Strangers at the Door Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Map:Lunar North Pole Region

  Map:Overview of Northern Lunar Habitat

  Map:NLH Living Spaces 2038 Close-Up

  Illustration: The Water Fall Room

  CHAPTER ONE Hello, Goodbye

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Monday, July 5th, 2038

  A Pleasant Surprise

  Intro of the New Kids

  Dinner with Sandy

  CHAPTER TWO The Gift

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Sunday, July 18th, 2038

  Ananyu makes an impression

  Bryce's Birthday Party

  CHAPTER THREE Exile

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Monday, July 19th, 2038

  Suit Training

  Leaving NLH

  Ananyu talks with Nina

  Earth-Moon Lagrange point depot

  Break through

  CHAPTER FOUR Hammer Blow

  Urgent News Bulletin

  Sandy and Bryce talk

  Life on Hold

  The Dream

  Resolution

  Return

  CHAPTER FIVE No place like Home

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Sunday, August 25th, 2038

  Return Party

  Home Coming

  Questions For Nina

  The Dream Redux

  CHAPTER SIX Strangers at the Door

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Saturday, October 23rd, 2038

  Welcome party

  New Kids in School

  Test Flight

  House warming.

  CHAPTER SEVEN Season of Discontent

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Wednesday, November 3rd, 2038

  Willie plays Chess

  Act of Contrition

  Big Flirt

  Fighting back

  The Almost Fight

  CHAPTER EIGHT Thanksgiving and other hardships

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Thursday, November 25th, 2038

  Sword of Damocles

  Clueless

  Color Her Jealous

  Field trip

  CHAPTER NINE Presents, wanted and unwanted

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Monday, December 20th, 2038

  Resistance is Futile

  Rememberance

  Nina's Birthday

  Mischief

  Eve of Destruction

  CHAPTER TEN Fallen Times

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Monday, January 3rd, 2038

  Nina's Fall

  First shot

  Broken Dream

  Stolen

  CHAPTER ELEVEN Respite

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Tuesday, January 11th, 2039

  Check In

  CLT30 birthday

  Inspection

  CHAPTER TWELVE Downhill Slide

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Saturday, February 12th, 2039

  Wendy's birthday

  Big Shot

  The Monitor

  A shoulder to cry on

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN Isolation

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Saturday, March 13th, 2039

  The Grand, again

  Abandoned

  Mission to Farside

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN Seeking

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Monday, March 21th, 2039

  Down on the Farm

  Fatigue

  On Deadly Ground

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN Solace of Friends

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Wednesday, March 23rd, 2039

  Hacked

  Gotcha

  Cornered

  Boom

  Rescue

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN Forgiveness

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Sunday, April 3rd, 2039

  Walking with Myra

  Dinner

  Prom

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Back on track

  Northern Lunar Habitat News for Saturday, July 16th, 2039

  Revenge served sweetly

  Passage

  The return of Henry Chang

  Bryce's Birthday party

  Reviews

  Please don't miss

  Authors Notes

  About the Author

  Luni327: Strangers at the Door - Book Two of the Lunar Age Series

  Copyright © 2018 by Daniel E. Eaton

  Visit the author’s website/blog at:

  cislunarbooks.com/dan_eaton/

  Follow the author on Facebook:

  www.facebook.com/cislunarbooks/

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  This book is dedicated to my kids, Adam, Jennifer, Valerie, and Christine. Every time I see you, I smile with pride and joy. You’ve made my life so rich.

  Dan Eaton

  CHAPTER ONE

  Hello, Goodbye

  Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Monday, July 5th, 2038.

  In Habitat News, please welcome Stetson Bullock, Javin Fromme, Evelina Hayen, Lylia Huban, Konner Liaw, Regan Sidman, Ankur Stanforth, and Meadow Warrior as NLH High School’s class of 2042. Dr. Johnson would like to especially welcome the incoming freshman class of NLH High and is looking forward to seeing them in classroom 200 at 09:00 this morning. In addition, Blayze Daniels and Jocelyn Kaplow will be joining our sophomore class. Dr. Johnson is requesting that the sophomore class gather in classroom 201 for a special meeting at 08:30.

  In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading at $29.03 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $31.66 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are at $29.93. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is at $24.29 a share, CDB Farms is trading at $24.51 a share and MM Brewing is at $2.50.

  Mussconny Fabrication is pleased to announce an agreement with Sunshine, Inc. to supply key components needed for Sunshine’s upcoming project at the Lunar Lagrange one point.

  We all met in our new classroom like Miss Christine requested and talked among ourselves trying to figure out what was up with the earlier start time. I stayed clear of Myra, however, it was one of those days where the girls and boys clumped together separately for some reason so it really wasn’t a big deal. Promptly at 08:30 Miss Christine walked in the room. We could tell something was up because of the mischievous smile on her face as she said, ”Good Morning! Miss Gayle and I have a surprise to share with you. So, before we get to that I’d like to make sure we all say hi to our two new members of the sophomore class.”

