Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (41 page)

Terry
looked at the scene and then worked out what had to have happened.

"They...
just opened the door?
Both
of them? At one time?"

"Yup."
She drew the word out, trying not to be too angry with them. They didn't lose
all the air after all. Just enough to be annoying. "They should have known
better, since they
know
what an airlock is."

Her
brother made a face and looked at the two with him. Erid let his nostrils
flare, but didn't comment. It still told her a lot.

These
were some of the annoying people then. Probably not the worst though. Stupid or
something, instead of bad? He didn't glare, or say that Tiera should kill them,
or anything. He just looked like he'd
expect
these three to come out
hours late, and then cause problems.

Very
carefully they went back inside, and Terry pointed at one of the interlopers and
then the outer door. Several times. Finally the man gave a hapless look and
closed the door. The boy nodded and looked relieved. Then he pointed to the
next door, since they had three right now, not just two.

The
same man started to move, but
Alphonse
gestured at the woman in the
group, sharply, his face set in a darker glare than Tiera had ever seen it
before.
She
got it faster at least. When the door shut, leaving them and
the boxes in the new emergency alcove that Tiera had made, she caused a door to
appear, which filled with air all at once as soon as it was opened. Everyone
else was standing around, waiting for the new visitors to come in.

Or
really, waiting to beat them, if she had the body language right. Tiera, the
mean little bitchy girl, or big girl now, as it turned out, smiled and spread
her hands. That got everyone to relax, oddly enough.

"Air
dump! Let's recharge the air and then take these three out to get more sand to
replace what they lost. Rule number two? If you make a problem, you have to be
the one to fix it? Agreed?"

That
got a chorus of yes, mixed with a few ruder sounds from everyone, and a laugh
from Karen, who moved in, ready to do some damage.

"
Please
tell me that you were sleeping, and have come ready to take the night
shift?" Karen looked like her old self, so they got who she was, her
disguise amulet working just fine in the light of the house. Without waiting
for a response, she held up her hand and looked at Saxon Breen. "This
is
your night shift, right?"

Karen
moved behind the people, who were looking concerned, but not talking back and
waved to Saxon, nodding in an exaggerated fashion.

"Um,
yes, High Commander? I'm certain they were just coming to report for
duty." She didn't sound it at all, but one of the men cleared his throat,
which was worrying really. There had been rumors about these people after all.
Hopefully he wasn't about to die horribly in their First House. That would be a
poor omen. Plus, they didn't really have a lot of wash water ready to go yet.
Or buckets. Or mops.

"Yes.
Well, we didn't know it was the night shift, but we heard that there were
people here, and that we were supposed to come and help. The rest aren't coming
out. I think they're waiting for more specific orders? I don't know. We weren't
left with anyone in charge, so we tend to vote on things or just go our own
way. We here were all asleep though. Is that wrong? It's hard to keep to a
single schedule here." He bowed, going low enough that no one hit him,
which was good. Even if his shield would have stopped that from happening.

Tiera
knew she should have kept her mouth shut, but Karen was being a bit too
sensitive about things, and seemed upset about the air loss they'd just had,
even though there weren't any rules about that yet. Was that a stupid mistake?
Yes. Should they have known better, living like they did? Sure.

Should
they be beaten for the transgression? Well,
naturally
. Otherwise stupid
people probably wouldn't learn fast enough to survive. Not by their commander
though. Tenet maybe? That seemed about right, but she didn't mention it. It was
funny, not real.

She
opened her mouth though anyway, which was stupid of her, but no one yelled at
her, so it kind of worked.

"It
works for now. The three men you came in with are in charge of airlock
procedures, so they'll be teaching us all what to do that way. For now, be very
good about making sure no air gets lost. Because, as you just heard, it's a
rule. The first one is that you have to help out if anyone asks you to. Not
just you, personally, anyone on the Moon. At need, every citizen here is
required to help any other, if their own tasks allow it at all. We need to keep
these things down in number though, since having too many laws or rules just
makes problems."

Karen
moved toward the door, and waved for the three that had come to leave with her,
but they needed some boxes, which meant recharging the air first, to make space.
It was only part of one container, but they still had to go out and top off the
case. It was a rule. She needed a pen and some paper, so they could write these
things down.

