Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 08:34:05 +0200
From: Amy Redek <adultreading@gmail.com>
Subject: Lunar. Part Three.

  This story is for persons of eighteen years or over.  All comments, good
or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.

  Part Three

     I've only brought up this past history of the world because it was
because of these asteroids that led those on Earth to find what they had
been looking for; a metal or substance to withstand the speed that their
propulsion units needed to travel at half the speed of light.

    It was sixty years after the asteroids had hit Earth that a study was
made of the one that had landed in the Sahara. Why they chose that one I do
not know, maybe because it was closest to Europe. Anyway, they found the
massive crater that a ten kilometre wide asteroid would make and even
though three quarters of it was below the surface, they found enough to
work on.

     What puzzled them for many years after the find was the fact that the
asteroid itself was like Plasticine. A veritable mountain of the stuff
which had them scratching their heads that this was just one that had
caused so much damage and nearly killed off the whole of the world's
population. It could be pulled apart by the hands and moulded into any
shape required. It was fired in kilns, it was frozen, subjected to acids
all to no effect. It was of a substance of which they'd never seen or could
determine but gave it a name anyway calling it Astrim.

     It was a chance occurrence that led them to find out the real
properties of this material. A laboratory technician had a job to do in a
vacuum state. He'd donned his suit and took his tool box into this room
that was being used for the experiment he was conducting.. Now in this tool
box, he had a ball of Astrim that he'd forgotten to take out. This was on a
Friday and when he finished for the day, he left the chamber to change out
of his suit but left his box inside as he would be needing it on the
Monday.

     On that day, he wanted a tool from his box and picked up the ball of
Astrim and as one does with Plasticine, squeezed it, but he couldn't. He
looked at it more closely for on the Friday he could squeeze it but now he
couldn't. It was like a hard solid ball now. He then tried to cut it with a
hacksaw, to no avail and took it out of the chamber and showed it to
others. An acetylene torch was used upon it without a mark, burn or cut to
be shown for their efforts. Top scientists were called upon to examine this
ball but they didn't show up for nearly twenty four hours but in that time,
the ball could, with a little effort, be moulded which made the technician
feel rather foolish. Within the next twenty four hours it was back in its
original form, easily pulled apart and able to be moulded by hand.

     So he split his piece into three and rolled one piece as flat as he
could, another he rolled it into a thin pencil like shape and the other he
rolled up into a ball. All three pieces he then placed into a vacuum sealed
apparatus and left them for forty eight hours. He was pleased to find that
they were harder than any other substance he'd ever known, but this time,
put them back into the vacuum before calling in the top dogs again.

     The scientists were delighted at this find and so the material was put
through many tests though only after being in a vacuum for forty eight
hours or more and then only for a short time. It was quickly realised the
potential of this metal if it could be called that, on the moon or in outer
space. For it had now been ascertained that it was oxygen that reduced it
to the state of being malleable. It was subjected to the most rigorous
tests they could devise, even using the most powerful of armour piercing
bullets or shells without it being marked in anyway. Even laser beams were
used and were unable to cut through and so a quantity of this was
eventually sent up to our people here on the moon for final testing.

     A special workshop was constructed that had rollers than could then
roll this Astrim out into sheets as thin as a millimetre, of course this
being done with having oxygen in the workshop. The vents were then opened
to let the air out and the material left for two days and wearing suits,
the sheets were picked up and carried outside on the moon's surface. They
were light and nothing could be found to mark or mar or even put a dent
into these thin sheets.

     This had been the break through they had been seeking for years to go
with the propulsion unit that could attain half the speed of light and
withstand the pressure. They prepared and made four small modules with
guidance systems inside as well as telemetry to feed back information on
the performance of each one.

     All four performed well though the traditional sleek cigar shaped
model with the short stabilising rear fins came out above the spherical
ships as being more stable though it took a longer turning circle. The next
problem to be overcome was the building of an anti gravity inside shield
because of the G force that would crush the human body to nothingness at
the speeds they needed to attain the maximum speed.

     This took ten years to perfect with the gradual increase in velocity
and for the first time, animal life was brought up to the moon to check
this. Kept in atmosphere, they were launched but only for short periods
only because of the feeding problem. It was found that the monkeys would
not save their food but ate it as quickly as they could and subsequently
starved to death before they could be brought back to the moon's
surface. They never stopped bringing them back for dead or alive, they
still served the same purpose as to how far could they push the
acceleration limit until the body crushed.

     They also lost the first two human pilots though they really were only
passengers and it wasn't until the third one survived that they found the
optimum way for the survival of the passenger. Mind you he was out in space
for six months and it was fortunate that he had enough food on board.

     It was found that after the initial take off, the speed was then
constantly on the increase to not cause stress to the passenger and it took
three months to reach the maximum speed and another three to slow
down. They had sent him out on an elliptical course without having to turn
the ship right round for his return, but the main thing was that he
survived.

