I am sorry to report, Breathe Easy, but that first day of
classes was unfortunately boring.
We didn’t talk about anything like aquaculture or mending fine mesh in the air filtration system. Instead, we talked about the details of the mining operation itself. Believe me, I understand why it’s important, but … wow! Unfortunately dull.
Since most of us are here to pay some kind of debt to society, it was explained to us that the repayment will be measured in time spent on the water mining process itself, and how many barrels (about 40 gallons) of water we harvest during that time. The whole group’s water will be traded in total for necessary goods to complete the colony – while we’re being sent with seeds and training and some materials, it will only be enough for a slim start. Breathe Easy will act as our company store, but from a distance of about 7-8 million kilometers.
However, anything we do over the standard trade quota will go to our personal debts. We were assured this would not be difficult. The presenter – a Senfte this time, with traditionally dulcet tones – assured us it would take no more than a year for any debts to be paid off, because water is so necessary that it is highly valued, although market value will naturally fluctuate over time. And Europa is almost entirely water, so it will be easy to harvest – not like platinum or iron from asteroids.
Perhaps I could contribute my extra barrels to supplies for the colony. I’d like us to have some creature comforts, and maybe Breathe Easy would consider using my extra barrels to send us some entertainment?
We were then shown the layout of Rabbah, and where we should build the water harvesters. Most of the set-up is simple: barrels with pumps that will fill, and notify us with a sensor when they’re ready. The hard part will be moving them to the surface, which, we were told, is another thing we should expect to train our octopuses to do. When they reach a thin layer of ice next to us on the grand Conamara Chaos plain, they will hover there using buoyant gels that will also be activated by the internal sensor, and send out a beacon to let incoming automated mining ships know where to pick them up. The ships will drill through the new, thin ice and grab the barrels, then return to Earth. We will have to take over guiding the ships as they get within 50 kilometers of the ice surface, because not only does Jupiter have a very strong magnetic field, but Europa itself has an iron core that creates a fierce magnetism. Fortunately, this should keep us safe from much of the dangerous radiation out there in space, which we will be somewhat exposed to on our trip out there. Anyway, we played several simulations with what looked like ancient net access glasses, to guide the transport ships in and grab the barrels.
The glasses pinched my nose. I asked why we couldn’t take our lenses with us – I’ve become accustomed to the tiny notifications that pop up on my contact lenses all the time, and I admit that I feel a little isolated without them hooked into any sort of internet – but I was told that they are too difficult to maintain. With larger, external hardware, we can fix pieces that break, while we won’t have the nanotechnology to fix breaks in the gold-carbon contact circuits.
I got a nasty glare from the two Araboa ladies over that question. I would be surprised if they did not know how to fix lens technology, considering their colony is attached to our national hardware dumping ground. And of course I expect them to pull their weight – if they’re here to fix computers, then that’s what they will do!
We won’t have to wear these glasses much, the Senfte presenter insisted, just when we need to bring in a ship to mine. Side effects will be limited to a little motion sickness, perhaps a mild headache, so I’m reassured. I don’t know much about how those glasses were supposed to work, but I know that people used to wear them all the time.
I got okay with the simulation, but poor Samira kept looking peaked. She must be susceptible to motion sickness, so I will have to remember to ask some of the medical staff here for a prescription. If she doesn’t have one already, it may be because she does not feel like she can talk to the Bakalov in charge of the infirmary. They can be rude to the Ikin, the only real caste lower than them. Sometimes I wonder if it is because the rest of us take advantage of their usefulness.
Anyway, the class only took eight hours, and we got a break for lunch, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much. I’ve worked eight hours straight before, without stopping for food or water, on tasks I disliked much more. And this is necessary information, so that I can enjoy a new kind of life.
