The Before Short Story Series. Part 1 - Иван Перепелятник

class="p1">‘Well, let’s call the children, shall we?!’ As soon as John left, Meryl suggested. ‘We promissed to contact them as soon as we arrive at the station.’

‘Let’s do it!’ Lewis took out a tablet from a small backpack and put it on a coffee table next to the porthole.

‘Don, call the children,’ Lewis asked his digital assistant.

Two photos appeared on the tablet screen: one of the daughter Ellie, her husband Cune and granddaughter Vannie, and next to them their son Edward and his husband Francesco.

‘Don, put the image on the big screen.’

The photos appeared on a monitor on the cabin wall.

‘Hi! Dear ones! Have you arrived yet?’

‘Hi, Mom, Dad!’

The video link with Ellie and Edward was established. The room was filled with loud voices.

‘Don, make it a little quieter,’ Lewis commanded.

‘Hi, Ellie! Hello, Edward, Francesco! My dear ones!’ Meryl started wiping away tears off her eyes.

‘Hello, children! We are glad to see you!’ Lewis was waving his hand vigorously.

‘Mom, are you crying?!’

‘No, of course, not, Ellie!’

‘If you cry, I won’t talk to you!’

‘Good, good, dear!’

‘Are you on the Moon already?! asked Edward, bursting into laughter and pushing Francesco in the side.

‘We haven’t managed yet, Eddie! On the Federation now. We’re leaving in about forty minutes,’ Lewis replied.

‘Ellie, where’s Vannie, where’s Cune?’

‘Mom, it’s already 2 o’clock in the morning here. I didn’t wake them up. Cune is leaving for a business trip tomorrow…’

‘I see, dear. Sorry we’re so late. But there was no way before.’

‘I am very glad to see you! You look great! What kind of suits do you have… somehow not typical of you,’ everyone smiled.

‘This is sort of a uniform for all astronauts. We have now, by the way, children, officially become astronauts! I don’t remember our numbers, though. Some kind of ten-thousandth…

But still—your parents are astronauts!’

‘Hooray, hooray, hooray!!!’

‘You are great, having decided on such a thing!’

‘It’s all down to your father, Ellie!’

‘How are you doing, Edward? But, you don’t have to answer though. I see that everything is fine!’

‘Yes, Dad! Everything is fine! Tomorrow we put a new collection into production. We are adding the finishing touches now. Tomorrow we will celebrate with the whole team!’

‘Will you send me a pair of new shoes?’

‘Only in return for your astronaut suit!’ Francesco shouted and laughed.

‘Agreed—suit for each one of you, new shoes for me!’

‘Let me show you something, kids. Now, just a second,’ Meryl picked up the tablet, activated the rear camera and came up to the porthole. ‘Well! How do you like that?!’

‘How beautiful, Mom!’

‘It’s divine, Meryl! But I think you’re just kidding us!’ Francesco started laughing again. ‘A video on YouTube on, and here you are, I’m an astronaut! In a moment you are going to show us a layka-dog in the porthole!’ The laughter rolled all over the cabin.

‘Okay, Francesco, that’s enough! Your jokes will wake up the kid!’ Ellie tried to sound as strict as possible, barely holding her smile back.

‘Would you call us straight from the Moon, people!’

‘All right, Eddie. Of course! Though, they say comms is a bit biting there. But we are at the expense of the host party,’ Lewis made a joke, switching the video back to the front camera.

‘Absolutely not! We’ve spent all the money on a new collection! So everything is at your expense, please!’

‘Have a good trip, Mom, Dad! And we are waiting for news from the Moon!’ Ellie said goodbye.

‘Thank you, guys! Say hi to Vannie! We will bring you some moonstones as souvenirs.’

‘Somehow I miss them a lot, Lewis,’ finishing the conversation said Meryl.

‘I miss them too, dear.’

‘We’ll all have to get together when we are back. At our place.’

‘All right, Meryl. We will definitely do that.’

‘Maybe better in the house in Washington? There’s more room there.’

‘Maybe it’s better. But it’s closer for Eddie to fly from Rio to New York.

‘That’s also true,’ Meryl smiled.

‘Well, it’s time to get ready. The departure time is close.’

John escorted Meryl and Lewis to the boarding gate of the Luna-7 shuttle:

‘Have a good trip, Mrs Stern, Mr Podger. It was a great pleasure to work for you.’

‘Thank you, John.’ Lewis shook his hand.

The Moon

The commercial lunar shuttle service was completely different from the spaceship that took Meryl and Lewis to the international station. A squat, solid barrel. Its aerodynamic characteristics did not matter, since it never came into contact with the atmosphere. The shape was determined by the purpose—to deliver space tourists safely and quickly, with the maximum possible comfort. An additional bonus was the transportation of goods from the station to the Moon and back. The company also made good money on that. The flight to the Moon took 16 hours, and it was necessary to keep the passengers busy doing something throughout the flight. It was not technically possibility to create artificial gravity on the shuttle as it was too small for that, 20 m long and about 30 m wide.

About 2/3 of the internal volume of the ship was allocated for the crew and the needs of passengers. The rest of the space was occupied by boosters and nuclear engines, fuel compartments, various engineering systems necessary for the flight. The passenger cabin accommodated two separate first class cabins, each designed for two privileged passengers, and the rest of the space, which could accommodate another 10 people. Meryl and Lewis bought out both cabins. So initially two small rooms were combined into one, comfortable enough for a long flight for especially demanding travellers. Lately, everyone got out of the habit taking long trips. The flight from New York to Beijing took about 3 hours. So the inhabitants of the Earth were somewhat spoilеd by the possibilities of modern transport infrastructure on