  With that she had the new boy and girl stand up and she said, “Please give a warm welcome to Blayze and Jocelyn.”

  Blayze was about the same size as me with darker brown hair and blue eyes. Jocelyn was a slender redhead with a pretty face. We’d find out later that she was a very serious challenger for Nina’s domination of the class rankings.

  Miss Christine gave us a moment to say hi and then called things back to order by saying, “Okay guys, please settle down. Miss Gayle has been waiting patiently so we better get to her and her little surprise.”

  With that, she hit the switch and the camera came on and the screen lit up with a smiling Miss Gayle on the display. It took about a second and then there was a delighted shriek from Myra before she was running out of the room. It only took a second longer before both Adam and I were running for the door following Myra. I don’t know if Willie, Ananyu,
and Nina figured it out or if Christine had just told them to follow us but they came along about ten seconds later. Miss Christine led a confused looking Blayze and Jocelyn after us.

  The image of Miss Gayle had been different than what we had last seen two weeks ago before the summer break. In those images and all the images we had ever seen of her, she had been sitting in her home office. In the picture this morning she had been sitting in what looked like an open space with a colorful wall of vegetation behind her. Unless there had been an incredible coincidence, that wall of vegetation looked just like the one on the Northern wall of the Main Cafeteria. The wall that Myra, Adam, and myself had tended to many times while working for my mom. That could only mean that Miss Gayle was here at the Habitat with us. She was the best teacher any of us had ever had and now we were finally going to get to meet her in person.

  When Adam and I hit the cafeteria, we saw Myra had almost reached Miss Gayle, who was standing with her arms out and a warm smile on her face. Myra gave Miss Gayle a big hug and Adam and I turned it into a group hug seconds later.

  “Miss Gayle, what the heck are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Well hello to you too, Bryce. I got tired of having to sit around and listen to you guys tell me about your adventures and decided to come have some myself.”

  About that time Nina, Willie and Ananyu showed up and Miss Gayle was swallowed up by another wave of hugging.

  “Oh, it’s so wonderful to finally be here with you guys.”

  Miss Christine, Blayze and Jocelyn finally joined us.

  Miss Christine said, “Miss Gayle, I’d like to introduce you to the newest members of your class. This is Blayze and Jocelyn.”

  Blayze and Jocelyn had a slightly confused look on their face like this wasn’t adding up somehow.

  “Blayze, Jocelyn, welcome to the sophomore class. I apologize for the deception on the transport. I just didn’t want your new classmates to get an accidental hint of my arrival and spoil the surprise.”

  “Hey,” Nina said, “How did you sneak in here? The transport was full with the new families.”

  “I’ll explain it all, however, I’d really like you to show me our classroom first?”

  Once we had relocated back to the school, she said, “I’ve been planning this for a while. Christine worked it out so I could do the training during the school breaks and then it was just a matter of getting transport here. I was scheduled to come in on next month’s transport. Then Mrs. Sidman came down with the flu several days before the family was to go into quarantine. She’d been on a business trip and had just got home so the docs cleared Mr. Sidman and their daughter Regan to enter the quarantine. They got a hold of me and I managed to make the deadline to enter quarantine so here I am. Mrs. Sidman will take my place on next month’s transport.”

  Ananyu asked, “So does that mean you’re here for good? This isn’t just a visit?”

  “I’m here for good, or at least for my two year contract with the Habitat. Last year there was just the one class of the six of you. Now, there are two classes with eight kids in each and more coming eventually. It makes sense to have a teacher on-site now. Christine has better things to do than keeping an eye on you lot.”

  Miss Christine interrupted and said, “Excuse me, Miss Gayle, don’t forget you have the other class to attend to. I’ll go get them settled and when you’re finished here, come along and let’s get them started too.”

  “Thanks for reminding me, Miss Christine. Now, I want you guys to spend ten minutes introducing yourselves to Blayze and Jocelyn. Then I want you to get out your E-pads and look at the schedules and lesson plans, I just sent you. Reply back to me if you have any issues with it. You can then get started with the first lesson. Blayze and Jocelyn, I need you two to begin the assessment tests so I can see what we need to do to slip you into the program here with the least amount of fuss. We’ll talk more about it when I get back.”

  With that, Miss Gayle left the classroom and that’s how the day went with her switching back and forth between classes as she was needed. Given the size of the classes I suspected that there would be periods when we were all doing independent study that she would just roll the two classes together to cut down on her running around. All in all, it was a good start to the school year and we were looking forward to how she’d handle things now that she was here with us in person.

