! Go! Go!"
Kristin went out of the room as fast as she could. He did not want to give her father a chance to change his mind. When Kristin was closing the door, she heard her father calling her mother.
"Mary Ann, you better come over to my office! This is serious!"


Kristin was almost seventeen. She was a medium height girl with blonde, very silky hair. She kept her hair long, past her waist. She normally wore it braided and in a tight knot on the back of her head. Most of the time she had a baseball cap covering her hair. She had large, bright, very lively gray eyes with beautiful eyelashes. She had a fair complexion and nice, even factions. She had small, fine, delicate hands. She was slender and very fit. She was not athletic although she always exercised.
Kristin could be considered pretty although she would not attract attention in a public place. Most of it was because she did not like fancy dresses. Her school dress was a pair of baggy jeans, a loose blouse that did not reveal her forms, a pair of walking shoes and the ever present baseball cap holding her hair. In the house she used a coverall that always needed a good cleaning. Her coverall had as many patches as holes that need to be patched. She had very few opportunities to wear a feminine dress.
Kristin talked very little, mostly because she did not have any friends in school and nobody paid any attention to her at home. She had a nice, melodic voice with almost perfect enunciation. When she talked, she did it in a soft, clear tone, unless she was called to address the whole class. In those rare instances, she spoke in a loud but clear voice; as loud as was needed by the size of the room, but never louder. She was not given to use fancy words or slang. Everybody understood any of her presentations.
Since Kristin lived so far out of town, she could not participate in extracurricular activities, sports, or dances. Her classmates did not look for her because she was the best of her class by a very ample margin and they felt shy in front of her. She had very little in common with them. The few times that she was with classmates, like when sitting at lunch in the Cafeteria, she did not know what to say. Most of the time she did not understand what they said. Talking with her teachers, she was open and very knowledgeable. She was not afraid of expressing her opinion or make suggestions. Her teachers usually liked to talk with her. The few opportunities when she smiled, her face was illuminated with the inner light of a very well balanced personality.
Kristin had just graduated from High School. She was selected Valedictorian with the unanimous support of all her teachers. Her oration was simple and to the point. She gave thanks to the School and the teachers for the education she had received, with very short phrases. She then addressed her classmates. She explained them that they should devote all their energies for the betterment of their own selves. By doing this, she explained, they will improve their own lives. By the same action, they will improve their community and humanity in general. "If you are able to become one more good person in the world, the world will be better for it," she said. As always, she used simple words in simple phrases. Her strong and clear voice reached everybody. When she finished, she received a long ovation and the congratulations of the teachers. After dismissal, many of her classmates looked for her to congratulate her. Most of them were classmates who had never talked to her over the years.
If Kristin situation at school was strange because of her abilities, her situation at home was very awkward to say the least. She was more than twelve years the junior of her sister Amanda, who was the youngest of her siblings. Her mother had been too old when she had her. She had little tolerance for the baby. She was alone most of the time with nobody to care for her. The result was that Kristin had practically no education at home. Without any guidance, she had been a brat until she was able to understand her world. When she was about four, she realized the futility of acting as a brat. Nobody paid any attention to her any way. She changed. Her parents, her brothers and her sister never realized that she had changed. They considered her an incorrigible brat. They treated her as such. They all called her brat, as if it was her name.
Several times, when she was little, she was put in front of a TV set. She never liked it. The children programs were too simple for her. She was able to guess the next step without any effort and she was bored. Soon she learned how to change channels. Changing channels got her to other programs, none of which attracted her. She was too dynamic, her brains worked too fast and she had too much energy to sit in a chair looking at changing figures.
When she was four she realized that she did not get anything by being a brat. She started wandering through the empty house and its fields. Very soon she made two discoveries. She discovered the library with its thousands of books. She discovered the shop where John took pity of her. He started telling her stories to entertain her. She had a natural ability with her hands. Very soon she was building exotic toys. When she was seven she was able to use any of the tools and equipment in the shop. Her projects got more sophisticated as time passed. Her school projects always got good grades, surprising her teacher and her classmates.
During that period, with John's help and encouragement, Kristin learned to read and write. Soon she was using the library and by the age of seven she had read most of the books she could understand or was interested in. She found the manuals for the computer. Very soon the computer did not have any secret for her. She was writing very complex programs for her own amusement. Discovering the Internet gave her another avenue to satisfy her curiosity. During the evenings she wandered to the kitchen where very soon she was helping more and more. When she was seven, she was in full charge of preparing the evening meals and in control of the employees for the other chores of the house. For this reason, she was not sent to a boarding school.
Kristin had to walk every day the two miles from the house to the gate to wait for the school bus. She put that time to good use. Reading, studying, jogging, or simply thinking made the walk easier and profitable. This environment molded her personality. She was a loner but not introverted. She was able to sustain a conversation when the topic interested her and she was permitted to participate. She got used to write and got several prizes in school with her writings. By the time of our story, she had developed a very strong personality, a very well defined goal in life and a purpose to succeed.


Kristin's father, Thomas Smith, was in his sixties. He was tall, with broad shoulders, somewhat muscular and very fit. His graying hair had been brown in his youth. He kept it rather short and combed straight back. His bright blue eyes showed intelligence and purpose. He always dressed with a sober elegance. He never used jewelry of any kind, not even his wedding ring. His manners were soft and courteous. He rarely lifted his voice to reprimand and very seldom got angry. He commanded the respect and good will of those who worked with him, or who related to him in business or social activities. He had worked very hard all his life. He had developed a business empire when he was young. He included his sons and daughter as they became of age. That business empire made each of them several times a millionaire. He had a very large estate about twenty miles from town. He had a huge house with an independent suite for each of the children and their families. They had everything they could wish.

Mary Ann Smith, his wife, was sixty. It was clear that she had been a beauty in her youth. She had gray hair that she maintained short. She was close to six feet tall and she always walked erect. She was very fit and nobody remembered her ever being sick. She always dressed very simple, but elegant. As her husband, she did not like to use jewelry, with the exception of her wedding ring. She was a very dynamic woman who had worked at the side of her husband from the beginning and who now controlled the empire with him. She normally was a very pleasant lady with a soft voice. She did not leave a choice when she said something. She was used to being obeyed.

Chapter 2

Kristin went directly from her father's office to the shop. The shop, the library and the kitchen were the main centers of operation for Kristin. She went to her room only to sleep and take a shower. Most of the time she took a shower in the shop. She kept enough underwear in the shop so she could do that when she did not want to walk to her room. As soon as she got to the shop, she gave John the list of materials she needed. She had the lists ready before talking with her father.
"Dad said the it is all right to order the materials," she told John.
"Good. Did he complain?" John said.
"No, I think that he was too confused to think on complaining."
"Did you confuse your Dad?"
"Yes. It seems that he did not understand that I am able to read and write."
"Then, I think we had not heard the end of it."
"Why do you say that?"
"He will be talking with your mother and they will be here in no time."
"I heard him calling mother."
"Do you see? I better call these orders," John said as he started punching numbers on the telephone.

The shop was a large building with a very high ceiling. A large hoist run from one end to the other of the room. The shop had several small rooms for storage and offices attached along one of the longer walls. One of these rooms was John's office. Another room was Kristin's office and work room. Above these rooms there was a second floor for storage of large items, like wood and metals. The large main room had many machines and tools arranged along the other longer wall. Large doors opened at the center of the shorter sides of the room. The machines and equipment left most of the area as a free space. The room was very well illuminated and ventilated. The whole shop gave the impression of cleanliness and order. Since Kristin was very little and started learning to work with the machines, John made a condition for her to leave everything clean, the tools in order, the scraps of material in place. That was the way John always worked and Kristin was very happy to follow his lead. When they interrupted work, even for a quick lunch, they put everything in order.
"We have to be ready for an emergency," John explained the young Kristin.
"What is an emergency?" Kristin asked.
"It is when something happens that was not expected."
"Like what, for example?"
"Like the other day that the kitchen oven got bad when your mother was preparing dinner."
"Oh! I remember."
"You remember we had to run to fix it. If we had to start by looking where all the tools are, it will take us a long time to be there."
"I understand. If everything is in order, we find all the tools we need in no time."
"Yes, that is the reason."
"The same with keeping everything clean," said Kristin. "If everything is dirty or in a mess, we cannot do anything."
So, Kristin understood the need to form a habit of putting everything in order at the end of work. That was the way Kristin liked things to be. That was why she liked to work with John. She liked when the reasons were explained to her, so she was able to do what she needed to do. She hated when her brothers told her to do something without telling her why.

In the middle of the free space of the shop there was now a contraption that was the motor Kristin was building. Strong legs supported the motor above the floor. Kristin was under the motor when her parents came to the shop. She saw them coming and came from under the motor.
"Oh good," she said wiping her hands in a rag. "You came."
Kristin took some papers from a table and passed them to her father.
"These are the orders you need to sign, Dad," she said.
"What is this silly thing you told your father that you have develop a propulsion system?" said her mother.
"Yes, and I am finishing the motor with parts John found for me. There it is," Kristin answered in a matter-of-fact voice, pointing to the motor sitting in front of them.
"But you are a little brat," said her mother. "What do you know about propulsion system, fuels and motors? What are you, seven, eight?"
Kristin, being slender and medium height, looked like a small girl when next to her tall mother. Kristin needed to look up to talk to her.
"I will be seventeen in three months!" Said Kristin indignant.
"That cannot be true!" said her mother.
"If you would have come to my graduation last week, you would know I was the Valedictorian!"
"That was your cousin Kristin! It cannot be you!" Insisted her mother.
"I tell you that it was me," Kristin said a little hard.
Kristin's mother turned to face John.
"John, where is your terminal?" she said.
"Here it is, Mrs. Smith," John said respectfully, pointing to the terminal sitting on a table in his office.
Mrs. Smith went to the terminal and started typing and reading for some moments.
"I will be darned!" She finally said. "It is true! You are almost seventeen!"
"I told you!" Said Kristin. "Did you sign the orders, Dad?" she said turning to her Dad.
"Yes, John has them," he said.
"I already called to confirm the orders," said John. "They will have the materials here within a week."
"Good!" Kristin said passing her father another paper.
"Dad, here you have something else I found for you," she said. "I am sure you want to get this guy over here."
"Who is him?"
"He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. I can tell you that this guy has brains! You will be happy to pick his brains."
"One can always use intelligent people!"
"I found him on the Internet. His phone and his web site are at the top of the page. You can see what I mean."
"I will call him later."
"Tell him about the Company, and tell him you need ideas. He has very good ideas! I have read some of his writings and they are very good!"
"What does he write about?"
"About space most of the time," said Kristin, "but he also covers other topics."
"Good," said her father, "we need people interested in space."
"You can invite him to spend a vacation here. I am sure he will be happy for a free vacation! You know people at a University does not get too much money!"
"It will take some time to get used to you being more than a brat!" said her father.
Her mother had been listening to the conversation.
"I think that I will call all the children for a meeting," said her mother. "We need to clear this up. Brat, you do not come!"
"Why not?" asked Kristin just for fun. She knew she would never be permitted to attend a meeting of the family.
"Because we will be talking about you."
"More reason for me to come!" She was having fun.
"You are not part of the Company."
When they left, Kristin went back to work on her motor dismissing the idea of the meeting from her mind. She wanted to get the motor ready before the parts started to come. She will be busy then.
"So, you got your parents all wrapped around," John said.
"Well, if they think that I am still seven, they will be surprised of what I can do."
"You bet, little girl, you can do a lot of things your parents do not dream about."
"So, did they say the materials will be here next week?"
"Yes, that was what they told me."
"Then I better finish this motor. When the materials come I will not have time to sleep."
"If you do not sleep, you will not be able to work."
"I am exaggerating. You know that I am not that stupid."
"No, Chris, you are not stupid."

Several hours later, John was working on one of the machines. Kristin was still working on her motor. There were both in silence. The intercom came alive with the usual click.
"Brat! Would you please come to your father's office?" Kristin heard over the intercom.
"I am busy," she answered in a loud voice, without moving. "I will be there as soon as I can. It will be some fifteen minutes."
"Please?" said John after he heard the click disconnecting the line.
"Please, indeed!" Kristin said.
This is getting interesting! She thought.
She continued working on his motor until she got to a point where she could interrupt her work. She put everything in order, as always.
It was twenty minutes since the call, when she was opening the door of her father's office, where her family was meeting. She was clad in her usual very dirty coverall, with her dirty baseball cap retaining her hair. Her face had many greasy marks. She was wiping her hands with a very dirty rag.
"Wow! You are dirty!" Said a feminine voice.
She did not answer and took a seat to one side, on one of the few standard chairs in the room.
"Peter, you better explain it," said her father from his desk. "You know what we have been discussing."
"OK," said Peter, who was sitting in one of the sofas. "Dad tells us that you have developed a new kind of propulsion system."
Kristin considered that it was not necessary to ascertain something known by everybody. She never said anything that was not necessary to be said. Since she did not say anything, her brother Peter continued.
"We imagine that you will share your propulsion system with us, if it is as good as you told Dad. It is exactly what we need to get going with the space business we are planning. Having your propulsion system will simplify many things."
Kristin still considered that Peter statements were obvious. She did not say anything.
"I see that you are trying to be difficult, as always." Peter continued. "Tell us what do you want to give us your propulsion system?"
That question required an answer that Kristin was not ready to give. Peter had surprised her. Again, she did not answer to try to get time to think.
"We are willing to give you a small share in the Company," Peter continued, "if that is what you want. We can make another arrangement if you want."
Still, she did not answer. Kristin did not have an answer. She was thinking furiously. She had not expected that they will get her into the Company.
"Brat," Peter said now using bad manners. He was loosing control of himself. "You are getting me mad, will you answer?"
"You consider me a brat and I am acting the part," said Kristin to say something, "not to disappoint any of you."
"Well, stop acting like a brat and answer!"
"Good," she said. She could not find a way to avoid the situation. "My propulsion system is not for sale and I have no interest in your crummy Company!"
"Brat! Be reasonable!" Peter said still in bad manners.
"Dad, did you call the guy I told you?" Kristin asked her Dad, to change the topic and get time to think.
"Yes, and he is coming day after tomorrow," answered her father mechanically.
"Good. Do not try to work me out of any meeting with him. If you do, you forget about the propulsion system."
With that, she left the room. She was feeling very confused. The meeting had not gone the way she had expected. She knew that running away did not solve anything. Running away only postponed the answer. The need to answer might come at a worst moment. She felt a strong need to think. She did not want to share the propulsion system with them. She did not want to negate it to them either. She had been thinking that the propulsion system she had developed will change her situation. The meeting had not been a step in that direction. Her attitude had probably made it a step in the wrong direction. In an unusual move, she went to her room, took a shower and lay in bed for a while, thinking.

Chapter 3

The next two days were very hard on Kristin. She tried to work as hard as possible to finish her motor before the materials she had ordered started to come. The meeting with her family kept interfering with her thoughts. It was the first time that she had been in a meeting with her family. She had acted like a brat. She did not find any way to patch up the situation. The damage had been done. She had to wait and see what happened. The rest of her family was acting as they normally did. That meant that they totally ignored her. Nobody mentioned again anything about her propulsion system or the offer they made her. It is true that they never addressed her at all. Her work with the motor advanced as much as she could control her thoughts. She worked long hours. She stopped only when she had some house duty to perform or to take her meals. She slept only a few hours.

The second day, Kristin was in the shop still working on her motor, as hard as she had been working those two days. John was some place outside and the shop was in total silence, except for the small noises she made. Suddenly, the intercom came alive with the loud click that was intended to call their attention over the normal noise of the shop. This time, with the shop in complete silence, it sounded like a shot. Kristin almost jumped out of her hide.
"Brat, Dr. Cook's plane is landing." Said an impersonal loud voice at the intercom.
Oh great! Kristin thought. These jerks tell me at the last minute!
"I will be there in a minute," she said to the intercom and she heard the click of disconnection.
Kristin was in a very bad mood, tired from all her work. This was a last straw.
Any way, if I am right, he will not mind, she thought trying to calm down.
From reading the material in his web page, Kristin had a small hope in the back of her mind, that this guy will help her some way. He was a Mechanical Engineer interested in space. He should be able to help her with her motor and her vehicle. He could, at least, tell her if she was totally wrong and should stop fooling around with the motor. Used to be ignored at home and at school, she had prepared herself for a disappointment in this hope. She considered that her parents and siblings will monopolize the guy and he would not have any time for her.
Kristin left her motor, put all things in order and wiping her hands in a rag she run out of the shop. She did not want to be late. She found the electric cart she was using parked where she left it. She jumped into the cart as if it were a horse. It would be nice to have a horse, she thought smiling. She started the cart and drove towards the landing strip as fast as she dared to drive.


The plane had already landed when Kristin drove into the airstrip. Several persons were standing in a loose group. She recognized her father and mother as well as her siblings and their spouses. A man was coming down from the plane. Her father approached him.
"Dr Cook, I am very glad you could come! Very nice of you and in such short notice!" He said shaking hands with him.
"You made me curious with what you told me!" Dr. Cook answered. "I am very happy to be here."
"Let me introduce you to my family. This is my wife Mary Ann," Mr. Smith said extending his hand towards his wife.
"Very glad to meet you, Mrs. Smith." Dr. Cook said with a slight bow to Kristin's mother.
"Glad to have you here and welcome," Kristin's mother said.
"These are my sons Peter, Sam, Joseph and their wives," Mr. Smith said pointing at each one.
"Ladies, gentlemen, very happy to meet you." Dr. Cook seemed to have very nice manners.
They all made welcoming noises.
"This is my daughter Amanda and her husband," Mr. Smith said with a tone like ending his presentations.
"Glad to meet you," said a smiling Dr. Cook, with a small bow to each one.
"Welcome to our house," Amanda said. "Later you will have opportunity to talk with each one of us."
Kristin was at one side, alone, waiting to be introduced. Dr. Cook looked at her and then to her father. Mr. Smith noticed his look of surprise that she had not been introduced. Dr. Cook looked as if he was waiting for an explanation. Kristin did not look as a servant, in spite of her appearance. As an afterthought, her father turned to Kristin.
"Oh," he said showing very clearly his disgust by the way Kristin was dressed, "and this is my other daughter. It seems she was working when she was called."
"These jerks only told me when your plane was landing," commented Kristin with a bad tone.
"Well, I see you are a perfect grease monkey!" Dr. Cook said smiling at her.
"Very funny!"
"Very glad to meet you, any way." Dr. Cook said bowing to her with a little more respect that he had shown before. Dr. Cook had noticed something in Kristin's eyes that made him think that there was more under the coat of dirt. He was a teacher and used to judge his students on sight. This girl is very intelligent, he thought.
"Brat," said her father interrupting them, in the tone of an order. "You take Dr. Cook to the office. Let us all get out of the Sun!"
They were all using two-seater electric carts. Every couple had one and the only free space was on Kristin's cart.
"I did not catch your name," said Dr. Cook when they were moving. He was curious and wanted to make conversation.
"My Dad did not mention it. My name is Kristin, but everyone calls me brat. Just in case, I do not like it."
"I did not mean to offend you with the grease monkey. It is nice to see somebody working!"
"No offense taken," Kristin said. She was talking kind of brusque.
"Your husband was not able to come?" Dr. Cook asked with a courteous voice.
"I do not have a husband."
"But your Dad told me that the Company was formed by his children and their spouses."
"That is true. I am not part of the Company. I am considered a brat, good for nothing."
"You do not look to me like a brat!"
"Ha!" Kristin said shooting a glance at him.
"In any case, you are a very pretty brat."
"Oh, shut up!" Kristin was not able to control herself. She was now mad.
They did not say anything the rest of the short trip. Kristin was thinking that she was messing things up again. She knew she was tired. She thought that she needed to control herself if she wanted to get something out of this mess. They got to the house and she parked the cart. Controlling herself, she smiled at Dr. Cook.
"This way, please," she said with her best tone.
"Thank you," Dr. Cook said returning the smile.

Dr. Michael Cook was an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He was twenty eight, divorced. He was not tall with his five feet nine inches. He was well formed, looked strong and very fit. It was clear that he practiced sports and exercised often. He had brown hair, blue eyes and fair complexion. He used the hair short, almost as a military cadet. He dressed well although informal. His handshake was firm and he smiled often. His gray eyes were always looking at the person who was talking, showing interest in what was being said. His voice was pleasant and strong, of a person used to address a large hall in a regular basis. His manners were courteous and measured. He had the manners of somebody used to be in public, constantly in front of his students and colleagues, always ready to criticize him. He gave the impression of being used to command others although ready to accommodate, instead of forcing his will.

Chapter 4

Kristin, guiding Dr. Cook, walked into the building and went directly to the main office they used for meetings. Kristin was using all the courtesy she knew how to use. She indicated the way to go with ample time for him to take the curves. When they got to the office, she opened the door.
"Here we are," she said. "Please, come in."
Dr. Cook had been observing her.
"Thank you," he said, entering the room.
They were all sitting and a smiling Secretary was serving coffee and other drinks from a small cart, like those used in the airplanes. Kristin indicated some chairs by one of the walls. They sat together. The Secretary came immediately and offered him some coffee.
"No, thank you," he told the Secretary. "I do not drink coffee!"
"Do you want tea or a soda?" asked the Secretary.
"No, thank you, nothing."
"May be another type of drink? I have anything you may want."
"No, thank you," he repeated.
Kristin was thinking that her siblings had called her late on purpose, to have her in a bad mood. She did not need too much to get mad, being so tired. She realized that she could not afford the luxury of getting mad. She controlled herself and smiled at Dr. Cook.
"You do not like stimulants," Kristin said to him, to make conversation, trying to patch up with him.
"No, I do not need any," he said with a smile. "Some times I talk too much!"
"Mad at me?" Kristin said maintaining her smile. She wanted to maintain the conversation to be able to know him better.
"Not at all. I deserved it." Dr. Cook returned the smile.
At that moment, her father started. He did not like the idea of Kristin monopolizing his conversation.
"Dr. Cook," he said to call his attention from his conversation with Kristin. "I explained you briefly over the phone, that we have formed a family Company for the purpose of exploiting space. Our basic idea, as I told you, is to start by developing a colony on the Moon. I know that the Moon does not have resources. Our idea is to start by exploiting tourism and whatever industry we can establish. We plan to make all the necessary installations as soon as possible. Then we plan to build a hotel where people can spend a honeymoon or a vacation. We also plan to install the type of industries that benefit from the natural vacuum of the Moon."
"This is, more or less, what I told you over the phone," he said after a brief pause. "There is more. Since you have been so nice to come to help us, let me give you some private details. We have most of the plans for our installations ready. We could start quite soon, almost let us say tomorrow. The holding drawback is that we have quite a few problems, especially money problems. It is not that we do not have money. We have as mush as we need and some extra. We do not want to waste our money or give it away if we can avoid it."
"What kind of problems do you have?" Asked Dr. Cook.
"The basic problem we have is that we need to deal with NASA's contractors. They try to squeeze from us as much as they can, as they are used to do with NASA...."
"And why do you have to deal with NASA's contractors?" interrupted Dr. Cook, without hiding his surprise.
"What else can we do?" Answered Mr. Smith, more surprised by the interruption than by the question. "They are the only ones in the business."
"You can develop your own system," Dr. Cook continued asking. His tone expressed that he considered the logical thing to do.
"That will be more expensive," said Mr. Smith with authority. "Consider all the expensive equipment we will need to buy. These equipment is built by only a few NASA contractors and only for NASA. We will have a big problem getting them to provide us. This only be to test every part and every system to NASA's specifications!"
"Excuse me Mr. Smith, if I seem stupid to you," interrupted again Dr. Cook, quite surprised. He did not want to let the topic pass. "There is something here that does not make any sense to me."
"Go head, explain," Mr. Smith said, kind of brusque, for what he considered almost an impertinence on the part of Dr. Cook.
"You just said that you have formed a private Company to work in space," started Dr. Cook with a teaching attitude.
"Yes, that is true." Mr. Smith did not have any idea where he was pointing.
"Now you talk about NASA's specifications."
"Yes, so?"
"What is your relationship with NASA?"
"None, none at all!" said Mr. Smith. He was getting more and more concerned by this questioning.
"Do you get your funds from taxpayers money?" Dr. Cook continued cornering him.
"Of course not," said Mr. Smith. He was now really annoyed and he was not hiding it. "All the money we invest is ours! We do not receive money from any other source!"
"Then?"
"Then what?" Mr. Smith said kind of hard. He was not hiding his annoyance. He was thinking that it had been a very bad idea to follow Kristin's suggestion.
"Then, what do you have to do with NASA's specifications?" Dr. Cook said immediately.
"Of course we need to follow NASA's specifications!" Mr. Smith said almost with arrogance. His tone indicated that Dr. Cook was asking a stupid question and that he was getting to his limit.
"Why?" Dr. Cook asked waiting a second to let the idea sink. "Why don't you follow Russian's specifications?" said Dr. Cook immediately to push his idea home.
"But we are not Russians!" Said Mr. Smith with some force.
"Dad," said Peter, trying to stop what looked to be developing into a loud shouting match. "You better let Dr. Cook explain."
"OK, sorry," said Mr. Smith, calming down. "Please, explain what you mean."
"My point is that if you are independent from NASA and from taxpayers money, why do you need to follow NASA's specifications? You can use them as a guide, if you want. The logical thing to do is to develop your own specifications and go by them."
The room was in complete silence. It was clear that Dr. Cook had caught them unawares. They did not know what to say. When nobody made any comment, Dr. Cook continued hammering his point.
"You need to consider that you are a private Company. If I am not wrong, you expect to get a profit from this operation. I would be very much surprised if you are doing all this without expecting a profit from this operation. On the other hand, NASA is a Government Agency. You can imagine the kind of trouble NASA would be if they suddenly show a profit for their operation. NASA purpose is not to show a profit. NASA purpose is not to get results. As with any Government Agency all over the world, NASA purpose is to spend money. In this case, NASA uses the exploration of space as the reason for spending money. More important is the fact that NASA does not need to show results. They only need to be in good terms with Congress and the public. They have a huge propaganda machinery devoted to keep in the good side of Congress and the public. You probably remember the many instances where NASA projects had been a complete failure. You probably remember how the propaganda had covered those failures. There is absolutely no reason or sense in patterning your operation following them. Although you are a family business, I am sure that your children will not look with indifference if you start loosing money or getting failures. You just mentioned that you are ready to start. That you do not do it because it would be too expensive. You will be loosing money. You do not do it."
They were all in complete silence for a long while. They all were looking at each other, not knowing what to say. It seemed as if they did not find anything to say. Kristin make thumps up sign to Dr. Cook and smiled quite happy with the idea she had considered for a long time. She got tired trying to get the idea through her family.
"Look," finally Sam was the first who recovered and said. "We have to train the Astronauts and that takes a lot of equipment, simulators, big computers, and people who know how to do it. Developing all that will take more money than what NASA charges to train them."
"Again," said Dr. Cook, now talking like addressing a bad student. He knew that he had them cornered against a wall. "Why do you need Astronauts?"
"But,....; of course we need Astronauts!" said Sam surprised.
"We cannot send a ship to space without Astronauts!" said Peter supporting his brother.
"Excuse me again," said Dr. Cook. Now he was in his element. He knew what he was talking about. "There is something we need to get clear before we can continue this discussion. Astronaut is not a profession. When you say Astronaut is not the same as when you say Engineer, or Carpenter, or Airline Pilot. Astronaut is the name NASA gives to some of their employees, who perform a special function. Astronauts are employees of NASA. The Russians call their similar employees Cosmonauts. The Chinese call them Taikonauts. When the Indian, the Canadian and whoever else start sending people to space each one of them will coin their own term to use for this kind of employees. Each of these terms implies the organization to which they belong. Since you are not related to NASA, you cannot use Astronauts. Since you are not related to the Russians, you cannot use Cosmonauts. Since you are not related to the Chinese, you cannot use Taikonauts. And the same with any other term."
"You sure have very funny ideas!" Said Sam, kind of smiling.
"I have tried to get these ideas through your heads for years!" Kristin said.
"That is enough, brat, do not try to be smart," said Peter quite hard, almost exploding. It was clear the he was under a lot of pressure.
"Excuse me, Peter," said Dr. Cook. He wanted to defend Kristin who he thought was right. "I am serious and I am not trying to be smart!"
"I was not talking about you. I was talking about the brat," said Peter controlling his tone of voice.
"But I am serious!" insisted Dr. Cook. "Please, let me explain."
"Go ahead," Mr. Smith said in a quiet voice.
"Please, let me go in order," Dr. Cook started, like delivering a lecture. "You just mentioned that you had formed a private company. You also said that the purpose of your Company is to try to exploit space. You will need to send ships into space for this purpose. The people who go in the first few ships will be looking for a good location for your installations and they will be investigating whatever you need to know from that site. Considering the function that the passengers of those ships will be performing, it is clear that they will be explorers. They will not be Astronauts. Later, when the explorers find some feasible location, you will establish colonies. You will send ships into space to establish those colonies. Those ships will carry people, probably complete families, to build and populate those colonies. Again, considering the function that those passengers will be performing, the passengers of those ships will be colonists or contractors. They will be people who will build the installations, people who will build the industries, people who will build the houses. They will be people who will work in the factories you build. They will be people who will work in the hotel you build. The people leaving in those ships will be colonists not Astronauts. There is no reason at all in the world for you to train all the explorers and the colonists as Astronauts! There is no reason why! Think only on one thing. Would you train as Astronaut all the children who travel with their parents to live in your colonies?"
Again, there was a long silence. Kristin was the only one sure of herself. She had a slight smile on her face, more on her eyes than on her mouth. She was having a good time! She was liking this Dr. Cook! She felt happy she told her father about him!
"Did you think about this?" Dr. Cook asked her in a very soft voice, smiling at her.
"Yes, but I am not allowed in Company discussions," she answered also very soft.
After a while, her father reacted.
"Dr. Cook," he said with a voice that showed gratification. He was talking slowly to let the meaning of his words sink in the minds of those in the room. "I am sure glad I called you! I am sure very glad you were able to come! You have turned our picture completely from a certain failure into the possibility of success! With these few words you have saved us uncountable millions of dollars!"
"Good!" Dr. Cook said immediately with a bright and happy voice. He did not want to loose the opportunity. He was tired and wanted to end this discussion. He also wanted an opportunity to chat with Kristin. This girl is smart! He thought. "If I have saved you several million dollars, do you think you can give me some lunch? I am starving!"
The laugh that followed was really a release. They all moved on their seats. There were deep breaths and some coughs.
This guy is smart, Kristin thought.
"Brat," her father said in a measured voice, now showing relief, and with a smile in his face. "Take Dr. Cook to his room so he can get settled and then give him some lunch. You said you want to talk with him. You can meet with him this afternoon and we meet again after dinner. Is this right, Dr. Cook?"
"Yes, of course," said Dr. Cook.
"Dr. Cook," Mr. Smith said before they could leave. "Would you be so nice as to talk with Kristin about a propulsion system she said she had designed? We will be very interested in your opinion."
"Yes, of course." Dr. Cook repeated with a slight bow.
"This way please, Dr. Cook," Kristin said, standing up and leaving space for him to pass.
They went out of the room and when they were a few passes away, Dr. Cook stopped.
"Kristin," he said, "the name is Mike. Dr. Cook is too formal."
"As you wish. Do you prefer to settle first or to have a bite to eat first?"
"I would want to leave my suitcase first and then we have a bite to eat."
"So, you were not that starved!"
"Hey! I need to be careful with you! You do not let anything go by!"
"This way, please," Kristin said smiling broadly at him. Her eyes were flashing. She got him this time!

Chapter 5

Kristin and Mike walked through the many corridors of the large house. Kristin was explaining the best she could where they were. She was trying to give him a picture of the different parts of the house. She showed him the main hall, the dining room, the library and some of the amenities of the house. She mentioned some that were not in their way. She pointed to the door of the basement where she told him he could find exercising equipment. She pointed to the suites of her brothers and sister. She was giving him the opportunity to orient himself. Finally, they got to a corridor where she stopped.
"This is your room," said Kristin, opening a door and walking inside. "I am sure you are totally lost," she added smiling.
"Wow! Nice room!" he commented. "I expect that I will need a guide for a while, until I learn my way around."
"Yes, of course. I will be happy to be your guide. Let me introduce you to your room. Here is a closet for your clothes."
"I understand," Mike said.
"Let me continue introducing you to your room. This door goes to the bathroom," she said walking into the bathroom. "Here you have towels," she said opening a closet. "Put in this basket any laundry you have. The girl will care of it as soon as she can."
She went to her room and came back with a coverall.
"You better change into this unless you want to have your clothes all dirty," she said giving him the coverall.
"Will I get as dirty as you?" He asked her smiling.
"You can, if you try hard enough!" she said smiling. "You know, it is something like a status symbol!"
He passed into the bathroom to change.
"It seems to fit you good enough," she said when he came out. "Let us go have a bite to eat. I am also starving."

Kristin guided Mike towards the kitchen. The kitchen of the house was quite large. Mike was having the idea that everything was large in this house. The kitchen had windows that opened to the front yard. All the walls were covered with cupboards, refrigerator, freezer, sink, a range and oven. There was a large working table at one side and small tables like for breakfast and snacks, around the kitchen. Kristin was preparing some sandwiches on the working table. Mike was getting drinks out of the refrigerator and setting up a small table. Mike was thinking that this people must have a lot of money. He was observing Kristin while they both worked. This girl belonged to a very wealthy family. In spite of this, she was very simple. When he first met her, he was thinking that she was kind of a tomboy, with her coverall and her baseball cap. While walking to his room and to the kitchen, they had been talking. He erased the idea of the tomboy. This girl was not a tomboy. She was a normal girl who enjoyed working with machines. The coverall was the natural dress for such work. She will probably had a normal dress when they got together for dinner. His thoughts were interrupted by some noise of a door opening.
A woman entered the kitchen.
"Good," the woman said. "You are preparing sandwiches. Bring them to the office when they are ready."
With that, she left, without giving Kristin a chance to explain.
"Who is she?" asked Mike. "I remember her face. I do not remember her name. There were so many introductions."
"She is Suzanne, Sam's wife."
"She sure treats you like a maid," he could not avoid commenting. Kristin looked like a nice girl. He did not like the way she was treated by her family.
"No, not like a maid, like a slave. You say please to a maid." Kristin said with a flat voice.
Mike did not answer. They continued their work and sat to have their lunch. Kristin had made very nice sandwiches, almost exactly as he liked them.
They continued talking while they ate their lunch.
"I like your web site," Kristin said. She wanted to move the conversation to his person.
"Did you visit my web site?" Mike asked surprised.
"Yes, I run into it by chance. I was looking for something or the other and the search gave me one of your Thoughts. I do not remember which one. I started reading and forgot about my search."
"Really?"
"I went to the top of your page and read about you."
"I am getting scared!"
"I downloaded all your Thoughts."
"Did you downloaded all of them?"
"Yes, they are good. Then I started reading your fiction. I liked that one about the alien scout. The punch line is funny! The cars as the inhabitants of Earth! That was good!"
"Yes, I was driving when I thought that one."
"Then I read the one you call beginning or something like that."
"In the Beginning?" Mike asked.
"Yes, that one. I loved when your male character gets to Ashley's office and start poking holes in her design of the space ship."
"I wrote those stories only for the fun of it."
"They are good! I had a lot of fun reading your stories."
"Well, I am glad. You are the first person who tells me that."
"Have you published them?"
"No, I wrote them only for the fun of it. I put them in the web page in case somebody else likes them."
"Reading your stories and your papers is when I said to myself. We need this guy here. He can handle Dad."
"Well, I am sure happy you found them."
"You cannot imagine how many times I tried to make my family understand that they were thinking it all wrong."
"But why? You have the right ideas."
"They never paid any attention to me!"
"I do not understand why."
"I told you in the cart. They consider me a brat, good for nothing."
"Do not get mad at me again, but you do not look to me like a brat."
"I loved the way you put holes in all my Dad's plans," Kristin said to deviate his topic. "I have been trying to tell them that for years!"
"They did not like when you mentioned that."
"This is exactly why I asked my father to invite you to take a vacation here."
"Oh! Was it your idea? I really appreciate that. I did not have anything to do all summer."
"Good, you made very good points."
"Well, those points I made were rather obvious."
"Not to them. I have the feeling that there were a lot of things you did not say."
"I did not want to be too negative. I said only what I thought was constructive."
"Well, you did right and now they believe you. It was smart how you cut the discussion with the lunch!"
"What was that you wanted to talk with me?"
"Not now, we do not know who may pop up any time. We will talk later."
"Any way you want. You know your family."
"My idea is to show you the rest of the house, so you can orient yourself. Then, I drive you around so you can see what is where. Then, I plan to take you to the other side of the airstrip. There is a place there that we have arranged as a park, with grass, benches, trees and a nice pool in the river."
"That is a nice prospect. We can talk as we drive."
"Yes, the main thing we can talk at the park."
They finished their lunch and they were leaving.
"Are you taking sandwiches to the office?" Mike said.
"Do you know? One of these days they will catch me in a bad mood and I will explode. Especially now that I have the fuel I have developed."
"It is dangerous to explode around fuel!"
"No, I do not see me exploding in that sense but in the sense of stop being their slave. Let us go!"

Chapter 6

The house was located in a large acreage that was almost flat. Just in front of the house there was a large piece of lawn covered with grass and with several large trees. The piece of grass was like an island surrounded by roads. It gave the impression of those old European palaces with a garden in front. The access road passed between the house and the lawn. The road extended to the left towards the entrance of the property, which was about two miles away. A chain link fence surrounded the property. In front of the house and past the lawn there was a concrete strip, the taxing strip for the airplanes. Looking out from the house and to the right, there was first the shop and then the hangar for the planes. Further from the house, on that side, there were the cottages for the pilots and their families. John's house was also in this area. The road curved around the lawn and went in front of the shop and to the cottages. Looking out of the house and to the left, there were the garages for the electric carts and then for the automobiles. Another branch of the road went in front of the garages. The whole area had many tall trees that produced shade and a nice environment. The landing strip was at the end of the taxing strip and went at an angle with the house. At the other side of the landing strip run the river, surrounded with tall trees.

The house itself was a massive construction with some reminiscence of a Spanish architecture, in a grandiose scale. The walls were white. The windows and doors were dark brown. The roof was tiled with red tiles. The house had been constructed above the ground level. The main door gave into an entrance surrounded by a balustrade. Two wide stairs gave access from the ground to the entrance, adding to the impression of the old European palace. The main door was wide and high, a massive wooden structure that matched the size of the house. The main door was beautifully decorated. There were many small doors all around the house, that gave private access to the suites of each of the families occupying the house. There were also several service entrances. All these small doors, small in comparison with the entrance door, were hidden by bushes. This gave the impression that the only door to the house was the main door. Behind the house, and at a little distance, there was something that looked like a small subdivision. It was hidden from the house by a corpse of trees. This group was formed by the houses and the accommodations for the maids and all the other personnel necessary for the maintenance of such a large complex. Each house accommodated the employees and their families. The Smiths preferred to hire families.

Kristin walked Mike first inside the house. She showed him all the areas he had to know, to be able to move around. She gave him tips as to how to recognize the way to his room. How to get from his room to the main hall. How to go from there to the dining room, the library, the offices. She showed him how to recognize her father's office. Then, she showed him some of the amenities of the house. They went to the library and she oriented him where the different types of books were. They went to the music room and she showed him the equipment. He took him up to the solarium on the roof, which was a nice place to rest for a while. He took him to the basement to show him the exercise equipment. She ended up explaining him how he could get what he needed and who to ask, if she was not around. They were chatting all the time they were walking through the house. It was easy for them to chat. They found that they had many common tastes and interests. Their common interest for mechanical things and for space, got them easily together.

Finally, Kristin and Mike went out of the house. There were a number of electric carts parked in front of the house, at the end of both stairways. They took one of the two-seater electric carts the family used for everything.
"Kristin," Mike said when they were sitting on the cart. "Can you stop for a moment?"
"Yes, of course," Kristin said concerned. "Is there something wrong?"
"No, not that way."
"What happens?"
"Would you let me catch my breath. You had me running through the house without time to breath."
"We can rest," Kristin said laughing. "You made me remember a story I read long time ago."
"Please, tell me. That will give me time to rest."
"It was a guy in Africa. He was leading an expedition to rescue a party of friends. He kept running as fast as he could push the porters. That went on for three days. The morning of the fourth day, when he woke up, the porters were all sitting around the fire, having breakfast or smocking a pipe. He called the leader to ask him what happened. The leader say 'We are waiting for our souls. We have been going so fast that we left our souls behind.' "
"That is a good story and exactly right for me. I am waiting for my soul," Mike said laughing.
"We do not have any hurry," Kristin said. "I wanted you to know your way in the house, since you plan to be here all summer."
"I understand and I am very grateful of you. To tell you the truth, I was kind of scared when I first got here. Everything is so grandiose. The way your father talks. I was really glad to see you in a dirty coverall. I am sorry I got you mad."
"No, Mike. Let me explain. I was not mad at you. I have been working very hard. I was very tired. My siblings did not tell me you were coming until your plane was landing. That is why I was mad. You were only the victim with what you said."
"Any way, I am very grateful the way you are acting."
"Well....; you are my guest at the moment. I am sure none of my brothers will think to show you the house and how you can orient yourself."
"I am still overwhelmed by the house."
"It is kind of large!"
"Large? It is huge! I remember the house where I grew up. The whole house will fit in your kitchen with room to rattle. We had a small living room. There was only one sofa. When we watched TV we had to sit on the floor. I have a brother and two sisters. The house had three bedrooms and one bathroom. We had to wake up early to have time to wash and have breakfast before going to school. Now, I live in one of those one bedroom apartments."
"Well...., this summer you will have a little more room!" Kristin said laughing.
"Kristin...." Mike said.
"Mike," Kristin interrupted. "For some reason Kristin sounds to me too formal. I told you that here everybody call me brat. In school everybody called me Chris."
"What do you prefer?"
"I prefer Chris, that is what my nieces call me."
"Chris, I was going to ask you something. Do not get mad at me."
"Really, I do not get mad very easily. This morning I had too many things punching me. What do you want to ask?"
"When we were walking through your house I could not stop thinking on something."
"Are you going to tell me?"
"It is easy to see that you guys have a lot of money."
"Yes, but not me. I do not have anything."
"But all the luxuries you have around, available to you. You do not need to have something yours. You can only ask for what you want."
"Yes, that is true."
"How come you are not really a spoiled brat?"
Kristin had a hearty laugh.
"I told you that all my relatives call me brat."
"That might be as it may. You are not a brat in my way of thinking. You are a very nice young girl, very courteous and very helpful."
"I am glad you think that way. I try to be the best I can. I was the Valedictorian at school graduation. I told my classmates that they should try to be as best as possible. That is the proper way to improve the world, in my view."
"You have very interesting views. You have a very interesting conversation. Talking with you it is hard to see that you are so young. You are very mature. I tell you that I am very happy I came. If the only thing I do is to meet you, I am happy I came."

Kristin was not liking the way the conversation was going. She never liked when people talked about her. She felt that this guy was honest in his comments. She did not like it any way.
"Can we go now?" She asked to change the topic of conversation.
"Yes, of course. I really needed this chat. I think my soul had caught up with me."
"I want to show you around, so you get familiar with the place." Kristin said. "I want to show you especially a place at the other side of the runway, by the river. It is beautiful. I go there when I need to think, or work by myself."
"It sound very nice from your description."
"If you ever want to be by yourself to think, get one of these carts and drive to the river. You will like it."
"I will remember that."
"That is the shop," she said later pointing to the building. "That is where I spend most of my time now that I am out of school."
"Can we take a look at the shop?"
"Later, when we come back."
"Any way you want. We do not have any hurry."
"The next building is the hangar for the planes."
"Do you have many planes?"
"I do not know exactly. I think there are four or five."
"Wow! Why so many?"
"My parents and my brothers are always traveling."
"Do they have any family?"
"Yes, each of them had two kids."
"Where are they? I did not hear any children."
"They are all in a boarding school."
"Were you also in a boarding school?"
"No, I have been taking care of the house since I was seven. That is why I was not sent out."
"Really? You are amazing!"
"Those are the houses for the pilots, John and their families." Kristin said pointing.
"This is impressive!" said Mike. "Tell me something. The house might need an army of helpers. Where they live?"
"There is something like a little town on the back of the house. Each one has a small house. John is not considered that way. That is why he has a house here."
They took the airstrip and turned right. They crossed the landing strip towards the trees by the river.
"This is very nice!" Mike commented again.
"Yes, I think so," continued Kristin.
"This is also beautiful!"
"My idea is to tell you my plans and to give you a chance of poking holes in them as you did with my Dad's."
"That is a good idea. I am very interested and curious about what your Dad said when we left the office."
"I will appreciate if you are honest. I do not mind if you tell me I am stupid. After all, that is what everybody tells me all the time."
"I promise you I will be honest. I will not tell you that you are stupid."
"Why not?"
"Because I do not think you are stupid. On the contrary, I think you are quite smart."
"Oh! Cut it out!"
"If I find something wrong I will explain it to you. I know you will understand it."
"Good, that would be nice. That is the way I like it."

They have gotten to the river. The area was almost at the end of the runway and to one side. The river was some hundred feet from the runway. The whole area between the runaway and the river was covered by short grass. The river was some twenty feet wide in that area. Some boulders formed a large pool in front of the grassy area. There was a small fall at the upper end of the pool. The whole area was covered with grass, giving the impression of a park. It had many large trees that produced a nice shade. A light breeze kept the area cool. There were several picnic tables under the trees. It was a perfect area for a picnic or, as Kristin said, for some lonely rest and relaxation.
They went to one of the tables.
"This is really beautiful," said Mike as they got down from the cart. "It is better than what I imagined from your description."
"It is. I did not spent a lot of time explaining it to you."
"That pool is very nice. Is it deep enough to swim?"
"Yes it is. In this time of the year it is not too cold."
"We have to come some day!"
"Yes, we will find time to come! I do not believe in work and no fun."
"Is that pool natural, or was it made up?"
"You got me! I do not know if it was natural or if it was made up by moving the boulders. My parents built this house where they were young. They probably made that pool to have fun. I know that they had big parties before we were born. Some parties they said lasted whole weekends and some times longer. They decided to have five children. They built the house with five suites for each one. I put you in my suite instead of the guest area so I can take care of you."
"This is beautiful," Mike repeated. He was not paying attention to Kristin chat. "I understand why you come here to think."
"When my nieces and nephews are here, they love to come here to swim and play."

