What’s a long-time married couple who joins a Polyamory 20 years ago to do together? Hump it! Hard!
Not that kind of hump. Judy & Bob scrambled up the narrow trail cut through boulders & scrub pine. Running hard, breathing ragged. Judy notes appreciatively her husband still had a nice tush after all these years. This goes on for half an hour as they climb more than a kilometer. Near the top, their steps felt lighter. This wasn’t their imagination. Gravity was 70% of normal as they reach Lover’s Peak. There was a neat little tram station there, an elevator just below. It was a popular spot but this time it was deserted.
At the top they hugged & kissed. Judy said “You smell ike shit”. “I know.” Bob said, their ritual complete. He still had that Han Solo smirk.
They stretched, drank water. There was a Coffee machine nearby, they ignored it. Yes, yuo can brew coffee, Even Espresso on Lover’s Peak, so? The stone beneath their feet was made of space concrete poured there 20 years ago, and they were standing on a ledge of a 10 mile expanse of greyish wall. On the other side of that wall was the vacuum of space, a short distance away, the wall for Green Acres, the 500,000 acre Agriculture habitat where all their food is grown, cultured, processed by Bots.
There was a tunnel. Bob and Judy walked 10 yards into the Earth Dome, an acrylic hemisphere lounge protruding from the outside of the wall, with a view of Space, the Central Axis above, the Wall of Green Acres and…
Earth swung into view. Covered in dirty clouds with streaks of fire as some suitcase-sized ejecta returned home. A muted, angry orange glow emanated from the big rift volcano where Wyoming used to be. Fire & ice. Water and death. “I wonder what will emerge from the ashes 25,000 years from now?”, Judy asked. “Zombies”, Bob said & got a whack on his chest as a reward. Funtime’s over, this weekly run has a grave purpose. They stood next to each other. Judy clapped 3 times and both bowed, steepled fingers before their noses in homage to the dead. Tears flowing out of Judy’s eyes. “Mom, Dad, Anuki, Saito”, for Judy. “Mom, Dad, Kelly, Jim, Robert and Jeremy.” for Bob. Judy & Bob survives, standing together, with a family 5 miles away. They were the lucky ones. They had Trumbull to thank for being here to remember those who couldn’t make it.
The Weekly observance complete, they emerged from the tunnel to face the full glory of their habitat, their home, HomePlex. A vast barrel 150 miles long and averaging 10 miles wide, a myriad of color and patterns clinging to the wall, the Plexes where 250,000 people lived. Close at hand, at 3 o’clock was the perfect circle of Lake Geneva, Mother’s lair, their Kyoto homestead a short distance furtherhanging at 5 o’clock. a giant tube floating in the middle, the Central Axis in micro-gravity with zero-g at its exact center. The tube is nicknamed the O-zone, the O standing for zero. A honeycomb pattern laced throughout it were the Roebling Cables, which performed a similar function as the suspension cables on the now extinct Golden Gate Bridge. As the fabled bridge’s cables connected the 2 towers, the Roebling Cable network connected the two end walls. The cables were thick chains of nearly diamond-like nano-bots called Grabs. When the stresses pull a Grab beyond tolerance, it is swapped out with another. The same is true for the Walls and the planks lining the outside of the Habitat, MADE FROM THE SAME ROBUST STUFF. If you listen closely, you could hear SKITTERING.
Just a few miles down the tube, over Mendocino was an odd contraption. An enormous silvery cone. The first ever in human history micro-G surf generator, christened by the Dudes as The Gnarl. Multiple spiral channels were etched in the inner surface of the cone to hold water. When the Cone spins, the water coat the channel like ice coats a Luge run and you surf the half-pipe all the way down. It’ll be awesome, if it ever gets finished. “Do SEALS surf?”, Judy asked her ex-SEAL hubby. “SEALS gotta hang 7”. A whack on his arm, “That number if a little inflated, honey”.
Further down the Barrel, the desert scar of NoWhere, now Jerusalem. Beyond, loomed the roiling storm clouds of the Kingdom of Sauron- Judy broke in, “That’s Gilead, not Mordor, it’s sunny there. It’s sunny everywhere Bob, 75 degrees”. “How did you know what I was thinking?” “You make me watch 10 hours of Lord of the Rings every year, Honey. Besides, I know you.” Bob was about to argue when he remembered she was of course absolutely right! She was the light of his life! His Queen- Judy said, “Stop sucking up to me, Bob”. Bob snapped, “Stop that!”. Judy cackled.
Bob said, “Nick says Gilead will attack in 2 weeks. We may not be doing this for awhile.”. “Or ever again.”, Judy tensed. “Nick seems like a pretty good runner and you like the look of his tush-“, SMACK! “Ouch. Wife, please save some of me for Zeke’s army”. A shove from Judy. “Dammit, Bob, don’t die. I’ve already lost enough!”, she said, tears streaming again. Bob hugged his wife, “Don’t worry baby, I gotta plan.”
“That’s what worries me.”
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