5 - Saving Lunar Station Alpha

Summary

It was the loneliest summer job that Ranjana, Bruce, and Tara had ever had, and at the beginning they had wondered whether they should even take it. For four months they would be isolated in Lunar Station 50, so named because it sat astride the 50th parallel north of the equator of Xzyqgon, the small hollow spherical satellite of Neptune discovered in 2050. Lunar Station 50 had been abandoned in 2140, when the North American Federation had launched its eighth massive government downsizing and decided that the country could no longer afford to maintain it. However, more recently the Federation, concerned about possible moves by the Pan-Pacific Alliance to establish rival colonies, had decided to re-condition the old lunar stations and occupy them to prevent them from falling into unfriendly hands. Since high-paying summer jobs were no more plentiful in 2150 than they had been at the turn of the millenium, the three students, despite the hardship conditions, had decided to spend four months refurbishing the complex systems that regulated the heat, light, and air quality in the station. They had one further duty: they had to launch rockets from the old firing towers that still stood adjacent to the station. These towers were configured so that any rocket launched from them left the ground at an angle of 40° north of the vertical.