06:45 (Universal Time)
Saturday, August 11, 2317
Apartment 20282
Bow Gravity Sail Deck’s upper ring, Level 19
AMS KOSTROMA
Space beyond Pluto, 41 Astronomical Units away from the Sun
Priya Mistry had been aboard the A.M.S. KOSTROMA as a crewmember for less than two months by now but she already positively loved her job as an apprentice hydroponics technician. Apart from the truly fantastic living conditions she and her family had found on the KOSTROMA, which contrasted starkly with their impoverished past life in polluted, overpopulated India, she was able to study part-time in the evening to complete her diploma in hydroponics techniques. To know that her family now had a decent life as well, with her father working as a forklift operator and her mother being employed as an assistant cook in the kitchens of the ship, also contributed to her happiness. Having awakened half a hour ago, Priya, a tall and thin nineteen year old brunette with light beige skin, left her apartment on the Bow Gravity Sail Deck outer ring to go to the crew cafeteria, dressed in a blue ship’s work coverall. Using one of the four overhead observation galleries linking the outer ring with the ship’s core section, Priya looked alternatively left and right as she walked along the 230 meter-long gallery, admiring the temperate lowland forest and boreal forest ecosystems visible from her gallery, each covering over seven hectares. Two more similar forest ecosystems were situated on the other side of the central core, with the rear balconies of the apartments on the outer ring overlooking the forests. Such an arrangement, unique to the KOSTROMA, helped greatly make life truly agreeable on the ship for both the crew and passengers. Another particularity unique to the KOSTROMA was its extensive hydroponic gardens, fish farms and animal farms, which made it mostly self-sufficient in food and even produced sizeable surplus of produces highly sought by Spacer communities, surplus whose sale helped inflate the business profits of the ship. As Captain Tina Foster had rightly said in the past, the KOSTROMA was as much a traveling space community as a giant cargo ship and auxiliary warship. Priya was truly proud to work on such a ship.
Passing the large armored doors that gave access to the core section, Priya walked to the crew cafeteria and entered it, finding it already alive with other crewmembers and their families. Making her way to the service counter and grabbing a food tray and utensils, she slowly reviewed what was on the menu. Since the ship had to operate on a continuous basis and thus employed multiple work shifts, the cafeteria always served items suitable for either breakfast, lunch and dinner, and this at all times of the day and night. Things were a bit different in the dining rooms serving the passengers of the ship, with the kitchens there following more regular meal hours. Priya, accustomed to a mostly vegetarian diet in India, had found the menus served on the KOSTROMA quite to her liking. She had learned many things about Spacers since her arrival on board, one being that Spacers in general tended to eat less meat and more vegetables and fish than the average Earth citizen. That was mostly due to the economics of food production in space installations, since animals raised for their meat monopolized much more resources and volumes than for growing plants in hydroponic gardens or growing fish in ponds. There was still meat being produced on the KOSTROMA, with waste products from gardens and fish ponds used to feed the animals, but the emphasis had been deliberately put on dairy and poultry production, in order to provide a balanced menu to the occupants of the ship. As a result, the KOSTROMA was self-sufficient in dairy products like milk, cream and cheese and also produced enough fresh eggs to fill the breakfast trays of its crew and passengers. Priya, like most of the other crewmembers lined up along the service counter, profited from that and took two eggs sunny side up with her slices of multiple grain toasts, then went to paste some strawberry jam, which the ship produced in quantity, on her toasts, completing her breakfast with a glass of fresh apple juice and a cup of tea.
Seeing her supervisor from the hydroponics department, Marco Rizzuto, eating alone at a table, Priya went to him and smiled down to him, her food tray in her hands.
‘’Good morning, Marco! Do you mind if I eat breakfast with you?’’
‘’Please! I would be happy to.’’ Replied Rizzuto, smiling back. While married, with his wife and two young children also living on the KOSTROMA, he did find Priya quite attractive and appreciated her intelligence and eagerness to learn. Priya quickly sat opposite him and asked a question as she started eating her food.