I did have an interesting discussion with Chloe over lunch. As comes naturally, we tend to spend the most time with the women in our own caste, although none of us have talked much beyond introductions and courtesies. Although Chloe is a former Gadhavi, I have noticed that she and I don’t have too much in common. She wants to return to Earth when her debt is paid, and although she is very smart and hard-working, I get the sense that her hard work is directed toward that goal, to the exclusion of other’s interests. Mine, on the other hand, is directed at making a new life for myself, which I think will be better for both society and me. I have no intention of coming back. We haven’t spoken much about that point, and we have not spoken recently about our court cases or Maker tendencies. But we continue to sit near each other at meals, despite an ongoing uncomfortable silence. So, when she sat down next to me with a tray of soup and gluten loaf and actually struck up a conversation, I was surprised.
“Aelis,” she started abruptly, “I’ve been thinking that perhaps all of the ladies bound for Europa have started off wrong with each other, somehow.”
I asked her what she meant, hiding behind a hushed and almost bored tone of voice.
“Well, look, we’re all from different castes, but most of us are here due to … criminal activity, to be honest. When Haven introduced us, she did so using our castes, but the thing is, we’re not really part of our castes anymore. I’ve been spending more time around some of the other women, and they’re different than what I would have expected.”
“We all have interesting skills,” I said. “Not what I would have expected out of our castes, either.”
Chloe nodded. “So that’s my point. We’re dividing ourselves up by caste, because that’s what we’re used to. But this expedition is to somewhere new and very different from Earth, and we’re going because of what we know. Also, we’re going to be stuck in an enclosed space with each other for at least a year.”
I began to catch up with her logic, but I took a bite of gluten loaf so I wouldn’t accidentally spit out anything that could be misinterpreted as radical.
“We need to learn to treat each other like equals, I think,” Chloe said. I put another piece of gluten loaf in my mouth because I could feel a defense coming on. She isn’t wrong, not completely.
Look, I realize I’m the communications person for the Europa-bound mining expedition, and this sounds bad to many of you reading this. What Chloe was actually saying, I think, was that we are becoming our own caste, in a sense. We’re not like people on Earth – in fact, many of us are working toward becoming more like the Moon Base residents. Yes, they are part of two castes right now, but they have been, as we will be, so separate from Earth that they’ve developed their own customs.
Perhaps we should consider the creation of a Rabbah caste?
We didn’t talk about anything like aquaculture or mending fine mesh in the air filtration system. Instead, we talked about the details of the mining operation itself. Believe me, I understand why it’s important, but … wow! Unfortunately dull.
Since most of us are here to pay some kind of debt to society, it was explained to us that the repayment will be measured in time spent on the water mining process itself, and how many barrels (about 40 gallons) of water we harvest during that time. The whole group’s water will be traded in total for necessary goods to complete the colony – while we’re being sent with seeds and training and some materials, it will only be enough for a slim start. Breathe Easy will act as our company store, but from a distance of about 7-8 million kilometers.
However, anything we do over the standard trade quota will go to our personal debts. We were assured this would not be difficult. The presenter – a Senfte this time, with traditionally dulcet tones – assured us it would take no more than a year for any debts to be paid off, because water is so necessary that it is highly valued, although market value will naturally fluctuate over time. And Europa is almost entirely water, so it will be easy to harvest – not like platinum or iron from asteroids.
Perhaps I could contribute my extra barrels to supplies for the colony. I’d like us to have some creature comforts, and maybe Breathe Easy would consider using my extra barrels to send us some entertainment?
We were then shown the layout of Rabbah, and where we should build the water harvesters. Most of the set-up is simple: barrels with pumps that will fill, and notify us with a sensor when they’re ready. The hard part will be moving them to the surface, which, we were told, is another thing we should expect to train our octopuses to do. When they reach a thin layer of ice next to us on the grand Conamara Chaos plain, they will hover there using buoyant gels that will also be activated by the internal sensor, and send out a beacon to let incoming automated mining ships know where to pick them up. The ships will drill through the new, thin ice and grab the barrels, then return to Earth. We will have to take over guiding the ships as they get within 50 kilometers of the ice surface, because not only does Jupiter have a very strong magnetic field, but Europa itself has an iron core that creates a fierce magnetism. Fortunately, this should keep us safe from much of the dangerous radiation out there in space, which we will be somewhat exposed to on our trip out there. Anyway, we played several simulations with what looked like ancient net access glasses, to guide the transport ships in and grab the barrels.