She
wanted some food, and then to go to sleep, and was willing to eat while sitting
on the floor if she had to, but it was a magical palace, so they had a fine
dining room, with a full meal, that Maris provided. It had seven courses and
somehow she managed to get the food made consistently. The service wasn't that
perfect, since Tess and Erid tried to do it all, but it wasn't sitting on
stumps and roasting frogs on sticks either. Far from it.

After
that, she had to go to bed, except that it was cold and she had work to do
first, to fix that. That meant that five hours later she set some heaters up,
and then finally went to sleep. It was set to get a bit too warm and then stop,
but the place was decently large, so it would probably be working all the time.
She woke up feeling warm herself at least, about six hours later. Not that she
had a clock with her.

The
ship they'd come on was gone, but the other one was still there. She could see
that through the window when she looked out. She couldn't run a shower yet, but
they had some water, which was mainly for drinking so far. That, she knew, was
on the first floor, which meant walking to it to get something to drink, and
brush her teeth. There was a line, and people, her people, milling around. As
if they didn't have anything to do?

Still,
some of them were eating, so she joined them at the table, feeling lazy and like
she wasn't pulling her weight. For a half second she wondered if that was how
Tor felt all the time. She made some toast with strawberry preserves and
butter, along with some scrambled eggs. It would do for a light breakfast,
before they ran out to do whatever came next.

She
slid in next to Ali who was chatting with Sheri about something, which turned
out to be what Karen had planned for the High Servants.

The
sandy haired, thin girl looked at Tiera, as if she had an opinion on the topic.
Which made sense. She nearly always did. She grinned and answered it, trying to
pretend she was an actual grown up and not just pushy.

"Put
them to work? Killing them is always an option, but some people just won't do
anything unless told. I know it's hard to believe, but I've seen it, more than
once. Even nobles can be like that. Worse, no matter what they were told, half
of them probably think that they're here to relax, and look good. Though,
honestly, you'd think that they'd have caught on, when there was absolutely
nothing here, when they arrived... Well, we have all this new magic, so it
should go more easily now. Where is everyone, sleeping still? Out working?"
She meant their people, like Prince Alphonse and Katrina, as well as her
family, but Ali shook her head.

"Douglas
is off setting up the sanitation systems. I think he said something about going
with incineration? I think we should do what we did on the ship, only using
larger versions of those units of yours and making it into sand, so we can
reuse it later. That works. We already have Earth movers too. Though no huge
makers though. You should get on that." There was a grin then, but she
sighed. "The other boys, Terry and Alphonse and... High Servant Erid?
They're out on duty, getting materials for things and setting up units to make
air and water for the first area. Sara is out with Tenet and Tess, making a
giant underground lake, to hold all the water we'll need? Someone will have to
have filling it at a full time duty. I... could do that, right? For a
bit?"

She
was trying to be sly and secretive and it was mainly working, but Tiera really
doubted that they had a lot of spies with them, at least none reporting to
Gray. Still, it was a good idea to be careful.

"Yes...
That would work. Sheri, I was thinking, would you be responsible for
aesthetics? Make a plan for the city, so that it's nice. People will go crazy
if it's all white glass all the time, everywhere. While you're doing that you
can also put up the gravity for the new sections and in here? I have a
lot
of items for that." She ate for a bit while Sheri acted like getting
another job was some vast favor. At this rate they'd have to appoint the girl
mayor or something anyway. She was on food, lights and decorations... It was a
more than most had going on. Including her.

Even
the little kids were making themselves useful. Taman was already working, her
mother assured Tiera, making those lights. She seemed slightly amused by that,
as if the girl was coloring, and claiming it high art. Tiera just looked at her
blankly, then shook her head for a while until Laurie frowned.

"Yes?"
She even arched her eyebrows when she did it. She just looked so young now. It
was strange, Tiera decided. Her entire life her mother had been, well, a normal
village woman. She had lines around her lips and eyes and was a bit pushy for a
commoner, and pretty, but that was all. Now she looked only a few years older
than she did.

Tiera
looked away, not wanting to deal with it all for a second. It was a grand adventure,
but a lot of change too. For everyone.