     It had long been decided the destination and that was the star Proxima
Centauri in the constellation of Centaurus, a distance of 4.24 light years
away. This would take eighteen years and a few months allowing for the
acceleration and deceleration and then a few more cruising round to find a
suitable planet comparable to Earth. Here, the settlers would disembark,
having been born on the travelling spaceship with any of those of the crew
who wished to stay too, for some would not probably live to see their
return to the moon.

     The plans had been made for the construction of a ship, to be named
Adastra, capable of supporting life for the journey and its return as well
as giving the settlers, plants and trees.

     The ship itself would be a mile long and just over five hundred yards
at its widest in the centre and be fifty foot high at this point. The rear
eighth would contain the propulsion unit and the forward eighth would be
controls and living accommodation leaving the middle three quarters for the
purpose of growing our food. The middle was to be three levels, the bottom
one would hold the water manufacturing tanks as well as the oxygen
recycling plants. The middle deck would hold the tropical and sub tropical
plants and the upper deck, those that needed a temperate climate. These
decks were divided by air locks approximately at two hundred yard
intervals.

     The forward part of the ship had five decks. The upper being the
control room with all the concomitant needs for piloting the craft as well
as communications and all safety controls. The deck below was for the
kitchens, storerooms, canteen and recreational areas. The third and fourth
were accommodation rooms with toilets and showers while the fifth and
lowest deck held six small shuttle craft for transferring from ship to land
for the Adastra would stay in orbit during this period.

     There would be four major exit and entry doors for the ship. One for
the coming and going of the shuttle craft, one situated forward of the
kitchens for the loading of stores. One halfway down the ship for the plant
area and one for the propulsion area.

    The ship would have three skins so that all exit doors had three air
locks for the outer shell would be constructed from this new found material
called Astrim. So the second skin inside had to be air proof to keep oxygen
out and to have a vacuum between them. This was also to keep the oxygen in
from the third skin if there was a leak of breathable atmosphere which
would be detrimental to the outer skin.

     It was this part of the ship that came into my sphere of expertise to
check for air leaks from the inner skin and prevent it getting between the
first two. But all this had been designed before I was born.

    Anti gravity plates had already been established and a huge area had
been covered with these, deactivated of course during the construction of
the ship. The keel as it were, was laid just before I was born and it was
the ages that determined who would be these first real space travellers and
I was one of the eighty that were selected.

     My mother's name was Kar and as I have already said, I was born in the
village of Vixen. Education starts early on the moon for the toys all have
specific purpose and that is to teach. It was the mothers job to start her
child off for the first three years of its life. As she was to have two
children, my sister Grace was born almost to the day of my third birthday,
as to us having the same father, I never did find out.

     At three, I was then taken daily to the crèche in the city and
there was taught to write, read, spell and learn the basics of arithmetic
until I was five to which I moved on to the intermediate school. Such was
the programming, you didn't know you were being evaluated the whole time
you were growing up and it was here that it was decided to which profession
you would be guided into.

     It was a happy childhood, playing and learning at the same time. We
would all troop out to the café for our lunch and sometimes went to the
cinema where, along with enjoyable children's films we also got educational
ones though done in such a way that you didn't realise this at the time.

     I think it was because of my hands that I was put into metallurgy
whereas a child with softer hands and a more delicate touch plus maybe a
few more brains went in surgery. Another would show aptitude in figures and
go into astrophysics. One of the previous, Bara, became our ship's major
doctor and of the latter, Tark, became our Vice Captain of the Adastra,
both females.

     These two went onto the advance school at the age of eleven while I
moved over to the workshop. At that time I had no interest in girls having
had my imagination fired by being told that I had been selected for the
Adastra if I could keep up my standard of work in school, for that was what
the workshop still was. Here it was hammered into us that all tools are
dangerous and by the age of twelve was adept at handling a laser gun and
could cut a straight line for over three foot the width of a human hair.

     Then for the first time in my life, I went out onto the moon's
surface. Suited up in what fitted me, I was then further educated of
working whilst wearing a suit and to be aware of the dangers in this too.

     But like all boys, I became aware also of my own growing body and had
begun resorting to relieving myself at night in bed, waiting and dreaming
of what I'd heard of the Happy Rooms that would become available to me when
I became thirteen years of age. That day came and it was some trepidation
that I plucked up the courage to actually go inside to the plush interior.

     It was known immediately that I was a cherry, ripe fruit ready for the
picking for I suddenly had four women round me to sit me down and give me a
beer. I had two as I was told I could go with any one of them and if I was
a strong boy, could have another afterwards. Two of them I knew, one I'd
seen working in the café and one was a teacher of the intermediate
school, though none of the four were from my village.