Kristin and Mike had been walking around the area while they talked. They came and sat at a table. Mike spent some time looking around. It was a beautiful place. Kristin gave him time to enjoy the place. It was also her favorite place to relax. After a while, Mike turned to Kristin.
"You were talking about your plans," said Mike. "Please continue. I am interrupting you too much."
"It is all right. We do not have any hurry. If we do not finish today, we can continue tomorrow."
"But, Chris, you mentioned that you have a lot of work."
"Yes, but it can also wait. Let me tell you."
"Good, go ahead. I am all ears."
"My Dad already mentioned that I have developed a propulsion system for space ships," Kristin started. "I am sure my family does not believe me. That did not stop them to try to grab it from me. Since they think I am stupid, they thought I would fall for their tricks. You hear my Dad's tone when he asked you to talk with me about it."
"How is it you ended up developing a propulsion system? That is very unusual."
"Why unusual?"
"Well, you are a young girl, pretty if I have to be honest. You belong to a wealthy family. I am sure you have a lot of friends. I am sure you have a lot of admirers. I am sure you have a lot of parties and outings. How come you ended up developing a propulsion system?"
"Well, I see that you have formed the wrong impression about me."
"Would you mind explaining? Your father invited me to come for the whole summer. I really enjoy your company, in spite of the difference in ages. I would want to have the right idea about you."
"Well...., you are right in the part about the young girl. I just finished High School. I have applied and I have been accepted into the University. I cannot start until next year because of my age. I do not know about the part of being pretty. Nobody had ever shown any interest on me. I have never had any admirers. Being a member of a wealthy family does not give me anything. I do not have any friends, from school or anywhere. When I was in school, I was very much ahead of all the rest of the class. My classmates were afraid to talk to me. To be honest, I never was able to understand what they were talking about, in the Cafeteria or in class. I have never gone to a party. I do not know what is to be in a party. That gives you a brief summary."
"Wow! And you look like a normal girl!"
"I am a normal girl, probably a little wiser than the rest. I think that it is only because I have been studying all my life and they are only thinking about boys and parties."
"What do you do all day? I am sorry to ask, but I am interested. You are a very interesting young girl."
"Now I am free because I finished school. As I said, I have been in charge of the house since I was seven. That did not take much time."
"What did you do the rest of the time?"
"I did not have any entertainment before. After I finished my school work, I wander to the shop, I sat in the library to read, or I got into the Internet. I went around from place to place, looking for things."
"And how did you get into space things?"
"I have been interested in space since I was little."
"Is that how you got into propulsion systems?"
"One day I was looking at one of NASA web sites, I do not remember which one. I think I had started a search for alternate fuels or something crazy like that. Going through the list I saw one proposal for a new type of propulsion system. It caught my attention. I read it. The guy did not know what he was talking about and that is what the reviewers said. The paper was full of errors and false assumptions. Some how, reading that paper clicked something inside my mind. I started checking the mistakes. I started correcting the errors and following the derivation with the corrected values. Quite at the beginning the guy got into a trap because of the errors. That is when he starts making silly assumptions. I skipped the assumptions and continued. At the end, I got something that was not close to what the guy said. It did not have any errors or assumptions. When I checked everything, I was pretty sure I had something that would work."
"Would you let me see those computations?"
"Yes, of course, as soon as we get back. I would not be talking if I did not plan to show you everything."
"And then?"
"I have made simulations in the computer that confirmed my results. I built a small prototype that worked as I expected. I have a motor almost ready."
"What characteristics your system has?"
"Well...., the characteristics of the propulsion system are real interesting. That is what has me excited. What I like the most is what I call power density of the fuel, for lack of a better name. I am sure there is a technical term for that but I do not know it. It is the power output of one pound of fuel."
"Yes, power density would be a good name."
"To give you an idea, consider one of those gas tanks for camping trailers."
"I know what you are talking about."
"Yes. One of those tanks of my fuel can take the vehicle I am building, all the way to the Moon and back, several times, with spare to explore whatever you want on the Moon."
"Wow! That is something!"
"Let me point out that I am talking about going under power the whole trip, not coasting. That way it takes a few hours to go to the Moon."
"You know, if you sell that propulsion system you will be a millionaire!"
"I do not want to be a millionaire. Every one of the members of my family is a millionaire by a lot and look what that got them."
"But that depends on the person!"
"What I want to do is have fun. I have never had fun in my life. I want to be the first to explore the Moon. I want to collect the junk left by the Apollo flights, if it is true that they were there. I want to go to Mars to see why NASA is hiding that Cydonia Mensae. I want to visit the moons of Jupiter."
Mike was smiling, his head was turned towards the river and his sight was kind of unfocused.
"Are you laughing at me?" Asked Kristin a little disgusted.
"No, no," he said reacting. "Excuse me. Was I smiling?"
"Yes."
"I was thinking about me when I was about twelve. All I did was reading either Science Fiction or books on Astronomy. That is why I am a mechanical engineer. Since then, I dream on exploring the Moon, visiting the Cydonia Mensae of Mars, exploring the moons of Jupiter."
"Really?"
"Yes, that is the reason why I am here. I tried to be an Astronaut but I was not accepted. When your Dad told me that he had formed a Company to explore space I said to myself that this was the chance to get the trip I have dreamed for so long."
"I do not think my Dad is going anywhere soon. Would you go with me?" Kristin asked without thinking.
"Sure!" Mike said very happy.
"Would you help me build the space ship, test it and the motor, and all that?" Kristin was dubious.
"Of course, I will work at your side if you promise me to take me with you when you go to all those places."
"Fine. We have a deal," she said extending her hand.
"We have a deal!" He answered shaking hands with her.
"Here is my plan," she said after a while. She had not expected his enthusiasm for helping her. "My family will never get anything from the ground because of the way they are thinking. My plan is to offer them that I transport anything they want and they pay me a fee. I am in full control of the ship and I do not have to give them the propulsion system. I pilot the ship and deliver the goods."
"Will they accept?"
"I do not think they have any choice. Consider that I solve all their problems. I have designed a drone or device to carry their stuff. The drones are really the buildings they will be using on the Moon. Building them here is a lot easier and cheaper than building them on the Moon. They can furnish them and install all they will need. I even put the people in there and take them to the Moon. They can start working as soon as I land and remove the ship."
"You have to show me those plans."
"Yes, of course. As soon as we come back."
"You have everything under control!"
"OK, start poking holes."
"Do you want me to be honest?"
"Yes, and do not worry about hurting my feelings. I have none left!"
"Well, then, I have to tell you I do not find anything wrong with your plan. I have to see those computations and the drawings of your ship and drone, before I can make a judgment. In any case, I agree with your plan and I will be very happy to work with you to implement it."
"You have to be kidding!"
"No, I would never do such a thing."
"Then, let us go. Let me show you those computations and the plans for the vehicle and the drone."

Chapter 7

Kristin drove the cart slowly, following the edge of the runway by the river. She was calling Mike's attention to the different trees, shrubs and plants in the area. She stopped the cart many times to show Mike the flower of a tree or the fruit of another. She stopped and went down to show him the small flower of a weed. She stopped to show him the weed that will produce a rash and another that will calm it. She knew all the plants and trees of the area with their names and characteristics. She was not talking like the erudite who wants to show how much he knows about the topic he is talking about. She was not even showing her knowledge. She was talking simply like a girl sharing with a friend something, in this case her knowledge of the plants. Mike was fascinated with her description. He thoroughly enjoyed the short trip. He was finding the conversation with Kristin fascinating, whatever the topic they talked about. Whether it was the house, space, or plants, Kristin was able to put a very special color to her descriptions.
Finally, Kristin crossed the runway towards the shop. She parked the cart and they went into the shop. John was working something on a machine. He stopped and came their way when he saw them.
"John," said Kristin greeting him. "This is Dr. Cook."
John was in his sixties and had always been with the family. He was a very kind man and an excellent mechanic. He kept everything going in the complex. He had a nice shop, clean and very well organized.
"Hi," said John shaking hands. "I have already heard a lot about you. It seems you turned all the family plans up side down!"
"John is the only nice person around here," said Kristin, talking to Mike. "He taught me to use all these machines and he pays attention when I talk about my crazy projects."
"Chris," said John very solemnly. "I have never hear you talk about a crazy project. Your projects always made a lot of sense to me, even when you were a little brat."
"For some reason," said Kristin smiling, "I do not get mad when John calls me brat!"
"I am not calling you a brat!" John said with a smile. "You were a little brat with your family when you were four or five! You were never a brat here!"
"Mike will help me build the vehicle, under your capable supervision, of course," said Kristin. "Come Mike; we better let John do his work. Let me show you the plans."

John went on with his duties and they moved to the little room Kristin called her office. Kristin took the notebook where she had all the computations she had made for the propulsion system. She passed it to Mike. Mike did not say anything. He took a chair, pulled close to the table and sat. He spent some time reading the notebook. Several times he made notations on a piece of paper he pulled towards him. Other times, he got a calculator that was sitting on the table, and spent some time making computations. He made some grumbling sounds from time to time. He did not say a word.
Kristin was sitting on a chair. She did not say anything or tried to look at what he was doing. She waited calmly, sure of what she had done. She was liking the way this guy worked. She was liking to work hand on hand, as equals, with a guy with a Ph. D.
Some time later, Mike turned to Kristin.
"Well....," he said. "I have looked at your computations. Let me see your computations for the design of the vehicle, as you call it."
Kristin got another notebook where she had the whole design of his vehicle. She passed the notebook to Mike, without making any comment.
The scene repeated with Mike looking carefully at all Kristin's computations. This time he had the calculator at his side and verified all of the computations. After a while, he turned again to her.
"Would you give me the computations of what you call the drone?"
Kristin got the other notebook from the desk drawer and passed it to him.
"Here you have it."
Mike again went through the computations in great detail. He verified every one of them. He made some notes on the paper and many calculations with the calculator. He finally turned to Kristin and gave her the three notebooks. Kristin took them and put them back in the drawer where they had been. She sat there waiting.
"Now, will you show me the drawing for your vehicle?"
"This is the vehicle," said Kristin showing him a very detailed drawing. "The top part is the control room, or bridge if you like it. In the bottom part there is some storage space, the air lock and bunks like the ones in the trains, that fold out of the way."
"You do not show any windows."
"No, the windows create a lot of problems. I plan to have cameras all around. One camera will be on top directly in the path of flight to see where I am going. There will be two at the bottom to see where I am landing and several around to see to the sides. All these cameras will go to a computer that shows the pictures on screens around the control room. Any one of them can be recorded. I also plan to have radar. I will have one on top, one on bottom and one rotating. They will go to another computer that shows the pictures on screens. The one at the bottom will also go to a digital meter to show the distance to ground when I land. I plan to have an arm to pick up rocks or objects and put them in the air lock, without having to go outside. The arm will be also useful to get packages from the airlock and put them outside, or in the airlock of a building. The arm will have also a camera to see what I am doing. That camera will also permit me to look at places where the other cameras do not see. I think this will be useful in case of a problem."
"I see! Would you show me the drone?"
"This is what I call the drone," she said bringing another detailed drawing to the top. "The basic idea, as I told you, is that it will be a lot easier and cheaper to build this thing here, instead of building it on the Moon, where you need space suits and you do not have a source of power. Once it is ready, with everything it will have inside including the people, I put the vehicle in the hole and take it to the Moon."
"Chris, there is one thing that really bothers me."
"Shoot, that is why I am showing you all this. If you keep your comments for yourself it does not have any sense to show you all this." Kristin was been feeling a little annoyed that he had not made any comment.
"Of course. Chris, if you pick this doughnut from the center and lift it to go to the Moon, it will break in pieces when you start the rockets and apply acceleration. The people inside will be crushed to death!"
"You are thinking about those big rockets that other people use to launch tiny things into space!"
"Yes, of course. Do you have something different?"
"I showed you the vehicle," she said bringing the vehicle drawing to the front. "It does not have any rockets."
"But I assumed you will attach it to the rockets, like the shuttle."
"No," she said a little hard. "You have not been listening to me! You better start paying attention!"
"I am sorry, you are getting me confused. Would you explain?"
"That is the beauty of my propulsion system, Professor Cook," she said with a little sarcasm. "Since I can carry as much fuel as I want, I can accelerate very slowly. My idea is to use a very small acceleration until I am high enough above the air. Then I apply an acceleration equal to Earth gravity. That acceleration will not kill anybody."
"I see! It is making sense! You are amazing!"
"Oh, shut up!"
"Do not get mad at me! You do not like to be prized!"
"No, and do not try that on me again!" She was a little upset because he did not say anything.
"OK, ok, do not bite me!"
"Now, what do you have to say?" Kristin asked, smiling at him, to take the sting from her hard words.
"Well.... I do not know how to tell you."
"Mike, you promised me that you will tell me straight and without compassion what you found."
"Yes, I did promised you that."
"Then, please, do it!"
"Well.... My problem is Chris, that I have never been in this situation before."
"What do you mean?"
"Chris, you need to consider that I am used to review work of my students, kids about your age. Really they are older than you. I am used to criticize them. I am used to tell them all the things they have done wrong."
"So, why cannot you do it now?"
"It is not that I cannot do it. I have done it. I have reviewed all your work."
"Then?"
"I do not know how to tell you."
"I am not understanding you."
"Chris, I am afraid you will get mad at me. I do not want you to get mad at me."
"Mike, do not be silly! I would not get mad at you for anything you say. I told you, I am used to be called stupid and many other things worst than that."
"Chris, I told you that I do not think you are stupid."
"Then what? Do you think that I am not able to take criticism?"
"It is not that, Chris."
"What is it? Why are you going around like a chicken without a head?"
"Because, in all my life and in all my experience as an engineer and a teacher, I have never met any person, of any age, who was as bright and intelligent as you."
Kristin did not say anything. She lowered her head.
"Chris, I am being honest. I have checked all you have done almost with malice. I have gone through it as if I will get a prize if I found even a small error. I did not find any. All your computations are correct. All your logic is faultless. All your design is brilliant."
Kristin did not say anything. She had been in many situations when her teachers prized her in front of the class. She had never felt like she was feeling at that moment.
"In a simpler way, I agree with you."
"What do you mean?" Kristin finally found her voice.
"I agree with you that all this will work."
"So, do we have a deal?" She said very softly.
"We have a deal!" He said.
"Then, let us go to the house. It is time to prepare dinner. We need to wash and change."

Chapter 8

Kristin and Mike went to the house and to their respective rooms. After taking a shower Kristin changed to her normal jeans and blouse that were at least clean. She combed her hair and put it back in braids. She left them loose this time, hanging on her shoulders. She was thinking that her hair was too long and that she needed to trim it up. She took the idea from her mind. She liked to have the hair long. Some times, when she was by herself, she liked to let her hair loose and move her head around, shaking her hair. She felt young doing that. She went to pick Mike from his room. Mike was surprised to see her in jeans. He was still expecting her to be wearing a dress. He did not say anything. Mike had an almost formal dark blue suit. Since it was his first day at the house, he did not know what the others used to do. They walked to the kitchen with Kristin talking very animated. Mike did not say too much, only enough to encourage her.
Kristin was preparing dinner in the kitchen. Mike was helping her with the salad. They continued talking.
"Will this be enough?" Mike asked showing the salad bowl to her.
"No, that is not enough. You need about twice as much. Fill the bowl."
"I will do it."
"You know," Kristin said. "It is not fair that I get my Dad to invite you for a vacation here and I make you work."
"Actually," he said. "I live alone and I am used to cook for myself."
"Now you tell me! I would have put you to cook!"
"But I only know how to cook for one!"
"One or twelve is the same!"
"One of the problems of living alone is that I eat wherever I am hungry, not by the clock."
"Can you imagine the mess that this house will be? Now we are twelve. When the kids come we will be twenty. It will be a mad house!"
"May I ask you something? You do not have to answer if you do not like it."
"What is it?"
"Why are you preparing dinner?"
"I told you that I have prepared dinner since I was seven."
"You have a town full of people behind the house. Why any one of them is not helping you?"
"You got me again! I do not know why. When I was little, mother and Amanda prepared dinner. I liked to help. When I was seven they let me do it by myself. I really do not mind it."
At that moment, Suzanne entered the kitchen and taking Kristin by the shoulder, turned her around violently.
"I told you to get those sandwiches to the office," said in a very bad mode.
Kristin only looked at her with an empty look, like looking through her sister-in-law without seeing her. She did not say anything or made any gesture with her inexpressive face. Suzanne lost control of herself a slapped her in the face.
"Stupid, good for nothing!" She said and left the room in bad mood.
Kristin did not say anything or made any move. She was slightly bleeding from a small cut in her cheek. Suzanne was wearing her engagement ring and had cut Kristin's cheek. Mike came and tried to clean the wound. Kristin stopped his hand.
"No, Mike. Please do not clean it."
"Do not explode!"
"I am not that stupid. I will not waste this opportunity exploding!"
"What are you thinking of doing?" Mike asked suspicious.
"Do you know that story of the Chinese student that everybody picked on him?"
"You will not do that!" Mike said with a laugh.
"No, not exactly. You will see!" Kristin said smiling maliciously at him. Her cheek stung when she smiled. "Please take the salad to my mother and take your seat at the other end of the table."
Mike did as Kristin asked him to do. They were all sitting at the table talking in small groups. Mike noticed that all of them were dressed very informally. Most of the men were in their shirt sleeves. Some of the ladies were in jeans. One of them was on a short. Mike found that he had overdressed, but he did not feel bad about it. The opposite was much worst. If anybody noticed, they will understand. They were totally absorbed in their discussion about the stock market, which stocks had gone up, which had gone down and why. Mike gave the salad bowl to Kristin's mother, making a very slight bow. She looked surprised, but did not say anything. They were all serving the salad without paying any attention to anything else, or what they were doing. Mike went to the end of the table and took his place where Kristin had told him to do it.
Kristin came from the kitchen with four plates. She walked slowly and measured. She served her mother, her father, Peter and his wife. Mike was observing her but could not discern any of her plot. She went back to the kitchen and returned with another four plates. This time she served Joseph and his wife and Amanda and her husband. Kristin had a hard face that did not reveal anything. Finally she came back with three plates. She served Sam, Mike and herself. She sat and started eating.
"How about me?" said Suzanne in a bad mood.
"Brat," said her mother with her calm voice. "You forgot about Suzanne."
"No," Kristin said. "I did not."
"But you did not serve her," said her mother a little harder.
"Ask her how I got this," showing the cut in her cheek, still bleeding.
"What happened, Suzanne?" asked the mother.
"Mother, this girl is insufferable, insolent and lazy. I told her this morning to bring lunch to the office and she did not do it."
"And what did you do just now?" insisted the mother.
"Mother, you tolerate her too much," said Suzanne. "She was insolent with me and I slapped her on the face."
"But Suzanne," said Sam in a very low voice, but not low enough that Kristin did not hear. "You know that we have to be careful with her!"
Kristin leaned toward Mike.
"Bingo! Just what I wanted!" she said very softly, smiling with her malicious smile.
Mike smiled back at her, but he did not say anything.
"You can serve yourself," said Sam in a louder voice, trying to calm down his wife.
Suzanne went to the kitchen and came back immediately in a very bad mood.
"Mother, the brat did not leave any food for me!"
"There must be something in the refrigerator," said the mother trying to calm her down.
Suzanne when to the kitchen, evidently very much disturbed. In a few moments she came back with a plate in her hands. She had in it a piece of cheese and some cold cuts. The conversation had continued on the stock market like if nothing had happened. They finished dinner.
"Brat, Mike," her father said as he was standing. "Would you come to the office to continue our conversation?"
"Yes, of course," Mike said.
"In a moment, Dad," said Kristin. "I need to put the dishes in the dishwasher."
They all filed out of the dining room towards the office where they will meet. Mike went with them. Kristin left the dishes where they were and went to her room. She needed to change and get her papers. She was preparing something very special.

Chapter 9

A few minutes later, Kristin opened the door of the office. All the conversations died. The office was in total silence. All the heads were turned to the door, looking at Kristin. She was wearing a very feminine light blue dress he had got made from her graduation. She had matching hig hill shoes. Her hair was loose on her back, like a cascade of gold. Her eyes were bright. She was like a model. She really looked beautiful and very attractive. She was not wearing any jewelry. She did not have a ribbon on her hair, earrings, or anything. She did not need anything to enhance her beauty. She was at the peak of her beauty. The dress was very simple. It adjusted to her body perfectly. For the first time, Mike was able to see Kristin beautiful body. She was very well formed. The dress hugged to her breasts, exalting their perfect form. They were not prominent. They looked exactly the right size for her. Everything looked perfect. She had applied a slight touch of makeup. Mike noticed irrelevantly, that she had cleaned the cut on her cheek and that she had applied some makeup to cover it. Everybody in the room was holding their breath. Kristin, with a study attitude, stood for a few seconds by the door. She was enjoying their surprise. She was enjoying the other surprise she had for them. This was going to be the day she had been waiting for most of her life. Nobody made any noise. She walked to where Mike was sitting. Her walk had such elegance that took the little breath that remained in those in the room. Even Suzanne, who was still mad because of the dinner, could not help admiring her. She, and many others, were with their mouths open, not knowing what else to do. Kristin was the complete opposite of all the other women in the room who were dressed more like businessmen than women. There was complete silence in the room while they recognized her and recovered from the shock. Kristin walked with great elegance to where Mike was sitting. She put the material she was carrying between two chairs, and sat close to Mike. Mike had to make a big effort not the turn his head to stare at this beautiful girl.
Finally, Mr. Smith made an effort to recover from the shock. He cleared his throat. That broke the spell that Kristin had caused. He tried to talk but he could not. He tried again.
"Dr. Cook," he said with an effort. "You had time to talk with the brat, what can you tell us?"
"I have checked everything Kristin said," Mike started with a slight accent on the name. He was also having trouble talking. "I found everything correct. I have checked all her computations. They are all correct. I have revised all her assumptions and the deductions that she makes. I found everything correct. I am sure that everything will work the way Kristin expects," he made again an emphasis on her name. She disliked very much this people calling brat to such a bright girl. "I think it is better if she explains it. It is clear that she is prepared."
Without waiting for an invitation, Kristin stood up. Again, she caused a shock to run across the room. She took the material she had brought with her. She walked slowly towards the front of the room. She knew how to walk elegantly, but without excessive movements. She put a flip chart on the easel. She flipped to the first chart. She looked around to see if everybody was ready. The room was in total silence. Mike was holding his breath, eager to hear what she had to say. With a firm and clear voice, Kristin started.
"Mother, father, brothers and sisters, let me explain."
Her soft voice was filling the room at the exact level for everybody to understand what she was saying. Mike felt that she had total control of her audience. He had never had such an experience. This girl is extraordinary, he thought. It was clear to him that everybody else was, like him, holding his breath, not to miss any of her words.
"We know that you plan to enter into the space business," Kristin continued, in total control of herself and the audience. She was using a soft voice and was talking slowly, making small pauses to let the ideas sink in her audience brains. "Any commercial space enterprise has two very well defined areas. These areas are the business area and the transport area. Neither one can work without the other. Neither one is more important than the other. Let me clear this point. There are activities organizing the business part of the commercial enterprise, developing the plans of operation, making propaganda for the enterprise, handling the clients, hiring and handling the employees, processing orders and organizing deliveries, handling the money flow, etc. All of you are very capable in this area. You understand all its facets. You are able to solve all its problems. You are able to obtain all its benefits. I have nothing to add to this subject."
Kristin made a pause. She knew that she had her audience under control. Mike was very much impressed by this very young girl. She was an excellent speaker. She knew all the tricks of the trade.
"The transport part of the enterprise," Kristin continued explaining, "is carrying the materials needed for the construction, the workers, the supplies, the clients, etc. to the Moon first and later to Mars and wherever. This area of the business requires technical knowledge and special abilities. This part of the enterprise requires also very specialized equipment. Mike and I can provide you with this knowledge and abilities. We can also provide you with the specialized equipment that is needed. As a consequence, I would want to propose to you the following arrangement. We divide the enterprise in two parts. You handle the business end of it. I handle whatever transport you require."
She flipped to the next chart and continued before any one of them had a chance to react. They were all under her spell, anyway.
"This is a sketch of our vehicle. This vehicle will be ready in about two weeks. During the testing procedure of the vehicle, I plan to go to the Moon. I plan to take movies when I leave Earth and when I approach the Moon. I plan take very detailed movies of the surface of the Moon. You can use these movies for propaganda for your hotel and business. I can also take movies of the areas you will indicate as the place where you plan to make your installations. My plan is to take movies at low and high altitude, since my vehicle can hover like a helicopter. Analyzing these movies you will be able to tell me the boundaries of the claim you wish to make. I can mark those boundaries in the following trip. Analyzing these movies you can also indicate me exactly where you want each building and each installation."
Kristin flipped to the next chart and continued. She was totally sure of herself. She felt a kind of power flowing from her.
"You know that building on the Moon has quite a lot of problems. I wish to point out some of these problems, although I am sure that you are well aware of them. You do not have air to breathe on the Moon. There are extremes of temperature. There is radiation. All these reasons make people need to work with space suits. Further more, there are no building materials, until we are able to analyze the materials that exist on the Moon and how they can be used for building purposes. You have to carry from Earth all the building materials that you need. You do not have any power, you need to design and take to the Moon special generators because there is no air on the Moon. Most of the operations will have to be done by hand because of this lack of power. You also need to consider that a lunar day is twenty seven terrestrial days. This means that you have two weeks of light and two weeks of darkness. You need to take big lights to work during the nighttime. This also prevents the use of solar power, unless you have large batteries to store that power for the two weeks of nighttime. You need to take the workers to the Moon. This alone creates quite a number of problems. You need to make accommodations for the workers. You need to carry from Earth all the materials to make the accommodations for the workers. You will need food, water, air and other supplies for the workers. You will need to insure the workers. This might prove quite a problem because I do not know if there is an insurance company ready to insure workers on the Moon. At the end, it will be necessary to return the workers to Earth. Their accommodations will be wasted. For all these reasons, and many others, I would want to suggest a different approach."
Kristin flipped to the next chart and continued. She was coming to the basic point.
"You will save a lot of money and problems if you built the buildings here on Earth where there is no problem. Here on Earth the workers do not need any special clothing. They live in their own houses. They eat their own food. You have abundant power here for every kind of tool. The tools are available. In order to benefit from all these advantages, there is only a small constrain. The buildings must have the form shown in this sketch. It is like a doughnut. You will make partitions inside for the different accommodations, you will install all the equipment needed, you will load all the supplies, etc. You will test that everything works properly and that all the personnel know what their duties are. You will move the personnel to their quarters in the buildings; to be sure everything works, as it should. All this will be very easy to do while the building is here on Earth. It will be quite difficult when the building is on the Moon. When all is ready, you tell me and I come with my vehicle and put it inside the hole of the doughnut."
She flipped another page and continued without interruption.
"This is what they will look, the doughnut and the vehicle together. The doughnut locks to the vehicle and I take them to the Moon. There are some things I have to emphasize. The people inside the module will only feel some vibration and the motion while we are traveling. It would not be like in the movies where people have to be in special padded seats because of the high acceleration of the big rockets. When I take them to the Moon, they will feel very little because I will accelerate very slowly. They will not feel any discomfort, better that flying in an airplane. Actually, they can be doing their work as soon as they get into the module. The trip will last only a couple of hours. When we get to the destination, I unlock the vehicle and remove it from the hole and they are ready to do whatever you want them to do there."
"You can make as many of these modules as you need and I can take them to the Moon when they are ready. You can have specialized modules for different applications. These modules will be very economical. You need to consider that you do not need one vehicle to take people there and another where they will live. The same module is their vehicle and their living or working space. Your hotel, for example, will only be another module you will build here. You will have a kitchen area, a dining area, a reception area and all the amenities you wish to put. You get your clients and check them to their rooms. You show them where everything is and how it works. When everything is ready I take the whole hotel to the Moon. They enjoy their vacation and whatever entertainment you have for them. When the vacation is over, I take the whole hotel back to here. You understand the convenience that this represents for your clients. They do not need to pack their suitcases to travel. They come here and get into the hotel. They enjoy their vacation and when they come back, they can put their things back in their cars and drive home. You can have several hotels to put in different areas or to be preparing one while the other is on vacation."
"Let me talk now about your advantages in this arrangement I am proposing. You will concentrate on the business part and we take care of the transport part. You are very capable in business and you can concentrate on that area without having to worry about things you are not experts on. We will take care of all your transports. We will be independent. You will pay us a fee as in any transport. The fee will be one dollar per ton per mile. That is less than what you pay here on Earth. You will not need to pay me in cash. You will open an account in your books where you put whatever you need to pay us and we draw against that account when we need. That account will start negative because Dad already allowed me to get some parts for the vehicle. Naturally, you will need to build a scale to weight the modules before the launch. Any questions?"
There was complete silence in the room. It took some time for them to react and break the spell Kristin had cast on them.
"Very nice presentation, brat." Her father said at last. His voice showed satisfaction. He was clearly proud of her daughter. "You have covered everything."
"I am glad you are satisfied," Kristin said with a smile and a bow to her father. "Before we let you talk it over to see if you accept my offer, let me make two final points. You will need to make propaganda. I thought a very nice way of making propaganda. One of the things I want to do on the Moon is to visit the areas where the Apollo and all the other unmanned flights landed on the Moon. They left some measuring equipment and a lot of junk. I plan to take detailed movies of all the sites as I find them. I also plan to bring all the junk I can, including rocks and whatever. I also plan to find the places where the Russian and American probes crash landed. I can give you all that junk and you can open a Lunar Museum in town. It will be a nice tourist attraction. It will bring you money and propaganda for the hotel."
"There is another point that does not have anything to do with the Company but that is related to what we are talking. I hope you will forgive me for bringing it here. I will be traveling most of the time. I will not be able to handle the house in the way you are used to. I would want to suggest that you hire a housekeeper. I will be very happy to tell her where everything is and the customs of the house. Will you come, Mike?"
Kristin made a motion to leave the room.
"Wait brat," said her father, "I do not think you need to leave. Does anybody wish to discuss this any further? After all, this is a much better offer than what we were thinking offering her."
Kristin felt something jumping inside her. They had a better offer, she thought. Everybody indicated his or her agreement.
"Good," said her father, "so we all agree. You take care of all the transport. When can we start?"
"You can start tomorrow morning. John has all the information for your modules and he can help you with the orders. Please, tell Linda to open our account so we can finish the vehicle. So, have a good night."
She and Mike left fast enough so they were not called again.

Chapter 10

Kristin and Mike were out of the room. Kristin was walking quite fast and Mike was almost running to follow her. Kristin was exhilarated by the experience. She had never felt such a power. She had many experiences talking to her classmates. She never considered them her equals. She knew that she was much more capable than all of them together. Having such control on people much older than her was an enormous achievement. On top of that, these were persons who considered her a brat, good for nothing as Suzanne had told her before dinner.
At the first bent of the corridor, Kristin stopped. She was breathing hard. She felt her pulse strong and quite fast at her temples. Her system was rushing with the adrenaline of the experience. Mike was surprised by her stopping and he had to hold from the wall not to crash against her. She leaned with her back against the wall. She looked at Mike and smiled at him. It was easy for her to see that Mike was also exhilarated by the experience. She waited for his comment.
"Do not get mad at me, Chris, but you were superb," said Mike when he caught his breath. "Your presentation was so businesslike that they lost their voices."
"Oh, cut it out! You are spoiling my moment of glory! I have been working on this revenge since I remember. One day, I said often to myself, I will have the chance of putting them on their place. That day was today!"
"Let me tell you, Chris. I have never had an experience like the one I have just now listening to you."
"Oh! cut it out!" she repeated.
"It is true, Chris. I told you before that you surprised me with your work. You surprised me again just now with the way you made that presentation. I felt like electric power flowing from you, holding your audience under your control. I have just met you today. I do not have anything going in this business. I was bewitched by you the same way you bewitched everybody. I was not able to breath for the fear of missing a single word. I have never had an experience like this."
"Mike, you are getting silly. You will make me mad if you continue talking like this."
"No, Chris. I am being honest. I liked the way you worked the idea of the housekeeper into your talk. That you will not be able to keep the house like they are used to. Nice way to say that you cannot continue being their maid. That was pure genius. The best part was that you put it in such a way that they could not say anything! I had a hard time not laughing or cheering!"
"That is enough! Cut it out! What do you want to do?"
"It is too early to go to sleep," said Mike. "In any case, I do not think that I would be able to sleep after all the things that have happen to me in a short day."
"Me neither."
"It is only this morning I came here! My head is spinning! So much has happened."
"Quite a lot!"
"Would I be imposing on you asking if we can talk for a while? Please, Chris, I need to clear my mind."
"I also need to talk to you. I do not think I can sleep this early. I would not be able to do anything else with all these things going in my head. Let us take a cart and go to the river. The weather is quite mild and that place is nice in the moonlight."
"That looks like a perfect idea. It would be nice if we can just talk for a while."
They walked out of the house. They took an electric cart. They drove in silence to the river. Each was lost in his or her thoughts. Kristin was driving automatically. She was driving slow and directly to the end of the runaway.

Kristin got to the river. She drove the cart into the park-like area and towards one of the picnic tables that was in the moonlight. They went down from the cart and sat on the picnic table.
"This is a marvelous place to relax and think," Mike said. "Just what I need at this moment."
"That is why I suggested coming here," Kristin said.
"Chris, would you mind if we just sit here for a while, without talking?"
"That fits me perfectly," Kristin agreed.
Kristin let him rest for a while. She also needed some time to rest, to let her head come back to its usual size, as she was thinking. This was the right place to do it, she thought. She was still feeling the high adrenaline rushing through her system. Her pulse was high. Her breathing was short. Slowly, she calmed down. Her breathing became more normal. She felt her pulse in her temples going down. She felt all her system getting back to normal.
"How do you feel?" Mike asked.
"Getting back to normal. How about you?"
"The same. This place is marvelous. I was thinking in the enormous debt I have with you."
"What are you talking about?"
"Chris, I do not think you understand, but you did me a huge favor when you told your Dad about me and suggested him to invite me for a vacation here."
"I am glad you like it."
"Chris, it is much more than like it. You cannot imagine all the opportunities you have given me by doing that."
"I do not know what you are talking about," Kristin was getting scare of the conversation.
"Look, Chris. I want to be honest with you. I need to be honest with you. I am an Associate Professor. My salary is quite low. My chances of advancing or to get something better are very slim. On top of my low salary, I have to give a good portion of it to my ex-wife. That is why I live in a small apartment. Before you came to the meeting, your father made me an offer to act as something like an advisor to them. I will be paid during the summer and later I will come every so often to help them. The salary that he had offered me is quite substantial. It will change completely my position."
"Mike, I am very happy about that. I did not know about your situation. I only looked at you from the technical point of view. I am happy it worked out for you."
"There is much more than that, Chris. You get mad at me when I tell you this, but I have never met anybody as bright as you. Talking with you is an experience in itself. It is only this morning that we met. You have changed my way of thinking on many things."
Kristin did not say anything.
"There is more, Chris. I had a very cynic view of life. Most of the people I found in my life had been egotist, dishonest and whatever. I had a bad marriage experience. I have never met anybody as good and nice as you. You do not have any reason to be nice to me. You were nice to me since the first moment I came. I am more than twelve years older than you. I cannot believe that you are nice to me for any purpose. I have seen that you are nice by nature. That it the way you are."
Kristin did not say anything. She was looking at her hands. She did not like that kind of talk. She had not expected that Mike was in a mood for a confession of that type. She did not know how to change the subject without being rude. She did not want to be rude. They were in silence for a long time.
"Chris, I hope you are not mad at me for what I said."
"No, Mike. I simply do not like this kind of talk."
"I am sorry. So many things had happened this day. I had to talk with you. I had never talked like this with anybody. Please, do not get mad at me. I needed to open myself to you. Would you forgive me?"
"It is all right. Let us leave that topic."
"Yes, you have done the good I was needing."
Mike looked around like if it was the first time he was there and he had just come to the place. Kristin let him look around for a while.
"Mike," Kristin said in a low voice. "Would you pay attention?"
"Sorry, I was admiring this place. It is beautiful. I am all ears."
"You always say that and then pay no attention to what I say."
"I will pay attention."
"I do not know if you noticed during my presentation that I kept switching from I to we, from us to me, and that several times I mentioned you."
"Yes, I noticed."
"The point is that while I was making the presentation I was thinking in the back of my mind that I was getting you into something we have not talked about."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the business of the transport. We talked about you helping me finish the vehicle and then we will go to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and wherever else you want. We never said anything about becoming truckers."
"I do not mind."
"That is not the point, Mike. The point is that I have applied to the University and they have accepted me. I cannot enroll until next year, because of my age. That is how I came with the idea of spending this year as a trucker. When I have everything working, I give the business to my family and I go to college. On the other hand, you have a career at your University, you need to consider."
"Yes, you are right. I did not think on that. There are so many things that happen to me today that I did not have time to digest them all. That is why I asked you to spend some time talking."
"Well, let us get this clear. You help me during the summer and we travel as much as we can when the vehicle is ready. In the fall, you go to your University and I keep taking care of the trucking business. Naturally, you take your share of whatever benefits we make during the summer."
"I do not know, Chris. I would want to stay with you and see all this finished the way you want. I can take a sabbatical without pay from the University."
"Do not make a rush decision, Mike. You only came today and you have not seen all the angles of this problem. Better, hold your decision until you are sure of what you are doing."
"You know, it make sense! I have never met anybody that makes as much sense as you!"
"I have told you I do not care about money. Any way, I need money whether I like it or not. My plan is that working for a year in this business I can make enough money to have anything I want."
"Yes, that is right."
"I want to build me a ship like a yacht," Kristin said to change the mood of their conversation, "with all the comforts and conveniences, so I can travel wherever I want. At the same time, I want to get an engineering degree in astronautics. That is where I have already applied and I have been accepted."
"A yacht! That is a neat idea!"
"Yes. First, I do not like the idea of the vertical ship. That is good for a transport ship that can fit into the doughnut. A passenger ship should be horizontal. That means having a lot of motors. You need one for propulsion, another for braking and another for landing and takeoff. One point that I have not solved is the problem of gravity. If the propulsion is in the back of the ship, you have weight towards to back and you are in the same boat as now, a vertical ship. If you have several motors, the direction of the gravity changes and everything inside the ship will be flying around every time you change motors."
"You are right on both counts. The solution seems to be that instead of having a ship with two floors, like you have now, put everything in one floor. The motor will be in the center of the ship, which will be flat."
"I have thought of that possibility but I want to have the ship working to see how it handles when it has a doughnut attached. What you are saying is to have a doughnut as part of the vehicle. A smaller doughnut than the one we will be transporting."
"Yes, that will give you a lot of room to have all the comforts you want. You will need a lot of equipment for air, power, water, etc. A small doughnut, say half the size of the ones your father will use, will give enough room."
"Well, there is time for that. You will help me design it while we are traveling around. We better go back. Tomorrow I start working you very hard to pay for your trips!" Kristin said smiling at him.
"Tomorrow I will be ready. Kristin, thank you for what you have done today." Mike said quite serious.

Chapter 11

Kristin spent the next few days checking the materials as they arrived. It was a very heavy work. The parts did not weight too much, since they were made from aluminum. The problem was that there were hundreds of pieces to handle. She had selected an area next to the shop where she was to build the vehicle. Mike helped her as much as he was able to. Whenever Kristin's father did not need him, he rushed to help her. The first trucks started coming the following day, early in the morning. As the trucks came with the parts, they piled them near their working area. Kristin, and Mike when he was there, checked each delivery as it came and signed the documents for the trucker. Later, they had the job of classifying the parts putting each type on the right location. Kristin had made a map of the area, showing where they put each type of part. She had marked the different sections with chalk dust. This was needed so they could find the parts later, when they needed them. John was not able to help Kristin because he was busy with her father's orders, on top of all his normal duties.

A few days passed like this. Soon, Kristin had all the materials she needed to start the construction. She had the design of her vehicle in her head. She knew where each part went and how they connected together. There were some parts missing, that will take longer to arrive, but that were not needed until later. Kristin started building the basic structure of the ship. Mike had to recognize that the design was very good, with all the parts fitting together without much work. It was easy to see that the ship had been designed so that one person, Kristin, could build it by herself. The basic structure was easy to assemble. Very soon, Kristin had the structure coming up. Every time that Mike was able to come to help her, he was surprised to see how much she had advanced. Working together they advanced very fast. They understood each other as if they had been working together all their lives. Kristin was making the actual construction, putting together the sticks that made up the basic structure. When Mike was there, he was finding the next piece she needed and had it ready as she needed it. Kristin worked very fast. Kristin could work for hours at a time without any rest. She had some breaks that she respected. She liked to take a break to have some lunch. When she came to work early in the morning, she brought a package of sandwiches she had prepared the night before. She had a refrigerator in the shop for this purpose. She also respected the dinner break. She went home, took a shower and prepared dinner. If she was not too tired, she returned to work after dinner.

During the afternoon of the day Kristin actually started the construction of the ship, Kristin's nieces and nephews came back from boarding school for their summer vacation. They were not that many. They were only eight, but they made so much noise and moved so much that they seemed to be more. Very soon, they discovered the ship in the construction site and started asking questions. Kristin was building the upper part of the structure and was up on the braces. Mike was there helping her, because the family was busy with the coming of the children.
"Aunt Chris, what is this?" asked a boy.
"This is a grain bin. I have a field down there and I need it to store the grain," said Kristin smiling.
"This is a funny looking grain bin," said the boy.
"And who is him, the farmer?" asked a girl of undefined age.
"Come here, Jennifer. You too Joyce, come here. All of you, come close," said Kristin coming down from her perch. "Let me introduce you to Dr. Cook. He is here for the summer helping Dad and me. Mike, this is my niece Jennifer. She is Sam and Suzanne's daughter. She is the oldest of all of them."
"Glad to meet you, Jennifer," Mike said courteously.
"And this is my niece Joyce," Kristin said putting her hand on Joyce shoulder. "She is my favorite. She is Peter and Laura's daughter."
"Very glad to meet you, Joyce," said Mike with a smile. "I see you are as pretty as your aunt!"
"No, my aunt is prettier than me!" said Joyce, smiling at Kristin. "She is my favorite aunt."
Kristin then introduced the other kids that were forming almost a circle around them.
"Are you staying long, Dr. Cook?" asked Jennifer smiling in a very feminine way.
"I will be staying most of the summer, Jennifer, and the name is Mike."
"Good Mike, now I am sorry I am leaving for camp next week."
"We are all leaving for camp next week," said Joyce with a sad face.
"Well, I will be seen you around while you are here," said Mike.
He waved at all of them and went back to work.
"May I help you in what you are doing?" said Jennifer directly to Mike.
"I do not think so, it is dangerous."
Kristin always felt sick with the blatant sexuality of Jennifer, her niece. She did not like the obsession of most girls when they saw a man. The kids lost interest very fast and they kept running around. Jennifer also left, not too happy.
"Chris," Mike said before coming back to work. "Do you mind a comment?"
"I know what you will say," Kristin said smiling at him. "What is your comment?"
"This kids just came from being all year in boarding school. One of them mentioned they will go to summer camp next week."
"Yes, Mike," Kristin said without hiding her sadness. "Their parents cannot stand them. I really do not understand why they have kids at all."
"I am sorry I asked."
"Mike, we are friends. Do not feel bad making that kind of comment when we are alone."
"I would never make a comment like that in front of anybody else."
"Let us go back to work. They are not your problem."
Kristin climbed back to her work and continued. They worked with only few words of questions and instructions.
"Mike," she called later. "Time for dinner."
"OK, let us go, boss."
"I am not your boss!"
They went laughing to the cart and drove home for a shower, changing and dinner.

Jennifer was just thirteen. She became thirteen while at school. She was tall, slender, with a very nice, well developed, perfectly rounded figure. She developed that figure since she was ten. She exercised regularly at school to maintain her figure. She was very little extra fat, although she was not athletic. She was very feminine. She had legs that were the envy of older girls at school. Her arms were well rounded. Her hips were a little wide for a girl her age. This made her look much older than she was. She had a nice bust that was larger than Kristin's. Her figure permitted her to say whatever age she wanted. She had dark hair that she kept medium long, past the shoulders. She spent hours brushing her hair to have it brilliant and attractive. Her blue eyes contrasted with her somewhat dark complexion. She maintained it dark with regular sunbathes, even during the winter. Their school permitted them those luxuries by having every kind of beauty equipment they could desire. She had a nice voice and a clear laugh. She was dressed that afternoon in a bright summer dress that showed all she had and let to the imagination the little that it did not reveal. All in all, Jennifer was a very attractive girl and she knew it. She had very well cultivated manners and an interesting conversation. It was clear she was used to impress any man she met whatever his age and that she liked it. She was the kind of girl that lived for that pleasure.

Joyce was a small child for her age. She was now twelve. She was very shy. She seldom talked and when she did it was in a low voice. She gave the impression that she was skinny, but she was not. She was small, smaller than Kristin. When both were standing side by side, Joyce only got a little above Kristin's shoulder. Joyce had a nice body of a little girl turning into a woman. She was becoming round in the right places. Her small breasts gave her a nice figure. Although she was shy, she was always erect, which improved her figure. She had blonde hair very much like Kristin's. Joyce liked to use her hair long and normally loose on her back. She brushed her hair every night before going to bed. She wore a simple ribbon holding her hair in place. She had nice blue eyes that showed intelligence and curiosity although with a shadow of sadness. She always dressed with taste but not elegant. She had a certain natural elegance that was more in her posture than in her dress. She had an insatiable curiosity that she satisfied reading constantly. It was very seldom that she did not have a book in her hands. She had a very nice smile and a soft, pleasant laugh. The rare opportunities when she gave an opinion, she was precise and used few words. The few times that she entered into a conversation, she was very interesting, very knowledgeable of the topic and very courteous in her opinions. She had very nice, sweet manners. If Jennifer was very attractive in a sensual manner, Joyce was very attractive because it was easy to see her as a very nice, sweet girl.

Chapter 12

They were all in the dining room ready for dinner. Most of them were in small groups deep in conversation, as it seemed to be their custom. It was a new sensation for Kristin to sit at the table and being served. She enjoyed it every day as much as the first day. The new housekeeper was a very efficient and courteous lady who had taken over Kristin's duties very easily. The family had not noticed the transition. It was true that Kristin had been very careful in her instructions. Kristin was sitting as always next to Mike. At Mike's other side, Jennifer had placed herself. She was monopolizing his conversation. It was clear that Mike did not mind it. Kristin overheard that Jennifer was telling Mike outrageous stories from school. Kristin had the impression that Jennifer was trying to make Mike believe that she was in an upper class. Kristin thought that he was enjoying it. She turned to her other side, where Joyce was sitting. Joyce smiled at her.
"Aunt Chris," Joyce said in her soft voice. "Is it true you were the Valedictorian?"
"Yes, it is true, and you do not have to be calling me aunt all the time. You are old enough to call me Chris."
"I have never seen a Valedictorian."
"Did you think a Valedictorian has horns or something?"
"No, but you are so bright! I wish I could be like you."
"I know that you get pretty good grades. You can be the Valedictorian if you try your best."
"You bet I will try! I want to be like you!"
"Good for you!"
"Aunt...., sorry, Chris, is it a space ship what you are building?"
"Yes, it is."
"You told George that it was a grain bin."
"I was kidding! He is so silly!"
"How big is you space ship?"
"As big as you can see. It will be taller than now."
"Chris, will you take me in your space ship when it is ready?"
"I wish I could, but I do not think it will be ready before you have to leave for camp."
"Do I have to leave for camp?" said Joyce with a very sad voice.
"You have to ask your parents, darling."
"You know that I have trouble talking with them. They are always busy."
"Joyce, you are a nice girl and you know that I like you very much. They might let you stay."
"But what can I tell them. They will get mad at me if I tell them I do not want to go. That I am scared of the other kids in camp."
"You can tell them that you can stay with me like last year."
"Really?" said Joyce, her face lighting up. "Would you let me stay with you again?"
"Yes, but you have to ask your parents."
"If you let me stay with you, I will ask them."
"Now you better eat your dinner before your mother sees you talking and not eating."

As they all were leaving the dining room after dinner, Laura, Peter's wife, Joyce's mother, stopped Kristin.
"Brat," she said. "Is it true what Joyce said that she can stay with you instead of leaving for camp?"
"Yes, of course. Joyce is the nicest girl of all the pack. She is now twelve, right?"
"Yes, I think so. Are you sure Joyce is my daughter?" Laura said smiling. "I see all of them so little and they change so much, so fast, that I do not know which one is mine!"
"Yes, Joyce is your daughter, you can be sure."
"Are you sure?" Laura said kidding.
"After all, she comes after you. Joyce is as nice as you are."
"Oh! Cut it out!"
"Do you know Joyce is planning to be the Valedictorian?"
"No! She was telling me you were the Valedictorian. Is it true?"
"Yes, that is what gave her the idea."
"Wow! How come you have all the brains of the family?"
"Not all, Joyce have also good brains."
"Well, Joyce is your responsibility now."
With that, she left. Joyce was very happy when Kristin told her of the conversation with her mother.
"Well, Joyce. I am sorry but I have to continue with my work."
"Are you going back to work?"
"Yes, I want to finish as soon as possible."
"Chris...., I do not know how to ask you."
"Joyce, what is it?" Kristin told her taking her from the shoulders.
"Would you let me help you? I will try to do my best."
"Are you sure you want to work instead of playing with your cousins?"
"I do not like to play with them. I prefer to work with you."
"Well..., if you want, I can use your help."
Kristin and Joyce went to change and then to work. Joyce was very happy working hard, side by side with her favorite aunt. Mike was nowhere to be seen.