"Oh,
I was just thinking that Taman has a more important job than you or I do right
now. You know, would you consider being our records keeper and historian? Maybe
write those rules up for us?" It was a thing to do and while her mother
wouldn't shy away from hard manual labor, it was all she could think of for a
bit. They just didn't need someone to bake. Not really. "That and help
Maris with the food? I know, hardly glamorous, but on the good side it isn't
waste management, yet." She managed a playful lilt there, and which was
nice. At least she thought so. Her ma just looked at her. Flatly.

"I
suppose I can do that. I'll have to get a bit more creative with my food
selections, I gather? May I use your maker for paper, pens and ink?"

"Oh,
sure. It will do all those and a lot more. You can even have it come up with
blank books, and magic pens like the Austrans use. Or we could if anyone knew
how they worked. I'm not sure, but Kolb or Doris might know." Tiera nearly
got up to ask herself, but Laurie made a bit of a face.

"I
was asking for permission to
use
it. They all belong to you, don't
they?"

It
was true. She just didn't care who used it. Not as long as there was always
material to fill the hopper. Still, that all took time, didn't it?

"We...
should probably make rules for that too. Like if you use more than a certain
amount of sand for something you need to go get more, even if it's not your
job. That and polite use rules. Not taking days to do things unless it's really
needed. That sort of thing?"

Her
mother wrinkled her nose a bit, like she smelled something bad, but didn't make
fun of Tiera. After all, you were supposed to share, and really, people here
could have whatever they wanted and no one else would lose out at all. In a way
it meant they were all as rich as the King of Noram, no matter what they did as
a job, day to day. Hopefully that occurred to her. If not, well, it would
eventually.

Kurt
Debri came bounding across the floor a bit later. A lot of people used their
Tor shoes for going places quickly so far, since the low gravity was a pain,
but the blond was almost to her already. She looked at his face, but it wasn't
worried, just a bit hot and sweaty looking. Like he'd been out working hard
already. Not lazing away at breakfast, chatting with friends.

"Tiera,
do we have air freshening units for the first section? Some of us filled it
with air. It's holding. Oh, here." He dug at his neck and slipped an
amulet off. It was her Timon model Fast Craft. That or someone else had one and
he was robbing them for her. "Guide put up one of his houses for the entry
point. It's a bit more... Homelike?" He waited as if she might think it
was a poor plan?

"Thanks!
I have those. I think we should try ten at first. We need to make certain that
every level has at least one. My sense is that it will do a lot more than it
seems like, but fresh air is important. I'll go with you, if you want? We
should have lights to start going up in a few hours or so?" She waved to
her mother. "Get with her for that. By the way, she's my mother. A noble,
but my brothers and sisters are all over the place here." It was
presumptuous of her, but Kurt just bowed, first to her, then the still seated
woman.

"Ma'am?"

They
were introduced and from the way they were both acting, it seemed like Tiera
had just done it so they could run off and have sex. If discreetly. Well,
that
would scar her mind for a while, but she'd live, especially if she didn't know
about it.

That
meant they were busy, at least chatting about setting up a store, using the
maker. That was a descriptive name, but sounded off and too simple. She'd want
it to be at least a little more... flowery. A creation device? A miracle
machine? A Tiera Provider? The second she thought the last one she understood
why Tor hated all his early works being named after him. At least he had a nice
name for it. So did Sam and Guide. Poor Farlo was stuck though, wasn't she?

Since
the two perverts were busily talking and hinting at doing things that were
incredibly and irrevocably wrong, being that one of the people involved was her
ma, Tiera delivered and set up the air refreshing units herself. The structure
was a lot bigger inside now. Using a bit of focus she wrote restaurant on the
first space, and air supply and water on the one across from it. It meant using
her finger to write on the wall and was serviceable, if a bit plain looking. She
hadn't picked a space herself yet, but hoped to get something good. Where that
would be, she didn't know. It had several levels already and
sprawled
outward.

Provided
people were willing to share, they already had room for thousands or more. Tens
of thousands if they had a lot of families. It was a good starting space,
though they needed a few others, for the new people to come, if anyone did, and
all that.

As
she walked out, Sheri turned the gravity on, and while it made her heavier, it
was so nice to actually move around normally. It wasn't as tiring moving on the
Moon, but it was annoying. She really wanted to linger, and moved over to where
the girl was focusing hard, trying to embed the magical piece into the wall. It
took effort, but she
did
it. Since it was using the residual magic of
the initial device, which had moved out of range, that was really impressive.