Maxwell Empire Scripted Book 2 Chapter 5
The purpose of the scripting is to make the books useful to teachers wanting a range of plays for their students.
5 Moon City in the Moon
Jimmy has arrived in Moon City. He and the group leave the pod on the Moon Space Elevator.
Some of the group are staying in hotels but others are staying with friends or family members. Jimmy has a friend from his online connections called Ben. During the Moon Bus trip he had a call from Ben who asked him to stay with him and his family in their apartment.
Ben recognises Jimmy from the time they have spent online together.
BEN
Jimmy, I’m Ben. Welcome to the Moon.
JIMMY
Well Ben, you look just like your picture.
BEN
Jimmy, this is my friend Jenny.
JIMMY
Hi, Jenny. Thanks for meeting me.
JENNY
So you just have the one bag?
JIMMY
Yes, we were keeping the weight down and I am being loaned any equipment I need while I am here.
BEN
Do you want something to eat before we head home?
JIMMY
Good idea. But I will give Kailee a call to let her know I am here.
BEN
Right. You can do that as we walk to the food court.
JIMMY
Hi, Kailee. I’m in the Moon. You remember Ben. He has met me at the Moon Bus port. He has got me staying at his place.
KAILEE
That’s good Jimmy. You will get to see some of the things you two talk about.
JIMMY
And do some of the things he tells me about.
KAILEE
How was the trip?
JIMMY
It was OK. Not exciting after the Justin Davies hoo haa.
KAILEE
Good. I guess I will let you go. I will talk to you later.
JIMMY
Yes. We are about to eat. Bye.
KAILEE
Bye.
JIMMY
So Ben, I think everyone was watching Hunt 34 and them trying to rescue Justin Davies.
BEN
Yes Jimmy, Jenny called me to make sure I watched the action. Mum and Dad stayed up to watch it all as well. Such things just don’t happen.
JENNY
What I don’t understand Jimmy was how so many people got to 34 without anyone knowing.
JIMMY
There is no doubt going to be a big investigation to try to find out how. Just now I will investigate your Moon food.
Ben lives on the Moon in Moon City and his Mum got him to invite Jimmy to stay with the family in their apartment because she knew how much time the two had spent online talking to each other.
Ben spends a lot of time with his friend Jenny. He would like it to be a bit more than friend but at present it is friend. Ben has heard a lot about Kailee and is hoping Jimmy thinks about Kailee a lot.
Like Jimmy Ben is a sports person. Because of the low gravity people are advised to get a fair amount of exercise to keep their bones healthy People also go down to Earth regularly.
Ben will be competing with Jimmy in the skiing and also competing in the cycling.
Moon City is in the Moon. It is underground. There are schools, shops, places to work if you want to and places to play and lots of places to eat the food they like best. Sometimes the people of Moon City visit the surface, but generally they work and play in this world beneath the surface.
When they do visit the surface they never go on their own, but always with at least one other person, and best of all, a big group of people. While the domes on the surface are rarely punctured it can happen and in such circumstances they think that the more help they have the better the chance of survival.
The Space Elevator terminus is near a large industrial area. Asteroid material from the factories above the Moon is used on the Moon surface as well as being sent to Space City for use over the Earth. The terminus is also the gateway for passengers arriving or departing on the Moon Buses.
After the meal they descend to Ben and Jenny’s level.
On exiting the lift Jimmy cannot help but be impressed by the space around him and exclaims.
JIMMY
Well, I’ve seen the images of down here but in real life it is huge.
BEN
Yes because on the Moon people found it better to live under the ground because the surface was a health hazard with no air to reduce the effect of radiation from space so the first Moon dwellers made big tunnels in the Moon with the rock between them and the surface providing protection from the radiation.
JIMMY
And they are long. I can see it goes on forever.
BEN
Yes. The tunnels are very long. The tunnels are so long that it takes weeks to walk along all of them. This means it is good for me for bike riding because I can travel for many kilometres before returning to the same path.
JENNY
Humans require oxygen so some tunnels have farms in them. The plants produce both food and oxygen. The humans and other animals produce carbon dioxide. We can take you on a tour of a farm when you two are not competing.