The previous year Joyce had confided on Kristin that she hated to go to camp because all the kids picked on her. They did not give her any peace with their jokes and puns. Several times she had been thrown to the lake with all her clothes. They had put her clothes in the gutters. While she was in bed, they hid all her clothes. She had to walk in her nightgown all the way to the lake to pick them up. She had to dress in wet clothes. They did not leave her alone. She was not able to sleep, eat or anything. When they had their walks on the woods, they were always tripping her, putting bugs on her back inside her blouse. They tied her shoe laces when they were resting. She was afraid of doing anything because of the other kids. Every night she found frogs or other animals in her bed. She told the Counselor but she simple laughed and told her that everybody did those things. That was part of the camp life.
Kristin took pity of the eleven-year-old lanky girl and asked her mother to let her stay with her. She never regretted it because Joyce was very quiet and very docile. She was always ready to help her in anything she had to do, even when her mother told her not to serve at the table and take her place. Laura and Peter had been the second to get married. The first were Sam and Suzanne. They had Jennifer the next year. None of them had more than two children. They got rid of them as soon as possible. They were in boarding school during the year and at a camp during the summer.


Kristin and Joyce accomplished quite a lot that evening. Joyce caught very fast and she was very willing to work. The main structure went up fast since it was only a number of beams and columns connected together. Something like a stick house. Kristin had designed the pieces so they fit together with minimum effort and latched in place. They both had a nice time chatting while they were working. Joyce was not shy when she was with Kristin. Joyce made Kristin laugh with her stories from school. Other times Joyce asked questions about subjects she did not understand, or things the other girls had said that left her curious. When they called quits late in the evening, the basic structure was almost complete.
"Will you let me help you tomorrow?" said Joyce while they were driving to the house.
"If you work as good as today, you can work with me as much as you want!"
"I like to work with you, Chris."
"Do you really like to work?"
"I like to work with you," Joyce repeated.
"You are a good worker and it is fun to work with you."
"That is what I like, Chris. We are always chatting."
"Yes, that is what make it nice to work with you."
"This will be the best summer ever," Joyce said full of enthusiasm. "Last year was pretty good, but this one will be better."
They got to the house. They left the cart in place and connected to the battery charger. They entered the house.
"OK, take a shower and go to sleep so tomorrow you can help me. Good night, Joyce."
"Good night, Chris and thank you."
They went their separate ways.

Chapter 13

Kristin and Joyce were having breakfast the following morning when Mike came into the kitchen. His eyes were red and he had big bags under them. It was easy to see that he had washed and dressed in a hurry.
"Good morning, Chris," He said entering the kitchen.
"Good morning, Mike," she answered without looking at him.
"Good morning, sir," Joyce said respectfully.
"I remember you from yesterday," Mike said looking at Joyce. "I do not remember your name."
"My name is Joyce, sir," she said.
"Now I remember. You are Chris' favorite niece."
"Yes, sir."
"Well...., if you are Chris' favorite niece, you do not need to be calling me sir all the time."
"How do you want me to address you, sir."
"Why not Mike? Chris calls me Mike, Jennifer calls me Mike."
"I will do that, Mike. You honor me."
"Wow, Chris! This girl had good manners!"
"Yes, that is why I like her."
Kristin got a good look at Mike for the first time.
"You look awful. What happened to you?" said Kristin smiling.
"I feel awful," said Mike.
"Jennifer gave you trouble last night?" Kristin asked with her malicious smile.
"No, why do you say that?"
"Nothing, just guessing." She still had her malicious smile.
"Your Dad and your brothers had me talking well past midnight!"
Joyce went up and brought Mike's breakfast. He said 'thank you' absently.
"How awful!" Kristin said, still smiling. "I imagine that you would have preferred my guess."
"That is not all," Mike said ignoring her pun. "When we went out of the office, your Dad was talking to me. He started walking and I had to follow him. Finally he said, 'We better get some sleep.' I had no idea where I was."
"What did you do?" Kristin asked.
"I started walking trying to find my way," Mike said. "I do not know how long I was walking through corridors."
"Grandpa took him to his suite," Joyce told Kristin.
"I think I went around and around, for hours." Mike continued.
"That is like a labyrinth if you do not know your way," commented Joyce. She was not shy when she was with Kristin.
"Finally," Mike said with relief, "I found the entrance to the basement you showed me yesterday."
"Good!" Kristin said.
"That permitted me to orient myself and find my room," Mike ended. "It was close to four in the morning when I got there."
Kristin and Joyce were laughing freely by then.
"Poor guy!" Kristin said.
"I bet that grandpa took him to his suite, then Mike started walking around those corridors that close into themselves," Joyce said.
"I do not have any idea where I was," Mike said.
"Joyce," Kristin said. "You are nice and smart, the right combination for Mike."
"What do you want?"
"Yesterday I showed Mike the main parts of the house. Would you devise some way he can find his way if this happens again?"
"Good," Joyce said. "I will be happy to. Let me give it a thought."
"I do not think you will be able to do anything useful today," Kristin said to Mike. "Come with us and take a nap in my office. I have a cot there for these emergencies."
"That will be marvelous!" Mike said really relieved.
They continued with their breakfast.
"Hey," Mike said after a moment. "Why did you mention Jennifer a moment ago?"
"It was a guess. I saw you at dinner talking very interested with her."
"Yes, we were talking all dinner. She is a very interesting girl."
"That is why I thought that you went with her to the river after dinner."
"She actually asked me if I had been to the river."
"Did she ask you to go with her after dinner?"
"Actually, yes. How do you know? Did you overhear her?"
"No, I was not paying attention. I was talking with Joyce."
"Your Dad came and asked me if we could meet at his office."
"He spoiled all Jennifer's plans!"
"Why do you talk that way about Jennifer? She is a nice girl, not a vampire."
"Did she got you that much?"
"I do not understand you, Chris."
"You will see soon enough," Joyce said.
"You too?"
"Did you finish your breakfast?" Kristin interrupted.
"Yes, I have. We better go."

They went outside. They got one of the electric carts and Joyce mounted into the load compartment in the back.
"Mike," Kristin asked. "Do you think that you can drive one of these carts?"
"Yes, I think so. Why?"
"In the state you are?"
"Yes, I can do it. I am not invalid."
"Then, take another cart. I do not like Joyce riding in the load compartment."
"Yes, of course. Is Joyce coming with us?"
"Yes. Joyce, get down and into the seat."
They drove slowly to the construction site. The structure looked almost finished.
"When did you do that?" Mike asked very surprised. "Did you work all night?"
"No," Kristin said laughing. "Joyce worked with me after dinner and we advanced quite a lot."
"I am sorry I did not know you would work after dinner," Mike said showing real concern. "I did not think of asking you when your Dad asked me to go with him."
Kristin looked at him. She turned and looked at Joyce. Both of them were looking at her with what she construed as respect, like waiting for orders from her.
"Look Mike and you too Joyce," said Kristin in a matter-of-fact voice. "We better have a talk."
"What did I do wrong, Chris?" Mike said.
"I have been treated like a slave most of my life," Kristin said. She was talking as strong as she knew how to do it. She wanted this understood properly. "For this reason, I would never treat anybody like a slave. You two are here because you want to be. That does not make you my slaves. You work when you want and quit when you want. I want this perfectly understood."
"Yes, Chris," Joyce said very low.
"I understand, Chris," Mike added. He did not know what was her intention.
"I know Jennifer loves to go swimming in the river in the afternoon," Kristin continued. "I am sure she will invite you, Mike, to go with her. Please, feel free to go if you feel like doing it. You too, Joyce."
"You know that I like to work with you," Joyce said, still in a low voice. She had never seen Kristin talk like that.
"But, Chris," said Mike. "We have a deal!"
"Yes, we have a deal," answered Kristin, still talking hard. "And the deal is that you will help me with my vehicle and I take you traveling. I have the same deal with Joyce. Neither one of you have become my slave because of these deals. Agree?"
"You know that I prefer to work with you, Chris," said Joyce.
"Me too, Chris," Mike said. "I appreciate you are not mad at me because I was not here last night."
"Do not be silly!" Kristin said, now in her normal voice. "I do not get mad that easily! Now, go to my office and take a long nap," she finished with a big smile.
Mike walked to the shop to take his nap. He need it and was grateful of Kristin. He was also very grateful of her explanation about their situation.
Chris is a very nice girl, he thought. I like to work with her. She is the perfect boss.
"Chris," Joyce said in her low voice while they were walking to the vehicle. "Why were you mad?"
"I was not mad, Joyce. I only wanted clearly understood that neither you nor Mike are my slaves. You are here because you want to be."
"Of course, I want to be here."
"That is my point, Joyce. The moment you want, you can leave."
"I understand. That is why I like so much to be with you. My other aunts like to give orders, not to explain anything. They like to be obeyed."
"Well, I am not like that."
"Mike also likes to be with you."
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, you see that he was concerned because he did not say anything last night. I think he likes you."
"Do not be silly! He likes to work with me. We understand each other."
"Are you in love with him?"
"Now you are talking silly. I only met him a few days ago. He is not my kind of guy."
"He is a nice guy," Joyce said in her low voice.
Kristin looked at her but did not say anything. They were at the construction site. They started working, chatting of irrelevant things, like they liked to do.

Some time later, Kristin and Joyce took a midmorning break. They had been working hard. Kristin went to the shop with a pack of orders in her hand.
"Hi, John," she said entering the shop. "Will you please send these orders to Linda when you have a chance? I already checked them."
"Wait, Chris," John called her when she was leaving. "I know you care about these things. Your father and everybody else call her Linda. It is like with you that everybody calls you brat when your name is Chris."
"Is Linda not her name?"
"No, Chris. She told me the other day that her name is Sarah. She has to answer when they call her Linda."
"Thank you, John. I do care about these things. I better do something about that. She is a nice girl. Let me take the orders myself."
"Would you also give her these orders? They are from your father."
She took the orders, mounted an electric cart and went to the construction site.
"Joyce, come over here," she said without getting down. "I thought about something I want to do. We can do it while we rest."
"Yes Chris," Joyce answered.
Kristin liked very much that Joyce obeyed her, but she was never subservient. Joyce came into the cart and Kristin drove, slowly as she liked, to the house. They went into the house and to the office.
"Hi, good morning," she said entering.
"Good morning. You are Kristin, is not it?"
"Yes Sarah, my name is Kristin and this is Joyce. I wanted you to know us."
"Do you know my name is Sarah?"
"Yes, John told me that and you can be sure that, in my book, you are Sarah, not Linda."
"Thank you, Kristin. I appreciate it."
"By the way, I prefer to be called Chris."
"I will remember that."
"These orders are mine. John gave me these order from my Dad. You know that my orders go to a special account, do you?"
"Yes, I know."
"Bye Sarah, see you later."
"Bye Chris, bye Joyce." Sarah had a big smile on her face.
Kristin and Joyce walked out. When they were in the corridor, Joyce commented,
"You really made her happy. You are a very nice person, Chris."
"It does not cost anything making somebody else happy," Kristin said smiling at her and ruffled her hair.
"I did not like that!" Joyce said smiling and shaking her head to rearrange her hair.
Once outside and by the cart, Kristin took the passenger seat. She pointed the driver's seat to Joyce.
"You drive," she said.
"Me?" Joyce asked almost in a squeak. "My mother said that if I try to drive a cart, she grounds me for a year!"
"If she says anything, you tell her that I told you to drive. You mother said that you are my responsibility during the summer."
"OK, if you say so. You make me happy!"
"Now, be careful!"
"Of course. I have been looking how you drive. You are pretty good!"
"Then, do it!"
Joyce was all what Kristin could expect. She started the cart very carefully. She accelerated slowly and drove at a medium speed, the same way Kristin liked to do. She went first through the grass and then she took the concrete road. Getting to the construction site, she took the curves with care. She finally stopped and parked at the right place.
"Very good!" said Kristin, satisfied. "From now you are the driver until you are sure of yourself."
"Thank you, Chris. I told you this will be the best summer ever in my whole life."
"Take note that if I see you driving like Jennifer, you are grounded for five years."
"I will never drive like Jennifer."
"I know. Let us go back to work!"

Chapter 14

Kristin and Joyce worked hard all morning. They were finishing the basic structure of the vehicle, what Kristin called the stick house. Mike joined them midmorning.
"How do you feel?" Asked Kristin when he got to the work area.
"Much better, thank you for the opportunity."
"You look better," Joyce said, smiling at him.
"Are you ready to work?" Kristin asked.
"That is why I am here!" Mike said.
"We need to clamp the panels," Kristin explained to Mike. "The idea is to clamp the panels in place so I can weld them to the structure."
"Yes, I understand."
"This is a delicate operation," Kristin explained. "We have to put the panels just right, so they match."
"Make sense," Joyce said.
"After the panels are welded to the structure they cannot be moved."
"Do we need to clamp all the panels?" Joyce asked.
"No, if we are carefully clamping the panels, we can do it in blocks."
"This is a very good design, Chris," Mike said.
"Yes, very good," Joyce concurred.
"Consider that when I designed this, I did not know I was going to have your help."
"That is what I mean," Mike said. "It is easy to see that you designed this to build it all by yourself."
"Chris is very smart!" Joyce said with admiration.
"You do not do it too bad, little niece," Kristin said.
"I have not had too much opportunity to talk with you, Joyce, but I have the idea that Chris is right."
Joyce was like Kristin also in that sense. She did not like people talking about her.
"If we stay talking all morning we will never finish," Joyce said to move the conversation away from her.
"You are right," Mike said. "Let us get to work."
They started working. Kristin had already explained to Joyce how to place the panels so they matched. She explained again to Mike. They worked the rest of the morning. The three of them understood each other very well. They worked in coordination, without running into each other. They needed very few comments or instructions. They were always chatting of irrelevant thinks to made the work nicer. Around noon they stopped to have a snack they had brought with them and to take a break. They were sitting in the shade of a tree. The weather was very nice.
"Chris, do not get mad at me....," Mike started.
"Mike, I told you before," Kristin interrupted him. "I do not get mad that easily. The day you came I had too many things against me. That is why I snapped at you. I was not mad. Sorry for the interruption. What were you saying?"
Mike looked at her smiling.
"Joyce was saying before, that she likes that you explain everything clearly. You made clear that you do not get mad."
"You started to say something," Kristin said.
"Yes, I was going to tell you that working with you has been another new experience for me."
"Another one?" Asked Kristin smiling.
"What is a new experience?" Asked Joyce.
"Your aunt is a very extraordinary person," Mike said.
"I know that," Joyce answered. "So, what is a new experience?"
"Chris had been putting me to several experiences I never had in my life."
"Like what?" Joyce continued asking.
"Like when she let me look at her computations for her propulsion system, the design of this vehicle, the design of the drone."
"What about them? Chris knows what she is doing!" Joyce continued the conversation with Mike.
"That is my point, Joyce. It was the first time in my life that I saw something so well done, so perfect."
"I understand that you are a Professor," said Joyce. "Was this the first time you reviewed some computations?"
"No, I have experience reviewing the work of my students. I had reviewed the work of other Professors."
"Then?" Joyce continued cornering him.
"My point is that I have never seen anything so well done, so perfect, so well explained and documented."
"I am not surprised. Chris is very smart."
"No, Joyce. Chris is much more than very smart. She is extraordinary."
"I know. You mention several new experiences. What else?" Joyce was not letting him go.
"Another one was when she made a presentation for your grandparents and uncles and aunts. It was fabulous!"
"I am not surprised! What else?"
"The other day, she drove me to the river. She knows every plant and every tree!"
"Yes, I know."
"You might not be surprised, Joyce, but I am. I am also very much surprised about you. You are as smart as Chris!"
"Ok, you smart people," Kristin interrupted. She did not like that kind of talk and she knew that Joyce hated it, now that it was turned to her. "If we stay talking about how smart we all are, we will not have a vehicle to be smart traveling."
They laughed.
"Let us continue working," Joyce said.
In very good spirits, they went back to work.

Before long, Jennifer appeared driving a cart. She was dressed with a very minimal skirt over her bikini. The skirt had bright colors with flowers of different sizes. She had her hair tied with a swimming cap. Mike had a jump looking at her like that. She was very attractive. She had a beautiful body. She was a woman, not a girl like Kristin or Joyce. She knew how to dress to emphasize all the good things she had in her body. Mike stopped working to look at her coming close.
"Hi, Mike," Jennifer said ignoring the two girls.
"Hi, Jennifer," Mike answered going back to his work, self-conscious of having stopped.
"Mike, let us go swimming."
"You can see that I am working," Mike said.
"You can work later. The river is nice at this time."
"Jennifer, I have work to do."
"Mike, please. Do not be nasty. Let us go swimming."
"You can go swimming with your cousins."
"I am tired of being with them. They are all little kids. I want to chat with you."
"We can chat during dinner."
"Mike, please. I would be around only a few days."
"When are you leaving?" Mike asked, softening up.
"I do not know. We should make the most of the little time I have."
Mike looked at Kristin. She did not give any indication.
"OK," finally Mike said. "Let us go. I have to get my swimming trunk from my room."
Mike mounted into the cart and they drove away.

After they left, Kristin and Joyce looked at them driving towards the house. They could see the entrance from where they were. They saw Mike getting down. Jennifer also went with him. Kristin looked at Joyce. Joyce lowered her sight.
"Jennifer had gone with Mike to his room," Kristin said without any tone.
"Do you know?" Joyce said. "One of these days Jennifer will get in real trouble with a guy."
"What?" said Kristin surprised. "What do you know about guys?"
"All I need to know," Joyce said, matter-of-fact.
"Hold your horses! You are twelve. Have you done something I do not know?"
"I have not done anything I should regret, Chris, I assure you."
"That is not an answer. Did anybody do anything wrong to you?"
"I am not that stupid, Chris."
"That is not an answer," Kristin repeated.
"No, Chris. Nobody had done anything to me. Nasty things, yes. I did not want to go to camp because several time the got me naked in front of everybody. In school they had done the same. Several kids had tried to convince me to go with them. I always said no."
"Good! Keep it that way!"
They continued working in silence except for some questions or short instructions. Kristin was thinking on what Joyce had said.
These kids need their parents, she was thinking. They cannot grow up with only their teachers and classmates for advise. I have the feeling I will end up being Joyce's mother.
They took a break some time later, about mid afternoon. The work was hard. Kristin was worried that it might be too much for Joyce.
"Chris," said Joyce when they were sitting under the tree. "Are you mad at me because of what I said?"
"No Joyce, I will never get mad at you."
"I did not do anything wrong!"
"I know. When you have any problem, you tell me and I help you."
"Thank you, Chris. You are the only one I can talk to. I tried to talk to my mother and I only got 'I am busy, come back later,' and nothing else."
"Yes, your mother is always very busy. You should have talked to me."
"I thought about that, but you are always so busy that I hated to add my problems."
"I will never be too busy to help you, Joyce. Never forget that."
"And why is it you were not talking to me all afternoon?"
"I do not know, Joyce. I was thinking on what you told me. I should have guessed that you were feeling alone. No, I was not mad at you or anything like that."
"Any way, I should not say what I said about Jennifer."
"Well, you did not say it in public and I will not tell anybody. Do not worry, we are friends and we can talk without any problem. Besides, it is true. One of this days that girl will be in real trouble. Do you feel better?"
"Yes, it is so different with you! Let us go back to work."
"No, Joyce. Wait! I want us to go drive around and have a long talk. The work can wait. I want to be sure that you know all you need to know and that you do not have any taboos or false ideas. Do you want to talk with me, woman to woman?"
"Yes, Chris. That will be good. I have never talked about this with anybody. I am not sure about a lot of things. Many times I get scared that I do not know what I need to know."
"Let us go in the cart and drive around. In that way nobody can hear what we are talking about."
Kristin and Joyce spent the rest of the afternoon talking. They were driving slowly at the edge of the runway and made several full loops around it. Kristin told Joyce all she considered that she needed to know. Then, she started asking many intimate questions. She explained her whatever she did not know or she did not understand. Joyce asked many questions. They were talking with complete intimacy. Joyce trusted Kristin completely and she did not have any reserve with her. Joyce told Kristin all the things that she had bottled up since she was little. They talked about her mother and how much she always missed her support. She always came back to how happy she was now to be able to talk to Kristin. They went to the house only when it was time for dinner. Kristin was feeling good because she knew she had done something very important in the life of her niece. She was also feeling bad, because in the back of her mind was the thought of how much she would had wanted to have a similar talk, instead of learning everything by herself from books.

Kristin and Joyce went to their rooms to take a shower and change for dinner. Kristin was the first to get to the hall. Mike saw her, stopped her and took her to one side.
"Excuse me, Chris," Mike asked in a low voice. "May I ask you something confidential?"
"Yes, of course, what is it?" Kristin was kind of surprised. Mike was acting like he was scared.
"It is about Jennifer. How old is she?" Mike asked softly.
"She is just thirteen. What did she tell you?" Kristin was suspicious. She knew her niece.
"She told me that she is eighteen."
"Really? What else?"
"She told me that she had a driver's license for two years."
"Interesting! Anything else?"
"She told me that she had just graduated from High School."
"How about camp, what she told you?"
"She said that she is going to camp as a Counselor."
"Wow! Did you fall for all that?"
"I do not know. That is why I am asking you."
"I can assure you that she is thirteen. I do not have any reason to lie to you."
"Yes, I know."
"You better be careful with that girl! She has some funny ideas."
"I would say more than funny."
"What do you mean?"
"I do not know if I should tell you."
"Then, do not say anything."
"We were kissing by the river."
"I was suspecting that."
"She wanted more than that."
"Mike, be careful with that girl. She can get you in trouble. She is my Dad's favorite."
"I understand."
"Mike, especially by the river. You can be sure that all the cousins were looking at you two kissing."
"Do you thing so?"
"I will not be surprised, they are the devil in person."
"Wow! Thank you, Chris. Jennifer is so different from Joyce."
"Yes, Joyce is a nice kid. Be careful also with her. She is my favorite."
"I will never do anything to her. I like her very much."
They moved to the dining room and took their places. Jennifer was at Mike's side as every day since she came back from school. They were talking very animated the whole dinner. Kristin spent the dinner chatting with Joyce. The kid had a good stock of interesting stories from school and from camp. To Kristin peace of mind, her Dad called Mike to go with him after dinner.

Chapter 15

Kristin, Joyce and Mike were having breakfast the following morning. They were sitting around the table chatting inconsistencies while they had their breakfast. Suddenly, they heard a commotion all over the house. Kids were screaming in all directions. Adults voices shouted at the top of their lungs. They heard people running one way and the other.
"I guess that means they are leaving for camp today," said Joyce.
"Every year they send them out earlier. They can stand them," said Kristin.
"Well....," Mike said. "They are the devil in person."
"They can be very inventive," corroborated Kristin.
"Inventive for doing bad things," said Joyce.
"The problem comes from not having any relationship with their parents," Kristine added. "They hardly know each other."
A kid with Sam following him, run pass them at the breakfast table. Sam stopped at the sight of Joyce, an easier prey.
"OK," Sam said, "Do not be smart, you come with me." Sam took Joyce by the arm and pulled her towards the door, like a bag of potatoes, without any consideration.
Kristin was faster and put herself squarely in front of them, blocking their exit.
"Sam, Joyce is not leaving for camp. Laura said she is staying with me."
"Oh, that is why Laura is not around to help."
"Probably!"
Sam let go of Joyce and went out of the kitchen. Joyce was rubbing her arm.
"Did he hurt you?" Mike asked.
"He was very rough," Joyce said almost crying.
Mike turned on his chair and took her. He started massaging her arm.
"Feel better?" He asked.
"Yes, thank you."
"Mike," said Kristin when Joyce was sitting. "Please move at the other side of Joyce so we do not have this again. It will take a while before they round up all the kids and I do not want to have this scene again."
"Do you know what they have to do?" Asked Joyce.
"No, what?" Mike said.
"They grab one kid and take it to the bus. They put him or her inside and there is a guard by the door. They have another guard in the back for the emergency door. One year a kid was able to open a window when they had almost everybody in and all got out that way."
"I tell you they are the devil!"
"They should have them on a leash." Joyce said.
"Would you like to be on a leash?" Asked Kristin.
"Me? No way." Joyce said.
"Then do not say that of your cousins."
"You are right, Chris. It was nasty."
"What they should do," Mike said, "is to get them when they are sleeping in bed."
"That is a good idea. I will tell my Dad later," Joyce said.
With Kristin close at one side and Mike close at the other, they could not grab Joyce. Kristin had to explain several times that Joyce was staying with her, with authorization from Joyce's mother. They did not have peace until all Kristin's brothers, their spouses, and most of the maids had received the explanation. In any way, people was running through the kitchen all the time. They finished their breakfast and left without another incident.
When they got to the cart, Kristin took the passenger seat and told Joyce to drive.
"Is Joyce driving?" Mike asked surprised.
"Yes," Kristin said kind of dry.
"I hope she does not drive like Jennifer!" Mike said getting into another cart.
"I am not Jennifer," said Joyce very offended.
"She is quite a good driver," said Kristin.
"I almost have several heart attacks yesterday, while Jennifer was driving. Even over the runway she is able to make it dramatic. We almost overturned getting to the river."
"The day Joyce drives like Jennifer she is no longer my favorite niece."
"Never!" said Joyce.
They drove away.

Kristin, Joyce and Mike continued putting the exterior panels. They clamped the panels in place. When they have enough on them clamped, Kristin checked to be sure they were right. Kristin told the other two to stop placing panels. If she was welding the panels, she could burn one of them. There was no point to take the risk. She told them that it was better if they were sanding the welds as they cooled. Then, she started welding the panels to the structure and to one another. Kristin was very good at welding aluminum. Mike was after her smoothing the welds. Joyce started from the other end. The noise was quite high. Very soon, Joyce proved to be better than Mike and that she was able to keep up with Kristin by herself. Mike said something that was lost in the noise of the sanders and walked to the shop. When they stopped for a midmorning break, the ship was looking more and more like a grain bin. It was kind of funny grain bin, but it was the closest thing on Earth to what the ship looked like. The ship was a cylinder with a flat semi-sphere on top. The work of welding and sanding was hard work. Kristin and Joyce lay under their favorite tree for a while.
"Ready for more?" Kristin asked.
"Yes, I think so," Joyce said without too much enthusiasm.
"Do you prefer that we call Mike and you rest?"
"No, he is busy some place. I can continue."
Kristin and Joyce clamped more panels. Mike was someplace. Kristin continued welding them when they had another block. By the end of the morning they have covered a good part of the ship.
"Wow!" Joyce said. "This is hard work!"
"Yes, it is. You tell me when it is too much for you."
"No, it is not too much if we take a break once in a while."
"Look how much we have done!"
"Wow! We have done a lot!"
"I am thinking that we might be able to finish it this evening."
"Yes, I think we can."
"I want to test it overnight to be sure that there is no leaks."
"How do you test it?"
"When it is closed, we put air pressure, high air pressure."
"How much?"
"We put something like hundred pounds."
"I see."
"We let it all night and measure the pressure next morning."
"If it has not gone down, there is no leak."
"That is right. You are smart!"
"Oh! Cut it out! Let us have lunch."
They walked to the shop for their lunch.
Mike was working in a contraption.
"Ready for a lunch break?" Kristin said entering the shop.
"It seems like a very good time," answered Mike.
Joyce brought the picnic basket they used to carry lunch and distributed its content.
"You are doing pretty good." Mike commented. "That way you will finish this evening."
"I hope so. I was telling Joyce that I want to put pressure and let it sit all night to see if there are any leaks. What were you doing?"
"Something! May I have some of your fuel after lunch?"
"Yes of course. There are several cylinders in my office. How much you need?"
"Oh, a little. But I will need a regulator to fill a small tank at much lower pressure."
"There is a regulator by the tanks."
She was curious, but she did not want to show it. It was too obvious that Mike wanted to make her curious. Joyce was also curious. She looked at the contraption and then at Kristin. She did not say anything.
After they finished their lunch, Kristin helped Mike fill a small tank at a very low pressure. He connected the tank to his contraption and fired the motor. A bank of lights came at the other end of a long cable.
"A generator! That is brilliant," said Kristin.
"Yes, that is something you do not have and you need. I thought of it last night when I was not able to sleep."
"Jennifer abandoned you last night?"
"No, your family had me again talking until late at night, almost morning."
"Poor Jennifer!" Kristin said.
"You will need to take another nap today!" Joyce said.
"I already took it."
"What happens with this contraption now?"
"We let it run to see how much fuel it uses."
"We could compute that!" Kristin said.
"What are you twisting your nose at, smart girl?" Mike said to Joyce.
"Puff, I do not like the smell. If you have that inside the ship, I would look for another one!"
"Do you prefer to be without lights?" asked Mike.
"No, but if I were you, I put a pipe from the exhaust to the outside."
"Joyce, you are a genius. I love you! The outside vacuum solves all the problems I was having!" said Mike, taking Joyce in his arms and lifting her, kissing her in the cheeks and turning her around.
"Put me down!" Said Joyce hitting Mike with her fists. "I do not like these demonstrations! By the way, I come after my aunt!"
"OK, we go to work," said Kristin. "Mike, when you have some time, I will appreciate if you help us clamp the other panels."
"I will be there as soon as I put that exhaust pipe."

Chapter 16

Mike and Joyce worked together to set the panels that were missing. They worked together pretty well. They coordinated their efforts to get results. In the mean time, Kristin was welding those panels that were in place. There was too much noise to talk. By mid-afternoon they had all the panels in place.
"Well....," Mike said. "We finished putting panels."
"You better sand the welds that I have already made," Kristin said.
"I think that we will finish before dinner," Joyce said.
Joyce and Mike started sanding the welds that Kristin had done. They were all very much encouraged by their progress. Kristin finished the welds and took another sander. She could work very hard. Even Mike had trouble following her pace. It was a very tired group that stopped early for dinner.
"Wow!" Joyce said with great satisfaction. "That was the last one."
"You are pretty good sanding, Joyce," Mike said.
"Thank you. Chris told me how to do it."
"Now what?" Mike asked.
"First," Kristin said, "Let us go to the shop and check your generator."
"The generator had stopped," Mike said a little disappointed.
"Not too good," said Joyce.
"And why is that, smart girl?" said Mike smiling at her.
"Hey Mike, do not get mad at Joyce because she makes a comment."
"Sorry if I sounded mad, but I am not. I love her as much as you do. Tell us what you think, Joyce."
"May I? Chris."
"Of course, go ahead and do not be shy. The worst that we can tell you is that you are stupid. We will not say anything worst than that."
"That is bad enough! My point is that you put a little bottle of fuel when you have one big one over there," Joyce said pointing to the bottles of fuel in Kristin's office.
"But that one has a very high pressure," explained Mike.
"So? Put the regulator in between!" Joyce said like nothing.
"You sure are smart!"
"I told you that I get after my aunt."
"Another bright idea?"
"I let you know when I have one," Joyce said smiling at him.
It took a few minutes to install a full tank with the regulator. Mike fired the generator again and the lights came back on.
"Chris, can I spoil his triumph?" said Joyce. She had the malicious smile that she had copied from Kristin.
"What do you have in mind?" Asked Kristin suspicious of her bright niece.
"This," said Joyce and disconnected the bank of lights.
Mike jumped to one side. The generator sped up. Joyce connected the bank of lights back on and the generator got back to normal.
"OK," said Kristin laughing, "Joyce got you, Mike! You need to use the voltage to control the regulator. You do that after dinner if my Dad does not grab you."
It was a very happy group the one who drove to the house. They went to their respective room to take a shower, change and comeback for dinner.
They spent the dinner chatting very animated.
"My ears are still ringing from the sander," Joyce said a moment.
"Mine too," said Mike.
"My ears are ringing from the sander and my arms are tired from the welding," Kristin added.
"The welder does not weight that much," Joyce said.
"No, it is not the weight there. The problem is that you get cramps from holding the welder exactly in place."
"There you have Joyce," Mike said. "That is another one for the list of extraordinary things Chris can do."
"What is that?" Asked Joyce.
"Welding aluminum is not easy. It is quite hard. There are not too many people in the world who can weld aluminum the way Chris does it."
"That cannot be true," Kristin said. "You are good at exaggerating. You have to be careful with this guy, Joyce."
"Chris, I am serious. It is quite hard to find somebody who welds aluminum the way you do it. Most of it is done by robots. Each robot costs a fortune and each one needs an engineer to baby-sit it."
"I believe you," Joyce said. "Chris is a very extraordinary person, as you say."
They finished dinner. All three of them realized that they had become very good friends. They enjoyed very much being together, chatting, working, or whatever they had to do. Kristin's father did not tell anything to Mike as he was leaving the dining room. All three went together to the construction site. They all worked together to get the outside enclosure completed.
"It is ready," Mike said with satisfaction.
"Yes, it is," Kristin concurred. "Let us put a connection for the air compressor."
Mike went to the shop and brought a drill and a piece of pipe for the connection. It had tread at one end and a valve at the other.
"Mike," Kristin said. "We need a T for a meter."
"I will bring it," Joyce said and run to the shop.
"She is a nice girl," Mike said in a low voice to Kristin.
"Yes, she is," Kristin concurred.
Kristin and Mike had made the hole while Joyce was bringing the T. Kristin had a very sensitive meter.
They set up the connection. Kristin put the meter in place.
"We need the air hose," Kristin said. "Mike, set the air pump to hundred and twenty pounds."
"It is ready," Mike said from the shop.
Kristin pumped air into the ship until it got exactly to one hundred and twenty pounds.
"Now," Kristin said with satisfaction, "The idea is to leave it overnight to see if the pressure goes down, indicating a leak."
"The problem will be to find it!" Joyce commented. They will do that test with the internal enclosure and with the space between the enclosures, that will be filled with water as a shield. The regulator was left for another day. They drove to the house. Mike and Joyce were chatting when they went to the carts. Joyce drove to the house with Mike. Kristin got first to the house. She left the cart plugged to the charger and went inside. She was tired and wanted to take a shower and sleep. Mike and Joyce were slow in getting to the house.

Chapter 17

The following morning, Kristin was the first to get to the kitchen. She was nervous about her vehicle and had not been able to sleep. She had been turning on her bed not knowing what was bothering her. She served her breakfast and started eating it. She had finished her breakfast and neither Joyce not Mike had come. She decided to drive to the construction site ahead of them. She was in the hall, when she saw them coming.
"Hi, Chris," Mike said. "You are early today."
"Hi, Chris," Joyce said.
"I was not able to sleep and got up early. I already had breakfast. I am going ahead of you. You come when you are ready."
"Good, we go as fast as we can," Mike said.
"Mike, let Joyce drive. She need the practice."
"OK, see you later."
Kristin took a cart and was driving slowly as she liked. She walked to the vehicle. She had trouble concentrating in looking at the meter. It took a few seconds for the number on the meter to register in her mind. To her delight, the meter still showed exactly one hundred and twenty pounds.
"I want to see if this is right," said Kristin aloud to herself.
She opened the valve letting a very small puff of air out. She was very encouraged when the meter showed a slight drop in pressure. She will repeat this test at critical points in the building procedure. Satisfied, Kristin opened the valve to release the air pressure. She went to the shop and brought a piece of chalk to mark the location of the opening for the air lock. When she finished marking the airlock, Mike and Joyce came in their cart.
"Hi," Joyce said with a happy voice. "Did you check the meter?"
"Yes, it was perfect. There are no leaks."
"That is good news," Mike said.
"What do we do now?" Asked Joyce.
"I just marked the opening for the airlock. We need to cut the opening."
"I can do that," Mike said.
He went to the shop for the right tool. He had the cut almost ready when Sam drove to ask him if he could come to the office. Mike looked at Kristin.
"Of course, Mike. We can continue."
Mike left with Sam.
"What we need to do now?" Joyce asked.
"We need to sand this even."
"Let me get the sander," Joyce said.
"Bring two," Kristin said as Joyce was leaving.
They spent some time sanding the edges to make them smooth. There was too much noise to talk. With the opening for the airlock ready, they started getting the interior panels inside. Joyce was standing at the airlock opening and Kristin was bringing the panels to her. While Kristin got the next panels, Joyce arranged the ones she had in the inside of the ship. Kristin and Joyce had a hard time passing the panels through the air lock. By midmorning they stopped.
"We have done this all wrong!" Joyce said.
"Why do you said that?" Kristin asked.
"Now you will get mad at me, Chris," said Joyce sitting by the tree.
"I will never get mad because of a honest criticism."
"My idea is that we have done this all wrong," said Joyce. "We spent all morning passing panels through the airlock and we have not finished it yet!"
"Yes, what is wrong with that?"
"What you should have done, Chris, is put first the bottom panels, both outside and inside."
"The bottom panels? I do not follow you."
"When they were welded in place, we should have put all the interior panels inside the structure."
"Now I get it. It would have been a lot easier when everything was open."
"Yes, that my idea. Then, you could have closed, first the inside and then the outside."
"That is a very good idea Joyce," said Kristin. "Please, go to John and tell him. He has to build several modules for my Dad and that will save him a lot of work."
"See," said Joyce. "I have a good idea and get punished because of it!"
"We tell him later," Kristin said.
"I was kidding, Chris. I better go now before I forget."
Joyce came back.
"John said that it is very good idea," Joyce said.
Kristin did not say anything.
"Chris, I was thinking on something else we did wrong."
"What?"
"Why did you made the cover with panels?"
"What do you mean? Each panel matches the hole in the structure. They are welded to the structure."
"It would be a lot easier if you use a long aluminum sheet and wrap it around, in one piece."
"Yes, you are right. We could weld to the frame from the inside."
"It will save a lot of welding," Joyce said. "Let me tell John."
"Wow! I feel happy!" Joyce said when she came back.
"Why is that?" Kristin could not control herself asking.
"Can we talk, Chris?"
"Yes, of course. I told you that you can talk to me wherever you need me."
"It is not that I need your help, really. It is that I am happy and I want to share it with you."
"That is a very nice thought. You know that when you share a sorrow, you divide it. When you share a happiness you multiply it."
"Yes, I have learned that. Very few people understand that when you share a happiness you do not loose anything. You are not giving away anything."
"That is true, Joyce. One time I read something I like very much. Sharing happiness is like when you have a fire on the beach. Somebody comes and you let him light a stick in your fire. You do not loose anything. You give something to the other person."
"Yes, that is a good analogy," Joyce said.
Kristin did not say anything. She waited for Joyce to talk.
"Last night when we came back, you went alone in one cart and Mike and I went in another."
"You were chatting very animated," Kristin said.
"Yes, we were chatting all the way to the house."
"Is that why you are happy?"
"No, I am really happy because you let me stay here. Life is very dull for me, Chris, whether at school or at camp. Now, I feel that I am alive, talking, doing something useful, using my brains. This is why I am happy."
"I am very happy to hear that."
"Chris, I wanted you to know. Do you mind that I told you all this?"
"No, Joyce. As you said, you were happy and now I am also happy because of you."
"I am hungry!" Joyce said.
"We have been talking a long time. Let us have lunch," Kristin said.

Kristin and Joyce worked that afternoon. They clamped most of the panel of the interior surface. Kristin spent that afternoon and the following day welding the panels. They worked very hard that day and all the rest of the week. They worked very well together. Very seldom they needed to ask or give instructions. It was almost as they understood each other without talking. Mike was with them as much as he could.
Although they got much done, the results were not as dramatic as when they were building the structure that went up so fast. There were many little details to take care of. There were instruments to connect. Sealing the pipes with the wires coming from the sensors outside was quite a problem, but they neared completion at a very fast pace. Mike installed the motor and its controls. He was called quite often to the office to solve problems for the family.
Mike and Joyce convinced Kristin to add a window to the vehicle. The window was in the bridge, in front of the controls. They worked all day to cut the two shells, make the window and weld it in place. During the afternoon break, with the window ready, Kristin had to admit that it was a good idea to have it, even with all the work it took to make it.

Chapter 18

Kristin made a point of stopping work for dinner. Every day they stopped with time to go to their rooms, take a shower, change and get ready for dinner. That not only gave them a much-deserved rest, but it permitted them to hear what the others were doing and to show their faces at the dinner table. She enjoyed the simple act of being served. One evening just before dinner, Peter and Laura approached Kristin.
"Brat," said Peter, "we want to thank you for what you are doing with Joyce."
"I am very happy you let her stay," said Kristin. She did not know what they were talking about.
"She has changed so much. She is so mature that she is hard to recognize," said Laura.
"Well," said Kristin, "it is more than being mature. She is very smart."
"Yes, she is," Peter said.
"I have lost count of how many times she has come up with a bright idea that solved a problem."
"Is that so?" Laura asked.
"I tell you I am very happy to have her helping me."
"She is very happy helping you. She said you taught her how to drive."
"Yes, and she is a very good driver, very careful and safe."
"So, you are a good teacher."
"She wants me to ask you something. It is the matter of her school. She feels very lonely at school with the way the kids treat her, especially in the dormitory."
"She mentioned something about that," Laura said.
"She wants to transfer to the school in town, so she can live here. That will give me a chance to help her in her school work."
"Do you know? I have been thinking the same thing," said Laura. "I think that it will be good to have her around."
"That is the idea."
"When she comes for dinner is like a breath of fresh air. Would you take care of registering her in school? We could make you her guardian."
"Good! I will be happy to. I also hope you do not mind that I offered her to take her in my space ship as a reward for all she has been helping me."
"I do not have any objection, brat...." Peter said. "We better start getting used not to call you brat because you are no longer a brat. The problem is that I do not remember your name."
"My name is Kristin, but everybody calls me Chris."
"Well Chris, I will remember. Thanks again for what you are doing with Joyce."
When Kristin told Joyce of this conversation she did not find words to express her pleasure. She hesitated for some time trying to find her words.
"You are the best aunt in the whole world!" She finally said very enthusiastically.
Only then Kristin noticed that Peter and Laura had changed the place where they usually sat at the table. Now they were always sitting close to them at the dinner table, at the other side of Joyce. Most of the time, they were talking with her and Kristin more than with the others.
Well, Kristin thought. Things are changing for the better!

Kristin, Joyce and Mike worked very hard all the following week. The work that was missing was the little details that take a lot of work and do not show anything when completed. They kept a log of what they were doing. By the end of the week, the job was to check that they have installed everything that needed to be installed and that they have connected everything to the right place. They spent two days checking everything. After that, Kristin decreed that they would take the following day off, to rest. It looked funny to Kristin that she was the boss of the operation. That Joyce obeyed her was no surprise, but Mike also obeyed her without a word.
The following day after breakfast, they went to the river and spent the morning swimming, talking, telling jokes, fooling around, or simply relaxing. By lunchtime they realized it was too much rest when they have the tests of the vehicle coming up. Kristin finally relented and they spent the afternoon discussing how they will test the vehicle.
Mike wanted to test the vehicle himself. Joyce also wanted to be in the vehicle while testing. Kristin was inflexible on the idea that she will test the vehicle herself.
"Look you guys," Kristin said. "I have designed that vehicle. It is true that you, Mike, checked my design. You have to accept that the responsibility is still mine. Just because you checked it, you cannot assume responsibility for the design. If anything goes wrong, it would be my fault. I cannot accept that you take a risk for something that is my responsibility. This is not a matter of sentimentalism."
"Chris," Joyce said in a low voice. "Why do you think that something will go wrong."
"That is not what I said. I do not expect anything going wrong. If something goes wrong, it will be my fault."
"Chris," Mike said. "I do not think that anything will go wrong."
"Again, that is not the point, Mike."
"Chris, I would want to be with you in the vehicle," said Joyce. "I understand that doing it will increase your problems. I accept what you say."
"Chris," Mike added. "I also understand your point of view. I will do the way you want."
"Mike and you Joyce, I want you to be on the ground, well out of the way."
"Good," Joyce said. "What do you want us to do."
"I want Mike with a video camera taping everything and Joyce will be in charge of an audio recorder, describing everything you see."
"Well, we can do that," Joyce said.
"Remember that there will also be cameras inside the vehicle recording everything I do," Kristin said.
"Chris, it would be good to talk about what you will do."
"Of course. My idea is to fire the engine at a very low power. I expect that it will not lift."
"It make sense," Joyce said.
"Then, I will increase the power until the vehicle starts to hover over the pad."
"I agree," Mike said. "I would suggest you hold it for a few moments."
"Yes, that is my plan. Then, I will sit the vehicle back on the pad."
"Do you plan to do it only once?" Asked Joyce.
"No, I will try again after a short rest. The second time, I will use the lateral jets to move the vehicle a few inches above the ground, over the airstrip and out over the grass area."
"Yes," Joyce said. "I agree with that."
"I want to see how the controls respond and how the jets drive the vehicle. I also want to see how the altimeter responded over the grass. I will do several maneuvers of going back and forth and come back to the landing pad to test how ease is to maneuver the vehicle."
"All that looks good," Joyce said.
"I agree totally," Mike said.
"Then I will land."
"Chris," Mike said. "I think you have the right idea for a ground test. We do not have sophisticated equipment for a ground test. What you think is very good."
"I agree with him, Chris. I think that in that way you can have an idea of how the vehicle responds without taking risks. If the controls are not right, you can simply land."
"Yes, that is what I think."
"Chris, I thing that after you land, I will check the motor thoroughly to be sure it is working without a fault."
"Yes, that is my idea." Kristin said.
"I was thinking the same thing," Joyce concurred.
"Joyce and I will check all the rest of the vehicle for any fault," Kristin said.
"If everything goes well, then what?" Asked Joyce.
"If everything is well and after a break, I would take the vehicle up again and apply more power, enough to produce acceleration equal to twice the Earth gravity. This will take me up, above the atmosphere, in a few minutes."
"That is the scary part," Joyce said.
"No Joyce," Mike said. "Remember that at that moment we know that the controls work properly as well as the motor."
"That is true."
"When I am up, I will hover there. Using the lateral jets and the main motor, I will see how the ship responds. Then, I will come down under power and land on the pad."
"I agree," Mike said. "Again, I will test the motor and you and Joyce will test the entire vehicle very carefully for any damage."
"I am happy we all agree," Kristin said. "If everything goes well, the three of us will go up again to look at Earth from above and whatever else you want to do."
"That is the reward for all the hard work!" Joyce said smiling.
It took most of the afternoon for them to agree on the protocol for testing the ship and to write it down as a series of steps. After another swim and some rest, they spent the rest of the afternoon developing the checklists for pre-launch and after landing procedures. They went for dinner satisfied of the work done and rested for next day's work. After dinner, Kristin said that she wanted to lay down in bed and try to sleep early, to be ready for tomorrow. She really wanted to be alone.

The following morning they were up before dawn. They had a big laugh when they all met at the kitchen. All said they were not able to sleep with the excitement of today's tests. They had breakfast and prepared double set of sandwiches to have two breaks in the morning. In very good spirits, they left for the pad. Before entering the ship to start the pre-launch test, Kristin gave Joyce an envelope.
"I do not plan on anything bad happening today," she said. "I do not like to leave things to chance. If anything happens to me you open that envelope and read the instructions."
"Do not talk like that, Chris," said Joyce. "Nothing will happen to you."
"Yes, I hope so. I prefer to be safe."
They had agreed the previous day that Kristin would be at the controls and that Mike and Joyce will be on the ground at some distance from the ship. Mike prepared the video camera to record the whole test and Joyce prepared the tape recorder to dictate a description of what she saw.
They went through the pre-launch check up. Kristin went through the first testing procedure as planned. She started the motor at very low power. The vehicle did not lift. She increased the power and the vehicle lifted a few inches. That was exactly what she expected. She waited for a few minutes and then she reduced the power so the vehicle sat on the pad. The second part of the test they have planned called for lifting the vehicle a few inches from the ground and move it one way and another. Kristin did not have any problem controlling the vehicle and performing all the maneuvers she tried. She did not try any fancy maneuvers, but only to move one way and another. When she stopped for the first check, Mike did not find anything wrong with the motor. Kristin and Joyce checked the rest of the vehicle without finding anything wrong. They applied pressure to the vehicle to check if the vibration had loosened up any weld. They used the time of the pressure test to have some rest.
They did not talk too much. They were too excited by the test to spend energy talking. The pressure test showed no leaks. Kristin went through the second set of tests with the same results. She lifted the vehicle above the atmosphere. She tried all the controls to be sure the vehicle responded to her commands. She did not have any problem with her maneuvers. Satisfied, she returned under power and landed in what she considered the normal fashion for the vehicle. They took a break to have a snack. While they were having a snack, they performed another pressure test. Then they went through the complete check of the ship. It took them some time to be sure there were no faults in the vehicle. Mike checked again the motor and its controls. Kristin and Joyce checked all the rest of the vehicle.

