First Steps (Founding of the Federation) (27 page)

“I
guess we have to agree to disagree?” she finally asked.

He
chuckled. “That's my girl,” he replied and hugged her.

...*...*...*...*...

Mario
grimaced as he polished the lower lab window. "Damn, I wish we
had gone with that NASCAR idea," he sighed. Doing the chores was
taking a lot more time than he'd ever wanted to do.

"What
Nascar idea honey?" He looked around then spotted motion on the
other side of the window. Wanda had a headset on. She was always
contrite after an argument had boiled over.

"Hi
beautiful," he said. She smiled. "Well, a tech pitched an
idea to use tear away plastic strips over the windows like they do in
racing. When a layer is filthy, tear it off," he explained. She
busied herself with an experiment.

"Wouldn't
you have to put another layer on?" she asked after a moment.

"No,
you stack them one on top of the other. We could have twenty or
thirty layers. That's not the problem though, it's the heat. We were
afraid that if we did that the plastic would melt or freeze in
space," he said. He shrugged.

"Yeah,"
she replied with a snort.

He
smiled. "Not that I don't admire the view, but I gotta get back
to work." She blew him a kiss as he climbed down chuckling.

 ...*...*...*...*...

Tess
sat down with the commander and sighed rubbing her arm. "Sore?"
he asked concerned.

Yung
Lin came in and looked. "Muscle again?"

Tess
nodded. "I wish we had robot," she sighed rolling her
shoulders.

The
commander chuckled. "One isn't enough?"

Tess
smiled. "Nyet, need worker robot. We spliced the lines to move
kiln closer to the extruder. It is a straight shot with the open
rover now. But it is so slow! A day per load!" she grumbled.

"Yeah,
I don't like it either." Mario turned his chair around and sat
down straddling it. He wished he'd thought of the move sooner. It
would of sped things up a bit. Oh well, live and learn he thought.

He
set his lasagna TV dinner down in front of him. Commander Bower
looked over to what he had. "Lasagna? Well, no one can complain
about you not being a stereotype," the commander teased.

Mario
chuckled. "I've never claimed to be anything less than an
Italian meatball." He took a bite. "Ohhh good. And real
meat too not the vegetarian one Wanda likes." He chewed happily.

The
commander looked at him. "How did you rate real meat?" he
growled, eying him darkly.

"I
bullied and threw a tantrum." Mario grinned. "Here want
half?"

He
pushed his plate over to the Commander. "Yeah," the
Commander said firmly. The Commander dumped half his sandwich in
front of Mario then carefully cut and lifted a portion of lasagna
out. "Oh cheese! Hot too!" The stringy bits hung down
clinging until they finally snapped. "Nice."

Mario
grinned. "My family recipe." He took another bite.

"Can
I try?" Tess asked holding up a fork.

Mario
chuckled. "Sure," he said expansively. She took a bite. "Do
you want to try it too Yung Lin?" he asked turning to the
doctor.

She
shook her head. "Cheese gives me horrible gas." She
demurred with a smile.

He
smiled. "Well as I was saying, moving the bricks is labor
intensive, and having two operating kilns is a pain. We can't make
another; we need the rest of the heater coils for the interior."
He took a bite.

The
commander looked up. "With what? And what interiors?"

Mario
smiled. "The bits from the hab tanks we aren't using and the
MAV's of course. Heater coils from the tanks, and a condenser would
do the job..."

Tess
nodded. "Temperature gauges, I get it. Putting it together out
on the surface would be rough."

Mario
shrugged. "Not if we did it in the garage," he replied. She
nodded.

"Da
is true." She turned to the commander.

Bower
frowned. "But you said you wanted the parts for the interior?
For the garage?"

Mario
shook his head. "The garages and sheds are all open faced, but
the vaults..."

Tess
smiled. "Yes, we will need heaters inside. It will get very
cold."

The
commander's eyes went round. "You’re kidding me right?"

Mario
shook his head. "No, we have the garages finished, sheds too. We
started working on the first full scale vault a couple weeks ago,"
he explained, coming clean a little. He was surprised no one back
home had picked up on their little project. After the initial landing
the media had petered off to the occasional report on their welfare
and little more. It would take a major incident to get any interest
now apparently. That was just as well, right now he worked well
without intrusive supervision, he thought with a wry twist of his
lips.