  With Miss Gayle busy with the other class, we gathered around the new kids and each introduced ourselves. They pretty much had us all memorized from the notoriety we had experienced over the last year. They were unknowns to myself and Myra because of the incident at Myra’s party and neither of us had attended the 4th of July party. Willie got involved in a long discussion with some of the Gogo players after Myra’s party and ended up not meeting any of our new classmates. Then he was working during the party on the 4th and missed another opportunity to get to know them. The others had been introduced, however, they had only talked a little bit with the new kids.

  Blayze and Jocelyn both looked a little nervous, so Ananyu jumped in and started talking to them and asking questions. She said, “So tell us about your journey here, please. It must have been wonderful riding here in the CLT30 compared to how we slept our way here in the old lunar shuttles?”

  Blayze said, “Yeah, it was pretty cool—-”

  Before he could say anything more, Jocelyn spoke up and said, “It was a little trickier to get us all up to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) than what they went through with you guys. With the ten additional people compared to the old lunar shuttles, they spaced our arrival at the LEO depot out over three days.”

  “So you got to play space tourist at the Depot?” asked Adam.

  “Nah—,” said Blayze.

  Jocelyn broke back in and said, “Actually, the CLT30 was already docked so they just boarded us as we arrived. That kept us out of the Depot’s staff’s hair and we had great views out the windows of the liner. The flight crew gave us tours of the flight deck and kept us entertained while we waited. The hardest part of the wait was sleeping in zero-g. Even that wouldn’t have been that bad if dingle brain over there hadn’t decided to cop a feel while we were sleeping.”

  Blayze turned a bright shade of red and shouted, “I was asleep. It was an accident. How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?”

  Jocelyn just laughed and said, “He claims it was an accident that I woke up with his hand brushing my boob.”

  She went on to explain that as the only two sophomores on board, they had hung around together and when it came time to sleep instead of strapping into their chairs, they had decided to experiment with zero-g by sleeping on the ceiling just to be different. The crew didn’t mind and found some spare sleeping bags they could tether to the ceiling.

  She said, “So after the boob grabbing incident, I made him move. The next time I woke up, the weirdo was slapping me in the face with his hands.”

  We all looked at Blayze wondering what kind of guy he was while he somehow managed to turn an even brighter shade of red.

  He said, “That didn’t happen.”

  Jocelyn giggled and went on and said, “He’s right. In zero-g, if you don’t strap your arms down while you’re sleeping they just float around getting in trouble on their own. That second time I woke up I was slapping myself in the face. Until I figured out what was going on I was ready to kill Blayze. Everybody else thought it was hilarious. After that, we both slept in our assigned chairs and I made sure to use the straps to keep my arms from getting in trouble.”

  “When did Miss Gayle come aboard? You guys really had no idea who she was?” asked Ananyu.

  Blayze yielded to the inevitable and just sat back and let Jocelyn answer.

  “I guess because of the uncertainty of the last minute changes, they had scheduled the Sidmans for the last flight to the Depot. They made a much bigger deal of the selection of you guys than they did with us so the first time any of us met was briefly right before they loaded us into the Dr
agon III’s. When we met on the liner she just said to call her Gayle and since she hung around with Mr. Sidman and Regan we just assumed they were all family.”

  Nina spoke up and asked, “So what was the CLT30 flight like?”

  Jocelyn said, “I read about how you guys traveled here. Compared to that it was pretty spectacular. Once everyone was aboard, they scheduled a launch window. Until then, we just continued playing space tourist. When we got within a half hour of the launch window, the crew had us strap into the seats. They undocked from the transfer depot and moved us out away from everything so there wasn’t any danger of the exhaust hitting the depot. When they hit their mark, they started boosting to put us in a modified Hohmann transfer orbit to the Moon—”

  Adam interrupted with, “You two need to speak English. What the heck is a modified Hohmann transfer orbit?”

  Nina said, “It’s just the name of the maneuver they use to get something from the Earth to the Moon in a reasonable amount of time. Given the speed that they’re making the transfer at with the CLT30 I assume they did more tweaking during the trip. Otherwise it’s the same thing they used to get the Apollo astronauts to the Moon and it’s what they used to get the lunar shuttle we used here.”

  Jocelyn said, “That’s right, same old thing except they added in some burns to get us moving faster and then some more to slow us down. When things were stable for a long time between burns they would adjust the attitude of the CLT30 so we could actually see the Earth or Moon out the windows. They even added a slow spin so everyone got a direct view out their window every so often.”

  Nina said, “What about landing on the Moon, that had to be pretty neat with the view out the windows?”

  Jocelyn said, “Oh, that was the neatest part. Once we reached the Moon, they had to transfer us over to an orbit that crossed over NLH for the landing. That took a bit so we got a lot of time to look out the windows at the lunar landscape. Once they initiated the de-orbit burn, they began shifting the attitude of the ship to put the Moon below us. There was a period during landing when we couldn’t see the surface and then all of a sudden the area around NLH was visible out the windows and suddenly we were down on the landing pad.”