Chapter 19

Kristin was very much encouraged by the tests she had performed. She was sure now that the controls she designed for the ship worked the way she expected. She was satisfied that she was able to control the ship and that the ship will do as she commanded. This simple fact had a more profound consequence: her design of the ship was sound. The propulsion system she had developed worked. The whole unit was exactly as she wanted it to be. Kristin felt a surge of pride as she was descending from the upper reaches of the atmosphere with her vehicle. She had never felt so proud of herself before. All her previous achievements paled in comparison with this one. She landed. She took a few deep breaths. She put her head on the control deck and closed her eyes. She felt slowly returning to her normal self. She opened the airlock and went down.
Joyce and Mike looked at her.
"How it went?" Asked Joyce in a low voice that she used now very seldom.
"Well, as I expected," Kristin said with modesty. Her inner self wanted to shout I did it! She controlled herself.
"Good," Joyce said. "We need to check everything again."
"Of course," Kristin answered. "I am hungry. Let us do the pressure test first while we have a bite to eat."
Mike applied air pressure to the ship. Joyce went to the shop for the lunch they had prepared and distributed it to them. They sat in the shadow of their favorite tree.
"How it was looking from above?" Mike asked.
Kristin looked at him. She smiled.
"I do not know," she said very low. "I did not look!"
"You did not look outside?" Joyce said surprised.
"I did not. I was so engrossed in testing the vehicle that I did not think on anything else."
"How the vehicle responded?" Asked Mike.
"It responded exactly as I expected."
"So, there is no problem."
"No, I do not think we have any problem."
"Are we all going up as you said before?" Asked Joyce.
"Yes," Kristin said absently. "We check everything and we go up."
"Chris," Mike said. "I thought you were hungry. You did not touch your sandwich."
"Oh! What?" Kristin asked absently.
"You said that you were hungry, but you had not touched your sandwich," Mike repeated.
Kristin looked at the sandwich in her hand. She did not say anything.
"Chris, is there something wrong?" Mike insisted.
"No, no," Kristin said.
"Chris," Joyce said hard, shaking her from the shoulders. "What happens to you?"
"I do not think you understand," Kristin said with tears flowing from her eyes. "I designed that propulsion system. I designed that vehicle. I built the motor. You help me building the vehicle. It works! I have just finished High School!"
"Chris," Mike said. "You got mad at me several times when I said that you are extraordinary. You have just proved that you are."
"Oh! Shut up!" Kristin said recovering her normal composure.
"That is the first thing you told me when I came here," Mike said laughing.
The two girls joined him in the laugh.

They finished their lunch and tested again the vehicle. They found it in perfect conditions. With much confidence, Kristin, Joyce and Mike embarked in the ship. Mike and Joyce had helped building the ship. They looked around as if they had never seen it. They walked the lower compartment, touching everything. They went to the bridge and did the same. They looked at every instrument, at every computer screen. Joyce sat on the control chair and moved around.
"Come on, you guys," Kristin said. "Do you want to go up or play around here all day?"
Joyce went and sat on one of the seats of the bridge. Mike came and sat by her.
"We are ready," Joyce said. "Do we need to strap or something?"
"Joyce, you are acting silly," Kristin said. "You know that you will not feel anything! You can stand by the window, if you wish."
"OK, let us go, then," Joyce answered, going to the side of the control, looking out of the window.
Kristin sat at the controls, started the motor, gave it power and went slowly up, until she was above the atmosphere. As soon as they were a few thousand feet over the ground, they started to admire the panorama.
"You know, this pays for all the hard work," said Joyce. "This is beautiful!"
"Yes it is!" said Mike. "And you are right, Joyce. It was worth all the work your aunt made us do, to see this view once."
"So, why are you complaining?" said Kristin.
"I am not complaining," said Joyce.
"I told you that when I was here testing I did not see anything!" said Kristin. "Let us go higher to see how Earth looks from further up."
As they went higher, the Moon, that was at the other side of Earth, became visible.
"Look," said Joyce. "There is the Moon. Can we go to the Moon?"
"Are you ready? It will take us almost three hours each way."
"We just had lunch," Joyce said. "We have another lunch in the basket."
"We should have checked where the Moon was before leaving," said Mike.
"Well," said Kristin. "We were not planning to go to the Moon!"
"Chris," said Mike. "I think that you should accelerate further so we can feel what happens at higher than normal acceleration."
"OK, here we go," said Kristin. "We need to go around Earth to avoid entering the atmosphere again."
The high acceleration created a higher weight, but the sensation was not too bad. The travel time to the Moon did not change that much with the higher acceleration.
As they went around Earth, Joyce was full of excitement looking at the continents.
"Look," she said. "There is England! Just like in a map! Look at Europe, it is beautiful! There is India, and Japan!"
The comments continued until they were high enough that the different features got blurred. Then, she turned her attention to the sky.
"Look, the sky is so dark! There is Orion. I thought we cannot see Orion during the summer."
"Consider that we are quite high now," said Mike. "We do not see Orion during the summer because it is close to the Sun. The light of the Sun does not let you see it. Here we do not have anything to disperse the light of the Sun."
"This is really pretty," responded Joyce. "I can look all day at the sky like this. The Pleiades are so clear! Look, there is Jupiter! There is Sirius!"
The bulk of the ship covered the Moon. Now the Sun was visible and illuminating the interior of the ship. Mike turned the lights off.
"Look at the bridge," he said. "The part where the Sun shines is bright and the rest is dark."
"What is wrong with that," said Joyce. "The same thing happens on Earth."
"No, Joyce," Mike answered. "When we were on Earth all the bridge was illuminated even when the Sun was not shining inside."
"How can that be?"
"Because of the atmosphere. The air on Earth scatters the light of the Sun and you get light from many directions. Here we are getting light only directly from the Sun and nothing scatters it."
"Yes," Joyce argued. "But I can see those instruments there that are in the shadow."
"That is because the parts that are illuminated by the Sun reflect some light."
"OK," interrupted Kristin. "We are getting to the Moon. You better pay attention."
"Where is the Man on the Moon?" Asked Joyce.
"The Man on the Moon is really formed by some of the dark areas. I do not think that we can see it from this close."
"Look, there is the Copernicus crater," Joyce started again, "and there is the Tycho crater."
"That flat areas would be interesting for your family," said Mike.
"Why is it that the flat areas are called maria?" asked Joyce.
"Maria means ocean in Latin," answered Kristin.
"But that is not an ocean," said Joyce.
"The first astronomers, who worked only with their eyes, thought that the dark areas were oceans," explained Mike.
"Everybody knows that there is no water on the Moon," said Joyce.
"Yes, now everybody knows that. In the time of the Greeks and Egyptians, there were no telescopes," added Mike.
"I know," said Joyce, "but water will be blue or transparent, not dark."
"Let me tell you," said Mike, "that a moment ago you asked for the Man on the Moon."
"Look," said Joyce to change the topic of conversation, "there is the Ptolomeus crater."
"We should have brought a map of the Moon," said Kristin.
"We should have a map of the Moon and of Mars in this vehicle," added Mike. "We are going to need them."
"We should also have an atlas of the stars," added Joyce.
They were all in high spirits. The three of them were very happy. Kristin was happy because of her success. They were chatting happily as they did when they were working. They went around the Moon several times. They went down and hovered to get a close look at all the craters whose name Joyce remembered. They hovered over the side that is not visible from Earth. They had a special sensation of seeing something other people does not see. Finally, with a concerned effort, they returned to Earth. They were really exhilarated with all they had seen in their short trip. On the way back they had lunch while they went over all the things that they had seen. They got to Earth by late afternoon. Getting back to the responsibilities of the vehicle, they checked every system on the ship and found everything in perfect order. When they were ready to go home to rest, Kristin asked Joyce for the envelope she gave her in the morning.
"What did you do with the envelope I gave you this morning?" She asked.
"I left it in your office in the shop," said Joyce.
"Joyce," she said, "put that envelope in a safe place. Probably, it would be better if you give it to your Dad to put it in his safe. Tell him what it is."
"Would you tell me what did you put there?"
"If you need to know."
"Yes, I would want to know."
"It is a document that give you everything I have, if something happens to me before I get married. I asked the lawyers to write it."
"Why did you do that?"
"Joyce, you are my favorite niece. More than that, you are my friend, my only friend. If something happens to me, I want to you to have what is mine."
"I do not want to have something because something happens to you."
"Joyce, I understand. It makes me happy to know that if something happens to me, you will enjoy the little that I have. It is not that I want something to happen to me. You know that I am very careful. We do not have control on our lives. Please, keep that envelop and give it to Peter."
"I will do it because you say so."

That evening they were having dinner. Kristin, Mike and Joyce were sitting together like everyday. When the dinner ended, as they were getting up, Kristin called the attention of her family.
"Mother, Dad," she said. "My ship is ready. We have tested it completely. Today we went to the Moon and looked around. We are ready to work. It would be good if we can have a meeting to see what you want to do."
"Let us do it now," answered her mother.
"Joyce," said Kristin, "you come with us."
"Why?" asked her mother. She did not like too much that Kristin insisted that Joyce be present.
"Joyce is a member of our team," said Kristin. "She will come with us, she is very smart and we need her input."
Finally, the family relented and they went to work. Over the years, Kristin had accumulated an impressive collection of pictures and maps of the Moon, many of them with high resolution. She had most of the pictures that were released from the Ranger, Orbiter and Surveyor missions, as well as from the Apollo missions.
"Here you have all the material I have collected over the years," she said.
"We can use these pictures and maps to select the site for our operations," said her father.
"I think this would be a good place to put our installations," said Peter. "It is relatively flat and with a good view."
"I consider that we should claim all this area," said her mother extending her hands over a large area of the picture.
"Grandma," Joyce said. "If you move this way," she said pointing, "you will have these craters over the horizon. They will give a nice view and you can make excursion there. The area you have marked is too flat."
Kristin's mother looked at her. Kristin held her breath waiting for her mother's reaction.
"You are very smart," Mrs. Smith said. "That is a good idea."
She turned to Kristin.
"I see why you wanted her here with you. I approve!"
Peter and Laura had big smiles in their faces.
"Do you see what you have done with our little girl?" Peter told Kristin.
They marked their tentative main site of interest and the area of their claim.
"We plan to go back tomorrow," said Kristin.
"We will take pictures and movies of everything we see," said Joyce. "In this way you can select the place that you want."
"We meet tomorrow evening to see the movies Kristin will take," said her father. "Do not limit yourselves to exactly what we had marked. Take movies of all similar areas you could find."
When the meeting ended, Kristin, Joyce and Mike went to the kitchen.
"Are you satisfied?" Mike asked Kristin.
"Yes, I am. I liked very much what mother said about Joyce."
"Yes, they had accepted her," Mike said. "Peter and Laura were very happy."
"I noticed that," Kristin said. "So, Joyce. They had accepted you as an adult. At your age they did not know my name."
"They do now," Joyce said.
"My suggestion is that we go to bed early and we get up early tomorrow."
"At what time?" Joyce asked.
"Let us get up at six. We meet here when you are ready, say six thirty. In that way we have all day to fool around on the Moon."
"I like that," Joyce said. "If we finish early, we can always look around other places."
"That is my idea," Kristin said. "Have a good night, kids."
"Good night, boss," Mike said.
"Good night, Chris," Joyce said.

The following morning all three met about six thirty in the kitchen. They prepared some lunch and went to the ship. They checked everything to be sure they did not forget something important. Kristin will use the camera she had at the end of the arm. Mike had his camera and a good number of rolls of film. He also had his digital camera and the cable to connect it to the ship computer. Kristin was arranging the sandwiches in one corner.
"There is something I did not consider in the design of the ship," Kristin said.
"What is that?" Asked Joyce.
"A refrigerator for the food. We will need food if we will be driving around!"
"Yes, you are right," Mike said. "Do you want me to get the one you have in your office?"
"That is a good idea. We get another one for my office. Bring the refrigerator with all the drinks that are there."
Mike got the refrigerator and installed it in the right place.
"I am sure you will find many other things you want to have." Mike said.
"Yes, I hope it is not something vital and we find it when we are on the Moon."
"Chris," Joyce said. "During this trip I will be thinking of what other things I will want to have with me. I am just thinking about my books."
"Hold your horses!" Kristin said. "You will not bring your books here. We will not be able to lift!"
"I am not talking about my paper books," Joyce said laughing. "I am talking about the ones I have in the computer. I can also bring some games, if we get bored."
Kristin shoot a look at Joyce, but she did not say anything.
"Joyce, before you get bored, let me tell you how you can control the arm and take movies. Mike, it would be good if you also learn. I want you two guys being able to drive this ship as good as me."
"That will be wise," Joyce said.
Kristin went through the procedure for moving the arm and how they could get rocks or things into the airlock. The camera was a digital movie camera that sent the data to a computer. The computer showed the picture on its screen. By pressing a key, the movie was stored in the computer memory.
"Chris, you are smart designing everything," Joyce could not control herself from saying. "Everything is so easy to work with."
"I do not see why it should be harder that necessary."
"Did you write those programs?" Mike asked.
"Yes, I have been writing programs since I was little."
"They are good!"
"Are we ready to go?" Kristin asked.

They were ready. They had checked all the systems and the supplies of fuel, air, water and food. Kristin took the controls and lifted the ship. She was explaining them what she was doing and why. Slowly she went above the atmosphere. When she was high enough and noticed that the gravity was diminishing, she increased the output of the motor to compensate. She made them notice what she was doing. Very smoothly she changed from Earth gravity to the pseudo gravity produced by the trust. They were in their way to the Moon. The trip was without incident, which made it very monotonous. They all had the impression that the trip was taking longer to reach the Moon that the first time. The excitement of the first trip had worn out although they enjoyed all the views.
"OK, crew," said Kristin as they were getting close to the Moon. "We have work to do."
"Joyce," said Mike. "Please, take the camera on the arm and make as many movies as you can. I will take pictures."
"OK," said Joyce. "It is easier to throw away a bad movie rather than not having a good one."
"Joyce," said Kristin. "You never get a bad movie. You are pretty good at that!"
They spent several hours surveying the area of interest for the family. They flew at low altitude and very slow to see at much detail as possible. They took a number of movies at different altitudes and from the ground. They covered the whole area in detail.
"OK," said Kristin. "I think we have enough detail of this area. Let us look for other areas."
They surveyed the whole part of the Moon that is visible from Earth, looking for other possible sites.
"Kristin," said Joyce. "I think that we have covered every possible area. The only thing we have not covered are the places that are full of craters."
"I do not think your family will want to settle in the area of the craters," said Mike. "From what I have talked with them, they want an area that is somewhat flat, but close to the craters. They plan to make excursions to the craters for the tourists."
"Can you think of anything else we can do?" Asked Kristin.
"No, we have covered as much as we can," said Joyce.
"Back home, then!" Said Kristin.
The trip home again felt as if was longer than the first time. They had eaten their lunch on the Moon. They were mostly quiet during the trip. They landed and checked the vehicle. Following the habit John made for her when she was little, Kristin put everything in order in the ship, took the garbage they had made with their lunch bags and bottles, and she looked around to be sure the ship was clean and neat. Satisfied, she went down and closed the airlock. Joyce and Mike had gone ahead to the house. Kristin gave the movies and pictures to her Dad. It took several days for them to select the site for the buildings. There was no urgency because the buildings were not yet ready.


Kristin decided to put the wait to good use. It was not in her nature to sit and wait. That was why she hated television. She wanted to do things. She was debating between going traveling or start building the drone she wanted for her. Traveling won.
"Look, you guys," she said in a conversation after dinner with Mike and Joyce. "Let us do something useful with our time. Let us go back to the Moon tomorrow. I wish to get a place for myself. I am thinking of getting there all the equipment that produces the fuel."
"That equipment works without any problem," said Joyce. "All you need is the solar panels."
"What I think is important," added Mike, "is to get that equipment away from curious eyes."
"More than curious eyes," said Joyce. "I am always afraid that somebody will brake into the shop to steal or sabotage it."
"Chris," said Mike, "I agree with Joyce. When we start flying, somebody might want to steal or sabotage the equipment. I suggest you also take to the Moon all your papers and your computations."
"Good idea!" said Kristin.
Kristin had calculated that a very large telescope could detect the modules. She did not want to be detected. Mike has checked the computations and found them correct.
"From the calculations you showed me the other day," said Mike, "it is possible for a large telescope to see the buildings. They can get pictures with enough definition to show that they are not natural."
"That is why I want to put my equipment in the side of the Moon that is not visible from here," Kristin said.
"OK," said Joyce. "Let us get up early tomorrow and do all you want to do."
The following day they went early in the morning back to the Moon. They visited several additional sites to build a base of their own. The manufacturing of the fuel was completely automatic. Their idea was to transfer it to the Moon to make it safer. She wanted to avoid some possible break-in for sabotage or to steal the machine. She wanted also to transfer there all her papers and information into a safe box. She would visit her site when returning from every trip to maintain a good stock of fuel in her vehicle and some in the shop. She selected a site on the face of the Moon that is not visible from Earth.

Kristin had ordered all the parts for an additional module. Now she had credit and did not need to ask her father for authorization. The parts started to arrive soon. The three of them started construction of the module. This time, following the comments Joyce made when they were building the vehicle, they planned together the order of the construction. They also had a long talk with John before starting the construction. Although the module was larger, the construction went much faster than when they built the vehicle. It was true that the module did not have any instrumentation to speak off. They installed all the equipment for the manufacture of the fuel, the solar panels and the batteries that will be charged during the lunar day to last for the lunar night. They arranged living quarters for all of them. They could use them in an emergency or simply when they wanted to take a rest by themselves, something like a private vacation spot. They also arranged office space. When they finished, they had a good place where they could stop any time when at the Moon.
By the time the family had decided where they wanted the installations and had determined were they wanted to mark the boundaries of their claim, the module was ready for transport. This made Kristin very happy because she wanted to be sure of how to clamp to the module and, more important, how to unhook it on the Moon. She wanted to see with her own module, how difficult it was to find a place to settle it on the Moon.
The following day they went back to the Moon carrying Kristin's module.
"Chris," said Mike before they started, "I was thinking that it would be good if Joyce and I start in the module while you accelerate."
"That is a good idea," concurred Joyce. "The module is connected to the vehicle through the air lock. We will experience the effect of acceleration and vibration."
"That is a good idea," concurred Kristin.
"After launch, we move back to the ship," said Joyce.
Joyce and Mike spent the whole launch in the module. They returned to the ship only when they were well above the atmosphere and in their way to the Moon. They reported that the launch had been smoother than what you usually feel in an airplane.
"I tell you that it was smooth," said Joyce.
"You do not need to worry about the passenger," said Mike. "It was very good."

They got to the Moon. Kristin had a very smooth control of the vehicle. They went to the far side of the moon and started to look at the craters. Kristin wanted to find one of the right size, so the module was protected. At the same time, the floor of the crater should be smooth enough so she could locate the module without having to remove a lot of materials. They found a perfect crater. It was of the right size and smooth. Locating the module on the surface of the Moon proved easier than they had expected.
"This is a good place for my claim," said Kristin. "I like this little crater because it is protected from curious eyes."
"We can put flags all around the crater," said Mike. "I would make it larger than exactly the crater, in case later you want more area."
"The camera on the arm has proved to be very useful," said Joyce. "We can look at the place in detail and find where to sit the module even and stable."
"Do you know?" Mike said. "Working with this module proves that using a smaller module for your yacht is a good idea."
"The module is sitting and ready to leave it alone," said Joyce. "What now?"
"We need to check," said Kristin, "that the machine that produces the fuel is in good order and that the solar panels are working properly."
"OK," Mike said, "Let me do that."
He came back to the vehicle and reported everything working properly.
"Do you know?" Joyce said. "It was a good idea to paint the roof of the module the same color of the Moon. I bet that a satellite or anything flying above it will not see it."
"That was the purpose. A metal detector of some sorts will detect it. I am not worry about that."
"We are ready here," said Mike. "Shall we go to the area where the family wants their claim?"
"We might as well," said Joyce. "Let me help you suit up, Mike."
They went down while Kristin unlocked the vehicle and pull it out of the hole of the doughnut without any problem. Once above, she started in the direction of the family claim.
"Mike, are you ready?" She called when they were close to the claim.
"Ready!" He answered.
"Get out and plant the stakes all around the perimeter of the claim. Let me find first the four corners."
Mike was suited up and in the airlock. He traveled from point to point in the airlock, without restoring the pressure, to save air. Kristin found the four corners and Mike planted stakes at each point. The stakes were bright red with a small metallic flag. They were quite visible.
Joyce had come back up and was taking a movie of the whole operation. Since the area was almost flat, the four corners were visible from every point.
"Chris," Mike called from the airlock over the suit radio. "Do you think we need more stakes? They are all visible."
"Mike, do you mind planting some more? I would say some five on each side of the square."
"As you say, boss!" Mike said,
"I told you that I am not the boss," Kristin answered laughing.
"Hey, boss," Mike said. "I think that it is easier if I walk."
"Any way you want. I am a very nice boss!" Kristin said.
Kristin finally landed on the area where the first module was to be sitting and Mike removed all boulders and rocks that were on its way.
"Joyce," asked Kristin, "have you documented everything?"
"Yes, boss. I am sure that anybody can locate the flags with this movie. Tell Grandpa to make several copies."
"Good idea," said Kristin. "You always think on everything. Will you two stop that thing of the boss?"
"As you say, boss," both Joyce and Mike said in turn.
It was late afternoon when they returned to Earth with movies of all the stakes they have placed, their alignment, pictures and movies of the area that had been cleared. They gave all the material to her Dad and went to take a shower and dress for dinner.

Chapter 20

The following morning they were having a late breakfast. They were talking about what to do with their day. They were debating between going back to the Moon to look for the Apollo landing sites, or take the jump to Mars.
"I think that the Apollo landing were all fake," Joyce said.
"I think that the first ones were fake," Mike said. "The later ones might have been true."
"Why are you fighting about that," Kristin said. "We have the means to go and see if they were true."
At that moment, Kristin's father came to the kitchen.
"Good, you are still here," he said.
"Good morning, Dad."
"Good morning, Grandpa."
"Good morning, Mr. Smith."
"Good morning to all," Mr. Smith answered. "Mike, I am sorry to come like this, but I just had a call from one of our contractors and they have a problem. This can hold us for weeks. Can you help us this morning?"
Mike looked at Kristin.
"OK, Mike." Kristin said. "We can go to the Moon later! It is going to be there when we want! I have to register Joyce in her school anyway. We can do that while you work with Dad."
"Good," said Mr. Smith. "I am sorry to change your plans, but this seems to be important. I appreciate your cooperation."
They finished breakfast. Mike went to the office. Kristin and Joyce took a car and drove into town.
"What do we have to do?" Asked Joyce as they were driving.
"It is a matter of registering you. I already asked your old school to send your transcripts. They should not be any problem."
"Will they send all my grades?"
"Yes, of course. You will continue in the same standard you were there. You had pretty good grades."
"I will not want to loose that."
"What will happen is that the teachers will want to see if the good grades you have are real, or are consequence of your dad having money."
"Yes. That is one thing I hated in that school. The kids are measured by how much money the family has."
"You will not have that here. If you have it, is in the opposite direction. It is a drawback that your family has money."
"Is this the school?" Joyce asked as Kristin was parking the car.
"Yes, this is it."
Kristin was not prepared for what they found. Kristin parked the car. When they were leaving it, Kristin saw one of her teachers.
"Good morning Mrs. Woodroof," she said out of habit.
Mrs. Woodroof turned around and saw Kristin.
"Kristin, how marvelous to see you!" she said embracing her. "How are you? What are you doing?"
"I am very well, thank you. This is my niece Joyce. I am here to register her in school."
"Did you get into the University?"
"Yes, I have been accepted into Astronautical Engineering. I cannot start until next year because of my age. That is why I am working with my family."
That was only the first time she had the same experience. They walked together into the building. Mrs. Woodroof did not want to get away from her. Every one of her teachers who saw her, stopped to greet her. Everyone wanted to know how she was and what she was doing. She had to repeat the same story so many times that she started shorting it. Many teachers embraced her.
Getting to the office did not stop the demonstrations of affection. The Principal came out of his office when he knew she was there.
"Kristin, how nice to see you!" he said.
Many of her teachers, listening to the noise, came to investigate. They joined the demonstrations of affection for Kristin. Every one wanted to know how she was and what she was doing.
"I came to register my niece Joyce," Kristin told the secretary.
"We already got her transcripts," one of them said. "I already have all the papers. You only need to set the courses."
The office secretaries were also very cooperative. They greeted her with as much affection as the teachers.
Kristin registered Joyce in the middle of salutations and explanations. It took her more than two hours to perform something that should have taken them ten minutes. When they finally got to the car, Joyce fell into the seat, exhausted.
"Wow!" she said. "I never expected something like this! Was it like this every time you came to school?"
"No, of course not. I normally said good morning and the teachers always made a point to answer me. When I met one of them on the street, like today, we walked together for a while. I never expected something like this!"
"The way the Principal put it, you are now not only an alumni, but a famous one. You were the best of your class. They made you the Valedictorian."
"Like the Principal also said, you have a tough act to follow!"
"You can be sure that I will do my best not to disappoint you. I cannot promise you anything else."
"No, you can only do your best. Let us go home, kid, I am starved!"

They drove home in silence. They left the car in the garage and walked the short distance home. They went directly to the kitchen and had some lunch.

Chapter 21

It took four more weeks to finish the three buildings that Kristin's father was building. They had all kind of problems. The problems were not in the buildings that Kristin had designed. The buildings were ready in less than a week because John put enough people to build them. The problems were with the installations the Smiths wanted in them. When the buildings were finally ready, Kristin's father came looking for Mike. He was with Kristin and Joyce in the library making plans.
"Mike," he said. "Only now somebody came to realize that we need to get equipment to circulate the air and the water."
"I know," he said. "We also need to provide for power. I was talking with Peter about this a couple of days ago."
"What can we do?" asked Mr. Smith.
"We need to design that equipment. The one Kristin uses is too expensive for a permanent installation. It was designed for the ship where weight is more important than cost."
"What do you need?"
"I only need some time," said Mike. "I have all the basic ideas worked out since that conversation with Peter."
Mike went with Mr. Smith to the office they had made for him. He had there all the material he need to the design of the units. He spent the rest of the day working there. The following day Mike had all the specifications for the equipment ready and they were sent to the contractors. The units were delivered in a few days. The design Mike was done used standard, off the shelf, parts so there would not be a delay in building the units. He helped with the testing of the units when they were delivered. Immediately after they were accepted, they were installed in the buildings. All this kept Mike on Earth while the two girls were having a great time exploring.

Kristin and Joyce were exploring the Moon while Mike was working with Mr. Smith. They visited the sites of all the Lunar missions that they had found records of. Joyce was pretty good at finding and collecting information. She knew how to search the Internet and find thing nobody could find. She was also good at organizing the information she found, in a way that it was immediately useful. Kristin and Joyce were very well organized and understood each other to perfection. They worked together very well, it was as if they were a single person with two bodies. They took one mission at a time. With the information that Joyce had collected, they made plans on how to preserve records of the way they found the site, what they will remove and what they will leave in place. They planned and took very detailed movies of the sites as they found them. Kristin flew around the site several times while Joyce was taking movies of the site. Since the movies were digital, they checked that they showed all the details they wanted to have. When they were sure they had records of the site as it was, they collected as much as they could of the material the particular mission they were studying left on the Moon. They did not disturb any of the instruments left by the unmanned missions. Every trip they returned with the storage space full. Every small piece was clearly catalogued and marked. Large pieces of equipment came attached to the hooks outside the vehicle. They also carried rocks and soil to make the exhibit more realistic. They carried all that material to town to the site where the family was building the Lunar Museum. Mr. Smith had a meeting with the President of the University and with several of the professors. They have formed a group that was receiving all the materials, organizing them and preparing the different exhibits of all the material collected by Kristin. The basic idea was to have one exhibit for each one of the probes Kristin collected.

The buildings were finally ready. All the equipment had been installed and tested. The personnel has been installed in their quarters and instructed of their duties. Kristin moved the buildings to the Moon, one each day. Mike and Joyce went with her. Each building had a definite location in the complex, that was marked clearly in the map they carried with them. Mr. Smith had a copy of the map in his office. As each building was carried to the Moon and positioned in its place, the proper notations were made on the maps. All the distances to the buildings already in place were taken and recorded. Mike and Joyce used their free time taking movies of whatever they saw, especially after landing. They spent some time taking movies of the normal life of the people on the Moon. People working, eating, children playing, workers putting their space suits, working outside, and everything they saw interesting. The basic idea with which they were working, was to document as clearly as possible all the activities. They wanted to have a record of all they did and of the normal life of the people on the Moon. These records will be invaluable later for the Museum, for the propaganda and for presentations to prospective clients and tourists.

Kristin conferred with her father about the possibility that he might need Mike. The three partners had determined that it was time for their second goal, Mars. Kristin's father assured her that he will not need Mike. He was also very interested in them visiting Mars. He asked Kristin to get as much information as she could for a possible expansion of the business into Mars. He asked her to try to see possible places where they could put a hotel for tourists. Very excited, Kristin, Joyce and Mike got up early one day and they went for the first time to Mars. They had prepared the ship the previous afternoon. They had enough food and supplies for a much longer trip than what they planned. The trip itself was quite long, compared with the trips to the Moon. The trips to the Moon took about two hours, depending on where the Moon was at the moment they left. The trip to Mars took them more than a day. The basic reason why they considered so long was that they had expected something different. It was similar to the short trip between the Earth and the Moon, only of a longer duration. The only minor novelty they had was the opportunity of seeing the stars from the depth of space, but they could also see the stars when going to the Moon. That was one of the few entertainment they had during the trip. They had a good set of star charts so they were able to identify them as they went. They also have some chance to see the planets. Since they did not have a telescope, they were kind of disappointed. They made up their minds that they needed to get a telescope for the ship.

Most of the trip Kristin was at the controls. She preferred to be at the controls as much as possible. For one side, she enjoyed the feel of power of controlling the ship. Only during the middle of the trip Kristin left Mike at the controls. She took a few hours of sleep. Mike and Joyce seemed to be in very good terms and enjoying the trip as much as they could.
It took them over a day to reach Mars. They were not disappointed of what they found when they got there. They went around first, looking at a general view of Mars. Then they started working in detail. Very soon Joyce was identifying places she had memorized from the maps of the surface of Mars. Mike and Kristin started to laugh at her.
"Look," she said. "There is Olympus Mons, Mons means mountain. That is the highest mountain in the whole solar system."
"How do you know there is not something higher in Uranus?" asked Mike, teasing her.
"Because they know," she said. "There was one of those satellites that went close to Uranus and there is no such a mountain."
"This one does not look too high," said Kristin teasing, to make Joyce give more facts.
"The Olympus Mons is seventy eight thousand feet high."
"Wow!" said Mike. "That is high! That is almost fifteen miles!"
"Look," said Joyce a moment later. "That is the Valles Marineris. That means the Valley of the Sailors."
"You are making up those equivalent names," Kristin said teasing her.
"No, it is true. Valles Marineris is more than four thousand kilometers long. That is more than twenty five hundred miles."
"That is a big scar on the surface," commented Mike. "It could go half way across the United States."
"There is the Hellar Planitia," explained Joyce a moment later. "Planitia means plane but this is really a crater. You can see from this high. It is huge."
"Yes," Mike said. "It looks at least a mile across."
"It is six kilometers deep and two thousand kilometers in diameter," Joyce explained. "That is a lot more than a mile. Things in Mars seem to be huge!"
"There is the Cydonia Mensae," Joyce said later. "It is not that huge but it is very interesting. Let us go down."
"Yes, walking encyclopedia," said Kristin. "It is interesting because all the noise that have been made about those mounds."
"Well," added Mike. "Most of the controversy was because NASA did not want to release photos from that area. They took thousand and thousands of pictures of the whole surface of Mars but they never released anything important from this area."
"Yes," added Joyce. "You are right. All the pictures they released were so funny, they did not show anything. I am really curious to see what they were hiding here."
"There is no doubt in my mind that many of the mounds are not natural," said Mike while they hovered over the area. "Look at that one over there, that cannot be natural!"
"The Face on Mars is very impressive," said Kristin.
"We better take lots of movies and pictures of the whole area," said Joyce.
"That is your job," said Mike.
"Why my job?" complained Joyce.
"Because you take the best pictures and movies of any of us," said Kristin. "That is why."
"OK. If you put it that way, I cannot complain."
Later, they went again around looking at other places of interest.
"It is a shame we have not found much information about the probes the Americans and the Russians sent to Mars," Mike said. "Joyce found only very vague references to the places where the American and Russian probes had crashed."
It was the attentive Joyce who located one of the lost probes.
"OK," she said. "There is one, whatever that is."
"Take movies of the probe as it is on the ground," said Mike. "It is not too difficult to secure it to one of the clamps."
They spent some time taking movies from different angles. When they were sure that the movies were good, then took the remains of the probe with the arm and attached it with one of the hooks. Then, their were able to see the marks that identified it as a Russian probe. They were not able to find any of the others. They also collected some rocks that looked interesting. After a short look at Phobos and Deymos, they returned full of interesting things and with the desire to return for further explorations, with better equipment.
Again, the return trip was kind of monotonous. Mike and Joyce went down to take a nap.
"Hey you guys," complained Kristin. "What would you do is I fall asleep while you are down?"
"Chris," said Mike. "You are too good to fall asleep at the controls. We trust that you would call us before that."
"OK, you wise guy, you take the controls and I take a nap," said Kristin. "Joyce, you be sure he does not fall asleep."

Chapter 22

Kristin calculations proved correct. She had computed that a large observatory could detect the modules on the surface of the Moon. Mike had checked the computations and found them correct. Joyce commented that she was crazy.
"Kristin," Mike said. "There is something that you are not considering in these computations."
"You just said that the computations are correct."
"Kristin, a set of computations is correct or not in a given context. You have assumed that a large astronomical observatory is looking at the particular location of your family's settlement. Under those conditions, your computations are correct."
"So, what are you complaining about?"
"What Joyce was saying, is that your basic assumption is not correct. All the large astronomical observatories are busy doing more important things that looking at the Moon."
"Chris," Joyce said. "The large astronomical observatories are looking at very far galaxies, or dark matter, or for the last funny thing some astronomer invented. The Moon had been studied for so long that all is known."
"Well," Kristin said. "You convince me. It seems we have little to worry about being discovered."
"Chris," Joyce insisted. "There is something else. I really do not understand why you are concerned about somebody seeing the modules. What would be the problem?"
"Joyce, you are being naive," Kristin said. "Can you imagine what happens if somebody finds the modules ahead of time?"
"What do you mean ahead of time."
"My Dad is preparing a campaign to let people know they are on the Moon, slowly and easy. They plan to start with articles about how nice it would be if it would be possible to do this and that. As people get used to the idea, then he plans to announce that there is a hotel on the Moon when you can do this and that."
"That makes sense," Mike inserted.
"Can you imagine what happens if somebody sees the modules before he starts that campaign?"
"Well, yes. I can imagine the heading on the tabloids!"
"I can imagine the television guys going crazy!" Mike added.
"Well," Kristin said. "That was my concern. You have given peace of mind with what you said."
They had been talking in the library, as it has become their custom. After finishing breakfast, the three of them went to the library to make plans for the day or the week, as it was the case.
"Well," Kristin said. "How about getting back to our plans."
"Do you know if your dad has something for us to haul?"
"Yes, that was what I was trying to tell you when we started talking about the modules. He need us to carry a load of materials."
"How do you plan to do that?" Asked Joyce.
"That is what I wanted to discuss with you guys. We need to build another module for our use."
"I agree," Joyce said. "I was thinking on something else why we talked about the modules. When this is in the open, we will have people wanting to go to the Moon. I do not mean grandpa's tourists. I mean other people who wants to make colonies."
"Yes, I thought about that," Kristin said. "They would want to go and visit, see how it is and where they can make a claim."
"Chris," Mike said. "What holds you from ordering materials for another module. We have all the money we got from transporting your father's modules."
"Mike, I do not know if you remember the day you came. Do you remember that meeting we had with the family? I got you in all this mess without asking you before."
"I never complained!"
"That is not the point. I do not want to make the same mistake again. I like to learn from my mistakes, not repeat them. Now I have to consider also Joyce. That is why I am asking you if you agree to get materials for another module and build it."
"I agree," Joyce said.
"I also agree," Mike said. "There is something else you are not considering Chris."
"What is that?"
"Now that you are working, you have enough money to hire workers the way John does it. You do not need to do it yourself. You supervise the work."
"That is a good idea! I am too used to be alone, do what I want but do it myself without any help. I better talk with John!"
"I agree with Mike that it is the proper way to proceed," Joyce concurred.

Kristin and her pals forgot the conversation of the morning. Not long after the modules were transported to the Moon, what they had been talking that morning happened. The interesting point was that it was an amateur astronomer, with a small telescope, who first discovered signs of the modules. Amateur astronomers enjoy taking pictures of the Moon in what is called the terminator, that is, close to the line between light and dark. The craters have spectacular details under those conditions. A lonely amateur was working with his telescope one night doing just that. He spotted the lights from the modules and the workers in what it was for them the end of the lunar night. He took a number of pictures. He could see changes in the lights. He went to his home and alerted a large observatory. As Kristin had feared, the Internet exploded with comments of all kinds about those lights. The Newsgroups of the Internet had hundreds of messages every hour discussing one idea or the other. Many new groups were formed the same day only to discuss the discovery. They discussed theories from volcanism to alien invasion. What impressed them the most was that the lights were many and moving around the area. That gave support to the idea of alien invasion. The tabloids first and the television stations not much after them, exploded with headlines about the alien invasion. There were immediate calls for sending nuclear bombs to destroy the invader without waiting further.
To complicate more the situation, a few days later the area was under light. The astronomical observatories were able to obtain impressive pictures of the modules, close to the limit of the resolution, but clearly visible, because of the shadows of the lunar early morning. The Internet exploded anew with stories of alien invasion and UFO's on the Moon. There were more calls to send nuclear weapons to destroy the invaders. There was close to hysteria about the matter. People stopped unknown persons on the street to talk about the aliens and dropping nuclear bombs on them. It seemed as if a large number of persons were sitting in front of their computers, connected to the Internet. As soon as a new post was made, a large number of answers were posted. It was clear that very few of them read the post. It seemed, as everybody was interested in posting their own ideas, without paying any attention to what the others said. The tabloids picked it up and the following day all television stations were showing pictures of the UFO's on the Moon. All television stations stopped their regular programming to include specials about the aliens on the Moon. These specials included interviews with astronomers from every University or Observatory. The amateur astronomer who discovered the lights became an immediate media celebrity. The poor guy had no time to eat or sleep. He was taken from one interview to another, from coast to coast. During the plane trips he was being interviewed by television reporters. Practically every NASA official and most of the employees were interviewed and asked for their opinions about the aliens on the Moon. Very few people stopped to consider what was really known and the basis used by those who expressed opinions. As it normally happens in this kind of situations, the more stupid an idea and the less logical it was, the more the television reporters loved and expanded it. In the span of a few hours, the situation had developed past any reasonable hope of understanding anything.
Kristin's father could not handle the rumors. He spent most of the day in the house walking from one place to the other. There were several television sets in the house passing the news. He walked from one to the other. He finally exploded. He called his office in town and started giving orders. Kristin, Joyce and Mike were with him, ready to help. Kristin's father called a press conference for the following day in the downtown offices of the Company. The news media were only told that they would have a complete explanation to the features detected on the Moon. Kristin made him see that the office was too small for that purpose. Mr. Smith make several phone calls and secured the auditorium of the university, which was large enough in his idea.
"Dad," Kristin suggested. "I think that you should give orders to build a barrier between the reporters and the podium. If not, you might be in trouble."
"That is a good idea," said her father. He talked on the phone he had in his hand passing the idea to somebody.
"Grandpa," Joyce suggested. "Let me suggest that they hire enough guards to keep order. From the way the news is going, that will be a mess."
"Good idea, kid," Mr. Smith said and passed the idea to his helper.
"Dad," Kristin said. "You better go to rest. We will prepare material for the presentation. Tomorrow early I will have a sketch for you."
"Good," her father said. "I am finding out how much you are worth, brat. You are a super organizer."
"Mike, Joyce," Kristin said when her father left to rest. "We have work to do."
Kristin, Mike and Joyce worked all night preparing materials for the presentation. They had to sort the hundreds of movies and thousands of pictures they had made. They needed to select those that were meaningful for the public.
"Kids," Kristin said, not loosing her sense of humor under pressure. "We cannot use all this material this way."
"I am thinking of making a movie with whatever we select," Joyce said.
"Good idea! You give that movie to Dad to pass it at the right time."
Mike and Joyce worked in the movie that will show the important details, in a way that they could be digested by the public. Kristin worked making a sketch of the presentation from her father.
"I am thinking on something else," Kristin said a few hours later. "We have to give something to the reporters."
"Yes," Mike said. "They will expect that."
"Chris," Joyce inserted. "There will be hundreds of reporters. We cannot give each of them this material! We do not have time to make so many copies."
"Chris," Mike said. "Put it on the Internet."
"Good idea! I make a site right now where we put all this material and some propaganda of our own. At the end of the presentation, Dad can tell the reporters to go there and pick what they want."
Kristin prepared a web site with all the material and she will put it on-line during the presentation. She gave her father a description of the web site, so he could include it in his talk.

At the appointed time the conference room was full. The conference room of the university, that they had been very happy to provide for Mr. Smith presentation, was a large, rectangular room with large, high windows in the two long sides. These windows provided very good illumination at that time of the day. At one of the short sides, there were doors that occupied the whole width of the side. The idea was that these doors permitted the evacuation of the room in a few seconds, in the case of an emergency. On top of the doors, there was a projection booth. At the other end of the room, there was a dais almost the whole width of the room. Two service doors were, one at each side of the dais. A six-foot high metal fence had been installed in front of the dais. Six very massive guards in uniform were in front of the fence. On top of the dais, there was a projection screen. There were some chairs on the dais and a podium.
Since early in the morning, reporters and technicians had been in the room installing equipment. Well before the appointed time, the room was full of certified reporters of the local newspapers, television and radio stations. There were also many reporters from out of town newspapers and television stations as well as networks from all over the world. It was hard to imagine how they all had known of the meeting and had come with equipment, in such a short time. The television cameras were lining the two long walls. There was no room for a single additional person either sitting or standing. Peter, standing behind the fence was estimating hundreds of television cameras in the room. A large number of reporters were outside the room, all the way to the street.

Exactly on time, Kristin's father appeared at the podium. He was dressed with a very conservative dark suit, as he normally dressed. He was received with many murmurs because he was not a known public figure. Many reporters were talking with their neighbors trying to find out who was the person at the podium. There was big expectation in the room. The atmosphere was tense with all reporters eager to know what he had to say. Mr. Smith waited patiently. When the murmurs subsided, he started in a calm and clear voice, very much like Kristin's voice.
"Good morning. Thank you very much to all of you to come to this meeting. Most of you do not know me. I am Thomas Smith, President of Smith and Sons. We are a company that operates here, in this town. Let me explain why I asked you to come here today. I asked you to come here today to tell you that we have staked a claim on the Moon..."
The noise that followed his announcement covered whatever he said after that. He had really dropped a bomb in the middle of the meeting. It was the topic that was in everybody's mind. Everybody was shouting at the same time. They waved hands and notebooks. Most of the reporters were standing on the chairs. The noise was deafening. In view of the disturbance, Mr. Smith calmly left the podium and left the room. Peter was at the podium trying to calm down the reporters. He lifted his arms from time to time, trying to say something that nobody heard. It took more than fifteen minutes for people to calm down and hear what he was trying to say. Really, what happened was that everybody was so excited that they did not have energies left to make more noise. The barrier was a very good idea and the guards were also needed. Several reporters were forcible prevented from climbing the barrier. When the noise subsided and he could be heard, Mr. Smith came back into the room and went back calmly to the podium. He waited purposely even after there was complete silence. He had some sense of the dramatic.
"If everybody talks at the same time, nobody hears anybody," he said in his calm and powerful voice. "Since this is my place, I will talk first. If there is any more demonstrations like the one you just made, I stop talking and you will not know what I have to tell you. When I have finished, I will give you time to ask questions. Save your questions for then. If anybody does not like these rules, he or she can leave the room. Is this clear?"
He waited until the murmurs had subsided again. Nobody left the room. The silence now was very hard, total. Mr. Smith then continued with the same clear and calm voice. He paused after each statement to let it sink on his audience. He understood that his words and his figure was being transmitted all over the world.
"Let me start again. I am Tom Smith, President of Smith and Sons. My company had made a claim on the surface of the Moon and we have established a colony. The artifacts that have been detected are our buildings. The lights that have been seen are from our buildings and our people working. In a moment I will show you movies and pictures. You will see that our buildings look from here like flying saucers. In reality, our buildings look like doughnuts."
"Let me state before going further, that we have not claimed the whole Moon. That would not make any sense. When a person makes a claim, he should be ready to use it, he should be ready to develop it, he should be ready to build houses and installations. Claiming the whole Moon will not make sense, in this regard. We have only staked a small claim where we are developing a colony. At this moment there are more than two hundred and fifty persons, some hundred families, living and working there. They are preparing the installations for the ones who will shortly follow. Our purpose is to expand the colony until it is totally self-supporting. This expansion will consist of a hotel where people can spend a vacation or a honeymoon. A honeymoon on the Moon sounds rather romantic!"
There were many laughs. There were like a release of the tension. Quite fast, everybody was again in silence. When the laughs died, Mr. Smith continued.
"Our plans also call for establishing many industries. For one thing, we plan to use the high vacuum that naturally exists on the Moon for industries that can use it to advantage. Let me recall the fact that there are no winds on the Moon. An industry that requires a high vacuum can obtain it at no cost. There are many other industries that can be established on the Moon. One of the activities of our Company is exploration. We will be exploring the Moon for resources. It is known that there are certain materials on the Moon that can be valuable and needed here on Earth."
"We understand that we are opening the Moon for colonization with our activities. I mention before that we have not claimed the whole Moon. We do not wish to establish a monopoly. On the contrary, we wish to help those persons who might want to go to the Moon and establish a colony. For that reason, another of our activities is transport. We are open for business with anybody who wants to establish himself or his company, on the Moon. Let me state without any doubt, that we are not a colonizing company. We are not like the Colonizing Companies that were formed in Europe when America was discovered. We will not be selling sites on the Moon. It is up to the individual to stake a claim and develop it. We only provide transport. We will be working in this transport totally open and without any preference to anybody. We will work strictly in the first come first served basis, as in any business."
"Well...., I think I have given you a general idea of the situation. You see that we are not aliens invading Earth. We are people from Earth following the tradition of our pioneers, opening another frontier for colonization. Earth needs room for expansion." Kristin had given a lot of thought to these closing remarks. "Now, let me show you some of the movies my daughter has taken of the Moon. After that, I will give you a chance for asking questions."
He started showing Joyce's movie. It showed the installations on the Moon, people having dinner, people working in space suits, one of the modules landing, views of the Earth and the Lunar landscape. All Joyce's hard work taking the movies was paying off. She and Mike had made a beautiful movie. It was exactly what was need in that conference. Mr. Smith described each picture or scene as it was presented. The room was in silence, watching the movie. When they ended, he showed some still pictures to easy the reporters into a more comfortable situation to ask questions.
"Now, if you have any questions, I would be very glad to answer them. Please, maintain some order," Mr. Smith said closing his presentation.
The silence on the room was complete. Even the television anchors, which usually breathe while talking, were silent. After the initial demonstration, it seemed as nobody found his or her tongs. They were looking at each other, to see who was the first that came up with a question. Finally, a man on the first row lifted his hand. He was recognized.
"Yes, sir?" Mr. Smith said courteously.
"May I ask you who has given you authorization to make a claim on the Moon?" he said.
"Nobody has authorized me because we do not need any authorization under international law. There is more, there is nobody in a position to issue such authorization. Recall that when the Europeans came to America they claimed the land they wanted. America was inhabited at the time but that did not stop them. They simply displaced the inhabitants of the land they wanted, using their power. The Moon is not inhabited, consequently anybody has the right to go and claim a piece of land. We are not claiming the whole Moon, as I said before. We had made only a small claim. The basic consideration here is possession. We have been on the Moon for more than a month and we plan to stay there."
The man did not ask any other question. He was taking notes in a notebook. After some silence, a young woman in a middle row lifted her hand.
"Yes, miss" said Mr. Smith. "Do you have a question?"
"Yes," she said. "Can you give us more information on your plans for the future?" she said in a clear voice.
"Yes, of course. My daughter, my granddaughter and Dr. Michael Cook have been exploring the Moon. By the way, they are the ones who took the buildings to the Moon."
"Are they Astronauts?" asked the girl.
"No," Mr. Smith continued, "they are Explorers. As I said, they have been exploring the Moon and they visited the sites where the different lunar missions landed. My daughter has been taking movies in all detail of the sites. She wants to have a record of how she found the sites. They left several instruments and quite a lot of junk. My daughter did not disturb the instruments, of course. She has been removing the junk and bringing it here. You cannot believe what they left! Even a complete vehicle! They also located the crash site of one of the Russian probes and they brought it here. She also brought rocks to show the configuration of the surface of the Moon. Dr. Wilson, of our University, has agreed to organize all that material and he is preparing an exhibition, which will open next month. In that Lunar Museum you will have all this material organized in exhibits. You will also have a large number of movies and pictures that my daughter has taken in her explorations."
"Will you limit your explorations to the Moon?" asked a man in a middle row.
"No," Mr. Smith continued. "Our next step is to form a colony on Mars, and my daughter, my granddaughter and Dr. Cook have already been exploring there to find a good site. They are eager explorers. My daughter told me that you would want to see this picture she took while she was there. It is part of a movie she took of the most important features of Mars. There has been quite a lot of controversy about this Martian feature. She is sure that this picture will settle the matter."
Over the total silence of the room, a picture of the Face on Mars appeared on the screen. There were many Oh's and Ah's as those present recognized what they were seeing.
"You can see that this picture has been taken from an angle and at low altitude. It is clear that it is not one of the old pictures doctored to show what we wanted. This picture has been taken not too far from the feature. This picture shows clearly the features of the Face in a way that could not be construed as a natural formation. It is a very close up picture from an angle. Mars's weather has damaged the features, like the Sphinx in Egypt shows the effect of centuries of weather."
After some more Oh's and Ah's, a woman in a back row lifted a hand.
"Can we have copies of that picture?" she asked without waiting to be invited to talk.
"Yes, of course," said Mr. Smith. "That is what I was going to mention. We are not hiding anything. You can find copies of this picture and all the movies I showed you today as well as many more, in our web page. My daughter is at this moment activating the web page. You are welcome to visit it and to take and publish whatever you want, as long as you do not distort the meaning of the photos and movies and you quote the source. You can find the web page at www.smithsons.com. Any more questions?"
Since there were none, he left the podium and the reporters filed out. Peter, seeing the reporters leaving in calm and the technicians disassembling their equipment, could not fail to compare with the tumult at the beginning of the presentation. All the family had been watching the proceeding over the television. They were all quite satisfied with the results.
"I liked the way you handled the Astronaut question!" Kristin commented when her Dad got home.
"That is the way you told me to do it," he said.
"What is your impression?" Asked Joyce that was not shy anymore.
"Well....," Mr. Smith said thinking. "The first thing that comes to my mind is the you two girls are superb. You did a great job preparing the presentation."
"Mike helped us," Joyce said.
"Yes, of course. Mike had been a great help since he came here."
"Did you like the movie Joyce made?" Kristin asked.
"Yes, it was very good. Exactly what we needed."
"I am happy that you are satisfied," Kristin said.
"How about having some lunch," her father said.
They all went to the kitchen for some lunch.