The
commander whistled. "You have enough material?" he asked.

Mario
nodded. "Li brings back a load of clay every trip so we are
keeping in sync. The only trouble is the two kilns like Tess here
mentioned."

She
nodded. "We could go much faster with another. Could make twice
as many easily."

He
nodded. "Yeah, we might have to sacrifice a heater coil to give
it a go. I can check with Luigi and see if he has the plans on file
still. That parachute one you came up with works by the way, but not
nearly as well as the purpose built one," Mario sighed. The
commander gave him a long look.

"Okay,
what'd I miss?" Wanda asked. Wanda and Li came in and looked
things over. "Oh, sorry I forgot."

Li
went to the kitchenette and started pulling out a dinner. He handed
one to Wanda. "So we're still on for the trip tomorrow
commander?" Wanda asked as Li put both dinners in the microwave.

Bower's
eyes cut to her and then he nodded. "Yup, looks that way."
The topic changed to planning the mission.

...*...*...*...*...

"Mario
are you getting your chores done? You’re spending an awful lot
of time playing with the junk," Wanda asked over breakfast the
next morning.

"Yup,
Tess and I clean the rovers and equipment three times a day. In fact
I'm running late." He kissed her on the lips then moved out
whistling.

"Morning
noon and night?" Wanda asked looking over to the commander.

"Something
like that. They get the work done so I am not worried." He waved
to the clean Hab. "Tess is on dish duty today, I am going to get
my gear so we can go on the jaunt. Mission plan is for three days out
and back," he said. Wanda nodded looking a little guilty.

"Oh
don't worry about Mario, as long as he has his toolbox and a project
he should be okay," the commander chuckled.

"Yeah
I know," she replied distantly. It hurt her a little that he
wasn't at all concerned about her leaving. She looked at the open
doorway. She put her dirty dishes in the sink then went to the
airlock. She started to pull on her skin suit when she felt a smack
on her rear. "Hey!" She looked up to her grinning husband.
"Bet you think that was funny!" she growled accusingly,
rubbing the abused flank. He chuckled.

"Just
wanted to see you off girl, have a safe trip. We'll keep the home
fires burning."

She
smiled, faith in her husband restored. "Okay, we will play
later." She kissed him. He chuckled. "It's not fair, when
are we going to get more alone time?" she mock pouted.

"Well,
you have missions and rocks, I have chores and projects," he
teased. She huffed wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Will
you two quit? You’re like lemmings!" the commander grunted
standing in the doorway with his arms on the overhead. "Damn. I
bet you went through the entire NASA Karma Sutra didn't you?" he
teased reaching in and grabbing his skin suit from the nearby shelf.

"Ohhh...
They made a manual? Figures NASA would. We'll have to check it out;
we may have missed something good," Mario teased with a wicked
grin. Wanda blushed.

The
commander groaned and covered his eyes as he shook his head. "Me
and my big mouth. I'm never going to get any sleep am I? I'll just
change in the other airlock and meet you in the garage Wanda."
He waved as he left.

"Now
that we're alone..." Mario leered.

"Later
lover," she sighed. "We're burning daylight remember?"

He
chuckled loosening his grip. "Well I could always help you get
dressed..." he said suggestively.

She
blushed. "You mean
undressed
you horny letch and I said
no, we have work to do remember?" she growled, putting him and
her own passions aside firmly. He sighed and pretended to pout.

"Mario?
I am picking up a leak in the greenhouse again," Tess called
over the intercom. She sounded apologetic.

He
shook his head then tapped the intercom microphone on the wall. "Be
there in a minute." He kissed his wife once more. "Have
fun, stay safe," he said in her ear.

She
grinned as she put her helmet on. "I'll save the fun for later."
He chuckled as he exited the lock.

...*...*...*...*...

"This
was a really smart idea your husband had," the commander
commented as they walked to the garage.

"Oh
huh? What?" Wanda asked distracted. She was eager to get out and
about.

