EXODUS * Episode 19
THE SHUTTLE PILOT AND THE OTHER ENGINEER
He might not be Casanova or even close, but he liked looking at girls, and some even laughed at his jokes.
Still, it took him all of his efforts to even speak to a new girl.
As an engineer from the Norwegian NTH in Trondheim and the University of Warsaw, he had met many fellow female students.
He had even dated two of them; the Norwegian ones.
Now, he was the chief executive engineer for the new and special shuttle and he was extremely proud.
His position should guarantee him girls, he was sure of it.
Only, it did not work like that. Flashing his special card did not help at all.
The work at the shuttle was fairly easy for one with his background; just assisting in the transport from the transfer ring to the shuttle, then making sure everything worked for the trips to the Moon base.
He had plenty of time to chat with the personnel being brought up for the work at the base, half of them young and smart female engineers and mechanics; the trip from the donut at the end of the Ladder took two days – there were not any personal quarters.
The control room had three chairs, one for a guard, one for his assistant and the middle one for himself.
They had done this trip many times now – all was routine.
Then one day, a Polish girl responded in kind.
A gorgeous blonde – blue-eyed like himself:
“Can I see the control room? I would like to see the stars as they are, and not just through a stupid virtual window that we have here in the back.”
“Not a problem, just follow me.”
The guard on duty and his assistant were both half asleep, and he gently asked them to leave as the girl and he sat down in the chairs.
There were a few control sets; he dimmed them so the stars could be seen clearly, around the Moon ahead of them.
First she could see the van de Graaf crater on the moon, before he dimmed out the center of the window for her to see the stars and the galaxies as they shone all around them.
She was silent for a while; then: “And we are heading out there!”
“Indeed we are, but first there is much work to do.”
“You don’t have a ring, are you married or do you have a sweetheart?” She looked at him.
“No, I am quite single, “ he answered, looking back at her.
She took his hand then, and held him. No longer fumbling, he held her back, and without saying anymore, kissed her.
The shuttle landed the next day, and people were assigned their housing and their tasks.
He found her assignment, and visited after a couple of days.
She was an engineer, one of those working on the cabling systems aboard the spaceship to be built.
This job was one of the last to complete, before the interior fittings.
As such she had little to do for the near future and they started dating between his weekly transports.
The base started to be completed; they had nearly forty thousand workers with ten thousand left to arrive.
He looked forward to end the shuttle assignment and get over to more intelligent work.
In the meantime the two of them moved together. He was now a very happy man.
His girlfriend, christened Lucky was equally pleased – he was a man she could be a “mama” for.
For Lucky the last days before departure were the busiest ones; she was responsible for the final wrap-ups of the ships. She was also pregnant.
Their part of the Moon base was naturally the first established, and with a community of first engineers alone then later also mechanics.
For the couple, they spent a lot of time just being together – her becoming more and more visibly pregnant; but still working.
Arne was taking his duties as a becoming father very seriously; like most Norwegian men – it was a part of the culture.
One could even use the phrase ‘historical past’: He did the lessons in how to instruct their robot how to change diapers; and even how to program the kitchen robot how to cook for the baby.
Lucky was the third one to have a baby on the Moon base; and there were quite a lot of other women also pregnant – most of them engineers, and the engineers’ ship was prepared for that.
... to be continued.
next: EXODUS * Episode 20 goes on with:
"STOCKHOLM, 23-rd CENTURY"
&
"THE TULIPS OF THE NETHERLANDS" / stay tuned...
... TOMORROW