Chapter 23

The excitement of the meeting died very slowly. The following day practically every paper in the world carried front page stories about the meeting. Many had Mr. Smith picture on the front, some of them called him The New Pioneer. The television stations had spent the afternoon and evening with bulletins presenting different parts of the meeting. The following day they continued with reruns of those bulletins. In the house, there was excitement. Everybody was commenting about the meeting. There were many expectations about what consequences the announcement will have. Peter expected a flood of request for transport to the Moon. Sam expected a flood of requests for employment in the Moon. Laura considered that it will take time for things to start heating up. Suzanne was more practical. She was asking about who will be in charge of the operations in the Moon. She liked that position for her husband. Kristin and Joyce were very popular with questions about what they had seen on the Moon and on Mars. Kristin and Joyce were really basking on the glory of the moment. It was a new experience for both of them. Kristin got many congratulations from brothers and in-laws about the presentation. She always mentioned that Joyce and Mike had done all the work.

Early the following day, there was a phone call for Mike in the middle of all the excitement. It took a while to find Mike because he was working with Mr. Smith, and Sarah did not know where they were. When he was finally found he was told of the call. The message said to call very urgent a Dr. Jones at his University. Mike explained that Dr. Jones was a Professor of Anthropology at his University and a good friend of his. They had worked together several times, he explained. He had designed several devices for him. He called as soon as he could.
"George, it is me, Mike. I just got notice of your call. What are you up to?"
"Nothing much. Last night I was watching the news on TV. I got the news about that crazy thing that the papers have been making of UFO's on the Moon. They passed most of the conference of yesterday. I hear a Dr. Michael Cook mentioned in that report. Was it you?"
"Yes, it was me and I do not see what you call crazy. I was not involved in any crazy thing!"
"Sorry, I said that it was crazy the way the newspapers and television twisted everything until that press conference of yesterday. Is it true that you have been on Mars?"
"Yes, it is. Why?"
"But how it is that you are here now?"
"It does not take too long to go to Mars and back, the way we do it."
"Well, you will have to tell me about that some time. Do you plan to go back to Mars?"
"Yes, I am sure we will go there soon enough, why?"
"Mike, I want to talk with you. I have a piece of equipment that I want you to take to Mars if you go there again, and get some samples. After the picture you showed last night, I think it is important."
"OK, let me think. Are you staying at the University for a few more minutes?"
"Yes, at least for a couple of hours. I still have a lot to do here."
"OK, let me talk with the people here and I call you as soon as possible."
"If you take more than two hours, call me at home."
"OK. Bye, George."
"Bye Mike. I wait for your call."

Mike looked for Kristin and explained her the problem. They went to the office and talked with Sarah. In ten minutes they had everything organized. Mike called back Dr. Jones from Sarah's office.
"George, its Mike again."
"Hi, what did you find?"
"Are you ready to come with your piece of equipment? We can send a plane to pick you up right now. We can bring you back as soon as you want."
"Mike, if you send the plane right now, I can be at the airport before it arrives. The problem is that I need to be here. I have too many things to do. I cannot come in the plane."
"No problem! I can come with the plane. Meet me at the airport with your unit. You can explain me how to operate your gadget inside the plane to avoid curious eyes. See you in a while."
"OK. I will be at the airport with my unit."
Mike was getting used to the way this family operated. He went in the plane and met with Dr. Jones at the airport. They had a long talk about the unit, what it did, how to operate it and what Dr. Jones expected them to find. Mike was very interested. In the fly back he read the operating manual from end to end. He even opened the box to see the unit and its controls. That night after dinner, Mike was showing Kristin and Joyce the unit. Kristin and Joyce had read the instructions of how to set and operate the unit. It was a scanner of sorts that sent sound waves through the ground and listened for the reflections. It had a very sophisticated computer and computer program on board. From those reflections it made something like a three-dimensional drawing of the underground. They installed the unit behind the house because they were curious to see it working. When they tried it, they saw the pipes running close by and an old well from the time that area was a farm. Satisfied that they knew how to use the unit, they packed it back in its case.
"What is it that your friend expects to find with this?" asked Kristin.
"I do not know. He said something about caves and underground formations."
"Caves?" Asked Joyce.
"He was very excited after seen the picture of the Face on Mars we showed yesterday."
"Why was that?" Joyce asked again.
"He hopes we will find some structures like ruins or something like that."
"Wow!" said Joyce. "I am interested! This is really exciting! When can we leave?"
"Nothing holds us here," said Kristin. "We can leave tomorrow. Dad said that he will not do anything until things calm down. Let us get food and supplies and load the ship. Then let us get a good night sleep."

Early the following morning they left for Mars. traveling by themselves and without load, they did not have any problem increasing the acceleration. What if they weighted twice their normal weight! With such a long trip, the higher acceleration cut the travel time enough to justify it. This was especially true with the interest of using the equipment from Dr. Jones. Kristin was at the controls practically the whole day. Mike and Joyce were sleeping most of the time, saying that they needed to be fresh for all the work they have when they got to Mars. Kristin only rested for a couple of hours at the middle of the trip, when she got Mike to drive. Early the following day they were landing on Mars. They had not talked about where they were going to land to use the equipment. They landed on the Cydonia Mensae and everybody expected it. It was the logical area to try the equipment.
Kristin was tired but could not wait to rest. They all suited up. Nobody wanted to miss the first trial. They went outside and installed the instrument in a flat surface not too close to where they had landed, but within the area of the mounds. They had to dig a hole for the probe and pack the dirt so it would work properly. The first trial did not show them anything interesting. With some disappointment, they stored the file and returned to the ship.
They had breakfast. Mike and Kristin were looking at the maps of the area, making plans about what they could do to get better results. Joyce was looking intently at the graph of the first test.
"What do you want to bet that Joyce has found something?" Mike told Kristin in a low voice.
"Come and see," Joyce said. She had overheard them.
They were all around the computer.
"What are these traces here?" Joyce said.
"I do not know, rocks probably," said Mike.
"I do not think so," said Kristin, thinking. "If I was on Earth, I would say that they are bones."
"Bones?" said Mike. "You must be dreaming! You did not sleep anything during the trip!"
"OK, let us go out again and get another sample in that direction," Kristin proposed.
"What distance is that from where we took the sample?" asked Mike.
"I would say is about ninety or hundred feet," said Joyce.
"Let us take another sample at hundred feet from the other one," proposed Mike.
"OK, that is a good idea," Kristin concurred.
They suited up again and took the equipment outside. They measured the location where they wanted the second sample. They installed the equipment in that location. They took a sample. While they were looking at the small display in the unit, they saw that it showed Kristin correct. There was no doubt that there were bones underground, about some ten feet under the surface. There was a large area that showed bones under the surface.
"I am not digging," said Mike.
"Me neither, but if I were you, I take a sample all around this area until we get tired," said Joyce.
"And tomorrow we cover as much terrain as we can," said Kristin.
"Look," said Mike. "This thing seems to see a little over hundred feet around. If we take a sample every hundred feet, they will overlap."
"We can make a grid and cover as much as we can," said Kristin. "This is very important."
"Agree, but I am for taking a rest first. Chris, you did not sleep anything during the trip," said Mike. "I do not know about you, but I am tired."
"Yes," said Joyce. "We need to consider his age!"
"Yes, he is an old man!" said Kristin, teasing.
"Am I supposed to get mad?" said Mike faking outrage.
"Kids," said Kristin, "Let us get some rest."
They agreed to take a nap and get rested before they started work. Joyce was the first to be fresh. She started taking maps of the area. Mike was up a few minutes later. They got together and marked a grid at hundred feet intervals. When Kristin got up, they suited up and started working with the same method and order they always worked. It took them three very tiresome days to cover the area that they wanted to cover. They had taken a map of the area and marked a grid at hundred-foot intervals. They took a sample at every corner of the grid. They marked on the map at each corner, the number of the file that had the sample at that point. A quick examination of the scans on the display of the unit, encouraged them in their work. They found what was definitely ruins of some kind, at least constructions of some kind. They had some doubts because the samples were not too clear. It looked as if the walls and constructions had suffered much before or after they were buried. With a large number of samples that covered a large area and very tired, they returned home.
The return trip was very monotonous and long, although they were using an acceleration equal to twice the Earth gravity. Kristin made Joyce drive the vehicle while she was resting. They all took turns, so it was not too much for any one of them. They were a little fresher when they landed on the compound.

Chapter 24

Mike wanted to give the news to Dr. Jones as soon as possible. While they were landing, he was thinking which was the closest phone. Soon after landing, Mike went to the shop. It was the closest telephone to the landing pad. He called Dr. Jones.
"George? This is Mike."
"Hi Mike. When are you leaving?"
"I have just returned."
"What do you mean?"
"We went to Mars and I have just returned."
"Give me that again slowly."
"We went to Mars, we took a lot of measurements with your unit and I just got back here."
"OK, I do not understand how you do it. What else?"
"I have good news for you. Are you alone?"
"Yes, I am. Let me close the door."
"Let me ask you something first."
"What?"
"Am I wrong to assume that your unit covers something like hundred feet in radius?"
"Yes, that is about right. It is not too sensitive. What did you find?"
"I have taken a large number of samples with your unit."
"How many?"
"I do not know. We spent three days taking samples."
"How did you take the samples?"
"What we did is to take a map and make a grid at hundred-foot intervals."
"Good idea."
"We wanted to have overlap between the samples."
"Good idea," he repeated.
"We got a sample at each corner of the grid. We covered a large area that I have marked on the map."
"Did you analyze the samples?"
"Yes, I did it."
"And what did you get?"
"Are you sitting? If you are not sitting you might fall."
"OK, I am sitting. Stop playing like a kid. What did you find?"
"I found bones, walls, something that look like rooms and quite a few structures."
"When can I see them?"
"As I said, I just landed. I am in the shop. Let me see when I can use a plane and I give you a call."
"Do not take forever, I might have a stroke if you do not call me fast enough."
"OK, calm down. I call you as soon as I can."

Kristin and Joyce had finished with the vehicle and were waiting for him at the door of the shop. All three went to the offices to talk with Sarah. They made arrangements as best as they could. Kristin pulled a little weight that she did not know she had. She was very gratified to find out. Joyce gave her a smile on the side. Fifteen minutes later, Mike called Dr. Jones again.
"George? This is Mike."
"What did you find?"
"Look, I cannot have a plane for long because they need them here. There are a lot of things going on here with the meeting of the other day. I can only go, meet you at the airport, give you all the documents and take off immediately. I am hitching a ride while they do other things. I think this is better rather than wait a few days until I can use a plane for a long time. You can call me if you have any questions. Can you go to the airport?"
"I am already in my way to the car. Run to the airplane and come as fast as you can!"
Mike flew to where Dr. Jones was. He gave him the whole package of information that was very well organized. They did not chat too much. Mike's plane took off immediately to take Peter to another important meeting. The following week Dr. Jones' University contacted Kristin's father. They wanted instructions, to arrange for transport to Mars and for obtaining several buildings. Kristin's father got Sarah to find Kristin and put her on the line. Dr. Jones' University found, without any problem, a wealthy sponsor. They will form a colony on Mars with faculty members, students and support personnel. The purpose would be to excavate the ruins and what seemed to be a cemetery. Kristin was left with the problem of facing the sudden explosion of her transport and building business.

The discovery of the bones in Mars created a very lively controversy at all levels. The newspapers, the television stations, the people on the street, they all had their own ideas and opinions about the discovery. It was a new phase of the discovering of the modules on the Moon. Long discussions developed wherever people got together. Most people were indifferent, but never the less they took one side or the other of the controversy. The Internet exploded with messages in the Newsgroups supporting one point of view or another. Very soon several web sites were created to support one of the points of view. Most of them expressing doubt about the authenticity of the discoveries. The organized religions immediately denied the possible authenticity of the discoveries. There were loud protestations in newspapers and television that all was a hoax. Again, there were many voices asking for extreme measures. During the television interviews, there were many who asked for punishment for those who were publishing blasphemies. There were one tele-evangelist who was making a campaign to burn on the stake the offenders. He had prepared a stake at his palatial house and he showed it in his program.
When the first samples of the bones were flown to Earth, carbon dating revealed them to be contemporary with similar bones found on Earth. The logical theory was proposed in scientific circles. The same events that produced the mutations on Earth that created humanoids, was the cause of a similar mutation on Mars. An astronomer proposed the theory that a nova explosion had occurred somewhat near the solar system and the radiation from the explosion produced humanoids on Earth and Mars. He went further as to suggest that excavations on Venus and Ganymede might yield similar results. The discovery of a garbage area near the ruins confirmed that there had been large animals and vegetation on Mars, during the same period. These discoveries created a new wave of messages in the Newsgroups of the Internet and a new series of web sites dedicated to support one theory or another or to create confusion by supporting absurd ideas. The experience of the Face on Mars of many years back was playing again.
The number of scientific papers increased supporting the theory of the Man on Mars, as it was called at the time. At the same time, the evidence brought from Mars was more and more convincing. It is not possible to convince a person against his or her will. The popular press and the tabloids increased the publication of articles and comments ridiculing those scientists supporting the evidence. NASA put her strong propaganda machinery behind the organized religions, flooding the scientific journals and the popular press with articles and announcements denying the evidence. Some insisted that it was only a conspiracy to undermine the basic foundations of our society. Most religions prohibited their members to participate in research related to those bones. One of the tabloids invented a theory that became very popular. All that was only propaganda for a movie. They started publishing photos and articles about a movie set representing Mars. They were using the set of a recent science fiction movie.

Chapter 25

Kristin, Joyce and Mike were returning from the last trip together to Mars before the summer end. They have carried a building with a family of miners who had made a claim in the hills of Mars. They were in the black of space and Kristin was at the controls, as most of the time. She was thinking that, from now on, she will make these trips alone. She was thinking how to make them safe.
These trips take about twenty four hours, she thought. I can stretch that much. The trips to the Moon are no problem, they take two hours. I have to sleep before leaving, she continued thinking. I sleep when I get here.
She was satisfied with her solution. They were tired of all the work they had done.
"You drive." Kristin told Mike some time later, getting out of the console. "I am taking a nap."
"Can I drive?" said Joyce.
Kristin went down as always like a fireman in the central pole of the stairs.

Kristin's industry on the Moon, producing the fuel, worked automatically and without a hitch. Every returning trip she stopped to pick some cylinders to have enough reserve in her vehicle. From time to time, she took empty cylinders and set them out to be filled automatically. She had started the construction of several other vehicles like the one she had. She started training several pilots for the other ships she was building. This will make the transfer of the transport to her family easier. The transport business was very brisk. They had continuously request for transport, either to the Moon or Mars.
Kristin realized she was making more money than what she needed or wanted. She had given Mike and Joyce their share of what they made during the summer. The share that belonged to her was substantial for somebody that have never had anything. Kristin thought that during the year, all the benefits would be hers. The prospect of making so much money during the year ahead of her was disturbing. She asked for a meeting with the family lawyers. They advised her to form a Foundation. She donated to the Foundation all her income. She kept only a small monthly amount that covered more than what she needed. The lawyers left her a procedure by which she could divert to her use whatever amount she wanted. Actually, the way the lawyers set it was that every month Kristin will determine the amount she wanted to go to the Foundation and how much to her personal account. The initial purpose of the Foundation was to award scholarships to High School graduates with good grades and without resources to go to a University. Her brothers were named administrators for the money of the Foundation. She had a meeting with the President of the University to form a Committee that will award the scholarships. The President of the University was very surprised and very agreeable to do so. Kristin suggested that the Committee send letters to all the recruiters of all Universities asking them to interview the High School teachers and administration, looking for students who qualified. This will reduce the work of the Committee. She assigned enough funds to provide as many scholarships as needed to current High School graduates who qualified. The interests of the rest of the funds, and whatever she added in the future, will provide for scholarships in future years.

The colony on the Moon developed quite well with tourism as the main industry. The number of tourist visiting the Moon increased continuously. The family had set very convenient rates, comparable to many of the common vacation spots in Earth. A vacation on the Moon was not only for very wealthy people. They had several levels that permitted even families with modest resources to get the vacation that was the thing of the moment. A large number of industries were already installed. Sam and his family had moved to the Moon to take care of the family businesses. From the beginning there were enough kids on the Moon to justify a school. Sam was very good organizer. The colony of the Moon was progressing at a steady pace.
The population of the colony increased and there was a large number of settlements on the Moon. They were getting resourses that justified their expansion. Many people moved to the Moon and formed new settlements. Very soon, the total population of the Moon was substantial. Sam called for a meeting of the settlers in the installations of the family. The Moon was declared a Republic. The settlers agreed to very simple Constitution. The first article declared that nobody could have special privileges for any reason. The second article declared that all bureaucrats would work without pay. The third article declared that there were no taxes except on tourism and exports. The final article declared that every Lunar citizen, older than twelve years, had a vote and that every decision will be made by a majority of the voters, not the votes. In this way, the Constitution gave a voice to those who did not like any of the choices and did not vote. The idea of selecting the age of twelve was explained by saying that at around the age of twelve the children became men and women. There is no other age at which such an important change happens.

Mars had an important colony formed by University professors, students and support personnel, excavating the ruins and the cemetery. The colony was continuously expanding as more professors and students wanted to participate. There was another large colony almost at the other side of the planet. A large number of mining explorers and their families, looking for resources, formed it. They were not all in one site. They were scattered over a region that was producing interesting results. A number of miners were getting rich.

Mike went back to his post at the University taking with him his share of the profits made during the summer. It was not a very large sum, but in was an important quantity compared with his salary. He was very happy of having such a reserve, on top of the income he had from the family. He will be coming back at least once a month, as a consultant for the family. He had made a very secure position with them. Kristin's parents as well as her siblings and in-laws, respected Mike very much and trusted him very much. They had a nice dinner the night before his departure. They were chatting after dinner.
"Joyce," Mike asked. "Why did you not go to camp? Were you afraid?"
"Yes and no," Joyce answered. "There is lot inside me. I am not defeatist. I am really a fighter. Remember what I told you from camp and from school. I never cried or hide from the other kids. I fought. More than once I got in trouble because I gave a good beating to their leader. I remember one day that they took all my clothes while I was in the shower. They forced me to go naked to the lake. All the kids, boys and girls were there laughing at me. I got to the lake and dressed with my wet clothes. I was faking that I was very meek. I got close to their leader and I got her and give her such a beating that I broke her nose and got both of her eyes black. All the other kids tried to hold me. I got a lot of black eyes and sore legs that day. Several kids had to go to the hospital. The funny thing was that the counselors did not tell me anything after that. I was thinking they were going to punish me, but nobody said anything."
They were laughing remembering that story.

Joyce started in school. The Company lawyers formed a trust fund for her for when she achieved majority. They put in that fund her share of the benefits that the three of them had made during the summer. They included a clause that she would be able to draw from those funds with authorization from her parents. Following a suggestion from the lawyers, Kristin was emancipated on her seventeenth birthday.

Kristin and her partners had made many trips during the summer. The family paid for some of them when they carried buildings or supplies to the colony being formed on the Moon. They got paid also when they carried supplies or people to the settlements on the Moon and Mars. Many of the other trips were for their own enjoyment, exploring the Moon and Mars, flying by the asteroid belt, visiting Venus and one time flying close to a small comet. They took pictures and movies of these trips that they gave to their Museum in town. These pictures and movies became a very popular feature of the Museum. Several university professors had asked for copies of the movies.
The visit to the asteroid belt and Venus were quite disappointing. The asteroid belt was too crowded to be interesting. It was necessary to match velocities with the asteroids to avoid collisions. This is no problem if they wanted to mine the asteroid. It was not too nice for them because they wanted to look around and they had very little to see. Venus was too hot and the atmospheric pressure too high to risk a landing. The view from above was not that impressive, given the continuous cloud cover. The visit to the comet was more interesting although they did not try any experiment of any value. During one of the trips to Mars they saw one of the small asteroids with orbit between Mars and Earth and flew close to it for a while. They never identified it. These experiences got them thinking that they could use the trips to do something more than move from one point to another. Mike was to explore the possibilities with his university. They never attempted to visit the satellites of Jupiter because of the long trip that was necessary. That was left for another summer.

During the fall, Kristin transport business started to really pick up. She received a large number of requests for information about trips to the Moon, making a claim on the surface of the Moon, renting or acquiring one of her buildings, and similar subjects. She had prepared a pamphlet that she sent in response to the requests. The web site of the family had now a section devoted to the transport. She had ordered the parts for a new building. She supervised its construction with care. She furnished it as a transport for passengers and some cargo. She used it to make trips to the Moon with prospective colonists. The result of these trips was a number of orders for her buildings. She realized that she was not able to do everything by herself. She did not want to do everything herself. One evening during dinner she called the attention of her family.
"Mother, Dad, would you let me talk to all of you?"
"Talk about what?" Asked her mother.
"I hate to talk business during meals," she said. "This is the only time I can get all you guys together. Besides, you do not talk about anything else but business during meals."
"What is in your mind?" asked her father smiling at the pun.
"Is the problem of the buildings," said Kristin. "A lot of people is getting interested on colonizing the Moon and they are asking me for buildings."
"So, what is the problem?" asked Peter.
"The problem is that I cannot do everything," answered Kristin. "Besides, it is also that I do not want to have all the bacon. I wish I could give this part of the business to one of you."
"OK," said her father. "What are you thinking of doing?"
"Look," said Kristin. "I have all the design of the buildings, we have built quite a few of them so the design is well tested. I have all the specifications and all the details. We have all the equipment that is needed in each one. If one of you wants to do it, I can give all the information. You manufacture the buildings."
"Well," said Joseph. "That is right in my alley. I will be happy to take it and I can give you say ten percent as a royalty."
"Good," said Kristin. "John has all the information you need. Further more, you will not need to do anything to sell them. I will sell them for you. I have already ten firm orders and I have fifty requests that I have not answered. I can call them tomorrow and tell them to contact you for scheduling."
"OK," said Joseph. "You know brat, it is nice to do business with you."
"Brat," said Norma, Joseph wife. "That is a lot of money you are giving us."
"Come on," said Peter. "I think that it is time we stop calling her brat. She is no longer a brat and she has proven it many times."
"That a good idea," said her mother. "From now on you are officially Chris or Kristin, whatever you want."
"Chris would be fine," said Kristin modestly.

When the buildings started coming out of the factory, Kristin moved them to the airport. Kristin had approached the authorities of the airport about the matter, because most of the colonists were foreigners. She suggested the idea of using one corner of the airport that was not used. She would park the buildings there while the owners fit them as they liked. That will permit the custom inspectors to supervise what they carried. When a building was ready, she will move it to the Moon to the claim that the owner had made.
She had suggested that the country should tax the people that went through the airport to the Moon or wherever. She mentioned that the rates she charged were not outrageous, so they left room for a moderate tax. She also mentioned that very soon goods would be coming through to be sold on Earth. She had a number of meetings with representatives of the Government. Several times they complained during these meetings, that she was avoiding taxes with her Foundation. She told them only that what she was doing was legal. They coined the name of Spaceport and created the proper tax structure for whatever was exported and imported through the Spaceport. Very soon the people in change of the Spaceport operations and the officers of the country realized that it was a huge source of income in taxes and stopped complaining about Kristin Foundation. Soon enough, she was very popular with all Government officials.
At the same time, Kristin realized that it was necessary to organize the delivery of mail to the colonists on the Moon, before it became a huge problem. She got everything organized so she would deliver the mail every time she went to the Moon. She also organized the registration of the claims on the Moon so there were no overlapping claims. She had offices on Earth that took care of the mail. She organized offices on the Moon to register the claims. When the trips to Mars started to attract attention, she only needed to expand her operations to include Mars.

Part 2
ADVENTURES

Chapter 1

"And to finish, Mr. Chairman, permit me to make a brief summary of this short presentation. Following the specific orders and with the complete approval of the President of the United States, with the enthusiastic and unanimous support of all the citizens of this country and with the encouragement of all the people of the whole free world, I am asking your Committee to approve the requested allocation of the sum of five hundred billion dollars over a period of six years, for the organization and completion of a manned mission to the surface of the planet Mars. The public opinion polls of the citizens of this country, that have been conducted by several independent research institutions, indicate that every member of the electorate who has been polled and whose responses had been registered, unanimously and enthusiastically considers that it is high time to prepare and execute this manned mission to the surface of the planet Mars. Let me emphasize that not a single opinion was registered that was opposed to this important mission. The mission that we are proposing to design and execute, will be patterned after the highly successful Apollo missions on the Moon of the 1960's, which brought honor and glory to our country, and that, after so many years, are still an example of courage of our Astronauts, and example of the efficiency of our Agency to organize such a mission, an example of the competence of the engineers of our Agency to design the mission and an example of the capabilities of our dedicated contractors to supply the delicate materials needed for the mission. The preliminary timetable that has been worked out by the efficient personnel of my Agency for the proposed mission to the surface of the planet Mars, is to have a minimum of five years to prepare for the mission and design all its details. We need these five years to select and train the group of thirty Astronauts, selected from the hundreds of possible candidates. We need these five years to select from this group of Astronauts the particular ones who will actually take the trip to the planet Mars. We need these five years to design and test the five vehicles that will be constructed and all the necessary elements, instruments and parts necessary for the mission. I have to emphasize to this honorable Committee that conforming to this timetable will require an immense effort from my overworked Agency. Our engineers consider that to perform these tasks at a normal pace would take a minimum of ten years or even up to twelve years to do a proper job. Every member of my overworked Agency is willing and anxious to work very hard and sacrifice their rest hours, to achieve this important goal in such a short period of time. Every member of my Agency, from myself to the last janitor, will have to work very efficiently and very hard, to achieve all these difficult goals in such a short period of time. During that period of five years, in addition to the tasks already mentioned, our engineers will develop computations of the best windows for the minimum energy trajectory from our planet Earth to the planet Mars. When everything is ready and our initial labors have been successfully completed, we will wait for the launch window. The vehicle that has been selected from the five that were built, because it has the maximum reliability and perfect efficiency, will be launched with the six Astronauts who have been selected for the mission from the group of thirty Astronauts who completed their arduous training in our facilities. As you perfectly know and are aware of, it takes a minimum of six months for a vehicle as the one being considered to reach the planet Mars, following the best minimum energy trajectory from our planet Earth. The vehicle will arrive to the planet Mars at the precise moment indicated by our engineers, who have always been correct in their estimations. The vehicle then will enter into orbit around the planet Mars and will start without delay the important experiments and observations from the established orbit, which constitute the first part of its scientific mission. The two lucky Astronauts selected from the six Astronauts in the mission will enter the landing module. Following the procedures in which they have been instructed, these two Astronauts will descend in the landing module to the surface of the planet Mars. When they achieve this historic moment, that will be transmitted to Earth for the enjoyment of all the citizens of our proud country and inhabitants of the world, and that will be recorded for posterity, the first action of our courageous Astronauts will be to plant on the soil of the planet Mars the glorious American flag. With this simple but important act, our Astronauts will be claiming the whole of the planet Mars as a property for our country. Our dedicated Astronauts will perform this important function in the same way as it was done by the honored and remembered American Astronauts in the first historic landing on the surface of the Moon, when our Astronauts claimed the whole Moon as American soil. Following that historic achievement of the human landing for the first time on the soil of the planet Mars and the claiming of the planet Mars as American property, the glorious Astronauts will install very important instruments that our capable scientists will design and our contractors will build. The indefatigable Astronauts will collect samples according to detailed instructions given to them by our scientists. The willing Astronauts will perform some very important scientific experiments designed by our scientists. With all these functions achieved to perfection, as they are trained to do, our Astronauts will return to their module. They will use the procedures in which they had been highly trained here on Earth and they will blast from the surface of the planet Mars and travel to their ship in the trajectory that had been planned for them. Our Astronauts will have with them all the samples they have been collected and the results of the important experiments they have been performing. The ship with the six American Astronauts will then be at the proper moment computed for our engineers to enter and follow the minimum energy trajectory that will bring them back to our home Earth. The Astronauts, who have been covered with glory, will land on our planet Earth after another six months of traveling, bringing with them all the samples they have collected, the measurements they have made and the results of the scientific experiments they have performed on the surface of the planet Mars, bringing enormous glory and honor to our country."
"Mr. Chairman, honorable members of this Committee, let me finish by apologizing for the brevity of this report and the simplicity of the summary that I have presented for your illustrious considerations. My Agency understands that all of you, gentlemen, are very busy and have many other important topics to consider. For this reason, when preparing this presentation and the summary that I have just read, we did not wish to take much time in this matter, since it is clear for us, as it is for every inhabitant of this country, that you are perfectly aware of the enormous desire of our citizens that this mission be accomplished, and we are sure of your support and your approval. If this presentations have been too short, I would appreciate you ask me any questions that you have in your mind, to make this matter perfectly clear. Thank you, gentlemen."
"Mr. Director," asked the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. John Adams, in a calm voice, after a brief moment. "You did not consider important to mention how long the Astronauts will be on the surface of the planet Mars during this mission. Would you tell us how long they will remain on the surface?"
"The two lucky Astronauts who will land on the surface of the planet Mars," said the proud Director with a clear and loud voice that covered the room, "will need to remain on the surface of the planet Mars for two full days, I am referring to Martian days of course, to be able to select the samples they need to collect, to be able to perform the experiments they are scheduled to perform and to have time to install the important instruments they will be carrying with them, achieving what it is expected from them and scheduled for this mission. The Astronauts cannot stay less than two days because they would not be able to perform all the necessary and scheduled tasks for this important mission. The Astronauts cannot stay longer than the two days that are scheduled because they will miss the return window for the minimum energy trajectory back to our home planet Earth. There are very few opportunities in the orbits of the planet Earth and the planet Mars when there are two windows that close to travel to Mars and back. If we do not use this opportunity, our Astronauts would need to wait two years on the surface of the planet Mars until the proper return window is achieved. Our country does not have the necessary technology to have six Astronauts in the planet Mars for two years."
"So, in summary," said the Committee Chairman in a soft voice, "your Agency is asking five hundred billion dollars and six years to put two Astronauts on the surface of the planet Mars for two days, Martian days."
"Yes, sir," said a very proud NASA Director. He sat erect on his chair and proudly looked from one to the other of the members of the Committee. He turned to look at the public in the gallery and the television cameras packed in the back wall of the room. "Our Agency considers that this will be the most important achievement of the human race as a whole during this century. It will be easily comparable to the successful landing on the Moon, that is universally recognized as the most important achievement of the whole human race for the last century. The successful completion of this mission will bring honor and glory to our country in an unprecedented way. It will also bring enormous personal satisfaction to all and every one of us who will be lucky to participate in this venture."
"Very well," said the Chairman directing to the other members of the Committee. "Any comments, gentlemen?"
"May I insert a comment?" said one of the members of the Committee in a measured voice.
"Go ahead," said the Chairman, turning to face him.
"I have been debating with myself during the whole of the presentation if I should make this comment," started the Congressman. "I have arrived to the conclusion that it is my duty as an elected member to this august body, to present to the Committee the knowledge that I have. I hate to deflate the high opinion the Director has about this important project," continued the Congressman in a soft voice, contrasting with the loud voice used by the Director. "When I received the notice for this meeting, I became curious, as it is logically my duty. Consequently, I have been doing some research with the help of my aids, in preparation for this meeting. I found out something very interesting. I found out that there is a large number of people, human beings of Earth origin, who are living on the surface of Mars at this very moment....."
"With due respect, Your Honor," interrupted the Director showing very clearly his discomfort and his disgust for the Congressman bringing up this subject, "you have been deceived by false propaganda. I hate to mention this fact in the presence of this august Committee, but that propaganda is only based on fiction. There is no proof of any of those allegations about humans persons living now on the surface of the planet Mars. Further more, our engineers, in unanimous agreement, assure me without a shadow of a doubt, that there is no physical way in which anybody can go from the planet Earth to the planet Mars in less than six months time. Six months travel time is the minimum time for the most favorable minimum energy trajectory from the Earth to the planet Mars. All other trajectories take much longer travel time."
It was very clear that the NASA Director was very much disgusted by being forced to present these facts.
"Excuse me an interruption," said another member of the Committee.
"Go ahead," the Chairman authorized.
"Two weeks ago I had a meeting with Dr. Jones," said the member of the Committee who had asked permission to speak. "Dr. Jones is a very respected and well known university Professor of Anthropology from my District. He had many publications and many important discoveries. He told me that he is conducting excavations on Mars of a cemetery and some ruins they have found....."
"Excuse me sir," said the Director interrupting again and without the due courtesy. "That is all part of that fantasy supported by the false propaganda. I have been told that what happens is that they are filming a science fiction movie about the planet Mars and all that noise that they are making is only propaganda for the movie."
"Well, I do not think that Dr. Jones will be involved in a movie. He had been a candidate for a Nobel Prize twice already," continued the Committee member. "I saw him again this week. He was back from Mars. He showed me many pictures he had taken of the excavations and of the surface of Mars. He also showed me a skeleton he brought with him. The carbon dating puts that skeleton as contemporary of similar bones found on Earth."
"That skeleton is part of the science fiction movie, sir," said the Director. "The skeleton is only a prop for the movie. You have to excuse me, gentlemen. I am getting very disturbed by this discussion. I consider that it is not proper for this august Committee to discuss these matters. Let me repeat that my engineers have assured me that they are totally sure that nobody can go to the planet Mars and back in less than a year. So you see, that proves without a doubt that such a trip in a week cannot be true."
"And how can anybody take pictures of the surface of Mars," insisted the Committee member, "without actually going there?"
"Gentlemen," said the Director eager to finish this discussion. "I have to be honest with this august Committee. My Agency had made mockups of the surface of the Moon and of the surface of the planet Mars. Our purpose, of course, were to train our Astronauts in as real a situation as possible. I have seen the movies that were made during the training of the Astronauts who went to the Moon. They are very real. Watching those movies you can be sure that they were taken on the surface of the Moon. I am not surprised that you have seen pictures that look as if they were taken on the surface of Mars. When you approve this mission, we plan to use the mockup we have of the surface of Mars to make movies that we will use in training and in propaganda."
"Excuse me, Mr. Chairman," said another member interrupting, "but I have information that might be important."
"Go ahead," said the Chairman.
"One of my aids visited what they call the Lunar and Mars Museum. He took with him one of the engineers from NASA. With his help, he authenticated most of the artifacts that are on display....."
"Let me point out that the engineer in question is no longer working for NASA. He was a discredit to our Agency," interrupted the Director very disgusted.
"Did you fire him?" said the member smiling.
"That is enough!" said the Chairman in a hard voice.
"Mr. Chairman," said another member of the Committee who had not yet expressed an opinion. "The notification for this meeting was published following the official procedure with enough time, actually with much more time than what is required by law. The notification ordered that whomever had information pertinent to the subject of the meeting must appear in front of the Committee to submit that information. The persons who make those claims had not had the courtesy to appear in this meeting, or to appear here as is their duty. This alone seems to indicate that the claims might be spurious. The persons making those claims are well known and their names are on the media practically every day. As a consequence, I ask the Chair to issue a subpoena to bring them here."
"Very well. The request is accepted," said the Chairman. "All those in favor, express it..... OK, the request is approved. A subpoena will be issued to those persons who claim to have traveled to Mars, to appear in front of this Committee, next Thursday at ten a.m. and to surrender all the documents of their operations before next Monday. This meeting is adjourned."
The meeting have been carried life by all the networks in the country and many from abroad. As soon as the meeting adjourned, the commentators started with special programs to analyze the meeting and its consequences.

Chapter 2

The media had a field day with the results of the meeting. There was a certain amount of disappointment that the Committee had not approved immediately the request for the mission, as was expected. NASA had been giving the press and the television stations substantial support for the past years, for them to make propaganda for the approval of the mission. The polls proved that the propaganda had been successful. The support that they received depended on the results of the polls. There was a premium offered if the Committee approved the request, and another when Congress approved it. The press and the television stations had been following the developments in detail. When the President sent the special Message to Congress asking for the mission, it was hailed by the press and the television commentators as a great achievement. The meeting of the Committee was commented since the day it was announced. There had been live coverage of the meeting. Front-page editorials on the newspapers and prime time commentaries on television appeared all that week with regard of the meeting of the Committee. The fact that the proposal from NASA had not been approved was played down as not important. Very few papers or commentators ever mentioned this fact. The fact that the Committee will subpoena the crooks was enough to make them happy. They played this fact as front-page headings and the title of television specials. The situation was tooted using big front-page headings and prime time news in television, as the end of all the crooks and the restoration of common sense. There was great expectation about the meeting of the following Thursday and many speculations about the appearance of the crooks. All that week, there were continuous interviews with many different persons, mostly common persons walking on the street. They all showed interest for the result of the meeting. The editors of the television stations worked overtime editing the tapes sent by the reporters to edit out all the unfavorable comments. They were used to this work. This was really their main job.


Kristin and Joyce entered together into the dining room the evening of the meeting of the Committee. Kristin had been helping Joyce with her homework, as most days when she was home. They got together whenever Kristin had time. Kristin always made an effort to be available for her niece. The two girls were talking very animated as they entered the room.
"Good evening, dad, mom, siblings" Kristin said as usual.
"Good evening, grandpa, grandma," Joyce said in turn.
"Did you hear the news?" Kristin's father said as soon as he saw her.
"Yes, let the lawyers handle it," Kristin answered with disdain.
"I think that is a very good idea," Kristin's mother said.
"You are right," Peter added. "That is much better than what we were discussing."
"Chris!," Laura said. "You are getting too smart!"
There were laughs around the table.

The subpoena arrived the following day by special diplomatic courier. It was delivered in the offices of the Company in town. It was transmitted to the lawyers immediately. A copy was sent to the family. The document was very simple:
"By the authority invested on this Committee by the Constitution of the United States and the Laws and Regulations of this country, we order that the highest responsible member of the commercial organization known as Smith and Sons be present at the meeting of the Committee the following Thursday at 10 am in the Capitol Building of Washington, D.C., to answer the questions of the Committee about the alleged traveling to the planet Mars and to present documents supporting his assertions. It is also ordered that the commercial organization known as Smith and Sons surrenders copies of all the documents for their operations as soon as possible, but not later than the following Monday. We demand an immediate compliance to these orders."

The Company lawyers responded promptly with a short and very courteous note. They indicated that most of the members of the United States Congress are lawyers. They also indicated that every member of the United States Congress has lawyers in their staff. They continued saying that any lawyer would advice the Committee about the legal situation of their demand. They indicated that the Committee had failed to consider that Smith and Sons is a foreign Company, formed by foreign citizens, operating on foreign soil. If the Committee considered these facts, it should be clear to the Committee that they did not have any authority to subpoena, order, or demand anything from the Company.
The response from Smith and Sons was purposely leaked to the press only minutes after it was received. Big editorials and front-page titles came immediately demanding reparation to the insult given to the Committee. Every television station and all the networks had prime time special programs about the situation. They read repeatedly the text of the subpoena and the text of the response. They interviewed many persons in different walks of life. Most of the interviews were on the street. Very few noticed in the turmoil of the discussion, that no lawyer and no politician was ever interviewed in public.
The lawyers forming the Committee and their advisors recommended a more logical plan of action. Another communication was sent to the Company where the word subpoena on the heading had been changed to invitation. Nothing else had been changed and the words ordered, demanded, etc. were still very prominent in the document.

The Company lawyers answered without delay with a very courteous note. They said that they regretted to indicate that since this was an invitation, the use of words like order and demand were out of place. Further more, they said that since no purpose for the invitation was indicated, the Company regretted to decline the honor of the invitation from the Committee.
Since these communications were all leaked to the press as soon as they were received, the public opinion was fed a constant stream of half-truths and illogical paths of action. There were even many demands for military action to repair the insult to the Committee. Many of the television reporters were mentioning the fact that Smith and Sons had been involved in the affair of the alien invaders. It was common for the television reporters to refer to Smith and Sons as the alien invaders. The name was accepted by the public.

A week later, the Company received a properly written invitation to send a representative for a meeting with the members of the Committee, for the purpose of presenting documentation concerning the alleged trips made to the Moon and Mars.
The lawyers again answered in a short note that regretted the fact that no member of the Company was available to provide information that was in the public domain. The lawyers pointed out that the information they requested had been for a long time in a public web page on the Internet. That the reporters of papers and television stations had taken material from the page for their reports. The members of the Committee, their aids and advisors were invited to visit the Company web site were all the information that they required was easily accessible.

Two weeks later, a request for a meeting between three members of the Committee and a responsible member of the Company was received. The purpose of the meeting was to obtain information about the trips to the Moon and Mars allegedly made by the Company. They suggested that the meeting be held in the downtown offices of the Company and at a convenient date and time to be arranged.
That communication was answered in the same tone. It was set as preliminary condition that the meeting will be in private, without any aids or press. It recommended a date and a time. The response was prompt and accepted the conditions and the date and time for the meeting.

