Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (40 page)

"Everyone,
we have news. This is the group staying. The rest of you will be leaving as
soon as the ship is unloaded. I suggest you take a moment as you unload to walk
on the surface of the Moon. It's part of the adventure."

There
was a bit of a groan, but Tiera moved in next to them, since she was the one
that had gotten the report.

"The
High Servants don't have things ready yet. We will shortly, and you'll all be
allowed back soon. We'd keep more of you, but we don't have long term
permission to do so for most of you. My parents are
here
, so they can
stay to help us build for a while, but-"

The
oldest woman in the meditation group stepped forward, gracefully, her hands
folded in front of herself.

"I
will aid in this, as I may, if supplies allow?"

Tiera
bowed.

"Thank
you! Yes, it isn't a problem that way, but anyone that stays will have to be an
adult, or at least a free agent. The Lairdgren Group are part of an
organization and don't
get
to refuse, but the rest of you have that right.
Even the adults."

Several
more people moved forward then, and several more got on communications devices.
It meant that almost half of the people were going to be staying there, it
turned out. Several of them simply called home and told their parents that they
were staying and that it was a matter of honor. Surprisingly, that worked.

Kolb
smiled, at
everyone
.

"Those
of you leaving, you'll be under the Captain's command on the way back.
Impress
him. Everyone else, we need to move from here to the surface. Miss Debri will
supply us with amulets for underground structures. Tiera, you have air, once
that's up? That needs to be the first order of things."

She
didn't answer, just getting what they'd need around first and holding a copy of
each up for all to see.

Then,
shields on, they left, walking to the wall and stepping out into the loose
dusty soil of the lunar surface. It was a lovely silver, and the Earth was
there above them, looking about twice the size of the Moon from there. It was
incredible, and she realized that she'd stopped walking for a bit. She slipped
the cord of her speaking device around her neck carefully. Everyone else had
already figured that one out, or had them on.

Taman
walked over to Sara and pointed about a quarter mile away, where the other ship
was set up. There were some buildings near there too, and fifteen white blobs
coming out of the ship toward them, flying. They did the same then, carrying
all their gear. Everything they had, with them. Not that it mattered. In days they
could have a hundred times more if they wanted. It was so easy that she decided
not to want things anymore. Just what was needed to survive. Then, that had
been what she'd done for months, so it wasn't a massive change, was it?

Sara
waved at everyone, and moved closer to one of the buildings, which had a long
tube going to it. When they went in there were some magical lights, but she got
the idea, it wasn't just an air lock, but a
lot
of them. It was apparent
they weren't going to work either, all being made of the same milky stone. She
waved them all out and set up her fast craft, made it large and air tight, then
created an airlock on that. Then, shields still on, she made a hole in the
bottom, so that Sara could work in direct contact with the soil.

The
device actually hovered in place, over the hole that formed, with stairs moving
down. Slowly, the girl walked downward, a hand light tied to her left forearm.
It was golden, like the Sun. It made her blonde hair shine a bit, as she moved
walking at about one foot every ten seconds, making a giant tube of glass form
around them. She kept going, and after ten minutes pulled a second device and
pointed at the wall on either side.

Sheri
got the idea first and moved into place, her hand touching the wall, making it
reshape into a slightly round, but open, door. Then, a room came into being. It
had high ceilings, like the tube did, and was made with steps going down, so
that it could be formed to be as large as possible. Tiera did the other side,
figuring that what the other girl was doing was the restaurant, since food
would be one of the first things they needed. That, and water. So she did that
part, and formed a space for the working machines near the airlock, so that
they could mine rock from other places and bring it in to work with, since the
Tor device wasn't leaving a lot where they were.

Everyone
got the idea, and every few hundred feet large spaces were built. Some basic,
but others were nicely complex, like entire houses. On the neat side, it turned
out that doors of stone could be made, with no more than a thought. The hinges
were well balanced and they all fit perfectly, so didn't make a lot of noise
when they moved at all.

There
was no trouble really, though the High Servants couldn't hear what anyone was
saying, not having the right magics to work with. There weren't that many of
them however and they
did
try, which was a good sign. On the bad side,
out of the nearly one hundred on the planet, only seventeen had come at all.
Even after being warned.

They
didn't have another ship to use as an airlock, but when Sara suggested they
make more than one set of housing and businesses. Guide suggested they use the
larger magical houses for that. They could be made air tight too after all.

"I
have twenty of them. I didn't know if we'd need them or not, but we may as well
use them. Do we have enough air units for that?"

Tiera
thought and shook her head, working well away from everyone else, but well
within speaking distance.

"Not
really. We can make the air, but I don't know how dense the purifiers have to
be set up. I'd rather have too many in a small space and have to make more.
Call it... four set-ups like this? Of course, this one keeps growing... This is
a nice house though."

She
giggled a bit, since it was a big empty space with no air or water and she
needed good sanitary facilities too. It was big and had ten rooms though, so
she couldn't complain that way. They'd need heat too, she realized. That one
she
could handle though, even if the ground wasn't very warm.

There
was, she realized, always going to be more they had to do, for a long time.
That was good, but she'd want to sleep that night. Tiera was just lazy that
way. The thought got her to smile a little, which everyone saw, but no one
understood, she was willing to hazard.

"Guide,
would you and Sara set up a house for all of us to use? I'll get water and air
for it. I need to work on some things..."

