Chapter 12
Twelve
Alyce clearly enjoyed her tour guide role.
“We are traveling on Loop Road, which is entirely paved, thankfully.” Alyce pointed at the smooth white surface that spanned before them.
“It travels in a closed loop around the station. There are other, smaller roads and paths through the interior, but if you become lost, find this one and it will always bring you back to the town square.” Alice spoke loudly to be heard over the buzz of the zig.
“As we leave the town square, we enter the primary residential zone. As you can see, we have various-sized homes for individuals and family units, housing up to ten per unit. An exception was made for Mish, of course, who needed to house her numerous offspring.” She pointed to a small, blue, round-topped dwelling. “That is my home.”
The houses were intact and neat, but most were empty. The small neighborhood had a forgotten air about it.
“How long have you lived here?” Holly asked, curious about this woman who had been holding everything together.
“My parents arrived here when I was a baby,” Alyce replied, sending Holly a mischievous glance. “They were laying low after some…questionable life choices. They stayed, although I moved around a bit before coming back about twenty years ago to look after them before they passed on.”
“The edge of civilized space would seem a good place for laying low,” Holly said with a smile. She was curious, but smart enough not to ask what kind of trouble Alyce’s parents had gotten up to.
“My choices have always been on the up-and-up,” Alyce said.
“But, yes. This kind of place was ideal for them. They started over and led quiet, happy lives.” She nodded toward Holly.
“I’m a little older than your mother, and I remember her.
We were both children, and we played a few times. Before she and your grandmother left.”
Holly’s throat tightened. “What was she like back then?”
“Mirth was a sweet, fun little kid.” Alyce smiled.
“Happy, but you could tell there was tension in the family. Charles wasn’t a hands-on parent.
” She cleared her throat and went back to tour-guide mode, as if concerned she’d overstepped.
“Moving on, you will see the open land space. The ground cover is a combination of drought-resistant grasses from various planets, lending it the striated green and blue colors you see. In the past, the field was the event space for parties and art and music gatherings. Residents enjoy relaxation activities here, and it remains our largest open space.”
The zig had reached one of the far ends of the rounded rectangular-shaped dome.
The field gave way to a different type of foliage as a round body of water came into view.
The water was clear and smooth as glass, and became purple toward the center, where it was presumably deeper.
The plants here looked more tropical. Holly saw some palm trees, and some alien varieties that were more vividly colored than in the forest region.
“Here you can see the pond,” Alyce explained.
“It is appropriately ten feet at its deepest point and is available for swimming. The ground here is mostly sand, so the climate here was adjusted to accommodate more tropical plant life. The water gets its purple color from minerals in the sand, which is original to the moon’s surface itself.
To date, no one has drowned in the pond. ”
“Good to hear,” Holly murmured, amused by the pride in Alyce’s voice as she made that proclamation.
“There are six additional residential units located on the pond,” Alyce went on, then pointed to a small building with a cone-shaped roof barely visible through thick foliage.
“That is home to a resident named Tyer. He likes to keep to himself, but he’s a good one.
He’ll likely turn up at the meeting. The rest of these units are empty.
That one,” she thrust a finger toward a small brown building that was all but engulfed by trees, “used to be occupied by your great-grandparents. It was a sort of vacation home for them. Charles did not use the unit, but you may revive it if you so choose.”
That was interesting, Holly thought. There were many things to do before rehabbing a vacation cabin, but the thought of having a spot on the water was exciting. “Are there any fish in that water?” Holly asked above the zig’s noisy buzz.
“No. That water is too mineralized to sustain any desirable life forms,” Alyce replied. “The few species that could survive in that environment are carnivorous.”
“Ah,” Holly said. “We don’t want that.”
“No, we do not,” Alyce said with emphasis.
“As we reach the midpoint of the dome, take note of the squat concrete building just there.” Alyce directed Holly’s attention to just that: a simple, square of a building in an unassuming shade of tan.