Chapter 3

The meeting room of the Company offices was a large room, very well illuminated and richly furnished. There were a number of sofas and comfortable chairs arranged as for conversation. This room was used for meetings as the one that was about to take place, meetings where a group of people got together to talk. This room was never use for the type of meeting where there was a presentation and a table was needed. The three members of the Committee were very punctual and entered the meeting room alone. The aids remained in the reception office outside. No reporters had been allowed into the building. Exactly at the same time, Kristin entered the room through another door. She had been waiting there for her cue. She was dressed in a green dress, not elegant, but appropriated for her age. She had the hair loose in her back as she did when she wanted to impress. She was very disgusted with all the foolishness of the communications that preceded the meeting. She controlled her disgust as she walked into the room. She walked into the room slowly and erect.
"Good morning," she said in her firm and clear voice, "I am Kristin Smith, President of Smith and Sons, Transport. Gentlemen, please have a seat."
"But you are only a young girl, almost a kid!" said the Chairman in a bad tone.
"So, what is the problem?" Asked Kristin.
"We asked in our communication, and it was accepted, that we will meet with a responsible member of your Company," said the Chairman, still using a bad tone of voice.
"I am the highest authority in my Company," said Kristin, a little harder than before.
Kristin was erect in her whole height. Her high heel shoes made her higher. She was still small, compared with the tall Chairman of the Committee.
"I want to talk with your lawyers," insisted the Chairman now talking quite hard.
"In my Company the lawyers advice, they do not make decisions. I make the decisions." Kristin was talking quite hard now.
"But this is outrageous!" said the Chairman.
"Look," said Kristin in quite strong manners. "From the beginning you have been acting as if you had the right to be inquisitors. I do not have any reason to accept or to submit to an Inquisition. If you do not like to behave like civilized persons, you can leave!" She ended extending her hand towards the doors.
"We better do not loose our temper," said the Chairman, calming down and changing his tone of voice.
"I agree," said Kristin following his example and softening her tone of voice. "Will you please have the courtesy to identify yourselves?"
"I am John Adams, Chairman of the Committee," Mr. Adams said in a courteous tone of voice.
"How are you Mr. Adams? I am glad to meet you," answered Kristin with a nice bow.
"I am Jim Brown, Member of the Committee," said another person present, using a dry tone.
"Mr. Brown," said Kristin turning to him and making a short bow.
"I am the Most Reverend Joe Gould, Member of the Committee," the man on a priest dress said with a strong and loud voice.
"Reverend Gould," said Kristin in a very calm voice. "Thank you gentlemen. Please have a seat. How can I serve you?"
"May I ask you which religion you belong to?" said the Reverend Gould in his usual loud tone of voice.
"No," answered Kristin very dry and turning to face him. "Look, you have asked for this meeting and we have agreed as a courtesy to your rank. I am a businessperson and my time is valuable. I imagine that you consider your time valuable. Please, do not waste your time and mine with irrelevant questions!"
"Do you consider religion irrelevant?" said an indignant Reverend Gould increasing his tone of voice.
"For the purpose of this meeting, it is irrelevant," said Kristin quite hard. "Are we here to discuss religion or space?" she asked turning to the Chairman.
"I see that we are getting nowhere," said the Chairman in a measured voice.
"I am of the same opinion," said Kristin in a normal voice.
"Have you been on Mars?" asked the Chairman, trying to take control of the meeting.
"Yes," Kristin said, now using a sweet tone of voice. "Many times."
"Can you prove it?" asked the Chairman. His tone was conversational. He was not demanding.
"I do not see how I could prove it," said Kristin, still using a sweet tone of voice. She was smiling at Mr. Adams. "There are no custom stations on Mars to stamp my passport."
Mr. Adams did not say anything. His expression reported that he did not like the light tone Kristin was using.
"More important in my point of view is the fact that I do not see why I should have to prove it," said Kristin maintaining her calm and her light tone of voice. "I suggest that you visit our Lunar and Mars Museum here in town where you can see the artifacts I have been collecting from the Moon and Mars."
"There are allegations that all are fake!" said the Reverend Gould with scorn.
"Then," said Kristin with a soft and innocent voice, addressing directly at him. "The best way to proceed is for you to visit the Museum and judge by yourselves. I imagine that you consider yourselves capable of detecting a fake of that magnitude. I can give orders to let you analyze the artifacts in detail."
"Is it true that the trip takes two and a half days?" said Mr. Brown trying to stall the interference of the Reverend Gould.
"No, it is not true," said Kristin in a soft voice. "If you remember your physics, you know that the duration of any trip depends on the velocity and the distance. The distance from the Earth to Mars varies very much as they move on their respective orbits around the Sun. This distance varies between some fifty and four hundred million kilometers. The average distance is about seventy million kilometers. The trip normally takes between one and three days. Even longer when the two planets are at opposite sides of the Sun. We need to avoid getting too close to the Sun because of the heat."
"Excuse me," said Mr. Brown. "I do not understand how do you go to Mars in such a short time. The engineers from NASA say that it is not possible to go to Mars in less than six months."
He was using now a conversational tone. He was a man curious about something and asking for an explanation. His attitude has been changing as they talked.
"The interesting point," said Kristin, using the same conversational tone, "is that the engineers from NASA are correct and I am also correct."
"How can that be?" said the Chairman. He could not avoid showing his surprise.
"Very simple," Kristin said turning to him. She was enjoying this meeting much more than what she expected. "The engineers from NASA and I are talking about different things."
"Would you mind explaining?" The Chairman asked. This was a very courteous request.
"Of course," said Kristin in a nice voice. She made a small bow as she said it. "The engineers from NASA are talking about a trip to Mars using the minimum energy trajectory. That is to say that they give their vehicle a little push in the direction of Mars and they let it coast to its destination."
"Yes," said Mr. Adams. "That is the way I understand it."
"When I talk about going to the Moon or to Mars," added Kristin. "I am talking about going under power, not coasting. That is the difference."
"Can you be more specific?" said Mr. Brown.
"Yes of course," Kristin answered. "Imagine you have two cars on top of a street that has a small slope, say like in San Francisco. You put one of the cars in neutral and push it in such a way that it starts sliding down the street. It would take quite a while for the car to get to the bottom of the street. The other car starts the motor and drives normally down the street. It would get down much faster. That is the difference between what the engineers from NASA talk about and what I talk about."
"And why is that difference?" asked again Mr. Adams. It was clear that he was curious.
"The difference is technology," explained Kristin. "NASA uses huge rockets to send small payloads into space. The rockets burn very fast and produce a very high force. Consequently, they produce a very high acceleration. That is why your Astronauts have to be protected during launch. You know that they have to sit in very special seats, padded and strapped, and that they need to be in a special position. This is to avoid that the high forces damage them. The other consequence is that they cannot use the rocket for more than a few seconds. It will kill the Astronauts in spite of all the precautions. The rest of the trip is made by inertia, coasting."
"And how do you do it?" continued asking Mr. Adams in a very courteous voice.
"I have developed a different kind of propulsion that permits me to accelerate at a very low rate, producing forces of the same magnitude as the weight here on Earth," explained Kristin. "I can also sustain that acceleration for the whole trip. Then, my passengers do not suffer any discomfort during the launch and they have almost normal weight during the whole trip. They do not float in free fall like your Astronauts. Further more, the trip last only a small fraction of the time taken by NASA vehicles."
"Would it be possible for us to travel to Mars the way you say?" asked the Chairman. Now he was getting interested.
"Yes, of course. That is my business," said Kristin faking surprise. "We are a Company in the business of transport. My family has a hotel on the Moon and we do regular trips there, several times a week. We could do the same thing for you to Mars. We could transport a building for you, if you are ready to pay the price. We can arrange a round trip with a stay on Mars, if that is what you want. We could even arrange a tour of Mars for you, if you are interested. We could rent a building to you, if that makes things easier."
"And how much that will cost?" asked Mr. Adams. He could not hide is interest.
"Oh," said Kristin. "The cost of the trip itself depends of when you take the trip and the position of Earth and Mars at that moment. That is to say, it depends on the distance to be traveled. You can find that distance for any day of the year in the Nautical Almanac. The fee for the transport will be five dollars per ton per mile. This covers only the transport."
"And how long can we stay on Mars?" interrupted Mr. Brown. He was getting interested.
"That is up to you," Kristin said. "It depends only on the supplies you carry with you. If you have supplies for a year, you could stay a year. Dr. Jones has a permanent station on Mars and I fly him supplies from time to time."
"Do you mean that you can go to Mars any time you want and get back any time you want?" asked again Mr. Brown.
"Yes," said Kristin forcefully, "that is exactly what I mean. There are a few limitations about the Sun, as I mentioned before. It is easier to wait for the Sun to move out of the way than to fly around it. That happens only once every year."
"But NASA engineers tell us that there is only special times at which a vehicle can go to Mars," said Mr. Adams.
"Yes, sir," Kristin explained in a soft voice. "For the method they use to go to Mars, using the minimum energy trajectory, they have only small windows every twenty six months, if I am not wrong. I do not have that limitation."
"Why is that?" insisted Mr. Adams.
"Look," Kristin said. "Let us go back to the simile of the cars. A car without a motor, coasting, can drive only down hill. It cannot drive up hill. The car with the motor running can drive any direction you want."
"And what can we take with us?" asked Mr. Brown. His curiosity was getting the best of him.
"Almost anything. There are regulations, of course," added Kristin. "You will need to pay custom taxes in this country for everything you take with you, even if you plan to return it."
"Why pay taxes in this country?" asked Mr. Adams. He did not like paying taxes. "We Representatives do not pay taxes in our country!"
"You need to pay taxes in this country because you would be leaving from this country," explained Kristin.
"Why is that?" said the Chairman, Mr. Adams.
"I do not have authorization to land in your country," explained Kristin. "Talking about authorizations, you will have to get authorization from the person who owns the place where you wish to land. The owner may ask you to take a medical examination to prove you do not carry any sickness that will endanger those in his place. Nothing illogical or out of the ordinary. About the same regulations you have here on Earth when you travel from one country to another."
"You said the owner of the place where we wish to land. Who owns Mars?" continued asking Mr. Brown.
"Well, nobody owns the whole of Mars," said Kristin as if she was surprised by the question. "Not much have been really claimed. There is the area that my family has claimed, the Cydonia Mensae, where we are building accommodations for tourists and workers. We are building a hotel to encourage tourism to that area. There is the settlement that I have claimed. It is really quite small and I have a building there mostly to store supplies and parts. There is another large settlement developed by a group of friends and their families. They are mostly miners, exploring for resources. They have made several mineral claims. Inside our area, there is Dr. Jones excavating some ruins and a cemetery that I found. Those are totally out of bounds for any visitor and I cannot take you there. If you wish to visit the area of my family, for example, I could try to get you a permit, as long as you do not leave your vehicle. I do not think you will like that. Outside those places, I can land you any place you want. There is no restriction. Talking about restrictions, I forgot to mention that you cannot carry anything that can be construed as a weapon or that can be combustible, flammable, or explosive. You understand that it is for your own safety, like here on Earth in the airplanes."
"You talk about a building. Is this building on Mars?" asked Mr. Adams.
"No," said Kristin. "The idea is that you can rent a building here on Earth. You install yourselves in the building and then you make sure everything works properly. When you are ready, I take the whole building to wherever you wish to go, whether it is the Moon, Mars, or any other place. You live in that building while there. At the end, I bring the whole building with you, back here."
"This looks too much like a trick," said a very suspicious Reverend Gould, who had been quiet. "How do we know that we have really traveled if we are inside a building? The Director from NASA was talking about those mockups they have where they can make movies and everybody believes they were made on the Moon."
"You will know that the trip is real the same way you know you are flying when you are inside an airplane or traveling in a car," said Kristin with a little of scorn in her voice. "I will not show you a movie. You will feel the motion and some vibration. You will look out of the window and see the Earth getting farther. Later, you will see the black of space. At the end, you will see Mars getting closer and you will see us landing. Later, you will leave the building and step on the surface of Mars. You will look around and you will see the familiar Martian landscape. You will look up and see the Sun much smaller than from here. You pay attention and you will feel that you weight only one third of your weight here on Earth. None of this can be done in a mockup. If all that does not convince you, I do not know what it will!"
"Hard to believe! People will be crushed!" insisted the Reverend Gould.
"Remember that I am not talking about a launch like those you use in your country," said Kristin in calm, but tired voice, like explaining for the seventh time the same thing to a small kid. "I explained before that when I pick the building, I lift it very gently, so that it is very comfortable. I explained also that the acceleration I use is minimal and similar to the gravity of the Earth. You will not weight more than what you weight here on Earth. When we are on Mars, I cannot control the gravity and you will weight much less than what you weight here."
"When you said it will cost five dollars per ton per mile, what do you mean?" said the Chairman trying again to gain control of the subject of the conversation.
"Let me give you an example," said Kristin turning to him. "Let us imagine that you rent one of our buildings. You bring everything you need, air, water, food, supplies, etc."
"Do we need to bring air and water?" said Mr. Brown.
"Yes of course," answered Kristin with a tone that implied it. "There is neither air nor water in space, nor on Mars."
"Even if we rent the building?" insisted Mr. Brown.
"Of course," added Kristin in a normal voice. "The building is the shell where you travel and where you will live. It is empty. It is the same that when you rent a building or a house here on Earth. You bring anything you need. Be sure you have enough because there is no supermarkets on the way!"
"This is getting too complex," said Mr. Brown.
"You bring all the persons who will be traveling," continued Kristin.
"How many persons can we bring?" asked Mr. Adams, interrupting. He wanted to know.
"That is a matter of how much you wish to pay," explained Kristin, smiling again to him. "The important factor is the weight, not the count. You need to consider not only the weight of the person, but his food, water, air, clothes, equipment, etc."
"That is three or four hundred pounds per person," added the Chairman.
"That is about right," Kristin agreed. "When everything is in the building, we weight the building. That is the weight used to bill you. When I get the payment, I take you there. If you are interested, you can find a standard contract in our web site."
"How about training for the Astronauts?" said Mr. Brown.
"Sir," said Kristin with a wide smile. "NASA uses Astronauts, the Russians use Cosmonauts, the Chinese use Taikonauts, you will be tourists. It is normally accepted that a tourist does not need any training, only a full wallet!"
After the laughs died and several seconds of silence, the Chairman cleared his throat.
"I have mixed feelings about this whole affair," he said. "This is not what I expected to find. I came prepared to deal with fakes and false propaganda. You have totally surprised me. I imagine you have also surprised my colleagues. I kind of like the idea of traveling to Mars. It was my child's dream. My son will love it! He wanted to be an Astronaut! We will have to study it. If I am not wrong, the cost will be nothing compared to what NASA plans."
"You can be sure about that!" said Kristin, very sure of herself. "To give you an idea, let us consider you rent one of our buildings. It weights about ten tons when it is loaded. At the mean distance to Mars it will cost you less than five hundred million dollars, round trip."
"Is that all?" said Mr. Brown.
"There are other costs like supplies, taxes, etc., but the transport bill will be the most important. It will cost less if you take the trip when Mars is closer to Earth," explained Kristin.
"Well, can we continue in contact about this matter?" said the Chairman.
"Yes, of course," said Kristin very happy of the way she had handled this difficult meeting. "And let me tell you something else which I think it is important for you. I do not need six years to prepare a trip. If you give me a one-week notice I will secure you a building and take you there."
"One week?" said Mr. Brown.
"That is kind of a maximum," said Kristin enjoying herself. "Consider that you can catch me traveling when you call. I have a lot of employees, but I like to check everything myself to be sure. Normally, it does not take that long. Normally, I can be ready in a couple of days."
"It has been a pleasure to talk with you," said Mr. Adams standing up. "I am really impressed with your knowledge. Really, not what I expected! I am sorry we started with the wrong foot! Have a good morning."
"It has been my pleasure, Mr. Adams," said Kristin with a small bow.
The other two gentlemen said good bye and left the room without further comment.

John Adams was a man in his late fifties. Fit and medium muscular, he was the personification of a politician. Almost tall, straight, with blond hair streaked with gray he kept not too long. He had a clear complexion, with white straight teeth, that had clearly been fixed in his youth. He had a hard expression when he needed it. His usual demeanor was a nice smile and in general, gentle manners that gained him many friends. His blue eyes were always moving, following the speakers in a show of interest. His eyes showed intelligence and curiosity. Something about him indicated vitality and honesty. It was clear that he preferred to gain the good will of those around him instead of forcing his will upon them.

Jim Brown was a younger man, in his late thirties. He could be taken for a typical Californian magnate. He was tall and lean. His hair was of undefined color from exposure to the Sun. His face was tanned and almost dark. He was muscular, showing that he practiced sports in a regular basis. He dressed in bright colors reinforcing the impression given by his appearance. His blue eyes were serious, always looking at his interlocutor, without showing any interest. He smiled very little. The absence of creases on his face showed that he smiled very seldom. He gave the impression that he was not too intelligent and that he had very little patience. It was clear that he was used to be obeyed without question by those around him.

The Reverend Joseph Gould was a short, stocky man. His hair was almost totally white, some kind of a dirty white, and he kept it quite long, almost to his shoulders. His expression was one of intolerance. His black eyes showed little compassion and no interest in those around him. He did not seem too intelligent. More than that, it gave the impression that he was not used to think. The few times he talked during the meeting, it was clear that he was not paying attention to what was said to him. He was not too sure of himself. His hands were in continuous motion, revealing inner insecurity. When he spoke, he did it with a loud voice to drown all others. It was easy to see that he paid little attention at what others said or wished. It was easy to see that he was not following the discussions sustained by the others in the room. His appearance was of a man in his late sixties or early seventies, in poor health and not too fit. He seemed to be used to dictate what those around him should do, rather than explaining them what they should do.


There was a mob of reporters outside the building. The meeting had been the material of speculation by the press since the first communications were exchanged. When the conditions for the meeting were made public, there were loud complains that the press will not be accepted in the meeting room or in the building. Many hard epithets were created for the alien invaders, the word alien having a double meaning now. The Representatives were used to deal with a mob of reporters and seemed to enjoy them. There were television cameras blocking the traffic in front of the building. The local police needed to divert the traffic to other arteries to prevent accidents. After a few moments listening to their questions, Mr. Adams, the Chairman, took control of the situation.
"We had a very productive meeting with the President of the Company," he said in a loud voice and facing the television cameras. "A very intelligent and capable person! I can assure you that I am satisfied that everything they say is true. We have to look at their Museum, but I do not expect any surprise there." He had been very careful not to mention the sex or the age of the President they had met with, nor the fact that Kristin had turned them upside down and inside out.
"Will you approve NASA manned mission to Mars?" asked one of the reporters.
"I have to take some time to think about all that, but I have the feeling that NASA is a very antiquated Agency," conceded the Chairman.
"Why do you say that?" asked another reporter.
"They take six years to do something other people does in a week!"
"Is NASA being disbanded?" asked another reporter.
"That is not for me to say. Good morning gentlemen. I am sorry. We have work to do."
They visited the Museum, but they did not make any comment when leaving.

Kristin went immediately to her home. They were all at the dining room when she got there. They all greeted her with questions about the meeting. They all wanted to know how it went.
"Well....," Kristin said. "It started rather bad. First they complained about my age. When I got them around that, a priest that was one of them, started fighting about religion. After that, things were easy. They were interested in how I travel to the Moon and Mars. With the exception of the priest, the conversation was very friendly. It might end up that I got some business to get them to Mars for an excursion."
"Chris," said her father. "I was totally sure that you were going to handle this in the proper way. You started life as a brat, but now you are a very capable person. I am proud of you and it is not the first time."
"I am also proud of you, Chris," her mother added.
All her brothers, sister and their spouses had phrases of congratulation for Kristin. She lowered her head modestly. She still did not like when she was prized in public.

Chapter 4

The following week Kristin received a long letter from Mr. Adams through the diplomatic courier. He asked her to respond the same way. The letter was very friendly and written without any embellishment. He started by thanking her for the meeting and apologizing again for the way the meeting started. He repeated that he was very impressed by her knowledge and her attitude. He congratulated her by the way she kept her calm during the beginning confrontation. He emphasized that he had enjoyed very much the exchange of ideas about space travel they had during the meeting. He also mentioned that he had enjoyed very much her explanations that had clarified many points about space travel that he did not know. He thanked her for all the information that she gave them during the meeting. He passed then to tell her that he was interested on a trip to Mars, especially if he could take his son with him. He indicated that he was working to obtain it. He asked her a large number of different questions. He explained to her that he was trying to get approval in Congress for a fact-finding trip to Mars for him, his son and some aids. For this reason, he needed hard figures in order to make a budget.

Kristin answered him at length, in the same very cordial terms. She mentioned that after the initial moments, the meeting had been very agreeable. That she gave much more importance to the interesting conversation they had about space travel, than to the initial disagreement. She indicated that she was very happy that he had enjoyed the meeting. She told him that she was very interested in providing all the information that he might need for a trip to Mars. She indicated that she had made many such trips and that she had experience that she was happy to put at his disposal. She proceeded to give him all the information that he needed. She explained the taxing rates for different types of goods. She cautioned him that they could not bring anything from Mars because it was considered smuggling of historical artifacts. She explained that if he planned or was interested in bringing something back from Mars, even a small piece of rock, the proper procedure would be to secure a permit before going. She offered him to help him with the permit. She told him that obtaining such a permit was not too difficult because the officials of her country were very open minded and cooperative. She told him that he will need to pay a small fee. She went then to explain that the fee he would pay for that permit will depend on what he planned to do with the artifact once it was here on Earth. A minimal fee was charged for artifacts brought from Mars or the Moon, to be donated to a public Museum or University in Kristin's country. A larger, but still small fee, was charged if the donation was to a public Museum or University in another country. A much larger fee was charged if the artifact would go to a private collection or museum. The idea of this fee structure was to discourage the collection of Lunar or Martian artifacts or rocks in private museums that remove them from the access by the general public and the scientific community. If the artifact was brought without a permit, the penalty was at least, ten times the largest fee, plus whatever sentence a judge will consider. The only case on record had ended with a very stiff sentence for the transgressor.

Many letters went back and forth, all of them very cordial. A very nice relationship developed between Kristin and Mr. Adams. There was much respect in both directions. Kristin respected his good manners, his openness and his honesty. Mr. Adams respected Kristin's knowledge, good manners and character. Kristin sent Mr. Adams videotapes showing the environmental conditions on Mars and a list of instruction for the trip. After the first few letters, Mr. Adams started asking for specific questions and Kristin answered the best she could. Some times she had to direct him to other sources to find the answers he needed. Wherever she could, she asked and found the information he needed. Several times he complained about some of the terms of the contract. She answered every time that the contract was not open for discussion. She mentioned that they needed to consider everything that they might need once they left Earth. She mentioned the simile of going to the top of an isolated mountain for the same period of time. If they forgot something, there was no way to get it, once they had left Earth. She cautioned him again and again, that they could not take with them weapons or anything that can be construed as a weapon, neither in their persons or in their suitcases or cargo. This included flammables, explosives, and similar devices. She indicated the clause of the contract that stipulated that such an act will invalidate the contract and that they will loose their deposit. They will also face prosecution by the authorities in Kristin's country.

Two months later, when the closest approach of Mars to Earth was getting near, Mr. Adams submitted signed contracts for the rental of a building and its transport to Mars and back. He asked to schedule the retrieval of the building to provide them with a week stay on Mars. He included a check for the required deposits for the transport and the rental. It was agreed that the building would be positioned at the airport for them to load it and to facilitate custom inspections. As Kristin had guessed, he asked to be transported during the closest approach of Mars to Earth. Kristin had been making all the necessary preparation in his side of the deal. She was ready at any moment they wanted. It was very good for her that other activities were slow and she had time on her hands. She prepared the building with enough time and moved to the airport. When the appointed day came, she had everything ready, and she was ready. She considered of interest for her Company to give these important representatives from another country, the best service she could provide. Since the fee he was charging these people was quite high, she combined their two trips with two trips Dr. Jones needed for his excavations. She was always doing that with the miners, to reduce the cost of the trips for Dr. Jones.

Kristin and her father were at the airport when Mr. Adams and his entourage arrived. They were waiting at the exit of the customs inspection. After they were passed through Customs, they got together.
"Kristin, it is a pleasure to see you again," said Mr. Adams with a wide smile and extending his hand.
"The pleasure is mine," said Kristin shaking hands. "I have been talking about you at home. My father wanted to meet you. He is the President of all the family companies," she said introducing her father.
"Very glad to meet you, Mr. Adams," said Tom Smith extended his hand. "Kristin had told me a lot about you."
"Very glad to meet you," said Mr. Adams shaking hands with Mr. Smith. "You have an extraordinary daughter."
"Reverend Gould," Kristin said faking being glad to see him. "I did not know you were in this trip."
Reverend Gould did not answer.
"Let me introduce to you, my son, Leslie," Mr. Adams said to fill the void produced by the discourtesy of Reverend Gould.
"Glad to meet you, Mr. Smith, Kristin. I have hear a lot about you from my dad."
"He is studying Aeronautical Engineering," said Mr. Adams.
"I wanted to be an Astronaut, but they did not accept me," said Leslie.
"Good for you!" said Kristin. "I will be starting Astronautical Engineering next fall."
"Good! What is Astronautical Engineering?" said Leslie.
"You see," Kristin said. "Aeronautical is in the air, Astronautical is in space."
"Oh, I see," Leslie said. "I did not think about that!"
"How come you do not plan to be a politician like your dad?" asked Kristin.
"No," said Leslie. "I have two older brothers and a sister who are already following my dad. I want to be an engineer."
"Hey!" Kristin said. "You might want to take a look at the building now that it is empty!"
"Yes, of course."
"Come over."
Kristin and Leslie walked to the building leaving the parents to their conversation. When they got to the building, Leslie was very impressed for how beautiful the building was from the outside.
"Look," Kristin said pointing. "Pay attention to the airlock and the simple mechanism that connects the two doors."
"Yes, why is that?"
"That prevents both doors to be open at the same time."
"But why? It will be necessary to open both doors so the aids can bring all the cargo we have."
"This mechanism prevents some idiot from killing everybody in the building," she explained.
"Why is that?" asked Leslie. "You are full of surprises."
"When we are here, nothing happens if you open both doors. We can disable the mechanism when your aids load the cargo."
"So? What is the problem?" Leslie asked surprised.
"When you have a vacuum outside, you will loose all your air if you open both doors at the same time."
"Yes, I see. They will suffocate," Leslie said.
"Worst than that is the fact that you will loose the pressure. Everybody will explode."
"Well, I understand."
"There is more. When we are in Mars there is no vacuum outside, but a low pressure. You have two problems, you will loose your air and you might get the Martian atmosphere inside."
"And what will be wrong with that?"
"Well, the problem is that the atmosphere on Mars is very cold, it has a large amount of dust and it is acid, very corrosive. If you are outside Mars without a space suit you will die in a few minutes."
"Wow! You know a lot!" Leslie said with admiration.
"I have been on Mars a lot of times. Look at the form of the beams. The reason is that the vehicle latches there, in that corner. That is why that corner is stronger."
"What do you mean? If the rocket latches to this building it will tear it to pieces! I was thinking how do you plan to take this flimsy structure to Mars."
"One of the rockets you use in your country will, but not what I use. In your country you use quite high accelerations because your rockets burn very fast. I use a very low acceleration below the value of the acceleration produced by the gravity here on Earth. You know that acceleration is what produces force."
"I follow! I still do not understand."
"Leslie, I was telling your dad the other day, that I have developed a different propulsion system. I have a vehicle that fits in the hole of this building. That vehicle has a motor that produces only a small force. I lift the building very softly. You will not feel anything."
"You will give me that again later, when we have more time." Leslie said.
Kristin was sure Leslie did not have any idea of how the trip will be, how they will travel, and what she will be doing.
"Look at these panels. You might want to move them to make a room larger or smaller. You only need to remove these two bolts and the panel slides out. You put it in its new place and set the bolts. The same with the front panels."
"Wow! This building is very well designed! You must have very good engineers!"
"Not to brag, but I designed this building myself and I built the first one to be sure. I also designed the vehicle that will take you and your entourage to Mars."
"You designed them! No wonder my dad said you are extraordinary!"
"Oh, cut it out. There was not too much of a problem. It is a simple building. It was only a matter of putting together some old fashioned common sense."
"It will be a big problem for me!"
Kristin shot him a funny look, but she did not say anything.
"Let me show you something else," she said after a while. "It might be useful during the trip. This is an intercom. You can call me at the bridge. I can also call you from the bridge. It is useful when you have a problem or when I want to call your attention to something interesting to see."
"Yes, that will be useful."
"There is something else that is important. You cannot block this bay because this is the only entrance. That other airlock goes to the back and connects to my ship. I use it to get into the ship and in case of emergency. This area should be free."
"OK, I will remember to tell the aids that."
"I hope that you saw the movie I sent your dad about the conditions on Mars and that you read the booklet of instructions."
His blank look told Kristin that he has not seen the movie or the instructions and that he did not know they existed. They spent some more time talking, Kristin explaining the use of the few devices in the building. They spend some time with Leslie telling her about his life in Washington. The rest of the group started to arrive. Kristin could not avoid noticing that all the aids were young girls, most of them good looking and somewhat older than her. Most of the aids looked eighteen, at the most. There was one that looked not more than fourteen. Even Rev. Gould's aid was a young woman about twenty-five-years-old.
This guys have a good time, Kristin thought irreverently.
Then, Kristin and her father said good bye and left them to organize the building.

Leslie Adams, was eighteen, tall, blond, with blue eyes. He had the look and the port of his father. He could be considered handsome and his manners revealed he was used to the fact that the girls got attracted to him. This gave him a little pedantic attitude that destroyed the effect of his good looks. It was clear that the aids were all under his charm. They all were attentive to every word or gesture he made. All the girls looked at him with almost adoration. He looked fit although not athletic. He had a wide, nice smile and soft manners. Kristin thought immediately of a diplomat, except for his pedantic attitude with the girls. Kristin disliked immediately when she saw how he treated the young aids. He did not talk too much, especially on the shadow of his illustrious father. When he spoke, he had a nice baritone and was very careful in his speech. He enunciated quite well. His eyes revealed intelligence and curiosity. His manners showed that he was used to do as he wished, with himself and with others.


The group of young girls that were the aids was interesting. Most of them were about eighteen. Most of them were good looking and had very nice bodies. It looked more a group of young models in a photographic excursion than a group of political aids in a fact-finding mission. Several of them were blond, with beautiful hair and blue eyes. There was one brunette with a pair of green eyes that matched very good her hair and her complexion. She was very beautiful. The younger girl had black hair and eyes. She had a very white face and a very sweet expression. She seemed to be Leslie's favorite because she was always close to him and it was to her that he always addressed. Reverend Gould's aid had brown hair and dark eyes. She was very attractive. She was the only one who pay no attention to Leslie's charm. She was always in attendance of the Reverend, looking for anything he would need and how she could please him.

Chapter 5

Mr. Adam's aids had quite a number of problems installing themselves in the building. Most of the problems derived from their lack of understanding of how the building was to be transported and how the trip was going to take place. Kristin spend quite a lot of time helping them and trying to make them understand the particularities of the trip. Leslie and Mr. Adams were no help at all. Most of the time they were not there. Leslie rented a car and went visiting town with his young aid. Mr. Adams spent most of his time with the Consul from his country in town. Reverend Gould spent all his time in the room he had selected, most of the time with his aid. Kristin did not see why she had to take charge of getting them ready. She felt sorry for the girls. She visited the building at least once each day and tried to help, but she did not take charge. She really felt sorry for the so-called aids. She was now convinced that they were selected considering characteristics other than competence and abilities. The girls were almost hysterical in their inability to solve the problems that they faced. Kristin sent them movies of other flights to make them understand that they did not need any special protection against the acceleration. To make them understand that there were no high accelerations to cause any problem. Custom inspectors, because of safety reasons, rejected many of the elements they were carrying. Their kitchen range and heating units were not accepted because they used liquefied gas. Kristin had to help them rent a car so they could go to town continuously to find replacements for devices they could not use or to find those they forgot to bring.
As the set date got nearer and passed, their preparations got frantic. It was almost a mad house. Mr. Adams and Leslie were not able to control the chaos and it seemed as they were not even trying, the few times that they were there. It was very clear that nobody had taken the time to watch the movie or read the instructions that Kristin sent Mr. Adams. That alone would have prevented most of the problems they had. At the last minute, they realized that nobody has thought about providing lights to the building. They had to get normal flashlights and battery powered lights. They did not realize that the building had lights from a generator in the equipment room.

Finally, Leslie called Kristin to her home to tell her they were ready. Kristin came to the building and got them all together to explain what she would do. It was her normal procedure in all the flights where she took passengers.
"Let me explain you what I will do," she started. "We will be traveling a short distance from the airport to the family estate. We need to weight the building and send the bill."
"That is all arranged," said Mr. Adams.
"Good," continued Kristin. "From now on, you cannot leave the building. You need to understand that from now on we are traveling."
Everybody bobbed their head as if they understood. Kristin thought of monkeys in a show. Mr. Adams was looking at some papers, Leslie was playing with two of the aids, Rev. Gould and his aid were not there.
"Good," she said containing her smile at that thought. "We are ready depart, then."
All the girls disbanded to different parts of the building to continued their frantic operations. Kristin went to the bridge and lifted the building to take it to her estate to be weighted. None of the passengers realized that they had moved. Nobody had even heard what Kristin had said. They were totally involved in their own occupations without paying any attention to what was happening around them. One of the aids tried to open the airlock while they were in the air. It was clear they had not paid any attention to what Kristin told them. When Kristin saw the light that indicated that they were activating the inner door of the airlock, she called over the intercom.
"Who is the idiot opening the airlock door," Kristin screamed. "We are in the air."
"She is one of the aids," Leslie answered after some delay. "She left a large package someplace in the airport. It is food and it will be needed. Could we come back for it?"
"I will do it," Kristin said in a very hard tone, "but on one condition. We are already three days behind schedule. You need to realize that Mars is going away from us. I could have gone to Mars and back in this time. You get sure that nobody has left anything else because I will not come back a second time."
"OK," said Leslie. "I will check myself that everything is here."
"You should have done it the first time instead of playing."
Leslie did not say anything. Kristin heard one of the girls giggling in the background.
She took the building back, waited for the girl to find and load the package, while the others were really frantic running from one place to another.
"Now, we are ready," called Leslie kind of humbly.
The second launch was smoother. After the module was weighted, Kristin went to talk with them again.
"I want to be sure you understand that you cannot go out of the building for any reason. We are officially traveling and we only wait for the payment to clear, which takes only a few minutes. After that we will be on the air first and then in space. You cannot open the airlock for any reason. You will all get killed if you open the airlock. Is that clear?"
Everybody bobbed their heads as if showing that they were in agreement. Kristin had now very serious doubts if they had heard her at all. Several of the aids got hysterical.
"Are we ready to start the trip?" one of the girls asked almost crying.
"Yes, we are," Kristin said with a straight face.
Another two girls started to cry.
"May I ask you why are you so concerned?" Kristin asked with her best, nice voice.
"Everybody told us that we will die without the special seats the Astronauts use," said one of the girls.
"I do not see that anybody had died and you already traveled," said Kristin with a little of sarcasm in her tone. "Besides, you are not Astronauts, you are tourists."
Mr. Adams lifted his sight from the papers he was studying and smiled.
"But it is not the same going up!" said another of the girls.
"I assure you that you have already gone up. Not a whole lot, but some. We lifted to about thousand feet. The rest of the trip will be exactly like that. You did not notice that we moved because you were not paying attention. How can that kill you?"
"But everybody said that we will get killed," insisted another girl barely controlling her crying.
"Look, you do not have anything to worry about. I have made this trip more than hundred times and nobody ever got killed. One time I had to bring a very sick guy from the Moon. He had an accident and had opened his head. He did not suffer any discomfort. Look out of the windows because the sight is very beautiful. You will be sorry if you miss it!"
"Are you sure?" asked the young girl who was Leslie's favorite. She was not crying. Leslie was holding her hand.
"Of course I am sure," Kristin said with her best tone. "I have made more than hundred trips the same way we will make this one. I am not dead!"
"Why we do not have those special seats?" asked another girl.
"Mr. Adams, Leslie," said Kristin after taking a deep breath. "I am sorry, but this is your problem, not mine. You better do something to calm these girls. Do you have some sedative or something?"
"Do not worry Kristin," Mr. Adams said. "These girls are tired because they have been working hard for the past few days. They will calm down in a few minutes."
Turning to the girls he said.
"Girls, I think that the best thing you can do is to lie in bed for a while, until you feel better."
They all dispersed to their bedrooms, Leslie with them. Kristin was amazed that all those girls were much older than she was. The younger one seemed to be the only one with some control of herself. Trying to convince the hysterical girls got her tired. She went to the bridge. The first thing she did when she came to the bridge was to put a disable in the airlock door to prevent them from opening it. Kristin went through her normal check up before any departure. Everything in her vehicle was in perfect order. She run a check on the building and saw everything in order. They were all in silence. All that took her several minutes. She thought that the girls might have calmed down by now.
"We are ready, pay attention," said Kristin a few minutes later, over the intercom in a low voice, not to disturb the girls. "We are ready to depart. Look out of the windows to see how we go up."

Chapter 6

Kristin lifted the vehicle slowly, as she always did it. Kristin always left the intercom open to listed to her passengers. It was a safety measure she took, in case one for them had some problem. The view of Earth receding was very impressive. A moment later Kristin heard a very soft voice commenting about the view. She thought that it was the young girl who was Leslie's favorite. Leslie answered her with expression of amazement. Soon, there were other girls looking out. They made loud exclamations of surprise. The other girls forgot their worries and looked out and enjoyed it. They had prepared themselves for a long trip. Kristin had told them repeatedly that the trip would take a little more than a day. She explained that for the first six or eight hours they could look at the Earth and the Moon. They were a few hours in the black of space where they could look at the stars and the planets, or that they could sleep if they were not interested. Then Mars will be visible for them to enjoy the view. As always, nobody paid any attention to what she was saying. Everybody went to sleep soon after they departed Earth. They were surprised when Kristin called them to see the approach to Mars that was already quite close.
That evening, after Kristin heard them having dinner, one of the girls called her on the intercom.
"Chris?" she said on a very timid voice.
"Yes? Who is it?"
"This is Susan."
"Hi, Susan. Do you need something?"
"Yes. Chris, what do we do with the garbage?"
"Leslie did not tell you?"
"No, he did not say anything."
"Go, grab that lazy boy and ask him to tell all of you what I explained him."
"He is in his room."
"Call him."
"He will get mad if I interrupt him when he is with a girl."
"Well, he cannot be with a girl all trip. When he comes out, you ask him."
"But, what can I do with the garbage? It will smell bad."
"Where are you Susan?"
"I am by the intercom."
"Which one. There are intercoms all over."
"Are there?"
"Yes, Susan. Go to the kitchen and tell me when you get there."
"Where is the intercom in the kitchen?"
"Do not worry, you do not need to be right by the intercom. Go to the kitchen and tell me when you are there."
"Chris? I am in the kitchen," Susan said a moment later.
"Now, look at the table with the range."
"Yes, what now?"
"To your right, there is a blue box with a heavy cover."
"Yes, I see it. We did not know what it was."
"Open the cover. Be careful. It opens like those jars for preserves."
"Yes, I opened it. It is empty."
"That is where you put your garbage. Are the other girls there?"
"Yes, they are all here except Linda, Judy and Nora. They are busy."
"I understand. You tell them later. Did you put your garbage in that box?"
"Yes. Should I close it?"
"No, not yet. Look at the cabinet just above the garbage box. There is a blue box, round, like those boxes of salt."
"Yes, I found it. We did not know what it was either."
"That is for the garbage. After you put the garbage, put one teaspoon of those pellets in the garbage box and close the lid tight. That will prevent the garbage from smelling bad."
"Good. I did it."
"I told Leslie all those things. The same with the air, the water, the lights. You have to ask him."
"Do we have lights?"
"What are you using?"
"We are using flashlights we got in town."
"Oh boy, you are something else!"
"Do we really have lights?" asked Susan again.
"Yes, of course. There is a generator that comes on when you turn a light on."
"How can we use it?"
"Look, Susan. Go to the airlock and talk to me from there."
"We are in the airlock."
"Good, stand with your back to the airlock. Look in front of you and to your right. There is a little door that must be about the level of your eyes."
"I do not know. There are a lot of boxes there. I cannot see any door."
"Susan, are the other girls there?"
"Yes, we are here," several voices said.
"You have to move those boxes out of there. You cannot have anything in that bay. We can be in big trouble if there is an emergency and there are boxes in that bay. Everything is in that bay, my entrance, the lights, the air, the water. Please girls, be nice and move everything from there. I told Leslie. I am going to skin that kid alive."
"OK, we will move them right now," Susan said while Kristin heard giggles in the background.
A few minutes later, while Kristin heard noises of objects being moved and girls grunting, Susan called back.
"Chris, we cleared everything from here. I see the door you mentioned."
"Good! Open that door."
"There are a number of switches."
"Do you see the big one on top?"
"Yes."
"Is it up or down?"
"It is down."
"Move it up."
Kristin heard a loud click and the exclamations of surprise of the girls. Then, loud male voices.
"What happens, where these lights came from?"
"They have been there all the time," Kristin said. "You have not been using them."
"Did we have lights?"
"Yes, you have."
"And we have to buy flashlights! Why you did not tell us we had lights?"
"Mr. Adams, I told Leslie about the light, about the garbage and all the things. He forgot to tell anybody. I also told him not to put boxes in the passage. The girls just removed them."
"And where is that kid?"
"He is in his room, Mr. Adams," said one of the girls.
"Go call him."
None of the girls moved.
"What happens? Go call him."
"Mr. Adams," Kristin said. "The girls were telling me that Leslie gets very mad if they call him when he is occupied."
"Thank you, Kristin," Mr. Adams said.
"You control the lights like in any house, with the switches at the rooms."

Kristin was careful with the way she made the approach to Mars. She did not want to have to fly them too much over the surface. She had offered to give them a tour of Mars and Mr. Adams had declined. He indicated that they had enough work to do at the place where he had asked Kristin to take them. Mr. Adams have asked Kristin to land them in a place that they called the Carl Sagan Base. Mr. Adams gave Kristin the coordinates of the so-called Base. Kristin had a hard time understanding why that area had a name; especially being called a Base. She recognized immediately as the place where the Pathfinder had landed many years before in the only successful of all NASA's attempts to land a vehicle on Mars. That was one of the first places she had visited in her travels with Joyce and Mike, collecting junk for the Museum. Most of the interesting parts were at the Museum. Some times, she regretted having taken all the interesting junk. There was nothing to show the tourists. On the other hand, Mars had very many natural wonders that were enough to fill a tour of several weeks. There was nothing in their selected landing place, but some discarded junk. She went over the landing place well before they were close to Mars, so the approach was almost vertical.

The problems started almost immediately after she landed. Kristin was going through her normal landing check up procedure when Leslie called Kristin over the intercom.
"Kristin, have we already landed?" he said.
"Yes, of course. Where have you been?" said Kristin. "We landed five minutes ago."
She was going through her landing checklist. She lifted her eyes to the screen that showed the airlock and jumped.
"What the hell are you doing Mr. Adams?" she said in a very loud voice.
It was too late, Mr. Adams had opened the outside door of the airlock with a flag in his arms. He received a blast of the very cold, dusty, acid Martian air. He made a motion to cover his face. The flag fell from his hands and ended up on the ground outside. Kristin jumped to try to close the door, but Leslie was faster and closed it with the manual actuator from the building.
"Leslie, is your father all right?" asked Kristin.
"I do not think so," said Leslie. "His face is all red."
"Do not touch him. I will be right there."
It took only a few seconds for Kristin to be by the airlock. Mr. Adams was lying on the floor. His face was red and he had an expression of horror in his face. All the aids were around the airlock, looking in silence to the scene. Most of them had an horrified expression. One girl was crying softly to one side.
"Please, Mr. Adams, close your eyes," Kristin said in a calm voice.
She had a spray can in her hand and sprayed his face and hands. That eased the pain and they were able to talk. Mr. Adams tried to move but Kristin asked him to remain lying in the airlock a moment longer.
"Please, stay there," Kristin said with a calm voice. "Wait until you feel stronger."
"I feel better, thank you," Mr. Adams said after a moment. Kristin helped him to sit down against the door.
"Have you done any research on the conditions on Mars?" asked Kristin controlling her voice. "I sent you a video tape and a list of instructions."
"I used the list of instructions to get all the supplies," said one of the aids.
"Do you have the list?" asked Kristin controlling her tone of voice.
"Yes, I have it," said the girl.
"Would you please bring it?" Asked Kristin.
"Here it is," said the girl after she went to her room.
"Is any one of you able to read?" asked Kristin with a soft, nice tone of voice.
Nobody said anything. They looked at each other with blank faces. They really did not understand her question.
"What it says here?" Kristin asked pointing to a line, after nobody said anything.
"Space suits. It is not checked, because we do not have any. We did not think we needed any. Space suits for going out into space, right?" said the aid.
"Excuse me," said Kristin now in a bad mood. "What kind of idiots are you?"
"Let me thank you Kristin for your fast action," said Mr. Adams somewhat relieved.
"Your son has brains inside his head," said Kristin with a calm voice again. "It is a shame he did not use them to learn about Mars. He closed the door before I was able to do it from the bridge. You could have been killed! Does anybody has the tape I sent you?"
"Yes, I have it," said one aid.
"Good," said Kristin in an imperative tone. "Before anybody gets killed, please go to a room and watch that tape. After that, we will talk."
Kristin left them and went to the bridge. She was barely able to control her outrage. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to anything that other people said. Every one of them seemed to be living in their own particular little bubble. Nobody paid any attention to the fact that the Reverend Gould, who was just behind Mr. Adams in the airlock, had also received a blast of the Martian air in his face.

Kristin went to the vehicle and lay in bed. She was tired. The trip took almost twenty hours and she had been at the controls all the time. They did not give her a chance to rest before starting, with all their silly things. She fell asleep almost immediately. More than two hours later, a very humble Leslie called Kristin through the intercom. Kristin had a light sleep. She had another connection of the intercom besides her bunk. She answered.
"Yes?" she said, still half asleep.
"This is Leslie. Kristin we watched the movie. We are ready. You told me to call you."
"I will be there in a moment."
She put some cold water in her face and went to the building. She entered the room where all were sitting.
"Mr. Adams," Kristin said with a calm voice, "I am sorry I lost my temper a moment ago. I have never lost anybody in my ships and I have made more than hundred trips. I was shocked when I realized how unprepared you are. That is why I lost my temper. I only hope that you did not breathe that air."
"Kristin," said Mr. Adams. "Now I understand that you saved my life. I will never thank you enough."
"You will have an exotic pattern of scars on your face to remember this adventure," said Kristin smiling.
"Will they stay forever?" said Leslie.
"I do not know," Kristin answered. "I have never seen anybody who got such a blast of Martian air. Everybody use space suits. Let us hope they will fade with time."
"Can I have some of that medication you used on Adams?" said the Reverend Gould.
"Were you also in the airlock?"
"Yes, I was just behind him. It is painful!"
"You should have told me. Wait a moment, I will be back."
She was back in a moment and sprayed the medicine on the Reverend Gould.
"Oh, thank you very much. This is a relief!" he said.
"Anybody else got something?" she asked.
Nobody said anything, so she continued. She went to the front of the room and looked at all those worried faces in front of her.
"Well, let us face reality and see what we can save from the trip. Since you do not have space suits, you cannot go outside. It is that simple! You can see what the Martian wind can do to you. If you breathe that air you will not last five minutes. Mr. Adams, Reverend Gould, are you sure you did not breathe that air?"
"No, I do not think so," said Mr. Adams.
"Do you feel any pain in your chest or in your throat?"
"No, none at all. Thank you."
"You, Reverend Gould?"
"No, I do not feel anything."
"Good," she continued. "I have some commitments here in Mars. I told you that I carry the mail for the other settlements and you can imagine they like news from home. In any case, you know now the problems you are facing. I suggest we all take a rest and tomorrow morning we meet again, to see what I can do so your trip is not totally lost. Make sense?"
"Yes, it make sense. I think a good night sleep will be useful," said Mr. Adams and everybody else concurred.

Chapter 7

Kristin went back to her vehicle and to her bunk. She fell asleep immediately. She was lucky that she could sleep so fast. The following morning, rested and having had a good breakfast, Kristin came to the building. They were all in the same room as the day before, a room they had arranged as a mess hall. It was clear that they had just finished breakfast and have been talking. They did not have time to remove the plates. After examining the scars of the two men and applying some more of the medicine, she asked again for any pain in the throat or chest. Before she could take control of the meeting, Mr. Adams spoke.
"Kristin," he said. "I know that I asked you to leave us here for a week. I understand that you have other commitments. We had been talking before you came. Would it be possible for you to return us to Earth?"
"Mr. Adams, I cannot do that. I know that we have a contract saying that I will bring you here and a week later I take you back. The problem for me is that I am human. I really feel bad about leaving you here without anything to do, but look out of the window, or worst, bringing you back to Earth right now. I was planning to take back a building from Dr. Jones and bring another one next week when I came for you. My point is that not everything has to be business in this life. Dr. Jones is a good friend of mine. He is a very sensible person. I am sure he will understand your situation and accept if I change plans. So, I want to suggest a change to our contract. I do not like the idea of leaving you here fighting with each other and assigning blame."
There were some muted laughs indicating that they have already been fighting and assigning blame for the fiasco.
"I do not like the idea of returning immediately to Earth. I want to suggest," Kristin continued smiling at them, "that I take you around for a general look at Mars and its beauties. I will have to stop at the settlements to deliver their mail, but that will give you a chance to see the settlements at close range, at least from the outside. Since you cannot leave the building without space suits, there is no problem of contamination. Any comments?"
They looked at each other. The Reverend Gould was very subdued and did not say anything. They exchanged glances.
"It seems to be very generous of you, Kristin," said Mr. Adams. "You will loose two trips that represent a large income for you. We appreciate the offer because we really do not have anything to do here. We were considering that we needed to ask you to bring us back immediately."
"Well, that will be such a waste. No, I cannot allow you to waste the trip because you did not read my instructions. The problem is that I might not find places to show you that will take a week. We might have to cut the trip a little short."
"It seems OK."
"Well, do you have anything to do here?"
"We will want to take some pictures," said one of the girls very timidly. "If it is possible, please."
"Yes, of course it is possible. Let me pick up that flag that you dropped outside and you can see my ship in action. You did not pay too much attention when we left Earth. I will be back in a moment."