‘’What do you have lined up for me to do today, Marco?’’
‘’Our team is due to go inspect how our coffee plants and tea bushes are doing, to make sure that there are no molds or parasites present. We will also harvest the beans and tea leaves that are ready for the picking. I believe that you are well acquainted already with tea production, Priya?’’
‘’It was indeed a staple product of my old region in India. We cultivated the Darjeeling variety in hydroponic gardens, since droughts too often interfered with the natural growth of tea plants in the open.’’
‘’Excellent! You will then lead the pickers assigned to the Darjeeling tea production area on Deck 016. They are due to show up at one this afternoon, so you will have ample time this morning to inspect the plants first.’’
‘’You can count on me, Marco.’’ Replied Priya. Since there were nowhere near enough hydroponics technicians present on the ship to do all the picking and harvesting, Captain Forster had arranged for idle family members of the crew to be able to volunteer as pickers on times of their choosing. Since the various crops on the KOSTROMA were growing according to a carefully calculated production calendar, the various harvests were staggered along the whole year, allowing a comparatively small crew of pickers to provide sufficient manpower for continuous harvesting. In return, those family members benefited free from all the services offered on the ship, a mutually satisfying arrangement.
Eating their breakfast quickly, both Marco and Priya then brought their used trays and utensils to the dishwashing area, where robots picked them up and placed them in dishwashing machines. Robots were another thing that Priya had gotten accustomed to on the KOSTROMA: they were to be seen everywhere, taking care of the routine janitorial duties and maintenance work on the ship. There were in fact a lot more working robots aboard than there were crewmembers and were an essential part of the smooth working of the ship. Leaving the crew cafeteria, the duo made its way to the food production office, one deck up, where they met with the other hydroponics technicians of their shift and discussed for a few minutes the work to be done today before splitting up to go to their various assignments. On her part, Priya took an elevator cabin and went down to Deck 016, one of the 170 levels of the longitudinal spine tube of the ship dedicated to food production. Each level comprised a central core section containing processing and packaging facilities, surrounded by an outer section with a diameter of 160 meters at its armored steel outer hull, giving a food production floor surface of 1.2 hectare per level. That surface was further multiplied if hydroponic basins were stacked on top of each other, depending on the size of the plants grown. In the case of multi-stacked basins, a sophisticated carrousel system controlled by computer allowed easy access on demand to each basin. The food production facilities of the KOSTROMA, without equal among the ships roaming the Solar System, actually produced 82 different types of vegetables, fruits and spices, over 2.2 million liters per year of fresh milk, twenty types of fish and shellfish and five types of meat, plus an average of more than 4,000 fresh eggs per day. This was in fact one of the main factors that had designated the KOSTROMA as the best ship to carry the Eris Expedition. Priya could only contrast this with bitterness to the disaster that local food production had become in her old town in India, with pollution, lack of water and mismanagement resulting in not enough food being produced even for local consumption. Looking first around Deck 016 and its gleaming stainless steel and acrylic hydroponic basins, with their UV lamps illuminating the tens of thousands of tea plants inside them, Priya then started a methodical visual inspection of the plants, noting which plants were ready for harvesting and checking for molds or parasites as she went.
Taking a break for lunch at a bit past noon, ship time, Priya then came back on Deck 016 in time to greet the nine volunteers pickers that she was expecting. Briefing them on what had to be done and showing them examples of plants ready to have their leaves picked, along with how to pick the said leaves without damaging the plants, Priya then supervised their work, hurrying to them if questions arose. The picking work took a bit less than four hours and produced a total of close to twenty kilos of tea leaves, which were then brought to the processing section of the deck. Thanking her pickers first and sending them on their way, Priya then reported back to Marco Rizzuto, who declared her duty shift over. From there, Priya returned to her apartment to shower and change before having supper.
