Empty Toward The Moon

Chapter Twenty One

The three men went about repairing the broken and torn habitat roof. By the time it was fully seated in position and expanded to its full fifteen meter diameter, they had it repaired and cleaned out of the dirt and tree debris that came in with the tear in the roof. After this they cleared away enough trees and ground cover for the rest of the habs to be placed. Mocha caught and collected in a make-shift cage a few of the rodents that had to be re-homed during all of the building process.

Gianni took Latte and a hand held mediscanner to test all of the flora in the surrounding forest. They found quite a lot of material that could be eaten fresh or eaten once cooked thoroughly and they found herbs and flowers and roots that she decided to take back with her to The Chaser for further research.

I spent time sorting out all of our equipment and supplies. Food stock and kitchen equipment went into the first hab as our main family lounge, clothing and luggage went into the second hab that was set up as our bedroom. I didn't really know where to place the rest so I left them in piles outside. Looking at what was left, I felt like we didn't have enough but Nova pointed out that the three of us could live comfortably here on the moon for five years with everything we'd brought dirt-side with us, baring any accidents. I looked at the pile of crates, leftover boxes and tools and realised that I was used to having much more to live on. Heck, my whole home manor housed over two hundred staff just to serve a family of five.

*Sigh* I am used to managing a larger number of staff with a much higher comfort level. I know we can survive here with all of this, but how comfortable are we going to be, Nova? Nova stayed silent for a moment, then highlighted on my internal HUD a large light coloured box and a crate in silver. A large black crate and a few smaller boxes.

[Portable bath is in box number one. Silver crate holds portable sauna. The largest black crate holds plumbing, pump and filtration system that Engineer Osaka built for you, on Gianni's request. The smaller boxes contain high end toiletry and cleansing products, care of Phill. Cade wanted to send down a full ship's head, but he compromised with a couple of portable refreshers.]

As he spoke to me in my mind, I set up my light closer to the supply pile that Nova indicated then I opened each box and crate to confirm his information. Bath, sauna, toilets, plumbing. I nearly laughed out loud.

[Gianni and Cade also have another surprise for you, but I will not ruin this surprise.]

Thank you, Nova. I'll let them show it off when they are ready. OK. I stood back and looked around our little clearing full of large half-submerged bumps and boxes of equipment and the five or so people helping get it all sorted out. Hands on my hips I nodded. We can do this Nova. Just, can you make sure we have more habitat patching kits, please? I laughed as Nova chuckled in my mind.

It took three more hours before everything was set up. Generators and communications panels were buried in their own shielded containment crates along with the half-submerged habitat modules. Nova was already in their computer systems and monitoring their control. Two smaller habs were set up as refresher units attached to the bunk room and main family lounge hab. Another was set up for the water filtration system that pumped water from the nearby stream. Clean, drinkable water was delivered to a couple of large underground tanks with built in sensors for bacteria or algae growth. This water was then pumped to the make-shift bathhouse and again to the kitchen.

A recycling unit was set up outside the kitchen where grey water was filtered and stored to be used on the gardening area that Gianni and Latte had set up. The black water or waste was set up to be delivered outside the camp where it was freeze dried, processed and packaged for use on the garden. I really didn't want to know about any of that, but Gianni said this was a classic green house or hydroponics bay set up on any ship in the Human Alliance Space. We just happen to be using it planet-side. Latte assured me that she knew how to run everything in the garden and could cook for us in the kitchen.