Kristin went to the bridge and disconnected the building. She felt good for what she had done. She really felt sorry for those poor girls. If she returned them to Earth immediately, those poor girls will be punished, probably they will loose their jobs. None of them seemed intelligent enough to be able to get another job. She had been honest that everything was not business for her. She remembered all the trips she had made with Joyce and Mike, just to have fun. She had paid for them from her share. She remembered all the trips she had made for Dr. Jones, without charging him anything because she connected with a trip for the miners. The two trips she had planned to do were like that. She took the ship from the hole of the doughnut and went outside. Without landing, he hovered a foot above ground. She extended the arm. She picked up the flag and put it in her airlock. She was careful of positioning the ship in a way that they were able to see the entire maneuver and appreciate the flexibility of the ship. She was really showing off. She felt happy showing off in front of those silly girls. She could see all the girls taking pictures through the windows. At the end, she came back to the hole. She locked the building again.
"Now," she said over the intercom, "I will lift you and take you around what you call Sagan Base, or something like that. You tell me if I move too fast, too slow, or if you want to go higher or lower. Here we go!"
She lifted the building about twenty feet above the ground.
"We are circling the periphery of the area where the Pathfinder landed many years back," she explained. "The Pathfinder itself is in my Museum, but there are enough traces and junk you can recognize the area."
The girls started to loose their nervousness. Kristin was open and nice. Everybody liked her in a few moments. These girls were no different. They had taken a liking of Kristin from the time she was helping them on Earth. The girls asked her to move one way and the other. They asked her to hover above one formation or another. When they were satisfied, she took them around.
"Can we stop for a while to have lunch?" asked one of the girls.
"Of course," Kristin said. "This place is as good as any."
"Kristin," Mr. Adams called. "Would you be so nice as to have lunch with us?"
"I would be very happy," Kristin said.
She went down to the building and they had a very nice conversation while the girls prepared lunch and while they ate their lunch. The girls had lost totally their shyness and were chatting with Kristin very enthusiastically. They all talked to her with respect. When they finished their lunch, they were all in good terms, except for Reverend Gould who seem to dislike the company of the young girls.
"Shall we continue?" Asked Kristin.
"Yes, do we have something else to see?" Asked the young girl who was the more vocal.
"Look, before coming I was looking at organizing sight-seeing excursions in Mars. I got to two weeks of places to look at, and I had gone only through half of Mars."
"Wow! Will you show some of that?"
"I will try to show you the most interesting things," Kristin said. "Can we continue?"
"Yes, of course."
Kristin went to the bridge. and lifted the vehicle.
"Now," she explained, "we are seeing the area that was explored by the Pathfinder."
Again, they wanted to see all the details.
"I recognize that feature from the pictures of the Pathfinder," said one of the aids. "Can we get closer?"
"Look," said another aid. "Can we get closer to that rock? I saw a picture with the little robot."
When they have seen everything they wanted, they became calmer.
"Now," Kristin said, "we will go fast and directly to the family settlement. I have to deliver the mail."
They flew about thousand feet high. She heard the comments of the girls looking outside. It seemed to Kristin that Mr. Adams, the Reverend Gould and Leslie were also looking outside although they did not say anything. They got to the settlement of the family. She landed in a way that they could look at the settlement and what she was going to do. Before disconnecting, she explained.
"This is the area where my family is building a hotel and a settlement for the workers. This is part of the area that is called the Cydonia Mensae, or the Cydonia Plateau. The workers accommodations are in the building to your right. You can see that they are already building the hotel in that area to your left. We plan to bring tourists as soon as the hotel is ready. There is a lot of interest in this area. I have to deliver their mail. I have also to visit Dr. Jones settlement to deliver their mail and some supplies they ordered. I will leave you here for a while, but I will be back shortly. Any questions?"
"Kristin, which one you said was the hotel? I see only one building," Leslie's young girl asked her.
"The hotel is the construction to your left, they are only starting it right now. You can see the foundations and some columns."
"I see, thank you." said the girl.
"Anything else?" Kristin asked. Since there was no more questions she said, "Well, see you in a few minutes, about half an hour."
She disconnected the ship and went to the main settlement building, the one she had pointed as the workers accommodations. Using the arm, she transferred several packages from her airlock to the airlock of the building. She also transferred some packages in the opposite direction. Again, she was showing off. It was a satisfaction for her to prove herself superior to a group of older men and a group of silly girls much older than her. She had placed the building in such a way that they could see the maneuver. Then, she lifted very fast and went to the excavation area, which was not visible from there. Now she was acting businesslike since she did not have any spectators. She transferred packages there using the same procedure. It was easier for her to use the arm than to connect the airlocks. She did not need to land and she did not need to move from the bridge. She had already talked with Dr. Jones representative and explained the problem with these people. As she expected, Dr. Jones representative was very cooperative. He called the building to say hello to the two Representatives from his country and to the members of their party, wishing them a good stay. These operations took a good part of the day. Kristin suggested that they stay there for the night and have a good night sleep before visiting the rest of the Cydonia Mensae.

The following day, as soon as she was up, she monitored the activity of her passengers. She realized that they were up. Kristin called them over the intercom. She asked the girl who answered the intercom to call her as soon as they were ready to start the explorations for the day.
"Where are you taking us today, Kristin?" Asked the girl.
"Since we are already here," she told her, "I am planning to show you the Cydonia Mensae area."
"Is that the area of those mounds they say are artificial?" The girl asked excited.
"Yes, that is."
"Wow! I call you as soon as we finish our breakfast."
The girl called about half an hour later.
"Kristin?"
"Yes, here I am."
"We are ready to go."
"Good, tell them that I am lifting."
She lifted the ship at about thousand feet and went through the periphery of the area.
"The Cydonia Mensae, or table in English, is interesting," she explained with her clear voice, over the intercom. "The main interest of this area is all the controversy that developed some years back. The main reason for the controversy was because NASA did not want to release pictures of the area. The pictures released from the Viking spacecraft were of low resolution, but they were enough to show that there was something here that merited more study. There were at the time a large number of studies, both good and bad, made of those pictures. They claimed a number of conclusions, although the available information was really very small. Several years later NASA finally had a satellite in orbit about Mars, what they called the Global Surveyor or something like that, and later the Odyssey, if I am not wrong. These satellites took many thousands of high-resolution pictures of the surface of Mars over a period of several years. NASA released a good number of them covering many areas of Mars in great detail. They released only a small number of pictures of this area. Most of them really showed very little more than the low resolution pictures from the Viking. NASA gave a number of reasons for the lack of pictures of the area. The most common one was that the area did not fall on the path of the satellites and that it would be necessary to change the orbit to be above this area. Naturally, this only created more speculations and crazy ideas. There had never been any real explanation for the reasons why NASA refused to release pictures of this area. There were many speculations about what they were hiding here."
Kristin was thinking in the back of her mind that she was becoming a fantastic tourist guide.
"In my first visit to Mars," she continued smiling to herself at the thought, "with my friend Dr. Cook and my niece Joyce, we saw without doubt that all these formations could not be natural. Some of them are natural, but not all. You can see for yourselves that this is the case. Dr. Jones gave us an instrument to map underground formations and we used it in this area. We discovered a cemetery and a number of ruins. That is what Dr. Jones is excavating. This is the reason why my family has claimed this area, so it can be protected and studied. Pay attention to those mounds just in front of you," she said before they could make any comment. "You can see what looks like an aperture in one of them. I have taken soundings of that area and that really is the entrance to an extensive set of underground tunnels. If you look at the monitor in your back, you can see the sounding showing the tunnels. There has not been time to study these tunnels. The whole area has not been explored because of lack of time. I suspect that there is much to be discovered here. I think that if thousand scientists come to this area they would be busy for a long time."
She kept a continuous flow of explanations as she took them slowly through the perimeter of the area, which is quite extensive. In many cases she gave the names of the different formations, explaining that the names came in most cases from the many studies made on the pictures from the Viking. That they were not official names. She was very careful where she went. She avoided the excavation area. She also avoided the Face on Mars.
"Where is the Face on Mars?" asked one of the girls.
"It is out of the way," Kristin answered.
"Can we see it?" the girl insisted.
"I am leaving it for tomorrow," Kristin said. "It would be too much to do it all now."
"Can we go today?" asked another girl.
"There is a lot to see in the Face," said Kristin. "You do not want to be caught by night fall here."
"What happens if we are caught by night fall?" asked some other girl. They were no longer scared.
"Well, you get scared of flying during the day," said Kristin. "If we fly during the night, you will not be able to sleep for a month!"
They all laughed and Kristin knew she had touched a sore point. They did not realize how long the trip took. Finally, she completed the perimeter flight and was back at her family settlement. She parked there for the night.
"Kristin," Leslie called after they had parked. "My father said if you would come to have dinner with us tonight."
"That is very nice of you. I have to do some things here and I will be there in a little while."
Again, they had a very nice dinner and a long after-dinner conversation. Again, Reverend Gould left the table as soon as they finished their dinner. The conversation lasted well into the night. The girls had thousands of question for Kristin. They were all curious how she had learned so much. How she learned to design space ships. For some time, they also talked about their respective home towns and the marvels of space travel. It was late when Kristin went to her ship after all the girls wished her a very good night.

The following morning the girls called Kristin as soon as they had finished their breakfast and they were ready to start. Kristin had the impression that the girls were running the show now. That Mr. Adams and Leslie let them do whatever they wanted. Kristin had noticed the night before that Leslie was almost all the time with the young girl. Kristin had learned during the conversation that the girl was only thirteen and that Leslie had taken her from school to be his father's aid. Her family seemed not to object with the relationship between their daughter and Leslie. Leslie did not have too much trouble enjoying the other girls who were always ready to accept a caress or a kiss from him. Kristin had noticed that there was one, beside Reverend Gould's aid, who did not show much interest in Leslie. It was the girl with beautiful green eyes. It was easy for Kristin to see that she was Mr. Adams' companion.
Kristin lifted the vehicle when they told her that they were ready. She went directly to the area of the Face.
"The Face on Mars is a very impressive structure," Kristin explained while they were traveling high to the area of the Face. "You probably remember that it was discovered by Jet Propulsion Laboratory people on the pictures from the Viking mission. It has fascinated the imagination of many people since then. There had been the wildest theories about it. Most of those theories were based really on nothing, but imagination. NASA had spent a lot of effort trying to prove that the Face is a natural formation. They had worked on pictures from the last two satellites, to convert the raw images to show that there was nothing artificial in it. It always gave the impression that they were interested in covering something. What was clearly artificial were NASA's explanations. I do not know if you remember, I was the first to obtain close up pictures of the Face and show them in public in that conference my Dad gave about the Moon. You will have a chance to see the Face today in all its glory and splendor. The weather has damaged it very much. It still shows the magnitude of the structure and its beauty."
Kristin have given a lot of thought as to the best way to approach the Face so the first impression was striking. She was doing all this for those tours she was planning as soon as her dad had the hotel ready. When they approached the Face, everybody went silent and Kristin made her explanation in a very soft voice. She had a good sense of the dramatic.
"There has not been time for studying the Face in any detail. We do not know if it was a monument, a temple, or what. The problem is that Dr. Jones has his hands full with the cemetery he is excavating. There are a number of professors at the excavation and many students. They are all busy finding and classifying what they find."
"From what Dr. Jones tells me," she said some time later, "the people who inhabited this area was in what on the Earth is called the Stone Age...."
At that moment the Reverend Gould exploded interrupting her.
"Are you telling me," he said in a very angry and loud voice, emphasizing the pronoun, "that there were humans here?"
"Yes, sir," answered Kristin with a calm voice in sharp contrast with the loud voice of the Reverend Gould. "They were humanoids at least. That is what Dr. Jones has been able to determine. If the bones we found here were on Earth, they will be considered humans without a doubt."
"But that is outrageous!" said the Reverend Gould getting more excited. "God created humans only on Earth!"
"Reverend," said Kristin trying very hard to keep her voice calm and even, "I am only repeating what is the current opinion of the scientific community."
"They are wrong!" said the Reverend Gould in the categorical tone of the persons who cannot accept or consider the opinion of somebody else. "The Bible says that God created humans on Earth. The Bible does not says anything about Mars."
"You will have to take it with the scientists," Kristin said. "I am not a scientist. I cannot say anything about the Bible either. I have never read the Bible."
"What you are is very impertinent," said the Reverend Gould in his bad mode. "You need to have more respect for religion."
Kristin did not answer. He was not going to enter in a discussion with a person like Reverend Gould, who could only think on his own opinions. She did not continue with her narrative. She was simply hovering in place, waiting for them to react. Everybody was in complete silence for quite a while. Nobody knew what to do to break the impasse. Kristin was hovering close to the Face.
"Have you seen enough?" she said finally. She was tired of waiting. She had to do something. She was sorry that Reverend Gould had come in the trip. The others were very nice people and she had been enjoying their company.
That broke the impasse. There was a clamor of questions and Kristin forgot the interruption and continued with her narrative. He hovered over the different features of the Face so they could see them from different angles. The Reverend Gould tried to interrupt her several times, but she simply ignored him. Finally, in a very bad mood, he went to his room. They landed close to the Face to have their lunch. They ate their lunch looking through the windows at the Face and making many comments. As soon as they finished, they asked Kristin to continue showing them more details. During lunch they had come with many more things they wanted to see. The others were fascinated by the Face and asked her to position the ship one way and another until they did not have more ideas of what to ask. When they had seen enough of the Face, she took them back to the same area they spent the previous night.
"You understand now," Kristin said when they were landing, "why I did not want to look at the Face yesterday. It took us all day to take a good look."
"You are right," several voices concurred. "It was beautiful. I wish we could go back tomorrow."
"Will see what else you want to look at," Kristin said. "We can come back, if we run out to places to visit."
She was really enjoying showing them all she knew about Mars.

The following morning, they overslept. Kristin have been hearing them talking very late at night. She felt asleep and the girls were still talking. It looked to Kristin that they were very excited by the visit to the Face. When they finally called her, the Sun was quite high in the sky.
"Kristin, are you up?" Called Leslie's young girl whose name Kristin had learned was Linda.
"Yes, Linda," she said. "I have been up for several hours. It is quite late, mid morning."
"Really? We were chatting until very late at night."
"Are you ready to go?"
"We were talking if it would be possible to go back to the Face."
"Look Linda, I am sorry. I told you that I have to deliver the mail and the packages they send to the miners from Earth. I also have to collect the mail and the packages the Miners want me to take to Earth."
"Oh!" Linda said with a sad tone of voice.
"Look, tell all of the others that we are going to the miner's settlement. It is at the other side of Mars. We have a lot of things to see on the way. If we have time later, we return to the Face."
"OK, thank you, Chris."
Kristin lifted the vehicle and flew towards the miner's settlement. It was a long trip. She tried to fly in a way that they went through some interesting formations on the surface of Mars. There was not too much that was of interest for them to see. The girls were tired from the late conversation of the night before and most of them went to bed after a while. Kristin took them first to the miner's settlement to deliver and pick up their mail. There was another show of her abilities with the arm. For several days she took them to the places she considered interesting. She visited the places that she had found where several NASA attempts to land a probe on the surface of Mars had ended in a crash-land many years before. They went also to the places where the Russians probes had crashed.
"You know," Kristin commented, more than anything to entertain herself. "For some time there was a theory that something was preventing the probes from landing."
"I remember," said Leslie. "There were people saying that there were Martians shooting the probes down."
"I heard that NASA sent the Mars Global Surveyor and the Odyssey to see if there were really Martians," Kristin said. "They sent much better equipment than before and they stayed up, far from the Martians."
"Are there really Martians?" asked one of the girls.
"Yes," said Kristin, "there are Martians, but they all were born on Earth."
They laughed at her comment. They wanted to see all the details. They asked her to hover one way and the other. They were taking movies and pictures. Kristin took them also to see some of the Martian formations, like the Mount Olympus, the Valles Marineris and the huge Hellar crater. Each place took them a good part of a day. Kristin had fun hovering around Mount Olympus for them to realize how big it was. She laughed at the cries of the girls. Now, Kristin did not have any trouble making jokes and laughing at them.
"This is the highest mountain in the whole Solar System," she said. "It is more than seventy five thousand feet high."
She went into the Valles Marineris for them to notice its immensity. It was also fun to get down in the Valles Marineris and follow it for a while being practically underground.
"The Valley Marineris is more than four thousand kilometers long," she indicated. "That is about half of the width of the United States."
She went around the Hellar Crater for they to appreciate how big and deep it is. Kristin had fun to get down to the bottom of the Hellar crater and look at the rim several kilometers above. The girls were screaming in horror.
"This crater is six kilometers deep and two thousand kilometers in diameter," she mentioned.
They were too far to return to the family settlement for the night. To try to scare the silly girls, she parked at the bottom of the Hellar crater to spend the night. Since it made no difference, other evenings Kristin parked the vehicle in any protected place, if possible with a view of the sunset.
"Look at the sunset," she usually said. "It is gorgeous with all the dust in the atmosphere."
Several times they invited her to come to the building for dinner and those evenings were quite nice. The girls were very silly, but they have a lot of stories to tell Kristin that she had never heard. Kristin was really enjoying the company. When she was in school, she never mixed with kids her age, because they were really afraid of her and how much she knew. These girls treated her with respect and if she were much older than them, but they had a good time joking and chatting. Mr. Adams was very good in a social environment and he also enjoyed very much these evenings. Finally, they had spent more than a week without feeling time passing. One evening, after they had dinner and a long conversation, she brought the point of returning to Earth.
"Well, I do not know if you realize," she said. "You had spent more than a week on Mars already."
"Is that so?" Mr. Adams said.
"If I am not wrong," said one of the girls Kristin had not learned her name, "we have been here ten days, if we count the day we spent coming here."
"Are you sure, Nora?" Mr. Adams asked. "We were supposed to spend a total of nine days, including the two trips."
"I am sure," Nora said. "What I do not know is that business of Martian and Earth days."
"The Martian day is two hours longer than the Earth day," Leslie said with authority.
"No, Leslie," Kristin said. "The Martian day is only a little longer that the Earth day, something like forty minutes longer."
"Then," Nora said. "We have been here in Mars nine days."
"Well, I think it is time for us to get back," Mr. Adams said. "We have abused Kristin good nature long enough."
"I have been having a very good time," Kristin said. "So, let us get a good night sleep and we start back tomorrow. Now, you girls, do not be silly and look out. There is a lot to enjoy during the trip. You can sleep all you want when we get to Earth."
"Well, you showed us that you were right."
"Is anybody still afraid of dying?" Kristin asked smiling at them.
They all laugh.

Chapter 8

Kristin lifted the ship after going through her normal launching checkup. The return trip was without incidents. The girls had lost all traces of fear and enjoyed every moment of the trip. Kristin took them first to go around Mars to look at it from a distance. She was enjoying the trip much more than what she expected. It was the first time that she had interacted with her passengers. That was the consequence of the tour. The girls were chatting with her over the intercom. Mr. Adams and Leslie were also more open and chatted with her. Kristin took them later close enough to Phobos and Deymos, for them to have a chance to look at the moons of Mars. They were much impressed that they were not round like the Moon. Then, she took a trajectory towards Earth. The building went into silence and Kristin assumed they had gone to sleep. She turned the intercom to listen. They were far from Mars when Leslie called her.
"Kristin. Are you sleeping?"
"Leslie, what kind of a question is that? Do you imagine that I sleep at the controls?"
"Sorry, I did not think about that." Kristin heard Linda giggling in the background.
"Oh!" Kristin controlled herself saying something hard. "Did you want something?"
"Yes. We were chatting with Linda about your vehicle. We were curious how it looks in the bridge."
"Come and see," Kristin said in an impromptu. "As long as you do not ask difficult questions or touch anything," she added.
A very happy boy would have agreed to any conditions.
Kristin opened the latch of the airlock connecting the vehicle to the building.
When they came into the bridge they did not have enough eyes to see everything. Neither one of them asked any question with their voice, but their eyes were making many questions for Kristin to see. The instruments and the controls fascinated him. To Kristin surprise, Linda was also very interested. They looked with an open mouth to the pictures from the radar.
"Is that a radar?" Linda could not controlled herself longer.
"Yes, it is. That is the one that is looking into the path we will follow," Kristin explained in a normal voice.
"What are these points?" Linda asked looking at the other radar.
"I do not know. Probably some small asteroids."
"Wow! This is fantastic. Thank you, Chris. You are the best person I ever met in my life."
"Hey!" Leslie spoke for the first time. "How about me?"
"You are a nice guy, but you agree that Chris is the best!" Linda said.
"I have to agree to that," Leslie said.
Kristin showed them the pictures from the camera at the end of the arm. She also showed them the operation of the arm. She let Linda work with the arm looking at the outside of the ship.
"Why do you have those hooks, there?" Linda asked with the camera pointing to the hooks.
"I use them when I collect junk and I have some big piece that does not fit in the cargo bay. I secure the piece to one of those hooks."
"Wow! All this is so interesting. You are so smart." Linda was very honest and naive. She could never say something like that if she did not feel it.
They talked for a while. Kristin was liking Linda more every time they were together. She had noticed since they entered, that she had something bothering her. It was clear that Leslie had called Kristin to give her some distraction.
"Leslie, I know that you can be discreet. At least, I think you can." Kristin said after a quiet moment.
"He is discreet when he wants," Linda said.
"Would you go back to the building and ask your father to come, all with the minimum of fuss? I would want to talk in private with him."
"Yes, I can be discreet. I hope he is not talking with the Reverend Gould!"
"It does not have to be right now. Wait for the right moment."
"I will do it right now. Come, darling!"

About half an hour later Mr. Adams entered the bridge. Kristin asked him to sit down and apologized that she needed to continue at the controls. They started with amenities. Mr. Adams commented about the bridge.
"I imagine Leslie went crazy looking at all this equipment."
"Yes, he did not say too much. His eyes showed how much he liked looking over."
"He is very interested in space."
"I was surprised by Linda," Kristin said. "She is a very smart girl!"
"Yes, she is very smart. Leslie is very much attached to her. Probably too much because she is very young."
"Yes, I have noticed that."
Mr. Adams was looking at the picture from the radar.
"Mr. Adams," Kristin said after a short while. "I have known you for some time now, not too long, but in special circumstances. I have come to consider you a very conscientious man of high integrity."
"Thank you, Kristin. I appreciate that opinion!"
"I need to talk with you about something that I hope you will not consider a disrespect."
"Go ahead. I know that you are a very special person and I will always appreciate your opinion."
"Pardon me for asking, but what were you intending to do in the airlock the day we landed?"
"The thing is like this. I did not have enough support by myself to get this trip approved. I was very much interested with all you told me in that meeting. I wanted Leslie to come. I had to gain the support of somebody else to get the trip approved. Nobody was interested. Reverend Gould surprised me one day telling me that he was interested in supporting my request. To give his support to this trip and get it approved, Representative Gould insisted on two conditions. That he comes on the trip with one of his aids and that we plant an American flag in Martian soil as soon as we arrive."
"For the propose of....?" Kristin asked leaving the question open.
"With the purpose of claiming the planet Mars for the United States, as was done with the Apollo flights on the Moon."
"I was afraid of that!" said Kristin.
"And why do you say that, Kristin?"
"There is a big difference between your landing on the Moon and the landing you had made on Mars. On the Moon you went on your own power. Here you came under my power, as my passengers."
"I agree that makes a difference."
"There is more. That is why I want to talk with you. The claim you made on the Moon has very little value. Those are really only words. I imagine that for some time, out of romanticism, people will refrain from claiming the areas where the Apollo flights landed. You have to recognize that you have very little control over what happens. You are not there. You were only a few hours. What is even more important, you cannot go there. Now, there is people, thousands, living permanently on the Moon and they will laugh at you if you tell them that the Moon belongs to the United States."
"I see your point."
"The case of Mars is even worst. You have rented one of my buildings and paid me to transport you here. You know that I have been very happy to bring you here and I have enjoyed the tour we made. Your country cannot come to Mars in any reasonable manner. It will cost you five hundred billion dollars and six years to put an appearance here for a couple of days. You cannot stay longer than that. I come here wherever I want. I bring the mail and the supplies for those who live here. Coming here is routine for me. I have the right to make a claim here because, if somebody trespasses on my claim, I can be here within a day and pull him out. You cannot do that."
"But we can come the same way we came this time."
"Yes, of course. You can pay me to bring you when you want to come. There is something that you do not consider. Imagine you claim the planet Mars as you planned to do. Imagine you actually take possession of the planet. The first thing you will do is to put a Governor, impose taxes, put police and bureaucracy. In other words, all the bad things that all Governments of Earth have in common."
"Well, it is not that bad."
"You have to agree with me that I will be very stupid to work against my own interest, the interest of my family and my friends. You have seen that I do not care about money. The money I make is donated automatically to a Foundation that gives scholarships to deserving High School graduates."
"I did not know that. That is very generous! Kristin, you reaffirm my idea that you are an extraordinary person! I understand your point of view and the folly of thinking with colonialist ambitions. What you have shown me of Mars proves very much your point. You are established here!"
"You know that the Moon have been declared a Republic. You will be interested looking at their Constitution. One of my brothers is on the Moon, in charge of the family operations there. I have been in contact with him. I have been telling him about you and the opinion I have of you. He asked me to invite you to visit the Moon. He wants you to see what we have done there. I will be happy to take you to the Moon if you accept."
"I will be very happy to visit the Moon. What will that entail?"
"They are much more advanced there. In Mars we use buildings like the one you are using. On the Moon they have built permanent installations. They have several industries working full swing. There is a large number of families that justified establishing schools for the children. There, you will be able to disembark from the ship and visit the installations. My brother wants to offer a formal dinner on your honor."
"It looks very nice."
"Depending on the time we arrive, I will give you a tour like the one I gave you on Mars, so you see all that is there."
"Well, Kristin, I appreciate very much this conversation," said Mr. Adams standing.
"Are you mad at me for what I said?"
"No, not at all. See you later!"

Chapter 9

Hours later, when they were getting closer to the Moon, Kristin called in the intercom. She told them that they were close to the Moon and to take places in front of the windows under hers. In this way, she could point the places of interest over the intercom. She had warned Sam about the Reverend Gould. She wanted to be sure that he understood the magnitude of the problem and that he had prepared the rest of his people that will be in contact with him. She called him again on the radio.
Since they arrived several hours before normal dinnertime, Kristin told her passengers that they were going for a tour around the Moon. First, she flew slowly over the main installations of the family that were impressive from above. She was explaining briefly what each building was. It was a good-sized city. There were many buildings of different types and there were clear signs of activity inside and outside the buildings.
Later she took them to the landing sites of the Apollo missions, the places of the Russian and American crashes, over some of the many other settlements that dotted the Moon. She was telling them who were the settlers of the most important settlements and briefly what they were doing. She finished with a general tour of the most important craters and the backside of the Moon that is not visible from Earth. She was giving them over the intercom, the names of the craters and details on what they were looking at.
This took them several hours. They arrived to the main installations. She parked the vehicle with the airlock connected to the airlock of the main building. She came down from the bridge to enter the airlock and make the seals. She had much practice on this operation. The three men and all the girls were around looking with interest and excitement. They were able to disembark without problem.

A delegation was waiting for them by the airlock. As they entered, Sam Smith and his family introduced themselves and gave them the welcome.
"It is a pleasure to receive such distinguished guests," said Sam. "Let me introduce myself, I am Samuel Smith, General Manager of Smith and Sons operations on the Moon. This is my wife Suzanne, my daughter Jennifer, my son Arthur."
"Very glad to meet you all. I am John Adams, this is the Reverend Joe Gould, this is my son Leslie. The rest of our entourage are Reverend Gould's and my Congressional aids."
Kristin noticed the way the aids were introduced as official persons. Kristin laughed by herself at the kind of aid they did. Jennifer was all smiles for the handsome Leslie, but he maintained a diplomatic attitude. Kristin knew that Linda kept him happy.
"I am very happy to step on the Moon," said the Reverend Gould in his usual loud voice, "not many years after our Astronauts were the first humans to set foot here."
That cooled the ambient and Sam had to make an effort not to answer him in a bad manner. He mentally thanked Kristin for her advance warning. They exchanged a quick look. He solved the situation by introducing the other persons in the group.
"Let me introduce you to Mr. Johnson, he is our President."
"How are you Mr. Johnson," said Mr. Adams. He understood what Sam was referring to.
Reverend Gould gave a cursory nod in Mr. Johnson's direction.
"Do you have a Chaplain in your group?" asked the Reverend Gould interrupting the presentations with his normally hard tone of voice.
"No, sir. We do not have any here," Sam answered him very politely.
It was clear to Kristin that he was making an effort to remain polite.
"But you sure have some priests on the Moon!" the Reverend Gould insisted.
"No, sir. No religious person exists or is needed on the Moon," said Sam quite dry now.
He was not the most polite of Kristin's brothers. He had moved to the Moon because he was a good worker and good manager, not a good diplomat.
The Reverend Gould made a gesture of disgust and turned to his aid.
"Judy, make a note to remedy this situation," he said in a loud voice to be sure everybody heard him.
"We will take a few minutes before dinner, to show you some of our installations," said Sam. "This way please."
He showed them the well established offices. It was a large room with many desks and computers.
"These are the main offices of the Company," Sam explained.
Later, he showed them some of the living quarters for the workers.
"We are coming to the school," Sam said.
The school children had congregated to sing a welcome song for the visitors. They applauded the children when they finished. Later, Sam took them to the installations that provided them with air, water, heating, cooling, illumination. He was explaining what they were seeing. Then, he took them to one of the factories where they saw the equipment and the workers from a balcony. All his explanations were directed to Mr. Adams, Leslie and the aids. The Reverend Gould was totally ignored.
Mr. Adams made several comments, mainly about how nice was that the children were singing for them and how good they sang, that he had not imagined how extensive the installations were, and similar comments to either Sam or Kristin.
"Kristin, you were right that the installations here are impressive," he told her when they were returning.
Later, Sam took the group to a very nice dining room. The room had dynamic windows showing a garden with the leaves moving in the imaginary breeze on one side and a beach with surf on the other.
"This is our special meeting room," he explained. "We have arranged it today as a dining room in your honor."
"This is very beautiful," said one of the girls.
"Thank you," Sam answered smiling at her.
Sam had a good eye for pretty girls. Suzanne kicked him on his shin when he was looking too interested at the pretty girls from Earth.
"Please have a seat," Suzanne said. "It would be better if we intermix visitors with Lunatics."
It was a standing joke to call lunatic to the people from the Moon. The visitors did not know it, so they had a good laugh. When they were sat, a dinner was served.
The conversation during dinner was quite congenial and time was passing in a good way. Everybody seemed to be having a good time. The two groups have sat mixing together. They were exchanging views and comments on their trip, on one side, and on the life on the Moon, on the other. They were many comments from the girls about how Kristin had saved their trip.
"Yes," Mr. Adams said to Sam and Suzanne. "Your sister is a very nice person. We had arranged for a week stay on Mars. Somebody forgot to see that we had space suits. You can understand that we were stranded. Kristin is so generous that she stayed with us and took us all around Mars. She converted a disaster into a marvelous excursion."
"I gave them part of the tours I am preparing for when the hotels are ready," Kristin explained.
"It was really fantastic," Leslie said. He was sitting at the other side of Kristin.
"Kristin is the best person in the world," Linda added from the other side of the table.
Both groups were interested in the experiences of the other group. Both groups were ready to relate their own experiences. The Reverend Gould was talking with one of the people from the Moon. Suddenly, he raised his voice to be heard by the whole room, drowning all conversations.
"Of course you are American residents," he said in his angry voice. "This is American soil since the first Apollo landing. The whole Moon was claimed as American. That thing of the Republic is ridiculous!"
The complete silence in the room lasted for several minutes. Kristin was thinking of intervening, but Sam spoke first.
"Excuse me, sir," he said in a calm, diplomatic voice. He was sitting almost across from Reverend Gould. "It is true that many years ago a few Americans were here for a few hours. That does not make the whole Moon American. It is the same case as when Columbus came to the Caribbean and claimed the whole New World for Spain. Years later the English got to North America, the Portuguese got to South America and Spain had nothing to do."
"In the same way," he continued, interrupting whatever the Reverend Gould was trying to say. "Now we are here and your country can do nothing to evict or control us. Further more, there is a group of people who has claimed the sites were the Apollo missions landed. They plan to make resorts there to attract tourists. What can you do about it?"
"But all this is trespassing!" said the Reverend Gould getting more irate.
His face was almost red. His aid, who was sitting next to him, put her hand on his arm, trying to calm him down. She talked very low to him.
"So?" Continued Sam. "The fact that somebody says this land is mine does not make it his. He has to have possession. He needs to work the land, build buildings, and live in the place. More important, he must be able to do something in the case of trespassing. You are the first group of Americans to come to the Moon in many years, except for the ones who have come as colonists. You come as tourists, in a ship that does not belong to you. What would you do, Reverend, if my sister leaves you stranded here? How many years will it take for your country to rescue you, if they ever bother to do it?"
The Reverend Gould said something that nobody heard, stood up upsetting his chair and left the room with hard, strong paces. His aid followed him. Sam sent one of the boys who were serving the dinner to show them the way to the ship.
"I think that an apology is in order," said Mr. Adams when they had left. "Reverend Gould has very narrow ideas, typical of a man of the cloth. I hope you all will excuse him for an interruption of such bad taste," he added addressing the whole audience. "You are right, Mr. Smith," he said turning to Sam. "We are here as your guests and I for one and I am sure my son and all my aids, appreciate very much your hospitality. You have heard the opinion we have of your sister. You can be sure that I will try very hard to influence my Government's policy and to see that my ideas prevail and not those of people like the Reverend Gould."
"I appreciate your concern, Mr. Adams, and you do not need to apologize for him," was the polite answer from Sam.
The dinner continued on the previous mood. Very soon the bad taste of Reverend Gould peroration was forgotten. After dinner there was some dance and Jennifer danced many times with Leslie. Sam took Kristin to one side.
"Thank you sister for the warning. I would have exploded if you did not warn me."
"He is impossible. I had a lot of trouble with him."
As soon as Sam left Kristin, Linda came to her side.
"Chris, who is that girl dancing with Leslie?"
"She is my niece Jennifer, Sam's daughter."
"She had taken Leslie."
"Do not worry, Linda. She cannot do anything to your Leslie. She has to stay here. You are really in love with Leslie," Kristin ended to change the conversation.
"It is more than love, Chris. We met at a picnic in a farm. He took me to a barn and he did you know what. I was just twelve. I did not know anything and I let him do it. He told me that he liked me very much. After that, he came when I was getting to school and took me to his apartment instead of going to school. He came almost every week. I got pregnant. My parents were real mad at me and wanted me out of the house. I told Leslie and he was very nice with me. He took me to a clinic where they took the child out. I was two weeks in the clinic. Then, he took me to his apartment to live with him. Last night he told me something I did not know. When they got the child, he told them to do something else so I cannot have children any more."
Kristin felt her dinner jumping on her stomach. To her luck, two guys from the Moon came at that moment to dance with them. Kristin was very popular, not only on the Moon but every place. Wherever she went, she was very well received. She was dancing very animated with the guy, who was a good friend of hers. When they finished, she thanked him and looked for Jennifer. She got her from the arm.
"Jennifer, come over here," she told her, guiding her out of the room.
"Jennifer, be careful with that guy. Most of the girls with them are in his harem. He is very bad. He likes to trash the girls."
"I have noticed that. He wanted to go to my room."
"Be careful, he is not good enough for you. There are a lot of nice kids here."
"Chris, I wanted to talk with you," she said when they were back in the room.
"Talk!"
"Chris, you are very nice. Please, would you talk with mother so she let me go back to Earth. I feel very lonely here."
"How about all those kids who were serving dinner. They look pretty nice."
"They are all scared of me because of my dad. Please, Chris, take me with you."
"I am sorry, Jennifer. You know that Joyce is practically my daughter. I have to see to her, look at her homework and everything."
"I will not be any trouble. I promise," Jennifer said almost crying.
"I am sorry. If I take you, you will have to live with me. I cannot care for you. I do not have time even for Joyce."
"Please," Jennifer said.
Kristin was lucky again, another two guys from the Moon came to dance with them. Kristin almost thanked the guy. The thought of having Jennifer as a daughter was scaring. While she was dancing, they got close to Leslie and Linda dancing together. Linda smiled broadly to Kristin and she mouthed Thank you. Kristin smiled back at her. Poor girl, she thought.
The evening went very nice. Members of both groups played instruments, sang, told jokes and provided entertainment. Some of the girls got together to sing a very nice ballad. Another one took a violin and played a very foot-tapping dance. After a couple of hours of very nice and congenial evening, the travelers exchanged good byes and good wishes. The travelers moved to the ship. Kristin looked for the aid of the Reverend Gould to be sure they were in the ship. The girl was very worry that Reverend Gould might have a stroke. Kristin was glad that she always locked the door to the bridge before leaving even for a short time. Actually, her door locked automatically when she closed it. She needed a key to enter. They lifted in a few minutes and a couple of hours later they were landing on Earth. Following the standard procedure that she had established, she weighted the building and took it back to the airport to be processed.

When she got to the airport, she landed; she disengaged the ship and parked it to one side. She disembarked and went to say good bye to the passengers. The Reverend Gould, pulling his aid with him, left for the airport building without saying anything. It was easy to see that he was in a very bad mood. It was good that they had only two small suitcases that they carried with them. All the others went out of the building to thank Kristin for the trip and for her explanations. Many of them mentioned the fact that she had saved their trip with her generosity. The girls that had been scared before leaving stopped to say good bye. Each one of them embraced Kristin.
"You were right that it was beautiful," they said to Kristin.
"You see," answered Kristin smiling. "You did not die after all. I am glad you enjoyed the trip."
Mr. Adams and Leslie left the building after organizing the aids to unload all the equipment and baggage they had into the car that they had rented. Then they went to say good bye to Kristin.
"The next time you travel with me," Kristin said to Mr. Adams with a big smile, "I make sure you have all you need."
"The next time I travel with you I will read your instructions myself and make sure everybody else reads them. I thought I could trust my aids."
"You should train Leslie better," said Kristin. "He could take those worries from you."
"I noticed that his scars are fading," said Leslie to change the topic of the conversation. "He will not have an exotic pattern after all."
"If the scars fade," Mr. Adams said very solemnly, "I will never forget what you have done, Kristin. I will always be in your debt, not only for saving my life, but also for opening my eyes and my mind. Good bye Kristin and good look to you."
"Good bye Mr. Adams and it was a pleasure traveling with you. If I can ever be of any service to you, you know how to find me."
"Kristin, I have also learned a lot of things from you." said Leslie.
"Be nicer with Linda, she is a nice girl," Kristin said when Mr. Adams was far.
"Yes, she is."
"You do not deserve her."
"No?"
"No, she is much better than you."
"I will improve, Chris."

Chapter 10

Kristin was very busy when coming back from Mars. The long week that she had spent on the trip put her back on her work. Sarah received her with many smiles, but she gave her a good package of notes, phone calls and letters to attend to. Kristin smiled at her.
"You saved a nice present for me as welcome back present," Kristin said.
"Chris, if I knew how to answer them, I would do it. I have answered about twice as many because I knew how."
"It is all right, Sarah. I am kidding. You are a very nice girl."
Kristin spent the week working. There were letters to write. There were phone calls to make. There were visits to make to the university. There were meetings with several persons. There were also visits to school about Joyce. There was several small things she had to arrange for her niece. Kristin enjoyed the change of pace. She enjoyed being back with the adoring Joyce. Joyce liked very much to be with her parents and she knew that they liked very much to be with her. She also liked to be with Kristin and she knew that she needed her advise and her support. More than anything, Joyce knew that she needed that confidence Kristin gave her. She knew that Kristin was always attentive to what she did. She knew that Kristin was always ready to call her attention when she did something wrong. She also knew that Kristin will tell her when she did something right. She always consulted Kristin before doing anything, whether it was to buy a new dress or to accept an invitation from a kid from school. Some times, Kristin resented that she did not really have a private life, other times she considered that it was all good training for when she got married and got children of her own. Remembering what Linda told her on the Moon send a chill through her spine. I wish to have a lot of kids, Kristin thought. I will not limit myself to two like my brothers.

The following week Kristin received a large envelope by diplomatic courier. It had the emblem of the US Congress in the corner of the remittent. Inside the envelope there was only a short note. It was written in a memo pad with the letterhead of the Most Reverend Joe Gould, Representative for Illinois, in a very fancy font. The note was hand written with the large, uneven letters of the insecure.
"Get me passage for five priests to the Moon," the note read, at an angle with the paper.
There was no addressee, signature or date. There was no salutation and no courtesy. It was an order given to a subordinate. Kristin went to the office.
Her brother Peter was in the office doing something in one of the file cabinets. He did not notice her entrance.
"Hi, Sarah," Kristin said entering the office. "Hi, Peter," she added a little louder when she saw her brother.
"Hi, Chris," Sarah answered.
Peter waved to her without lifting his eyes from the document he was reading.
"Hi, Chris," he said.
"Sarah, would you please mail this note back to this guy. Include two copies of my standard contract," said Kristin.
"Yes, of course, Chris. Do you want a cover letter?"
"Why? He does not use any courtesy, why should we use any. Look at his note."
"Wow! That is rude. I do it right now, Chris."
"Bye, Sarah," said Kristin, moving towards the door to leave.
"Chris, wait!" Peter said. "Did I hear you call her Sarah?"
"Yes, that is her name."
"Her name is not Linda?"
"No, Peter, everybody calls her Linda and she has to respond, but her name is Sarah."
"Wow, I did not know. Thanks Chris, I do not like those things. You are changing a lot of things around here!"
"Thank you, Peter," said Kristin.
"And why do you thank me for?" Asked Peter surprised.
"Well, that was quite a compliment for somebody who was only brat a few months ago!"
"You have a nice sense of humor," said Peter smiling.
Sarah had a big smile in her face when Kristin waved at her.

Kristin forgot the incident with all the things she had to do. A week later Kristin received one of the copies of the contract. Somebody had filled it by hand with the same large uneven handwriting. Many of the clauses had been crossed out with a heavy black marker. She noticed that the lines concerning the price and the deposit had been crossed out. There were quite a number of notes on the margins, that made little sense for Kristin. Most of the blanks have not been filled. Many of the blanks that were marked as required had been left empty. She noticed immediately that one clause had not been crossed out. She smiled. She took a yellow marker and highlighted that clause.
"7. -Any correction to this contract makes it null," the clause read.
She went to the office and asked Sarah to mail back the contract without any comment. She knew what was going to happen. Two days later it happened. Sarah called her and her office.
"Chris, a very mad guy wants to talk to you. He does not give his name. By the way, thanks for what you told Peter. Now I am Sarah! Everybody calls me Sarah!"
"Do not mention it. Please, connect me to the mad guy."
"Hello, good morning. This is Kristin Smith. Who is calling?"
"You know who is calling!" said a very angry and loud voice.
"Sir. You will have to excuse me," Kristin said with a nice voice and smiling to herself. "I do not have any mental powers. I do not have any way to know who is calling. Please, have the courtesy to identify yourself."
"This is the Most Reverend Joe Gould," he say with his hard voice.
"Oh! Good morning Reverend Gould," she said with her best behavior. "How are you? How is Judy?"
The most Reverend Joe Gould was robbed to his words by those questions.
"Why do you ask for Judy?"
"I met her during the trip to Mars. She is a nice girl. Would you tell her hi for me?"
"OK, OK, I will do that," said Reverend Gould with his normal voice that always sounded as if he was very mad.
"How can I serve you?" asked Kristin enjoying having confused Reverend Gould.
"You returned the contract with an insolent mark on it," said the Reverend Gould with an angry voice, but not as angry as before.
"Sir," said Kristin very calm. "The contract is null by any correction. Besides, you did not submit the documents that are required, you did not even mention the names of the persons who will travel or what they will be doing on the Moon."
"They are priests. Do you know what a priest does? Everybody knows what a priest does." He was again very angry. It seemed as if it was very easy for him to get angry.
"With all honesty sir," answered Kristin trying hard to keep her calm. "No, I do not know. I have never had opportunity to relate to priests. I suppose a priest can do many different things. What I need to know is specifically, what they will be doing on the Moon."
"They will bring religion to the Moon!" said Reverend Gould with his angry voice.
"Oh, I see," said Kristin with a nice voice. "Sir, I cannot take them to the Moon unless they have all the necessary papers and permits. I suggest that you contact a tourist agency. They will take care of obtaining all the required permits and the health certificates."
"They are not tourists!" answered a very angry Reverend Gould.
"Then it is easier," Kristin said maintaining her calm. She was having a great time. She was taking revenge for everything the Reverend Gould did during the trip to Mars. "All they have to do is to contact their employers on the Moon and their employers will prepare the permits that they need. They will also instruct them about the health certificates."
"They will be doing a public duty. They do not have employers," the Reverend Gould was getting angrier by the moment. Kristin started to get afraid that he might have a stroke while talking to her.
"Sir," said Kristin enjoying every moment of the conversation, in spite of her fears. "Everybody performs public duties on the Moon. Nobody gets paid for them. That is in the Constitution of their Republic."
"But they are priests," barked the Reverend Gould. "They will be paid by their parishioners."
"Oh," said Kristin affecting surprise. "In that case it is much simpler. Ask the priests to contact their parishioners. The parishioners will be happy to prepare the permits."
"Would you stop fooling around? Get me passage for these priests!" he responded in very loud voice.
Kristin was really enjoying the whole thing. She had a highly developed sense of the ridicule.
"Sir," she said, "Let me be honest with you. I am the President of a Transport Company. I carry passengers and cargo. If somebody sends something that has not been ordered, I am stuck with returning it to the sender and the sender has to pay the return fare."
"Do you imply that they will not accept the priests?" asked an outraged Reverend.
"No, sir. I am not implying it. I am telling you strait," responded Kristin with extreme calm. "Unless somebody sent for the priests, they will not accept the priests on the Moon. I cannot take the priests to the Moon unless you pay round trip fare."
"But they will be taking religion to the Moon," said the Reverend Gould. "They need religion on the Moon. Nobody can live without religion."
"Reverend Gould," said Kristin. "With due respect, let me tell you, that is your personal opinion. That is not the opinion of the Lunatics," Kristin loved that name. "Let me tell you that religion is not a merchandise that sells very well on the Moon. Why do you want to punish those poor priests, if they can practice their profession here on Earth and be rich?"
"I am not punishing them," said Gould. "I am doing a favor to the people on the Moon."
"I am sorry sir," responded Kristin, "but I cannot take anybody to the Moon without the necessary permits."
"But this is outrageous!"
"You might be interested on knowing that some time ago a lady went to the Moon on the pretense that she was a nurse. Once she was there she started talking about religion. People laughed at her. She lost her job as a nurse, because she was not really a nurse. She ended up working in the mines. That is the only place that always accepts workers. I took pity of her and brought her back. She is now quite wealthy here. She does not remember the favor I did her."
"Very nice story," said the Reverend Gould with scorn in his voice. "You are naturally discriminating against religious people."
"No sir, it is quite the opposite," insisted Kristin. "We treat everybody exactly the same. Nobody gets any special privileges. It is also in the Constitution. That is exactly what you are asking for. You want to have special privileges because of your profession."
"You are very insolent. You will hear from me," barked the Reverend Gould and hung up the phone in a violent action.
Kristin thought This guy will have a stroke if he is not careful and she continued with what she was doing.

Chapter 11

That was not the end of the story. Kristin was planning a trip to the Moon. She needed to bring the mail and she wanted to talk with Suzanne about an order she gave her when she was on the Moon with the politicians. She could not leave. When she was ready to leave, she got a call in the afternoon.
"Chris," Sarah said. "The same guy of this morning wants to talk to you."
"Thanks, Sarah," said Kristin. "Hello, this is Kristin Smith. Who's calling?"
"This is the Reverend Gould. I am trying to fill this contract of yours and it is very confusing. Even Judy cannot understand it."
"I would be very happy to help you," said Kristin. I know that I will regret this, she thought.
"What do you mean that the pickup point is the airport on your town?"
"Yes sir," answered Kristin. "It is the same as when you went to Mars. You should remember that you came here and we took off from here."
"But that is outrageous. You will pick the priests from here! We have a very good airport here."
"Sir, your country has regulations that do not permit me to land there. It will be too expensive to satisfy those regulations. It will cost close to one hundred million dollars and they have conditions we cannot satisfy. Will you pay hundred million dollars instead of coming here?"
"A hundred million dollars, that is robbery!"
"Yes sir," said Kristin smiling to herself. "I agree. That is the reason we do not do business in your country."
"OK, they can travel there. I warn you that I will not pay you for transporting them to the Moon."
"Sir, we are a business Company not a charitable institution. You might want to look for a charitable institution to pay for their transport."
"Who do I have to talk to get those permits you mention?"
"You need to talk to the persons who wish them there," Kristin had a hard time containing her laugh. If you can find somebody who wants them there, she thought.
"But I do not know anybody on the Moon. What if you simply take them there?"
"I already explained to you. What do you want me to do? Do you want me to leave them there to dry outside?"
"I am sure that they will not let them outside."
"No," said Kristin in a very solemn voice. "If they simply go to the Moon without any permits, they will be trespassing. They will be put to work in the mines."
"Why trespassing?"
"Sir. Let me give you an example," added Kristin, "What would you think if I land in that huge backyard of your house and leave five unknown guys there?"
"I see what you mean. They consider that they own that place."
"They own it as much as you own yours. Each one of them owns the claim that they had made and developed."
"I know what we will do!" said the Rev. Gould in an enthusiastic voice. "You just gave me the right idea. Thank you very much. We will make a claim and you will take them to our claim!"
"Well," said Kristin. "That is possible, as long as you make your claim in a place that does not overlap somebody else's claim."
"Find me the proper place for a claim," said the Reverend.
"Excuse me sir, but I do not do that type of job. I suggest that you get a map of the Moon and find a place that suits your purpose. A flat crater is the most practical. Do not choose one that is too large so you will have fewer problems. You have also to be sure that is not too close to the other claims. If you send me a copy of your selection, I can tell you if it is clear."
"OK. That is the solution! We will have our own place and they cannot avoid us!"
"Be sure you plan to develop the place. For the place to be yours, you need more than making a claim. You need to put markers all around your claim, you need to put buildings and installations. In other words, you need to make your claim yours. You need to make it in such a way that anybody looking at your claim will know that somebody lives there."
"Of course, we will put a magnificent church! With the help of the people from the Moon, we will build the Holy Church of the Moon."