“Our water source is in underground tanks accessible through that building. Initially, Oliver Moone intended to use the cavern located under the station to store the water, but that did not go as planned, so tanks were installed down there. The water and filtration system are accessed via that building. As you likely know from your files, the outpost is irrigated by a system that pumps water up through tubes in the dome’s uppermost support beams and deposits it in the form of rain.
After which, it’s pre-filtered through the soil, then funneled back into the filtration system.
Unfortunately, not all the zones are operational, so there are areas that receive no rain at all, such as the town square. Rain happens once per week, at night.”
“Well, that needs to be repaired,” Holly muttered. “I’ll add it to the list.”
“Good.” Alyce swept a hand ahead of them. “And now we enter the forest and adjacent gardens. This area comprises two-thirds of Moone’s Landing and is vital for oxygen production and carbon dioxide processing.”
The zig fell under the shadows of the trees and the air cooled. If not for the glint of the dome and its metal supports far above, Holly could easily forget that she wasn’t on Earth in a real forest.
“Many of these trees are over a century old.” Pride laced Alyce’s voice.
“There are species represented from multiple planets, not just Earth. All were tested for compatibility with the others to form a strong ecosystem. Birds, insects, and small creatures also dwell in the forest, although not all were intentional. Some—more than is ideal—were abandoned by travelers or were accidental stowaways that escaped during stops or in transport containers. We do not have the resources to catalogue and remove them at this time.”
“Are any dangerous?” Holly wanted to know.
“So far, no one has been injured or killed by the wildlife, but I would also advise you not to venture too far off the paths.” Alyce sent Holly a meaningful glance.
“This is one reason I told you to keep Bean on the leash. That little dog’s nose would find trouble, even if trouble wants nothing to do with him. ”
Well, that made sense. Bean was a beagle, after all, and she knew beagles’ origins were that of hunting dogs.
Although hunting live animals became illegal on Earth back in the year 2278, dog breeds still existed, and their genes remembered what they’d been originally bred for.
Bean didn’t look quite like the beagles of hundreds of years prior, but he was still wired to catch the scent of prey and track it down.
“The gardens provide much of the food we consume here,” Alyce continued on, as the zig passed into a section of the station made into grids with different crops growing in them.
“You are welcome to harvest and prepare food, too. Most of the residents’ living units have simple kitchens for preparing meals.
” Holly saw an orchard filled with different fruit trees on one side of the road.
In addition to plants grown in the ground, vertical planting walls held cascading plants, heavy with vegetables and berries.
Most of them, Holly couldn’t identify. If it hadn’t grown in her parents’ small backyard-garden when she was growing up, she wouldn’t know what it was.
“Of course, participation in garden maintenance is encouraged. Most do contribute their time and energy. I think this is where most of our energy goes, for without the gardens, we are relegated to the fine offerings of the NuProd machines. Other nutritional options are imported, such as protein pastes and solids, sweeteners, and carbohydrate liquids, which can be combined with the produce to make balanced meals.” Alyce made a pronounced sniff.
“If only your cousin had mastered the art of cooking, we could all enjoy a meal out now and then.”
“He won’t be a cook there much longer,” Holly said with a grimace.
“Thank the stars for that,” Alyce said with a boost of acceleration as they neared the edge of the gardens and approached another patch of forest. “I understand that Cody is family, but I don’t know why Charles hired him.”
Nor did Holly. “If Charles was so keen on family, he might have bothered to reply to his daughter’s messages, just once.” She said it with her head turned, but Holly caught Alyce’s quick tilt of the head.
“None of us know why Charles made the choices he did,” Alyce said. “But no one blames your mother, or you, for what happened here.”
Holly turned her head to the older woman with a raised brow. “But it’s on me to prove that I’m not like Charles. Or Cody. Stars.” She rubbed her forehead.
“Well, it’s not like you can make it worse,” Alyce said.
Holly thought of her grandfather’s will and closed her eyes. Oh, it could get worse. And if she couldn’t turn the station around, it would.