Jimmy could see that this level in Moon City had apartment buildings in it. Shops were under the apartments in most of the buildings they went past.
BEN
We had better wave down a tram otherwise it will take us ages to get home.
JENNY
If you want to we can also take you to see the industries that are underground that are on separate levels to housing. They are generally manned by robots but there will be some humans. Most industries are on the surface because robots do not need air and can work more freely in the open than underground.
Jimmy knows much of this because the Geography Education Input 8 had a section on the Moon and Moon City. He does not cover it all in detail until he does Geography Education Input 11D. That will be probably in a couple of years as geography is a subject he is progressing in at a normal rate. At present he is in Stage 9D in Geography but others vary with Earth Science being at Stage 9E and Biology Stage 10B.
From the farm levels the Moon has oxygen from the plants and also it gets oxygen from the electrolysis of water.
Solar cells and fusion reactors give Moon City lots of electricity. While solar cells are a much cheaper source of electricity they do not have the reliability of a fusion reactor.
Earth found this out many years ago when the sun was obliterated in the Northern Hemisphere because an asteroid impacted the Earth and threw a huge amount of material into the atmosphere. No sunlight meant no electricity for those places reliant on solar cells for electricity. While the lack of sunlight was experienced for only a matter of months in the north it was remembered as being significantly longer because of its impact on the lives of the people in the Northern Hemisphere directly and as a result of the movement of people from the north to the south the impact on the lives of people in the Southern Hemisphere.
The impact of the Impact was to significantly reduce the number of humans which was a very good outcome for the rest of the living things on Earth. There had been too many humans and the reduction resulted in a movement to make human levels closer to the two billion advocated by many scientists.
In the south the sunlight was not affected.
The harnessing of fusion reactors once they had been developed on Earth had meant an unending supply of electricity for very little cost because the deuterium necessary to fuel them composed one ten thousandth of the water in the oceans and so meant that there was fuel available until the Sun would explode in billions of years’ time. Also it was very cheap to extract from the oceans.
The deuterium fuel for the Moon's fusion reactors is obtained from the water they get from the Moon, Earth or the Asteroid Belt.
The cheap and plentiful electricity meant that lighting and warming Moon City was assured.
People can have pets in Moon City but they are controlled by type and size. For example, there are no Rottweiler dogs as they were a big dog and people thought they had a tendency to attack people.
There are cats, fish, terriers, and even frogs.
Some parks for people to enjoy are not flat. They have an undulating landscape which while not hills makes the scenery more interesting especially as they also come with running water in small streams.
All parks have trees. This is why apartments need to have at least 6 levels, as the parks will then be high enough for trees to grow.
Some parks have a continuous slope so they can be permanent ski fields. The ski field in Ben and Jenny’s part of the city is off their level, level 5. It slopes upwards from its entrance to level 5 at an angle of 20 degrees and is permanently covered in snow. A ski lift operates 24 hours a day controlled by the Moon City Sports Department staff. Most of the work is done by robots but humans are necessary as they can respond more quickly and appropriately in the case of emergencies.
There are hydrogen fuel cell powered electric cars for hire to travel longer distances and for short distances people walk or ride bicycles or use the robot busses of the public transport.
They got off at Ben’s apartment block. His address was at APT 5/035/3/19, York Town, Moon City, Moon. That is Level 5, Building 035, Floor 3, Apartment 19.
Ben’s mother greeted them.
MRS KIMTON
You look just like your image. I’m pleased you came, Jimmy.
JIMMY
Thank you for inviting me, Mrs Kimton. It is good to meet you.
MRS KIMTON
Are you hungry?
JIMMY
No thanks, we ate at the Food Court.
MRS KIMTON
Right. You three can get better acquainted while I prepare something for dinner then.
BEN
Thanks Mum. We’ll get Jimmy set up then we might take him shopping if he is up to it.
MRS KIMTON
Don’t wear the poor boy out too much. He has just had a long trip to get here.
BEN
No problem. We will look after him.
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