It took several very long weeks of almost constant calls to clarify the ideas in the mind of the Most Reverend Joe Gould. Kristin did not know what to do. It was clear that the Reverend Gould considered that Kristin had the duty to help him on the most minute detail. He was always very rude. He never said please, or thank you. He always talked like giving orders to somebody who had the duty to obey his orders. He called her almost every day, some times several times in the same day. Some times he made Judy call her with some questions. At least Judy was very polite and she always said please, and she apologized for taking Kristin's time. Before saying good bye, she always said Thank-you. Many times Kristin heard the Reverend Gould in the background urging Judy to end the conversation. When Kristin went to a trip, she returned to a tall stack of notes with questions. Most of them were questions that he could have answered himself if he had tried. It was clear that he had not tried. Kristin was sure that he had not even asked Judy. Kristin was sure that Judy could have answered most of the questions. Many of the questions were only repetitions of previous questions. The idea of the claim created quite a problem. It took Kristin quite an effort to make him understand that he could not send the five priests to the surface of the Moon and leave them there.
"You will take the priests to our claim," he insisted.
"Reverend Gould," said Kristin for the millionth time. "Of course, I can take the priests to your claim, that is right, but they need some place to stay. The fact that it is your claim only means that nobody will evict them."
"It is our claim," said the Reverend Gould. "They can stay there."
"I do not mean that," insisted Kristin. "I know they can stay in your claim. What I mean is that they need shelter. The Moon is very cold, there is no air, there are meteorites, and there is radiation. They need shelter to survive."
"What you want is to sell me one of your buildings," answered the Reverend Gould.
"No. Reverend Gould," said Kristin getting mad. "I do not care about selling you anything. I am human and I cannot take five men to the Moon to let them die there. If you do not want to buy one of my buildings, buy them materials so they can build their shelter. You said that they are young and strong."
"They will not die. They are strong young men."
"Will you come with them for a month?" asked Kristin loosing her patience.
"I cannot come. I have too much to do here."
"Have you forgotten what happened to you on Mars?" said Kristin. "The Moon is worst than Mars."
"But the Moon does not have any air."
"That is another point," said Kristin. "Do you plan them to live all the time in their space suits?"
"Look," said the Reverend Gould finally. "I have much to do here. Let me think about this and I call you later. Let me talk with Judy and she might call you later."
"Yes," Kristin said. "That will be better, in that way you can be working while Judy solves the problems for you."
"What happens is that you like to chat nonsense with Judy. I do not like that you might get nonsense in her head."
"As you wish. Judy does not talk nonsense."
"I call you later."

Kristin suspected that the taxpayers were paying his phone bill. Kristin left her office and went to pick the mail for the Moon. She went to her ship. She did not have any need to do it at that moment, but she needed a break after the conversation with Gould. It was getting to the point that she was ready to tell him that she could not help him in every detail. Some times, she thought of taking the priests to the Moon, leave them there with a radio to call and bug the Reverend.
My problem, thought Kristin, is that I am human and I can not do such an inhuman act.
When Kristin returned from the Moon later that day, she got three messages that the Reverend Gould had called. One thing that she had decided from the beginning was not to return his calls. She simply ignored his calls and waited until he called back. She was not going to pay the phone bill, on top of all the time he made her waste. He called again.
"OK," he said without any preamble or courtesy. "I will take one of your buildings. How much that will cost?"
Kristin gave a price for the building and included an allowance for air and water. She was getting tired of fighting with the Reverend.
"This price," said Kristin, "includes provisions for the initial load of air and water. You will have to provide them with food, tools, clothes and all their needs."
"Why they have to carry food," said the Reverend Gould. "The people of the Moon will give them food."
"You can be sure that the people on the Moon will not give them any food," answered Kristin. "Nobody will give them anything unless they are working for them."
"They will be working for them. They will have to give them food."
"That will be when they have established themselves, when each of them has parishioners. At the beginning nobody will help them."
"They will, they will. I will force them to help them."
"Reverend," insisted Kristin. "You need to consider that you will have to send them food, water and air at least once every month."
"Why air and water? You told me that you will provide the air and water."
"I will provide the air and water for the initial charge of the building. I will not give them air and water forever."
"But if they have air, why they need more?"
"Because every time they open the door, a block of air gets outside and they need to replenish that air from time to time."
"OK, OK," he finally said. "I will send you a signed contract today. We will be there next week."
The Reverend Gould finally submitted the application for buying the building and its transport to the Moon. To Kristin surprise, the check that he sent cleared the bank. Kristin was not sure if she felt relieved or more worried.

Chapter 12

The Most Reverend Joe Gould and the priests finally came. It was a beautiful morning and Kristin was thinking of going to the river to have some rest. Before she was able to get out of the house and get lost, she got a phone call from Reverend Gould from the airport. She swallowed her disappointment and got into her car. She had placed the building at the airport two days before. When Kristin got to the airport, Reverend Gould, Judy and the five priests were waiting for her by the airlock of the building. The five priests were very young, fresh out of the Seminary. They all had very innocent faces. Their manners showed that they had very little experience. This was their first trip out of the Seminary. The way they talked resembled more children than adults. They were courteous and very subservient to the Reverend Gould. They immediately became subservient of Kristin. They blushed all the time when she addressed them. Kristin did not see any kind of baggage around them. She assumed that they had left their baggage at the airport and that they will take it to the building after she opened it. It took very little time for them to get installed in the building. Reverend Gould called her at her house. He told her that the priest had the building ready for her to take it to the Moon.

She came into the building to talk to the priests, as she always did with all her passengers. She wanted to be sure they knew how the trip was to take place. She wanted to be sure they understood where everything was and how everything worked. She walked with them showing them where everything was in the building, the light panel, the air bottles, the air pressure meter, the water purifier, and all the other devices of the building. She spent some time making sure they understood the operation of the airlock.
"You have to understand," she said, "that every time you open the airlock, a block of air the size of the airlock is lost. You not only pay for that air, but you have to replace it or you die."
"Yes, of course," was the standard answer from the priests to everything she said.
"There is something else that is important for you to understand," said Kristin like talking with small children, although every one of the priests was older than her. "You cannot go out of the building and on the surface of the Moon without space suits. There is no air on the Moon. There are meteorites. There is radiation. If you go out without a space suit you die in a few seconds."
"Yes, of course," they said in chorus. "We have space suits," added one of them.
"The supplies you have will last you about a month," continued Kristin, "if you are very careful. Before the month is over, you need to buy more food, air and water and get them transported to the Moon."
She answered all their questions and tried to be sure they understood the dangers of the Moon and what they were getting into. She was shocked by the seemingly innocent question from one of the priests.
"How far is to the other settlements on the Moon?" one of the priests asked.
"Quite far," she answered.
Kristin was very badly impressed by how bare the building was. They had only the barest of necessities. Each room had a simple cot and nothing else. It seemed as if they did not have any clothing. That they only had what they had on their bodies. She did not see any tools of any kind. They had a table and six very rustic chairs in one room. They had very clear signs that they had been picked from a second hand store, or from one those places where people donate furniture that they cannot sell. She had not seen anything that resembled a Moon vehicle. She was thinking on these facts, then, she reacted.
"Wait a second!" she said. "You are not planning to walk to the other settlements, are you?"
"Of course," answered the priest who had asked the question. "We can walk for days and weeks."
"That is not the point," said Kristin. "Here on Earth you can walk by the roads. If you try to enter into a house, the owners will call the police."
"But we can knock the door," the priest said.
"Yes," Kristin said. "Here on Earth you can knock the door. The situation on the Moon is much different. First, you do not have any roads. You need to know your way. It is like walking here in the deserts. When you get some place, you have another very important difference. Every settlement is surrounded by an area that belongs to the settlement. You cannot get to the house without entering into the settlement. It is the same like here with those large ranches in Texas. You cannot get to the house without getting into the ranch. If you enter into the ranch without permission, you are trespassing and you can get shot. On the Moon is the same. On top of that, all the other settlements have airlocks like this one. You cannot open them from the outside. If you get there and knock at the door, you will be trespassing. People there are very serious about trespassing. They do not like anybody coming to their doors without being invited. Look, let me give you an example you will understand. Everybody knows me on the Moon. I do not go knocking at doors unless they call me. When I distribute the mail, I put the mail in their boxes, like the mailman here. I never enter into the house or knock at the doors. If you start doing that, you will end up working hard labor in the mines. That is the normal penalty for a trespasser. I thought I made that clear to the Reverend Gould."
Reverend Gould was no place to be seen. He had come with the priests and with Judy and went away with her.
"But we can go and ask them permission to enter."
"How can you ask permission? By writing them a letter?"
"I do not know. What they do on the Moon when they want to visit?"
"I do not think that anybody visits. Everybody is too busy to spend time visiting. When there is a meeting, they send notices to everybody by mail."
"I am sure they visit some times," insisted one of the priests.
"Look, if a person wants somebody else to come and visit, or if he wants to go and visit somebody, they normally write them inviting them."
"But how can we spread religion if we do not seek the people," insisted the priest.
"You will have to wait for them to come," said Kristin in a very authoritative voice. "Or you will have to wait for them to invite you to their places."
"And what do we do if they do not come?" asked another priest.
"You will have a very lonely existence on the Moon," said Kristin smiling at them. "I have told the Reverend Gould from the beginning that I do not believe anybody will come to you."
"Do you think they invite us to visit?"
"I am sure that nobody will invite you. Reverend Gould was on the Moon some time ago. He got in several very fierce discussions with the people of the Moon. At the end, in the middle of the dinner, he got mad and left the room. I do not believe anybody will invite you."
"And how about if we invite them to come."
"That will not work either. Consider that you do not have anything to offer them. If you had something interesting, they might come."
"Interesting like what?"
"Well, I was thinking if you had a good library with interesting books, or a good collection of movies, or a good collection of music. Then, you might invited them to use your library, or to watch your movies, or to listen to your music."
"We do not have any of those things."
"Another way to attract people or get to know people is if you offer them to help."
"We can do that."
"People might be interested if you have good tools and you offer them to share with them, or you offer them to help them in their work."
"We do not have any tools."
"Are you serious?"
Kristin was to pursue the topic when Reverend Gould and Judy came out from some other part of the building. They had not been away, but in one of the rooms. Reverend Gould seemed to be in good spirits. He was talking with Judy very animated. For the first time, Kristin heard him talking in a normal voice.
"But people always seek us," said the youngest of the priests, who was at least four years older than Kristin.
"I have the feeling that you have lost contact with reality," said Kristin. "How long have you been in the Seminary."
"I enter the Seminary when I was four," said one of the priests.
"Me too," said another.
"That is what I said. You do not have any contact with the reality of the world."
"When we studied history at the Seminary," insisted the priest. "All our instructors told us how people always had sought us for counsel and advice."
"Your history teacher might have been talking about the Middle Ages," commented Kristin. "In that time people had very little education. That is why they needed the priests for counsel and advise."
"No," said the priest. "He was talking about the American West and the conditions on the Moon are the same. They both are pioneers."
"You have a big misconception. Remember," said Kristin enjoying the discussion, "that the pioneers in the West had very little education. Very few were able to read a little and count to ten, add, and subtract with difficulty. The majority did not know how to read or write."
"I do not see what education has to do with religion," said the priest.
"What education has to do is with priests, not with religion," said Kristin. "Modern people, the people that has colonized the Moon, know more. They do not need to go to the priest to have their letters read to them. They do not need the priest to write a letter for them. Most people today know more than the priests about the world and how it works."
"But they always need guidance towards God," insisted the priest.
"If you go out into the world," said Kristin, "you will find that people does not want guidance towards any kind of god. Each one has his or her own god. Some of them have a rock musician, others have a football hero, others have a hockey hero, or whatever. They do not need other gods."
"But those are false gods," said a horrified priest.
"They are false gods for you, but not for them. For them, they are as good and real as your god is to you," said Kristin. "You need to get in contact with more people. Remember, in the Seminary you were only with your equals. People in the world outside the Seminary is not like that."
"But we have studied the outside world," insisted another priest.
"You will see," said Kristin. "Have you talked with somebody since you left the Seminary?"
"No, you are the first person we talk with."
"I imagine you have already noticed that I am not like they said in the Seminary."
"But you are a very good person. I have noticed that you care about us."
"Yes, most people in the world are really good, but they are the way I was telling you."
"Good people believes in God, and follow His principles."
"You just said that I am a good person. I do not believe in your God and I do not follow His principles."
"I do not believe you. I am sure that you are wrong."
"When you are on the Moon you will see that people is not like you think. You will be very lonely waiting for people to come to you."
"We will pass a law," interrupted Reverend Gould, who had been listening out of the way, "that everybody have to register with you. Especially they will have to register the children," added the Reverend Gould with his loud voice.
"A law?" said Kristin surprised, turning to him.
"I have enough influence in Congress to pass that law," insisted Gould.
"Do you realize that we are talking about the Moon?" asked Kristin. "You can pass laws that affect all the people in your country. You can put them in jail, like you do with the parents who do not want to send their kids to school. How do you plan to pass a law that applies outside your country. How do you plan to enforce such a law outside your country?"
"The Moon is America soil. I will see how we enforce the law. We will send police. They will enforce the law. That is not your worry, brothers."
"Well, I leave you to your problems," said Kristin. She did not enjoy the idea of entering into a discussion with Reverend Gould.
"Are we leaving now?" asked the priests.
"Yes," said Kristin. "We are leaving in a moment. Reverend Gould, Judy," she said turning to them. "If you want to stay on Earth, you better leave the building. We are leaving in a few minutes. Good day gentlemen and good luck."

The transfer to the Moon was without incidents. She noticed that the priests were all praying in their bare rooms. Nobody was looking outside. She did not have any trouble finding the crater of the priests. She went directly to their crater, almost vertically from Earth. She positioned the building to one side, on the only area that was more or less smooth. The crater they had selected was quite deep with high walls all around and a number of boulders and cracks inside. When the building was settled, she called them over the intercom.
"Remember again," she said. "Be very careful with the use of the airlock so you do not loose too much air."
"Do not worry," they said. "We have a radio and we will be in contact with the Reverend Gould."
"Be sure to tell him with ample time when you start getting low in air, water, food." she said. "It takes time to get things and bring them here. I will put you on the mailing route. Use the radio when you have mail to go to Earth. Use channel 33. Good bye now and good luck!"

She disconnected the building and went to distribute the mail to the other settlements. She had included with each package a copy of the announcement that the Reverend Gould had made a claim and a map showing where the claim was. That was her standard procedure when there was a new claim made. This time, she added a note indicating that five young priests were living in the new settlement. She ended her route at the main settlement where she coupled the airlocks and disembarked. She enjoyed having a short break and some chat before coming back. She was always well received and past problems with Suzanne had been totally forgotten. She kidded with Jennifer about Leslie. Then Sam saw the announcement of the claim.
"Did you have a hand in putting them there?" he asked smiling.
"No," said Kristin. "I only told them that they cannot be too close to the others settlements. They choose the place themselves."
"That is quite a deep crater," said Jennifer.
"Yes," said Kristin. "It is hard to understand why they selected it. I do not think they can reach here with their radio."
"That is a mercy! Do they plan to transmit all the time like on Earth?" said Sam.
"I do not know. I do not think so. They do not have any equipment. Actually, they do not have anything. Hey Jennifer," kidded Kristin. "There you have five single guys. You could invite them to come here to visit."
"That is an idea!" said Jennifer.
"After the display from the Reverend Gould when he was here, I do not want to have here anybody like him," said Sam.
"Do you need anything from Earth?" asked Kristin.
"No," said Suzanne. "Thank you. You just brought us all we needed."
"Good to see you all. I will be stopping next time I am around here," said Kristin and left.
"Chris," Jennifer called her.
"Do you need something?" Kristin said returning.
"Chris, have you thought on what I asked you the other day?"
"Jennifer, I told you that I cannot do it. You can write mother or one of your aunts to see if they will take you."
"Do you think that they will accept?"
"I do not have any way to guess. Write mother and ask her to ask the others."
"That is a good idea."
"I wait for you, if you hurry."
Jennifer run to her room. Kristin did not mind the wait. If was a way to rest. One of the guys from the office passed and he stopped to chat with Kristin. Some time later, Jennifer came and gave Kristin the letter.
"I do not have any money to pay you," she said.
"Do not be silly! You are my niece!"
"Thank you, Chris. I hope you get something."

Chapter 13

Kristin dutifully gave Jennifer's letter to her mother, as soon as she was home. Neither one made a comment at the moment. Kristin's mother only gave her a funny look because it was strange to receive a letter from her granddaughter. A couple of days latter, Kristin's mother called her when they were getting out of the dining room.
"Chris, wait," her mother said.
"Yes, mother?"
"Chris, what happens with Jennifer?"
"I imagine what she tells you in that letter I gave you the other day. When I was coming from Mars with all those important people, she asked me to bring her with me. She said that she is bored on the Moon."
"I do not understand. Suzanne was telling me the other day that there are a lot of kids her age on the Moon."
"Yes, mother. Most of them are very nice kids, good looking and well behaved. I asked her about that. What she told me is that all the kids there are afraid of getting close to her. That they are afraid of Sam."
"I believe that. Sam can be very scary without trying."
"You know, mother? I am thinking in something."
"You are getting too smart, Chris! Sometimes you have a devilish mind!"
"No, mother. I was thinking that Sam is not as bad as he looks."
"Yes, he is a sweet guy when he wants, especially when it comes to Jennifer. He adores her as much as your father. Do not tell anything of this to your father."
"Of course not, mother. I know how much he likes her. He will make a row if he knows this."
"What were you saying?"
"I am thinking of talking with Sam and or Suzanne and suggest that they organize parties for the kids."
"That is a good idea. That will break the ice. Honestly, I do not like the idea of Jennifer here without her parents to control her."
"Ha! As if they can control her!"
"How are you doing with Joyce?"
"Joyce is not like Jennifer. She is very docile and follows what I tell her without complaint."
"Yes, she has turned out like you, into a very nice girl."
"Thank you, mother. I have to help Joyce with her homework."
Kristin felt satisfied with the conversation, both with what her mother had told her about Joyce and her, and with the idea she had to solve Jennifer's problem.

The following week, Kristin was on the Moon distributing mail to the settlements. She enjoyed these trips because they did not tax her much. It was one of the ways she had for resting while working. She flew from settlement to settlement, normally chatting over the radio with one or the other while she traveled. It was not uncommon that a number of settlements got together chatting when she made her weekly rounds distributing the mail. She liked to spread news and receive the bits of news from the settlements. When she got to one of the settlements with their mail, they asked her to come down. That was not uncommon, either. Many times they asked to come down and offered her a cup of coffee or chocolate, a sandwich, or some cookies. She always had with her something to give the kids. She was glad when she was asked to get down to the settlements. It gave her a chance for a break, a chat and a cup of something. In that way she maintained in contact with the settlements and what was happening everywhere. She liked to maintain the friendship with the settlers. Most of them were very good friends and liked her. She connected the airlocks and went down. She gave a handful of candy to the two small children of the family.
"What do you say?" asked the mother.
"Thank you, Chris," the two kids said in chorus.
"Wow! You have candy there for a week!" said the father.
"I like the candy Chris brings us," said the little girl.
"I like to visit with you, you are very nice," Kristin said, taking the little girl into her lap.
They were talking some amenities while they had a cup of coffee and she was playing with the smaller child in her lap. The little girl could not be happier. Kristin helped her unwrap one of the candies.
"Chris," said the owner of the settlement. "I think you need to know this."
"What is it?" asked Kristin putting the child on the floor and paying attention.
"The other day," continued the settler, "we were out in our vehicle prospecting. We were driving around as we use to do, looking for something interesting."
"Yes, I know. I have seen you from my ship."
"I saw you," said the mother.
"Sorry, I interrupted you," Kristin said.
"Well, we found one of the priests on a plain," continued the guy.
"One of the priests? What was he doing?" Asked Kristin surprised.
"It was about hundred miles from their settlement. He was unconscious," continued the man.
"Unconscious? What are these stupid priests doing? What did you do?"
"We took him to our vehicle. You know we have a pressurized vehicle. We gave him water and revived him. It took a lot of prodding and asking before he said anything. We found out the guy had been out for a long time, without food, walking without aim until he fell unconscious."
"Wow! What did he say?" Asked Kristin.
"He did not want to tell us why he had been out walking alone. We do not have any way to know how long he had been unconscious. We tried to get him to his camp. We were not able to take him. The priests had not made any road to their place."
"I knew that these guys were going to be trouble!" Kristin said, almost to herself.
"We had given him some food. He was somewhat recuperated. We left him to climb the crater to his building. We could not do anything else," the man said almost apologetic.
"I think that you were very good," said Kristin. "After all, you are not obligated to help every stupid guy you find when prospecting."
"Yes, but we could not leave him there to die," said the wife.
"Yes, of course. You were very nice. You probably saved his life."
"We did not know what else to do," said the man visible concerned.
"I will go right now and see what these stupid guys are doing. On the other hand, I am not their babysitter!"
"You are right, Chris, but I thought you owe to know," said the man.
"You will do something, Chris. You are a very nice person!" the wife added.
"Thanks any way for telling me. I have to be going. Thanks for the coffee."
"What do you tell Chris?" the mother asked the children.
"Bye Chris and nice to see you," the little girl said.
"Thanks for the candy," the boy added.
She made a caress to the children and left.

Kristin was disturbed by the news. She regretted having helped the Reverend Gould bring those guys to the Moon. From the first look, she saw that they were too stupid to face a situation like colonizing the Moon. She remembered them praying in their rooms instead of enjoying the trip. She decided to investigate what was going on before finishing her delivery of mail. Kristin went directly to the claim of the Reverend Gould. All the reasoning in the world cannot convince somebody against his will. When Kristin got there, she landed and called them over the radio.
"Hey! What is going on there?" she said trying to use a cheerful voice.
"Nothing much," they answered. "We are OK."
"A settler told me he found one of you unconscious in a plain."
"He is OK now," they said.
"Let me connect the ship and go down. I have some things for you," she lied.
"You told us not to open the door."
"This is too much. I want to see him. I want to talk with you."
"No, we cannot open the airlock."
"And why is that?"
"We do not want to open the airlock," they explained.
"You need to open the airlock for me to come in."
"We have very little air. We do not want to loose more."
"Oh! That is what happens! Wait a second."
She went close to the building and connected the airlocks.
"Open now!" she said.
"We will loose the little air we have!" they responded with a very weak voice.
"Open up! I have some air here and I can give it to you," Kristin insisted with a strong voice.
They did not answer.
"You need to open the airlock. There is no other way I can give you the air I have."
After much deliberation, they opened the airlock and Kristin felt the pressure get down. They were almost empty.
"Wow! You really did not have any air!"
She connected one of the auxiliary cylinders she always had and restored the pressure.
"There, I have restored your pressure."
She passed to their building. They were sitting in the only room that had any furniture. Most of them were prostrated on the table. It was easy for her to see that all the priests were in very bad shape. She could not identify the one who was found outside. They were all breathing very heavily, indicating that it was some time they had been with very low air pressure.
"What have you been doing to loose all your air?" asked Kristin with as nice a voice as she could get.
They were all silent, looking at each other, but never at her.
"Are you going to tell me?" she asked, trying to make a joke of it. "Or do you want me to guess it?"
After much prodding and asking, they finally told her.
"We lost.... all the air.... by going out.... many times.... a day.... to see.... if.... anybody.... was.... coming....," one of the priests said very slowly and with great difficulty.
"I told you not to do that," Kristin said as telling a small child you ate too much cake.
"We know.... you told us....," one of the priests said.
"We remembered it.... when we were getting.... in trouble," said another.
"We did not realize.... we were loosing.... so much until it was very low.... and we had.... trouble breathing....," explained a third one.
"Did you check the meter?" she said.
"What meter?" asked one of them.
"The air pressure meter by the airlock. I show it to you the first day."
"Oh....! That meter was the air pressure!" Said another priest surprised.
"We did not know what it was," added another one.
"It said there Pressure in inches. Do you know how to read?"
"Of course we can read," said one of the priests without taking offense.
"We did not know what pressure it was," completed another priest.
"Well, that show the air pressure inside the building. You did not pay attention when I explained to you how the building works."
"We really did not know what you were talking about," said one of the priests.
"I imagine you did not check the water either," Kristin said.
"No, we have not checked anything," said another priest.
"You are in such a bad shape! That cannot be only from the lack of air."
"What do you mean?" asked one of them.
"Well, you are all emaciated, you have trouble breathing, you have trouble talking."
"We are OK." They insisted.
"Look, do not be stupid," Kristin said loosing her patience with these children in big bodies. "You are not OK. You need to tell me what happens. I can help you."
"We know that you are very nice," said one of the priests in a low voice.
"So, start talking!" Kristin said firmly.
They did not want to tell her anything. Again, they were silent for some time.
"We are OK," they insisted.
"I do not think you are OK," said Kristin. "You look awful. Start talking or I will leave without helping you."
She was talking in a very imperative way. She made the action of standing up. Finally, they told her.
"What happens is that we have been more than a week, really since we came, with very small rations," explained one of the priests, making a visible effort to talk the long explanation.
"What? What do you mean?" Asked Kristin surprised.
"The last three days we have been without any food at all because we did not have any," explained another one.
"But what happened?" asked Kristin. "You had food for a month, as far as I remember!"
"Somebody made a mistake," one of the priests said.
"Most of the food was spoiled when we got here and opened the packages," said another.
"Wait a moment," she said.
That was too much for her. She always had some food with her. She went to the ship and brought some of it to them. The food was a good medicine. While they ate, their mood changed and they started talking, slowly at first, but finally they opened up to her. Kristin was sure that they needed more than food. These poor guys were at the end of their ropes.
"Now," Kristin said. "Would you tell me why you had to go out so many times a day?"
"We did not have anything to do inside the building and waiting is tedious," said one of them in a humbly voice, like making a confession.
"But you could have been working a road to go in and out of the crater!" Kristin commented.
"We do not have any tools," answered the priests.
"But why? Everybody needs tools!" Kristin said.
"The Most Reverend Gould said that we did not need any tools to teach religion," explained one priest.
"You could have work with your hands clearing some rocks to make a path!" Kristin was getting mad.
"We do not know how," said one of the priests.
"Nobody told us anything of how it was here," said another priest in a low voice.
"You were the only one. We did not believe you," added another.
"When we were here, we saw that you were right," added another.
After the first hesitations, they opened up and confided on her with all their troubles. Kristin felt sorry for them. These five young guys have been abandoned to their fate here, without any instruction or preparation. Kristin had the picture on her mind of five small children, four or five years old, lost in the woods, without their parents or anybody to guide them. They were looking at her, not like the lost mother, but as the fairy god mother that will save them.
"We have called the Reverend Gould several times," said one priest in a very low voice. None of them assumed the roll of leader.
"His aid told us he was not available," added another priest.
"She said that he was campaigning for reelection," said another of the priests.
"She also said that he could not be disturbed," another priest added.
"She told us not to call again," another priest said.
"She said that he will call when he had time," commented another.
"We asked her what we could do," said another priest.
Kristin had the impressions that they talked in turn, one bit of information each one.
"She told us that she did not know," said one priest.
"She said she did not like it when she was here on the Moon," another priest said in a long speech.
"Was it Judy you talked with?" Kristin asked.
"Yes, she is the one who answers," one of them said.
Kristin was not able to differentiate them. They all looked alike, with the same robes and the same stupid, unexpressive face.
"I met her when we went to Mars," Kristin said. "She looked to me like a nice girl."
"She is not too nice with us," said one priest.
"She does not like us to disturb the Reverend," added another in their usual mode of conversation.
"Look you guys," Kristin said outraged. "I do not like this. I am not religious and I do not care about religion."
"Chris, do not talk like that," said one priest horrified.
"You are human beings for me," Kristin continued. "It is inhuman to put five young, inexperienced men in a dangerous situation and abandon them there to their fate. I do not understand the Reverend or Judy."
"You are a nice person, Chris," said one of the young priests.
"Let us understand each other," Kristin said with authority "Pay attention this time."
"We will pay attention," they all said.
"You need to understand that you are in danger of death. I am serious."
"We are not afraid of dying," said another priest.
"That is not the point," Kristin said strongly. "It is not a matter of being afraid or not. I am not afraid either, but I do not want to die, not in a stupid way. I imagine that you do not want to die."
"You are right. We do not want to die," one of them concurred.
"Then, pay attention. You cannot get out of the building," she said, "because I do not have any more air to give you. Do you understand?"
"But what can we do?" they asked.
"I do not care what you do. You cannot get out of the building." Kristin was talking like to small children.
"But we need to do something," one priest said.
"You can use your time thinking. You need to stay here and wait," she said very imperative. "You cannot go out," she ended quite strong.
"We will do as you tell us," said one priest.
"You are the only nice person we know," said another.
"I imagine you do not want to die," she repeated. "I promise you I will call the Reverend Gould or Judy, as soon as I get home and see what I can do."
"People should have come to see us," commented one priest in a low voice.
"You told them that we are here, right?" Asked another.
"Yes, I told everybody that the Reverend Gould had made a claim and that five of you were living here."
"And why they did not come?" Asked a priest.
"Do you remember when we were talking on Earth? I told you when we were on Earth that people on the Moon does not care at all about religion, any kind of religion."
"But why?" asked one of them very surprised.
"I told you that people here are independent," Kristin explained. "They depend on themselves to do what they need to do. They do not expect God to come and help them."
"But that is wrong," one priest said.
"God helps everybody," added another.
"Well....," Kristin said with a smile. "God did not help you too much."
The priests were all shocked by the blasphemy.
"Chris! How can you say that!" said one of them.
"Look at you," Kristin said. "Look at what happened to you."
"Yes, we are in bad shape," said a priest humbly.
"I think," continued Kristin, "that you have a lot to think about how people really is."
Nobody said anything.
"You will have time to think," Kristin said. "Do it. It is not like you think. Life itself is not the way you think either."
"What do you mean, Chris?" asked one of them.
"Think about the attitude of the Reverend Gould and Judy and compare it with the settler that saved your life."
The priests were in silence, thinking. They did not dare put their thoughts into words.
"You need to consider that the settler not only saved the life of the one of you he found outside. He saved all of you when he told me that he found him. That is why I came. If I do not come, you would be death by now."
"Yes, we did not have much time left," said one priest.
"We were ready to die," said another.
"We had said all our prayers when you called," added a third one.
"I have to go," said Kristin after a while. "See you later. Let me leave with you all the food I have in my ship."
Kristin went to her ship and took all the food she had there.
"Look, this is all I have. It is not too much. This can last you for a week, if you are careful."
"Thank you, Chris. You are an angel," said one priest, the other concurred.
"Do not be silly. I am only a human being."
"No, you are an angel," insisted the priest.
"Kids," Kristin said. "Do not think like that. You think that I am an angel because I am the first human being you see. I am no angel."
"You are the best person we have ever met," insisted the priest.
"Well....," Kristin said. "See you later. I will call the Reverend Gould as soon as I get home."

Kristin went to her ship. That should keep them for at least a week, she thought. She had been containing herself of screaming at the horror of the situation she had found. She remembered the horror he felt when Linda told her what Leslie had done with her.
What happens with the world?, she thought.
She thought of going to her own little settlement for some food and some air. She considered that she had given them enough and desisted. She saw the package of mail and parcels that she had not distributed. She continued her rounds distributing the mail. She could not get the priests from her mind. She ended up, as was her custom, in the main settlement. She connected the airlocks and went down. She was carrying the mail and a parcel for Suzanne.
"Hi, everybody. How are you doing?" Kristin said with a cheerfulness that she did not have.
"Hi, Chris," Suzanne said. "Thank you for bringing what I asked you."
"Chris," Jennifer said. "Do you have anything for me?"
"Yes, Jennifer," Kristin said. "Sam, Suzanne. I have been talking with Jennifer...."
"NO! Do not tell them!"
"Yes, Jennifer. I have to tell them!"
"What happens, Jennifer," Sam asked in a hard voice.
"Jennifer, shut up!" Kristin said in the way she had when she wanted to be obeyed. "Sam, Suzanne, I have been talking with Jennifer. She wrote mother. I was talking with mother before coming here. Jennifer feels very lonely here. She was asking us to take her to Earth."
"But what happens?" Asked Sam concerned.
"The problem is," Kristin continued, "that all the kids here are afraid of you, Sam. They do not get close to Jennifer because they are afraid of you. Jennifer is lonely."
"But I have not done anything," Sam said.
"Well, Sam. That is the problem."
"What do you mean?" Asked Sam.
"Talking with mother I was thinking," Kristin said in a soft tone of voice. "There are a number of teenagers here. I imagine Arthur is in the same problem, although he had not complained. You should organize parties for the kids. Say once a week get all the teenagers, get some music, some refreshments and let them have fun. The parents can also come and watch. You saw the other day I was here with those guys. We had a very nice time. All is not work and money in life, Sam."
"That is a very good idea, Chris," Suzanne said.
"Yes," Sam said thinking. "That is a very good idea. Life is getting dull around here. I have noticed that everybody is getting tense. That dinner when you came released the atmosphere very much. Thank you, Chris."
"Chris, you are an angel!" Jennifer said.
"Not you too!" Kristin said.
"Why do you said that?" Suzanne asked smiling. "Who else told you that you are an angel?"
"A group of stupid guys."
"Those priests you brought the other day?" Sam asked. "I heard rumors that they are in trouble."
"More than trouble. Well, I have to go. I have to do something to save those stupid priests or they will die. See you later."
"Bye Chris, and thank you for that package," Suzanne said.
"Thank you for the idea, Chris," Sam said. "I start telling everybody right now. They will be happy."
"Bye Chris, and thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you Chris," Jennifer said from the bottom of her hearth.

With her spirit very much lifted, Kristin left the building and entered her ship. She lifted and went immediately to Earth. She went quite fast from the Moon to Earth. She was using a high acceleration. She felt tense and wanted to finish the business of the priests. She landed and went home. As soon as Kristin was home, she called the Reverend Gould. Judy answered. Kristin recognized her voice.
"Judy, this is Chris."
"Oh! Hi Chris. How are you?"
"Judy, I need to talk with the Reverend Gould. It is urgent and important." Kristin said in a hard tone.
"I call him right now," Judy said.
The Reverend Gould did not hide from Kristin. He answered the phone. Kristin told him both stories, the one from the settler and the one from the priests. The Reverend Gould was not impressed at all and discounted the danger to the priests.
"They will handle it. I am too busy to worry about them now!" He commented.
"Are you going to let them die there?" she said outraged.
"Well, they will not die."
"You do not understand. If I did not get to them this morning, they would be death by now."
"Well, there are many things that are more important that a group of young priests. There are more in the Seminary."
Kristin was hurt by his indifference. She hung the phone in outrage. She tried to calm down. She considered that she has done all that she could do. She made an effort and took the matter from her mind.

Kristin was disturbed for several days. Many times she thought of returning to the Moon with food and air for the priests. She had found some consolation by talking the whole thing with Joyce. She had been also outraged by the attitude of the Reverend Gould.
"And those are religious people! Those are the guys who talk about love each other and those things! A bunch of hypocrites!" Joyce said.
"Yes, that is why I have never been too much of a religious person," Kristin said.
"Me neither. I do not need religion," Joyce said.
It was a Saturday morning and they were brushing each other hair after taking a shower. They used to get together that way to chat in intimacy. Joyce adored those Saturday morning meetings. There was a phone call. It was Sarah.
"Chris, I am sorry to bother you at your room."
"It is all right, Sarah. What is it?"
"Chris," said Sarah. "A funny guy wants to talk to you. He said it is urgent. He does not give his name."
"Thank you, Sarah," said Kristin. "Please, connect him here."
"Good morning, this is Kristin Smith. Who is calling?"
"This is the Reverend Gould," he said in a very humbly voice. "I am sorry to bother you."
Kristin almost jumped. It was the first time that the Reverend Gould had used any courtesy.
"I want to ask you to go to the Moon and bring the building with the priests," he told her in his usual brusque manners, although he was talking in a soft voice.
"Has anything happened?" asked Kristin.
"The priest who was found outside has died of exposure and the others are in very bad shape," he said still in a soft voice.
"Well, I told you so." Kristin could not control her recrimination.
"I do not have any money to pay you for the trip. I have lost everything I had in my reelection campaign. I lost reelection. I have lost my house and I am living with a sister. I am up to my nose in debts."
"I am sorry," Kristin said.
"I can only give you the building back in payment."
"It is all right. Do not worry. I go immediately and bring them back."
Kristin hung up and was thinking for a moment.
"What happens, Chris?" Joyce asked.
"Joyce, dress up and come to the Moon with me," Kristin said while she was dressing up.
"Wow!" Joyce said happy.
It was the first time that Kristin had asked Joyce to come with her, since the summer.
"Joyce, I need your support in this trip. You probably understood. It is about those priests," Kristin was saying while she dressed.
"What about the priests?" Asked Joyce while she also dressed as fast as she could.
"One of them has died. The others are in bad shape. I have to bring them here."
"Wow! I am sorry."
"Joyce, you are ready. Please call Sarah and tell her to call to the hospital that I am bringing five guys close to death. Do not tell her that one is already dead."
"I do it right now," Joyce said lifting the phone.
Kristin finished dressing while Joyce made the phone call. They walked together out of the house and into the ship. Kristin went immediately to the Moon. Kristin and Joyce did not talk too much during the trip. When they got to the Moon, they went to Reverend Gould's claim.
"Joyce, get the arm and check that the hole is clear," Kristin said when the were above the building.
"It is clear," Joyce said after checking.
Kristin got into the hole and latched to the building. She connected the intercom.
"Hey, guys. I am here!" She said faking cheerfulness.
"Chris, is that you?" Asked a very weak voice.
"Yes, it is me. I am coming."
Kristin and Joyce passed to the building bringing with them some food and water. The priests were still sitting around the table in the same way Kristin left them before. One of them has his head on the table. He was not moving.
"Hi!" Kristin said. "I talked with the Reverend Gould and he told me to take you back to Earth."
"Oh good!" one of them said.
"Our brother passed away," said another.
"I know. Here, have some food while I take you. Joyce, distribute what we have."
"Oh! Thank you!" said one of them.
"We have two angels coming for us," said another.
"Is this heaven?" asked another.
"No," Joyce said. "This is closer to hell than to heaven."
"Joyce! Watch your tongue!" Kristin said smiling at her.
"It is true!" Joyce said.
"Yes, it is true. Give them some water and let us go." Kristin said.
They went back to the ship.
"Wow!" Joyce said. "I feel bad."
"I understand. You can understand how I felt when I found them."
"Poor guys! They look so innocent, like little babies."
"In a sense, they are like babies, Joyce. No experience at all of life. They were telling me the other day that they went to the Seminary when they were four. They have not been out of the Seminary until now."
"I wonder what the parents think when they let them do that."
"Religious fanatics, Joyce. A very strong force in life. Millions have died happily because of religious fanatics. They had killed many millions for the same reason."
"Yes, I know. I wish there was a way to destroy religious fanatics. The world will be so nice!"
"Do not be so pessimistic Joyce. There are good things in this world. You are not quite thirteen," Kristin said knowing that it will distract her niece.
"I am already thirteen! My birthday was last month!" Joyce said very offended, as Kristin had wanted.
"I know," Kristin said laughing. "I was kidding you."
They were flying fast. When they landed, several ambulances were waiting nearby. Sarah was very efficient. In a few more minutes the four surviving priests were in the hospital. The Reverend Gould abandoned the claim and never again talked to Kristin about it or anything else.

Kristin and Joyce visited the priests several times in the Hospital. Kristin had told the Hospital that she will pay the bill. She asked them to do what they could to save the four survivors. The priest who had died was cremated and they had his ashes in a small urn on one of the night tables. It took them two weeks to recover. Kristin and Joyce enjoyed going to chat with them. They talked about religion, about the effect of religion on people and on life in general. Joyce was very good debater. The priests have been trained in religious debate in the Seminary. They were no match for Joyce who had fun getting them all wrapped up in inconsistencies. Kristin enjoyed sitting on a chair seeing Joyce confuse the priests. When they were close to being released they talked to Kristin. They had changed very much. One of them was now clearly their leader. He always talked for all four. The others supported him.
"Kristin," said their leader, whose name was Alfred. "May we talk to you?"
"Yes, Alfred?" Kristin asked.
"We were talking before you came about how are we going to pay for the Hospital."
"Do not worry, I am paying the Hospital bill."
"Wow! Chris, you are very nice."
"I told you once that I am human. Tell me something, what do you plan to do when you leave the Hospital, go back to the Seminary?"
They were in silence for some time. They looked at each other. Finally, one of them said.
"Alfred, you better tell her. She is our friend. They are the only friends we have."
"Chris, we are not returning to the Seminary. We are abandoning the priesthood. This experience was too much for us. We will not be like Joyce, who does not believe in a God. We will not abandon God. We cannot be priests."
"What do you plan to do?" Kristin insisted.
"We were talking of asking you if we can get some job around here to get money to return to our homes."
"You do not have to do that. I can give you the tickets to get home."
"Chris, you are an angel. That is prove that God exists. He sent you to save us."
"If you are no longer priests, you might want to change your clothes," Kristin said to change the topic.
"That would be abusing of your goodness."
"No, that would be nothing compared with all the rest. Let us do something. When you get out of the Hospital, I take you to the Mall to find new clothes. Then, we go to the Agency to get tickets for home. Where do you plan to go?"
"Our families are all farmers. We are sure that they can use our help. They will received us, although they will be mad at us for leaving the priesthood."
"Do you think they will understand?"
"We hope so. I do not think that any one of them will be so mad as to through us out."
"Well, we do that. You tell the Agent where you want to go. Joyce, we better go. See you tomorrow, guys."
"Good bye Chris, good bye Joyce." they all said.
"Poor guys," Joyce said again when they were in the car.

The following day, Kristin checked them out of the Hospital and took them to the Mall. Joyce had a lot of fun finding clothes for them. Later, they went to the Agency.
"Hi, Thomas," Kristin said entering the Agency.
"Hi, Kristin, Joyce," said Thomas getting out of his desk and shaking hands with them. "What brings you here?"
"Thomas, get airplane tickets for these four guys. They will tell you where they need to go. You sent me the bill."
"Fine, no problem. Please come over here." Thomas said. That was a nice commission for him.
"Guys, I need to buy some things for Joyce. You wait for me here."
Kristin and Joyce went shopping.
"Chris, you are a very nice person," Joyce could not control her telling Kristin.
"Oh! Shut up! I am only human!"
"Yes, Chris. I wish that one in every million were like you."
"If you are going to get sentimental I do not go shopping with you."
"Do not get mad Chris. I had to tell you."
"Well, you said it. Now let us go shopping."
When they finished shopping they picked the four guys from the Agency. They had their tickets for that afternoon. Kristin took them to have lunch and they spent the hours they had in friendly chat. At the proper time, Kristin took them to the airport. The good byes were too sentimental for Kristin. She was satisfied with the end of the affair. She was sorry for the one who had died.

Chapter 14

Kristin's life came back to normal. She had to take care of the mail, she had to answer requests for information about the Moon and Mars. She had to carry a building one place or another. She had to carry some prospective colonist to visit the site where they wanted to make a claim. She had to help Joyce with her homework. Some of that routine was tiresome or boring, other was gratifying. She had a big surprise the next time she went to the Moon and got down to the main building. She was received like a hero.
"Chris," Sam said as soon as he saw her. "I do not have words to thank you for the idea of the parties. We had already one and it was a huge success. The whole spirit of the people has changed. People is working better, the kids were very happy."
"Well," Kristin said. "I am very happy to hear that."
"I tell you that everybody talks about the parties," Suzanne told her. "The kids had a great time. The parents were very happy seeing their kids have fun. All the parents are saying that the behavior of the kids had changed."
"Yes," Sam said. "One of the teachers was telling me yesterday that even school has changed."
"Chris," Jennifer said. "I do not have words to thank you enough for the idea."
"You make me very happy saying that," Kristin said with modesty.
"Chris," Jennifer said. "Do you have a minute? I want to show you something."
"Of course."
They went to Jennifer room.
"I have to tell you a secret. Because of the parties, I already have a boyfriend."
"Really? How is he?"
"He is the most marvelous kid in the world, on the Moon, at least," she corrected.
Kristin had a good laugh. In a very good mood, Kristin returned to Earth. In the middle of that activity, Mr. Adams called Kristin one morning. They were talking pleasantries for a moment.
"You might want to know," Mr. Adams said, "that the Reverend Gould have been defeated in his reelection."
"I knew it," said Kristin. "I had a problem with him because of his reelection."
"What kind of a problem?" asked Mr. Adams curious.
"Well," said Kristin. "He made me take five priests to the Moon, to a claim he made there. That was just before his reelection campaign. Then, when the work for the reelection started, he abandoned them there. He did not answer their calls for help. They run out of food and air. He told me that he was too busy to worry about them. When I told him that they were close to death, he told me that there were more young priests in the Seminary. One of the priests died and the other four were in very bad shape when I rescued them."
"I never understood that man," said Mr. Adams. "He made a campaign issue to send a contingent of soldiers to the Moon to evict the trespassers and recover damages. His opponent had a more moderate approach of recognizing the Moon as a new nation. He supported the idea of trying to get in good relations with the Moon. He insisted that we need more what they produce than they need us."
"Were you up for reelection?" asked Kristin.
"Yes," he said. "I won reelection and I am now the Chairman of a more powerful Committee."
"Congratulations," said Kristin.
Then, he went to the point he wanted to talk about.
"Kristin," he said. "I have been asked to contact you to see if you would work with my Government."
"Well...." she hesitated. "There are quite a few problems for working with your Government."
"What kind of problems, Kristin?" asked Mr. Adams.
"The basic one," said Kristin, "is that your Government has many ideas that are straight from the Nazis."
"Why do you say that?" Mr. Adams asked kind of surprised. "That is not true. The U.S. is the only true democracy in the world."
"That might be in theory, Mr. Adams. In practice, the officers of your Government consider that they own the world and everything on it," explained Kristin.
"Kristin, you must have very good reason to say that."
"Let me tell you what happens with Dr. Jones as an example. Before he started the excavations on Mars, he had a grant from a Government Agency to do some other work. One day, they told him that he must present all the documents he had for the excavations, that are not funded by the Government, but by a private Foundation. He refused and his previous grant was canceled. He had to return all the money he had received in the past. You can imagine that was quite a problem for him because they gave him three days to return the money. That did not end his problems because they had continued to harass him."
"I know that some agencies can be very close minded," said Mr. Adams. "There are many who want to get their hands on his research."
"I do not understand," said Kristin. "He is publishing as fast as he can. He has made public everything he has found. I think that what they want is to stop his research."
"You might be right at that," concurred Mr. Adams.
"They have the same attitude with me," added Kristin.
"The reason why I called you," continued Mr. Adams, not paying attention to her last phrase or to avoid talking about that, "is that there is a group of Universities who wants to install an astronomical observatory on the back side of the Moon, to avoid the pollution, both light and radio, produced by the Earth."
"I have been thinking about that myself," answered Kristin. "Actually, it is a very old idea. I have read a lot of papers on that subject. I have seen a crater on the backside of the Moon about five times the size of Arecibo. It would be perfect for a radio telescope. It is a perfect bowl and there are only a few boulders that I can remove. There is nearby a plane better than Socorro in New Mexico or Atacama in Chile. You can put an optical telescope any place you want. There is no air, wind, or animals and the gravity is so low that it is ideal. I will be very happy to help if that does not get me in trouble."
"Let us be honest, Kristin," said Mr. Adams. He could not avoid asking. "What kind of a trouble?"
"Well," she hesitated, "that is what we were talking before. Say that they want to take a telescope to the Moon. I can go and pick it up almost in one piece, which will save a lot of trouble and cost, but to do that, I will have to land in your country."
"Well," said Mr. Adams. "That makes sense."
"The problem is," said Kristin, "that your country has regulations that I cannot accept. They have given regulations that apply exclusively to me and nobody else. There is nobody else in the world in my situation. I have to permit them to inspect my vehicle and let them see all my professional secrets. I have to give them schematic