Then
she just did
that
for a while, letting others handle things. After all,
they were there for that, right? Well, to work and survive.

It
made for a very long day, and her eyes wanted to close, and her stomach growled
at her by the time she was able to get the air made. It would take a while,
since the place had been created huge. Fantastically so, but it was too big to
work with so far, nearly. She ended up going back to the new house Guide put up
for them, which was instantly dubbed "The First House", and started
collecting rocks into several large floating boxes. She had help, from the High
Servants with them, since they had earth moving devices. It saved a lot of
time, so she set them to working on that, filling one large box after another
until the Lairdgren group ran out of them.

Then
they set up in the rather nice front room, and she used three full boxes to
make enough air to fill the place. They actually had to let some out, since
there was a bit too much air pressure, once she took her field off to test it.
The house warmed itself, but it was still cool inside. It was enough to start
with, since they could just dress warmly for a while if they had to. The thing
there was that the core of the Moon, it turned out, wasn't as warm as the Earth
was, or the Sunlight didn't stick as much. One or the other.

Everyone
with them tapped their shields, looking nervous about it, as if the things
wouldn't go back up instantly if there was no air?

"Air
purifiers next. Let's see..."

Tiera
expected to see a brilliant green light or physical object, but all that
happened was that the air in a thin sheet of space warped a bit, like light on
the desert during the day. It was very subtle too, and, she realized instantly,
you could still breathe when you walked through it, so they could be set up
anywhere. She did four of them, and
hoped
it was enough.

It
wasn't like they had any way to test the things, was it? She could feel the
field with her mind, but all that told her was that old air was being changed
into good air, in much the same fashion that her food unit had done it. Tearing
matter apart and rebuilding it instantly.

For
a few seconds everyone just stood around, but Tiera waved them into action.
That seemed to be her job now. Waving at people. She'd have to make a study of
it, to make certain she was doing it right. Later though.

"Maris,
would you and Sheri start some food going? Kolb, could you set up a team of
people to make water? We'll want a holding tank. High Servants... Why don't you
good
ones stay here with us? As soon as the cases empty of rock and
sand, we need to get more. Constantly. That will probably be an actual job for
a while. Who wants it?" She nearly raised her own hand, but she was going
to be gone soon.

Both
Terry and Alphonse did, along with one of the High Servants, who was a skinny
boy that looked familiar now that she actually bothered to look. She'd
almost
flirted with him once, she thought. He'd been really shy, at the time. But now,
here he was, hand up in the air and not even courting death like most of his
fellows. Clearly he was one of the good ones, then.

"All
right, Erid, Alphonse and Terry have this shift. Eight hours. Sorry about the
short sleep guys. On the good hand you get to make up our airlock rules.
Everyone
needs a shield on right now, all the time. Just like on the ship. No going out
alone yet either. So, sanitation, who's in charge of that? I haven't a clue
what to do there, other than the fact that we'll all die without it. This house
has some, if we provide water, but the new colony structures need that, while
we can still change things around easily, if it's required for it.
Anyone?"

She
looked around, expecting that no one would raise a hand at all for that task,
being icky, but her father did, and, almost amusingly, so did Farlo Ross.

It
made sense, after a fashion. Farlo was both a builder and probably wanted to
sleep with her da. Tiera nearly growled at the idea, but managed not to let it
show on her face.

"Collect
whatever kind of team you need. Anyone can be called into duty at any time.
It's a Moon rule. Number one, in fact. Everyone has to be ready to help out
with every task if asked. What else do we need? Heat? I have that one. I need
to do a build for it, but it won't take long. Light?" She looked around,
to see Sheri raise her hand a little.

"I
can make copies, if I can get a template?"

Guide
coughed, "
wimp
." The word wasn't covered at all, and he
winked. "No, you don't get a template for simple lights.
Anyone
can
make light. You practiced enough to do it without now. We'll need a lot though.
Taman, can you head that up with Sheri? We'll need batches of a hundred in a
few weeks. From both of you. Possibly from the rest of us too. Well, you saw
how big things got down there today."

The
tiny girl let her head come up, and moved a step away from her mother.

"We
can do it. Sheri, will you help me make some tiles for it?"

The
other girl smiled, still getting ready to help with food.

"After
we all eat. Why tiles though? I was thinking we could put them in decorative
gems, about the size of a pie plate?"

It
was wasteful really, but what she described
did
sound pretty. She was
good at things like that though. Decorating and stuff. It was the kind of thing
she was taking in school even. That was going to be important here, Tiera
thought. Maybe even a job. Decorating everything, and keeping it pretty. On
Earth you could just walk outside and look at the clouds, or a tree, or grass.
Here the landscape was made up of similar colored sand, all over the place.

She
was about to mention that when there was a commotion at the door and air
suddenly started to force out in a great gust that pulled at them all. Tiera
put her shield up and ran at the airlock, skipping along in huge bounds, to see
three white robed morons trying to walk in against the wind.

Tiera
glared, then slapped another wall around them, so they wouldn't lose all the
air. The two men and the woman standing there looked surprised at least, and
then a little scared. That probably had to do with the fact that she was
holding them at weapons point. Looking down she realized it was a good one too,
being one of her little pen wands. Here it would be fatal if she took their
shields down. It was tempting, but she saw that Alphonse, Terry and Erid were
coming back, five large cases following them.