The glasses pinched my nose. I asked why we couldn’t take our lenses with us – I’ve become accustomed to the tiny notifications that pop up on my contact lenses all the time, and I admit that I feel a little isolated without them hooked into any sort of internet – but I was told that they are too difficult to maintain. With larger, external hardware, we can fix pieces that break, while we won’t have the nanotechnology to fix breaks in the gold-carbon contact circuits.
I got a nasty glare from the two Araboa ladies over that question. I would be surprised if they did not know how to fix lens technology, considering their colony is attached to our national hardware dumping ground. And of course I expect them to pull their weight – if they’re here to fix computers, then that’s what they will do!
We won’t have to wear these glasses much, the Senfte presenter insisted, just when we need to bring in a ship to mine. Side effects will be limited to a little motion sickness, perhaps a mild headache, so I’m reassured. I don’t know much about how those glasses were supposed to work, but I know that people used to wear them all the time.
I got okay with the simulation, but poor Samira kept looking peaked. She must be susceptible to motion sickness, so I will have to remember to ask some of the medical staff here for a prescription. If she doesn’t have one already, it may be because she does not feel like she can talk to the Bakalov in charge of the infirmary. They can be rude to the Ikin, the only real caste lower than them. Sometimes I wonder if it is because the rest of us take advantage of their usefulness.
Anyway, the class only took eight hours, and we got a break for lunch, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much. I’ve worked eight hours straight before, without stopping for food or water, on tasks I disliked much more. And this is necessary information, so that I can enjoy a new kind of life.
I did have an interesting discussion with Chloe over lunch. As comes naturally, we tend to spend the most time with the women in our own caste, although none of us have talked much beyond introductions and courtesies. Although Chloe is a former Gadhavi, I have noticed that she and I don’t have too much in common. She wants to return to Earth when her debt is paid, and although she is very smart and hard-working, I get the sense that her hard work is directed toward that goal, to the exclusion of other’s interests. Mine, on the other hand, is directed at making a new life for myself, which I think will be better for both society and me. I have no intention of coming back. We haven’t spoken much about that point, and we have not spoken recently about our court cases or Maker tendencies. But we continue to sit near each other at meals, despite an ongoing uncomfortable silence. So, when she sat down next to me with a tray of soup and gluten loaf and actually struck up a conversation, I was surprised.
“Aelis,” she started abruptly, “I’ve been thinking that perhaps all of the ladies bound for Europa have started off wrong with each other, somehow.”
I asked her what she meant, hiding behind a hushed and almost bored tone of voice.
“Well, look, we’re all from different castes, but most of us are here due to … criminal activity, to be honest. When Haven introduced us, she did so using our castes, but the thing is, we’re not really part of our castes anymore. I’ve been spending more time around some of the other women, and they’re different than what I would have expected.”
“We all have interesting skills,” I said. “Not what I would have expected out of our castes, either.”
Chloe nodded. “So that’s my point. We’re dividing ourselves up by caste, because that’s what we’re used to. But this expedition is to somewhere new and very different from Earth, and we’re going because of what we know. Also, we’re going to be stuck in an enclosed space with each other for at least a year.”
I began to catch up with her logic, but I took a bite of gluten loaf so I wouldn’t accidentally spit out anything that could be misinterpreted as radical.
“We need to learn to treat each other like equals, I think,” Chloe said. I put another piece of gluten loaf in my mouth because I could feel a defense coming on. She isn’t wrong, not completely.
Look, I realize I’m the communications person for the Europa-bound mining expedition, and this sounds bad to many of you reading this. What Chloe was actually saying, I think, was that we are becoming our own caste, in a sense. We’re not like people on Earth – in fact, many of us are working toward becoming more like the Moon Base residents. Yes, they are part of two castes right now, but they have been, as we will be, so separate from Earth that they’ve developed their own customs.
Perhaps we should consider the creation of a Rabbah caste?
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