Space Case: Chapters 7–10

Maximum Adventure Travel ponied up the money in return for two concessions: 1) A residence at MBA would be converted into a “deluxe lunar hotel suite.” 2) Maximum Adventure had the exclusive rights to charge incredibly wealthy people staggering sums of money to come stay at Moon Base Alpha.

Back on earth, servants did everything for them. And I mean everything. They had cooks, gardeners, butlers, dog walkers, maids, doormen, barbers, decorators, masseuses, stablemen, pool boys, and art curators.

“Come on! Give them back!” Roddy whined as he haplessly ran back and forth between the twins.

“I was just about to liberate Titan from the Pernicious Skrinks!”

This time I stuck the landing, alighting perfectly by Roddy.

“Here you go,” I said, valiantly handing over his goggles.

The staging area was full of shrink-wrapped bales of new supplies: dehydrated food packets, robot replacement parts, medical supplies, sanitary wipes, toilet paper, and the highly anticipated fresh fruit and vegetables.

Behind me Patton—whose brain was more dense than his muscles—tried to stop instead. But his inertia carried him forward, and he slammed right into the bale.

With a few exceptions, lunarnauts are prohibited from insulting, disparaging, slandering, or otherwise saying negative things about MBA or any of its inhabitants.

Kira took a step back, making sure she was out of Nina's eye line, then mused, “I wonder if she had something to do with Dr. Holtz's death. It’s kind of suspicious, ordering everyone not to investigate a murder, isn’t it?”

“Do you know how difficult it was to requisition those eggs?” Nina demanded. “NASA didn’t want to send them..."

And by demanding that I compose a video log about Dr. Holtz, Nina was forcing me to publicly back her side of the story. If I decided to push the murder angle later, I’d come across as fickle.

She was doing everything in her power to muzzle me and derail any investigation.

She was a decorated soldier, a clever scientist, a highly respected employee, and the top choice to command MBA: competent, straitlaced, and honest as could be.

In his business Lars had been accused of everything from ignoring environmental laws to bribing government officials to violating oil embargoes.

However, none of the charges had ever stuck. Inevitably, someone below Lars at his company ended up taking the fall, while Lars himself came out unscathed.

Plus he had a volcanic temper and was prone to fits of rage that shook the entire base.
And now that I thought about it, Patton and Lily Sjoberg were also volatile and violent.

When I’d overheard Dr. Holtz's phone call, there hadn’t been any two-second gaps in the conversation. True, I hadn't been able to hear the person on the other end of the call, but still, you can tell. Talking to someone when you have to wait a few seconds for an answer always sounds a little stilted.

“Dr. Holtz was widely respected for his work,” the reporter continued, “garnering such awards as the National Medal of Science and NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his work on the effects of low gravity on the human body.”

The same thing that had caught my eye before had done so again. It was so fleeting I didn’t even know what it was, but this time I’d been alert enough to stop the news report in the right place, giving me time to examine the scene.

They had been so busy with their various duties that day that it wasn’t till evening that they heard I’d been grounded. Once they did, they were livid at Nina.

Nina brought two plates to our table, acting nice and friendly, as though she hadn’t spent the entire day chastising me.

Roddy Marquez was choking. In his attempt to devour his burger as quickly as possible, he had apparently forgotten to chew. Now he was red-faced and wheezing, desperately signaling that something was jammed in his gullet.

Everyone laughed harder, and Lars seethed so angrily I thought the meat on his head might start frying.

Lars pried the hunk of masticated meat off his head and threw it against the wall, where it stuck fast.

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then everyone who didn’t have a hamburger yet began clamoring for one.

Use of the main air lock is limited to those lunarnauts with official, sanctioned duties upon the lunar surface (i.e., maintenance, research, or transit to and from the launchpad).

"...Do you have any idea how many cameras there are at this place?”
“A few hundred?” I ventured.

He plodded along slowly, his face drawn and sad.

I kept my eyes closed, digging through the recesses of my mind.

“I know,” Kira said, a little indignantly. “I read history.”

After about twenty seconds the outer air lock door slid open. Although it wasn’t visible, all the precious oxygen in the air lock would have dissipated instantly.

The computer explained, “Well, in actuality he was simply making the hand signal for ‘murder.’ In American Sign Language, the verb forms of ‘to be’ are not signed, but are instead extrapolated from the context. One could also argue that he was saying 'This is a murder,’ but ‘I am being murdered’ seems more appropriate.”

As robots are an increasingly important part of life on earth, it should come as no surprise that they are integral to life at MBA as well.

Since the lunar surface is so inhospitable to humans, robots will be used to handle as many tasks outside the base as possible, including maintenance, repairs, and research.