As she toweled herself dry after taking a shower, Priya looked at herself in the mirror of her bathroom. She was having this urge to have fun tonight, to do something outside of the routine she had kept since arriving on the KOSTROMA with her family and to burn some of the money she had earned. Up to now, she had spent much of her free time with her parents and siblings, having suppers together and discussing their new lives on the ship and their various experiences since their departure from Earth. Priya was not what one would call a teenage rebel and loved and respected her parents, who in turn had always returned her love and had proved to be tolerant and understanding. The society she came from in India was still a conservative and puritanical one, especially where the poorer classes were concerned, and teenagers there were expected to be close to their families and to obey their parents. Girls in particular were requested to be modest, chaste and to avoid relationships that their parents would not approve of in advance. Well, Priya had now been exposed for the better part of two months to a new and very different society that had proved to be tolerant, egalitarian and caring, a society she wanted to join fully. Priya was tempted for a short moment to go tell her parents before going out tonight but decided against it. It was high time that she lived the way she felt like, even though she would never consciously do anything to hurt her parents or bring shame to them. There were anyway many ways for her on the KOSTROMA to go have fun in harmless ways. She thus chose the sexiest outfit she owned, a combination of silk blouse and short skirt with medium-height heal shoes, for her evening and carefully brushed her hair, applying some makeup and perfume. She put on a nice but rather inexpensive set of silver jewels as a finishing touch and buckled a wide, decorated belt supporting a purse before walking out of her apartment.
Priya set foot on the Main Promenade Deck, on Level 9, twelve minutes later, coming out of one of the elevator shafts of the central rotunda of the deck. She then started walking along the eastern hallway towards the outer ring of restaurants and commercial establishments of the Promenade. It was now supper time and a few hundred people were also on the Promenade Deck, which was the center of the social life on the ship, both for its crew and their families and for the passengers. There were many young children visible as well, going to eat or shop with their parents. Their presence in fact did a lot to make life in space look more normal to Priya. Once she arrived at the junction of the hallway and of the outer ring of the Promenade, with its five meter-wide circular pedestrian track bordered on both sides by plants, flowers and bushes, the large, thick viewing windows along the outer steel wall reminded Priya that she was indeed in space. The Sun was visible in the darkness of space as a bright but small ball barely bigger than a marble, while the stars and nebulas of the galactic plane formed a majestic background. The high ceiling of the Promenade, ten meters above the floor, helped to enhance its impression of vastness, while the inner side of the track actually bordered an inner ring of patios and terraces five meter wide. Turning right and starting to walk at a moderate pace along the outer pedestrian track, Priya eyed methodically the two-storey inner façade of stores and restaurants, watching as well the passersby, shoppers and patrons in front of the various establishments. The first of those establishments was actually a wide and deep children’s playground, in which dozens of enthusiastic and screaming little children played in the various modules. An overhead net close to the ceiling, where the artificial gravity field from the floor generators could not be felt, was particularly popular with the children, who launched themselves from a side gallery that had artificial gravity, to float in zero-g to the opposite gallery while tumbling and flipping to their content. Priya smiled on watching them for a moment: she had her first experience of zero gravity up there, the day after arriving on the ship. Her younger siblings had also gone crazy up there and it had taken all the authority of her parents to convince them to come down from there after half a hour.
Resuming her walk along the Promenade’s pedestrian track, Priya passed in succession a convenience store, a liquor store, a children’s clothing store, a toy store and a clothing store for women before arriving at the junction with the southern hallway leading to the central core. Continuing along the track, she passed in front of six more establishments, including the ‘ASTEROIDS’ electronic arcade parlor and crossed the junction with the western hallway, stopping in front of the terrace of the ‘APEROSSIMO BAR-LOUNGE’. Deciding after a moment that she could come back to it after having supper, Priya continued walking, stopping again near the junction with the northern hallway, looking discreetly at the flashy advertising panels in the front of the ‘JUPITER SEX CLUB’. Her parents, while liberal-minded by the standards of India, still would look crossly at her if they would see now the way she was looking at the advertising panels, with her eyes particularly attracted to the pictures of three very handsome and well built male dancers. Her heart started beating faster and she felt excitement mounting in her as she eyed in particular the picture of a dancer called simply ‘Marcel’, whose muscular body sported a tan skin not unlike her own skin. Getting close to that picture, Priya admired it for a good moment and took the decision to definitely come back to the sex club later in the evening.
