Permanent often isnt. That was the lesson from the first colony off Earth.
For generations humanity had looked up and seen the moon, had seen Mars and Venus and had dreamed of living there. Of escaping the drudgery of modern life or of disappearing and starting something new. But for almost every minute of human existence, those dreams were ever so slightly out of reach. Even when engineers and rocket scientists started to overcome these obstacles and we started to learn about things that were not Earth, the dreams of everyday people, while closer, were still unachievable. It was never going to be us.
“But what if it was?” the man said. He was pacing around the room, waving his hands as he spoke. He had been awake for longer than he should and his once pressed shirt was now a wrinkled, untucked mess. His tie was loose and flopping about as he walked and his five o’clock shadow was almost a full beard. “What if we could have a proper base. Not a colony,” he waved his hand dismissively at another person in the room. “But something that would one day become a colony.”
“How?” asked the chair of the meeting they were having. This man was the polar opposite of the other. Seated calmly at the table, his suit still fresh, tie tight and immaculately shaved. “I thought, and please, I would love to be wrong on this, that the resources required for such an endeavour would cost more than we would get out of it.”
The manic man sighed and stopped dead in his tracks for a moment before regathering himself and continuing as he had been. “Cost cost cost,” he mocked. “Why is it always about how much something will cost? Look at the pioneers of just this organisation. We didnt get to where we are now by stressing about the cost. And we ended up learning so much that we couldnt anticipate. No one, in here or out there, would consider all that we have now a waste of money. But,” he said as the calmer man opened his mouth to speak, cutting him off pre-emptively, “besides the stuff we dont know that we’d learn, what we would, not could, would learn about people, about humans, about how we would adapt and change in that alien, literally alien, environment is enough of a reason to do it despite the cost,” here he tapped a thick ringbound booklet on the desk in front of him. “These studies show that if we want to leave Earth, and set up somewhere else, we would need to understand how life on another world would change the human body. We need that information first.” He stopped talking, walking and looked each of the others in the eyes before re-taking his seat.
“I dont disagree,” the calmer man said slowly, scratching the side of his face. The action almost looked defensive. “But the upfront cost of such an idea would be exorbitant. We dont have a friendly government right now. There isnt a chance theyd let us spend all that on something that has no guarantee of results.”
The manic man, remaining seated sighed again and buried his face in his hands. “You need to find a way to make it about exploration,” he said as he looked up again. “Start teasing the idea to the public, make them want to believe, like our parents did when travel out there was started, that we can and should be doing that again.” He shook his head, as if he had been distracted and took a deep breath. “Make the public pressure the government. We know that they have the money and they could give it to us if they wanted, but they wont because of-”
“Dont get political,” the only woman in the room said. She stared daggers at the man.
“Says the liaison,” the manic man rolled his eyes. “It isnt political to say that money is being misused in the government,” he said.
“Thats only political,” the woman nearly shouted, throwing her hands up.
“Guys,” the calm man said. “Focus? Please?”
“Sorry,” the other two said at once.
“Better,” the calm man said. “If I may?” the other two let him speak. “The people, the public I mean, arent going to be onboard with a small steps journey back to the stars. They want us to go big or go home. How do we make those ends meet?”
“You dont,” the woman said. In a change from her outbursts earlier, her voice now was authoritative and firm. “The current administration has no plans to look this way when it comes to budget stuff. In fact, they are considering cutting your funding. You dont return enough to them to make your current plans financially viable.”
“They understand that we arent meant to turn a profit, right?” the manic man said.
“Thats how they think,” the woman shrugged.
“Your job is to dissuade them of that,” the calm man said calmly. “Besides which, our discoveries have turned a profit. We hold patents that we license to the private sector which brings in more over many years than it costs.”
“Doesnt matter,” the woman said. “You cant be shown off as a money maker, therefore you arent a priority.”
“Must be nice for you to be able to just sit there and dismiss everything without reason,” the manic man muttered. “Carl, please,” he said to the other. “Tease it, do something. Make the people see that we want to get out there and change the world. The worlds. Theyll respond, they always do. We just have to make them.”
Carl, the calm man, said nothing.
The pendulum of public opinion never spends long at one extreme or another and it will, at some point, find itself at the opposite side of a once rather heated divide.
Carl, once a leader in his field, administrator of the space agency had retired years ago. His legacy was largely forgotten, but within the walls of the organisation he had run, he was a visionary. The reason they all still worked there. He had made everyone believe. He started something that the younger generations would finish. Very soon, in fact, three humans would launch themselves to the moon on a trip that was meant to last a full calendar year. A baby step towards a full fledged colony offworld.