"The
garage. And the sheds," The commander pointed.

"Huh
yeah. He can be useful when he wants to be. Squashing bugs, building
things..." She smiled.

"No
really, look, it is almost completely made of native materials. It
protects the vehicles on three sides so we have a lot less dust and
fine problems when they are parked at base," Bower said. The
commander checked the wheels over then nodded to her. "Looks
good."

Wanda
was looking around at the garage. The red bricks were stacked five
meters high, just high enough to give the enclosed rover room to
drive in with a meter to spare. She studied the bricks, noting the
mortar. "Wonder how they did this?" She fingered it. She
really hadn't paid any attention to it until now.

"Duracrete
Mario calls it. Ceiling panels are from the areo shell," The
commander commented as he checked the rear of the rover.

She
looked up. "Huh, they have been busy."

The
commander shook her head. "Wanda, I think you've been a little
preoccupied with your rock collection if you missed this. They built
it months ago."

She
shook her head. "They did? I didn't even think of it," she
said. She climbed into the airlock. He followed. It was a tight fit.
He used the lanyard to close the door.

"Ultrasonic’s
on." She could feel her teeth vibrate as the ultrasonic’s
shook as much dust as possible off. After a moment the vents at the
bottom of the airlock opened and a vacuum turned on. "Okay."
They opened the inner door and took off their helmets. "I hate
the dust," Wanda sighed shaking her hair out.

"Yeah,
we all do,” Bower said. “Let’s get going, we're
burning daylight.”

...*...*...*...*...

"So
this is the Reprap?" Tess asked motioning to the stack of
plastic and metal in the corner making a lot of noise.

"Yeah.
I know it looks like a tinker toy set, but it is pretty important,"
Mario said. He handed her a plastic part.

"It
made this?" She looked at it examining the bracket.

He
nodded. "That and more." He held up a box.

"What
is all this for?"

He
chuckled. "Why to make another Reprap of course!"

She
looked at him confused. "One is not enough?"

He
chuckled. "One is
never
enough. Besides, if a part
breaks..." He held up another bracket.

"You
can fix. I like!" She took the bracket. "Is that all it can
do? Make parts for itself?" she asked. He shook his head.

"No
it uses a sim card or link to the computer and we can load any model
it can make on its table." He pointed to the square plate. It
was moving back and forth, while an arm moved around extruding
plastic.

Tess
examined it and then nodded. "Oh I see. Small. Stinks too."

Mario
nodded. "But we can make a bigger one. And that one can make a
bigger one and so on."

Tess
chuckled "Soon entire planet will be covered in Repraps!"

He
chuckled with her. "No, but you get the point. We can make as
many as we need, as big as the motors can handle. Once we have parts
for a second, I'll set this one up to start making things to expand
the base or repair things around here."

She
nodded. "Cannot make tanks though," She observed.

He
shook his head. "No, but we can make couplers, zip ties, plates,
cups, molds, pieces of duct, fan parts, plastic fasteners, all sorts
of useful bits." He held up a comb. "See?"

She
took it from him and examined it. "Nice. Crude, but effective."

He
nodded. "We'll get better over time. The creator, Doctor Adrian
Boyer promised to send updates when he makes them. I was hoping we
would have an ability to use a metal head, but..." He shrugged.

"It
makes metal too?" she asked excited.

He
nodded. "Change the head to a metal extruder and it can. Soft
metals though, nothing hot or it would melt the plastic. It can make
electronics too if you use different heads and settings," he
explained.

She
nodded. "I can see where this will come in handy." She
picked up a fork and spoon careful of her busted index finger. She'd
done a number on it the other day and now was stuck in the Habs until
it healed.

"Yes,
nice." She put the two items down. "We work on MAV or on
hab computer fault?" She turned her full attention on him.

Mario
sighed. "Well, since you have a busted finger, I'll take the
MAV, you take the hab computer."

Tess
nodded. "Not fair, I can get into suit."

He
shook his head. "Better to play it safe, we want that to heal
good and proper, and not leave you maimed." He waved. "Besides,
we can't have you putting a hole in your gloves. Go play with the
electronics, I'll be outside," he ordered. She nodded.