She finally entered a nearby restaurant, a delicatessen called ‘BEN’S PLACE’. While religion in India was by now mostly a thing of the past, old customs and also the dreadful local economic situation still made beef and porc products rare in India, especially in the rural areas where the old Hindu customs were still practiced by a few. A coworker on the KOSTROMA had told her how much he loved a juicy, spicy smoked meat sandwich, making her curious about that specialty. Thinking that her mother would probably look down with disapproval at the menu of such a place, Priya sat at one of the small tables of the delicatessen, which seemed quite popular with many people on the KOSTROMA. A male waiter promptly came to her with a menu and took her order for a glass of mineral water before leaving her alone as she looked at the menu. Since she was going to go next to a club and have drinks there and since her capacity for absorbing alcohol was strictly limited, Priya didn’t want to consume beer or wine yet. She finally ordered a smoked meat sandwich accompanied by marinated cucumbers and French fries when the waiter returned with her mineral water. The man returned a mere three minutes later with her plate, surprising her with the speed of the service. Discreetly smelling first her sandwich, Priya had to say that the thick pile of sliced meat in it had a tantalizing smell that she never had experienced before. Grabbing with both hands her sandwich and lifting it to her mouth, she took a first bite in it, having to open her mouth wide to be able to take her bite. The spicy taste of the tender, juicy smoked meat overwhelmed nearly at once her tasting buds and made her close her eyes with delight as she savored her sandwich and as the meat melted in her mouth. She had to restraint herself and eat slowly in order not to devour her sandwich with indecent haste, alternating with bites at her cucumber and French fries. She was nearly tempted to order a second sandwich once she had finished her first one but reasoned herself that she was already quite full. Promising herself to come back often to this place once she was finished with her meal, Priya paid the waiter and walked out of the delicatessen, happy and satisfied.
Taking the nearby northern hallway to walk back towards the core section, Priya turned left once at the core rotunda and entered the ‘MOONLIGHT DANCE CLUB’. Paying first the entrance fee and passing through the reception and vestibule area, she entered a large, high-ceiling room that measured a good 500 square meters in surface, most of it taken by a dance floor where over fifty customers were already shaking, twisting and shuffling to the rhythm of a loud music. Feeling excitement rising in her, the Indian teenager looked around her at the tables and bar counter lining three sides of the dance floor. Apart from the fifty or so dancers, another thirty or so patrons were sipping drinks and conversing at the tables. As she was deciding which table or place at the bar to take, the music died down while the voice of the DJ came up on the speakers.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen, for the next tune, I will start to play some new music never heard before in this time. In fact, the following songs come from the distant past, from the late 20th and early 21st Century, and are part of a collection of old music records I was fortunate enough to find in New York City, gathering dust in an ancient basement. It took me a few weeks since then to cautiously extract and digitalize those old songs but now they are ready for public playing and I hope that you will like them. My first song from the past is by a group called ‘ABBA’ and is titled ‘DANCING QUEEN’. Enjoy!’’
Priya was still standing in front of the bar counter, still digesting that announcement as the other patrons exchanged excited comments, when a catchy tune and young female singing voices started to play on the speakers, being unlike anything she had heard before. Despite its unfamiliar mix of instruments and slightly bizarre English words, the song quickly caught on Priya, who unconsciously started to move to the rhythm of the music. A young man sitting nearby at the bar counter got up from his high chair and promptly came to her, a charming smile on his face.