There had been restructuring and reorganisation over the years but he survived it all, the most passionate man in the entire place. Once thought a crazy person for the way he presented himself, he was held in almost the same esteem as Carl. His name was Edward, and he currently sat as the chief officer in charge of this upcoming mission. Right now he sat with his feet up on his desk, his eyes lightly closed and a thick smile on his face. He was thinking back to the meeting that started this, almost 15 years ago now. He remembered Carl and the woman, whose name he could not remember and he could still clearly see the small glint of the start of this in Carls eyes as he made his case.
“Sir?” someone said through his open door, disturbing his rest. “We’re ready for you.”
“Good,” he said, jumping up with an energy someone of his age wasnt supposed to have. “Lets go see how they did.”
The two of them walked as fast as possible through the maze of corridors to the viewing window, high up on the other side of the building. There they could see, a couple of miles away, the launch pad that was currently empty. In a few weeks, three humans would lift off from there. But right now all eyes were on the large, slow moving trailer that rumbled from the vehicle assembly building several miles off to the left carrying the rocket that would take those three lucky humans all the way to the moon.
“Its identical to the previous three,” the assistant said.”
“I know,” Edward said, giddy. He knew these things inside and out. They had tested three and all three tests had gone off without a hitch. But this was the important one. This was the one that mattered. It had been under construction for the better part of the last five years and was finally heading to the last place on Earth it would ever sit.
Edward watched as everyone retreated from the rocket. Fuelling was complete and it sat, an explosion waiting to happen, ready for launch. The only thing left was the most precious cargo of all.
“Theyre heading out now,” someone said.
Edward didnt look around, his eyes were firmly on the gantry between the support structure and the rocket. He imagined he could see the astronauts striding across to their destiny.
“Sir,” the voice said again and Edwards attention was directed to a TV screen showing his imagination coming true.
The rocket disappeared into the atmosphere. Everyone was jumping around cheering and yahooing. Applauding and hugging each other. Everyone lined up and took their turn to shake Edwards hand. The once manic man was standing in a sense of awe and achievement. Beside him, unrecognised by most, was Carl, well into retirement. The two men knew how hard it was to get this. Above all else, the room was full of satisfaction.
“Permanent,” the astronaut said, laughing.
He had just arrived on the moon. He was the eighteenth person to land here, to take this post. The sign he had just seen, as everyone new to the base saw as they entered originally explained that this was a semi-permanent base, and would only exist until a year that had passed almost six years ago. Someone had scratched out “semi” and just left the word permanent.
“Welcome,” the commander said tiredly. She had been here for almost six years herself now. The first to arrive since the original expiry date of the base. “Your first job is to get some rest,” she continued as the new arrival, just the one, was ushered through the airlocks which hissed noisily and allowed him to take his helmet off. A ruggedly handsome man, he had been chosen because of his charisma over all else. “The trip up is a killer and jetlag has nothing on moonlag. Get eight hours then rejoin me here.”
“Youre the boss,” the new arrival said. “Wheres my bunk?”
“Bunks are through there,” she pointed. “Choose an empty one. Theres only five of us up here now. You have a large selection of empty beds.”
“Got it,” he replied and made his way down the dorm building.
The base had been made up over many years of the same pre-fab buildings which were then customised for whatever was needed when they arrived up here. There were seven of them now, although because they didnt have a full roster of staff, three of them were sealed and unused.
The new arrival found an empty bunk and made himself at home. He was asleep within seconds of his head hitting the pillow.
The airlock was still hissing quietly as the mission commander went about her tasks. It had been almost a full 24 hours since she had managed to get some rest, but with the other three on an external activity, it was up to her to maintain the base until they got back. That meant no sleep. While she made sure everything was operational, she missed the hissing airlock.
“Commander?” a voice said over the radio.
“Yeah?” she replied, tagging the button on her wrist.
“Door wont let us in. Shows low pressure.”
“Hold on,” she replied and went over to the door where the status screen showed a leak. “Leaking again, give me a sec.”
The commander walked to the door and pushed it shut, the standard way of fixing this issue. The door moved a millimetre or so and found its home again, resetting the alarm. As the astronauts outside tried their door again, the internal door moved on its runner. There was a loud clunk from somewhere within the mechanism and before anyone could react, the outer door opened and the inner door broke free, barrelling through the three astronauts outside, quickly followed by the commander.
In the dorm building, still safely sealed, the new arrival slept soundly.