     Now having already had night time fantasies about the teacher, she was
the one I chose and what a teacher she was. I must have swaggered out there
into the main lounge having had my first experience of sex with a woman. I
was walking on clouds at the way I'd been praised in our post coital
position on the bed. I was that randy, I had another beer and bedded
another woman.

     I was in the Happy Rooms nearly every day after that when school
finished.

     By the time I was eighteen, not only was I fully conversant with all
known metals and now working on the ships construction out on the moon's
surface, but was also quite a strong and virulent lover. I had a period of
having male sex when there wasn't a woman in the Happy Rooms but found that
I preferred the softness of a woman to the hardness of a male beneath me.

     The first part of the ship to be completed were the gardens for they
had to be productive long before the time came for it to leave. The
gardeners having been selected at an early age as I was and were steadily
working to cultivate the treated soil and were having a great success in
what they were doing. It was slowly becoming known of those that were
earmarked for the voyage and when we began to get to know each other the
excitement was a palpable thing between us.

     For the next two years I combed every part of the ship between the
three skins, checking out seams and memorising all the power and oxygen
points as well as those for anchorage. For when I would be in between the
outer and middle skin, I would be on a air line and had to know where and
when I could change from one air point to the next. Also I got to know Kim,
who came from the village of Coral of the city, Atlantis and who would be
my assistant on these forays, for it always had to be two going out in case
of a problem.

     Though there were outside connection points, we would not go outside
while in motion for just a speck of solar dust at the speed we would be
travelling at would be fatal. All repairs, if needed to the outer skin
would have to be done from the inside, though knowing the durability of
this outer shell it was deemed to be inconceivable.

     With the gardens in place and thriving, I watched the propulsion units
being installed though I was only an onlooker for this. They had then been
fired up and tested before the time came to begin to provision the ship
with everything else in place.

     Now as the launch was to take place from just outside our city, we had
an influx of visitors and guests from all the cities involved and we were a
bit over crowded for the two weeks prior to take off. It was only then that
I got to meet the rest of the crew which would be a total of eighty
persons, half male and half female.

     It was two weeks of intensive instruction and it was at one such minor
meeting that I was told who my future mate would be and was pleased to
learn that it would be Kim. She too I'm glad to say was not in disagreement
with us being paired together. It was then explained that we would be
expected to have four children to populate the new world we were going out
into space to find. Needless to say that we went to the Happy Rooms to
start our family immediately.

    It appeared that all eighty of us had had this instruction and one week
before departure were all in the forum hall to each spend two minutes at
the podium to talk about oneself as a means of introduction. Bea, a female
from Tryon City was to be the Captain and Tark the Vice Captain whom I've
already mentioned, as well as Bara being our head doctor.

     We then moved into our quarters of the ship, the gardeners already
having been living inside for the past two months. It didn't take long to
get settled in and then we did mock trial runs of all problems that they
thought could occur except for the one that did.

     Bea, in her wisdom as Captain, twenty years of age as were we all
except for a couple that were just past their birthday or just coming up to
it, made a fatal decision before we'd even taken off. She organised the
operational staff into two groups to work twelve hour shifts. Now this
wasn't a hardship for no one really was expected to work those hours in an
intensive environment for once we were on our way, the ship ran itself, it
was just a matter of being there in case of anything going wrong. What she
did was to have all the woman work as one shift and men the other.

     I, like the gardeners, were out of this loop and worked as and when
required. The gardeners worked for roughly six to eight hours and Kim and I
just did a constant survey over all parts of the hull, a section at a time
and called a halt when we felt like it. The change over time for shifts was
at lunchtime, the men had their lunch first and then would take over
control of the ship and the women would then go down for their lunch and
rest. It worked fine.

    The day before takeoff, we all had a final medical examination and all
were pronounced fit. The females had already been given female hormone
shots into their wombs two weeks previously.

     The big day arrived and it was a solemn occasion with us all saying
goodbye for it was expected that none of us would ever be seeing each other
again. We listened to the speeches made and slowly made our way into the
ship and it was sealed. There was no need for special couches or seats for
take off, for as soon as the anti gravity plates beneath the ship was
cleared of people in their suits, it was switched on and the ship began to
rise. These were effective for up to nearly a thousand feet and it only
took a few booster rockets to lift us clear of the moon's gravitational
pull and we began the long voyage to the stars.

     Because the middle skin of the ship was our anti gravity shield we
only felt slightly the movement of the craft as it began to accelerate and
us not feel the G forces. Every minute of every day the speed would
increase and it wouldn't be for another three months before we reached the
speed half that of light which would roughly be about ninety thousand miles
a second. It's unbelievable to many minds that we could travel that fast
and yet not appear to get anywhere for it was going to take us just over
eighteen years to reach the star Proxima Centauri.

				     *