‘’Could I ask you for this dance, miss?’’
‘’Why not? My name is Priya.’’
‘’And my name is Alex.’’
‘’Then let’s go dance, Alex!’’
The two of them were promptly joined on the dance floor by seemingly all the other patrons, who were apparently anxious to dance to the new tune. While the music didn’t have the level of sophisticated sound mixing and synthesizing customary to 24th Century songs, it was still quite nice and catchy and the singers had truly first rate, sensuous voices. That song, along with the following one by a female singer called Victoria Duffield and titled ‘BREAK MY HEART’, proved to be truly good. After a third song, a slow tune titled ‘CAN’T FIGHT THIS FEELING’ by a group with the improbable name of ‘R.E.O. Speedwagon’, Priya agreed to go sit at the bar counter with her dance partner, who insisted on paying for her drink. Seeing her hesitate then, Alex smiled to her.
‘’You are not sure what to order?’’
‘’Uh, it’s more like I don’t know much about cocktails.’’ Answered Priya, a bit embarrassed. ‘’I have been on the KOSTROMA for less than two months and lived before in a small town in India. My family was not wealthy and I didn’t go out in fancy clubs or bars.’’
The young man, who appeared more and more handsome and nice to Priya as time went by, nodded his head in understanding.
‘’Then, let me choose something for you that you may like, if you don’t mind.’’
When Priya didn’t object, Alex shouted an order to the barman.
‘’BARMAN, TWO PINK JUPITERS, PLEASE!’’
As the barman started preparing their drinks, Alex smiled again to Priya, who was taking the time to detail him: he was apparently athletic and fit, had short blond hair and gleaming gray eyes and had a really pleasant smile.
‘’The Pink Jupiter cocktail was invented to mimic the multiple bands of color of Jupiter. So, would you mind telling me a bit about you? Where are you working on this ship?’’
‘’I am an apprentice hydroponics technician and no, I won’t mind telling you about me, Alex. First though, where do you work?’’
‘’Me? I am a member of the Eris Station crew and am a shuttle pilot.’’
Priya hid her slight disappointment on hearing that: in about six months, that nice young man was going to disappear from her life as quickly as he had entered it, to stay for two years on the farthest spot of the Solar System.
‘’Well, Alex, there isn’t much to say about me, truly. I am from the city of Sehore, in the state of Madhya Pradesh in Central India. I was studying hydroponics techniques when my father lost his job after the plant he worked in closed. We were facing poverty and destitution when I was lucky to get a job offer from the KOSTROMA. Now, here I am, with my family also on this ship.’’
‘’I am happy to hear that you were able to find a job here, Priya. As for me, I was born on the Jovian moon Europa and am a Spacer through and through. My family is still on Europa. Ah, here are our cocktails!’’
As they kept conversing at the bar while sipping on their drinks, more and more people entered the club, apparently attracted by excited calls from patrons who had been mesmerized by the songs from the past. The place was soon packed to capacity, to the delight of the club manager, who gave a big thumbs up to his DJ.
‘’Lester, you are a genius! These old songs are really great: they attract customers like flies to honey.’’
‘’They are actually a true musical treasure from the past, Greg. Would you mind if I offer the tunes that are not meant for dancing to the ship’s entertainment section and to Miss Manzini, of the APEROSSIMO?’’
‘’Hey, you found and bought those old records, Lester. Technically, you could resell them or sell their user rights to anyone you like and there would be nothing I could say about it. Just make sure that you keep the best dance tunes for us.’’
‘’Thanks, Greg!’’ Replied Lester Barnaby, pleased. He actually had digitalized thousands of songs and pieces of music, from dance tunes and meditation music to classical instrumental pieces, more than half of which would be of little use to the dancers of the MOONLIGHT CLUB. If there was something that Lester hated, it was to leave good music being unheard.