Deep Space New World - 6. DSNW Chapter 6

“Houny Otterman?” I asked, suddenly realising who he was, “Yes, My Lord, that is correct, my Earth name is Huon,” he replied smiling, “Wow, you have grown a bit in the short time since I last saw you,” I commented, “Yes, My Lord, it has been just over four years now, since you changed our lives for the better,” Huon replied.

“Ok, well your brother Isaac should be along soon, can you show him his quarters please, I am going to go back to the central building for a few hours,” I stated, “Yes, My Lord,” Huon said as he bowed then disappeared through a side door, that appeared to be well hidden. ‘Hmm, Hidden doors, means hidden access passages, I will have to check them out some time’, I said to myself, as I passed the security area and headed out of the building, and started to walk towards the central building.

Over the next few days, I was getting orientated with my new surroundings, which included my new offices which were a little bit too grand for my liking. Isaac was enjoying his new home and pleased to see his younger brother on a very regular basis, as he is part of the palace staff.

Work was going very well with the extensions to the Space Port and ESA base on the moon, with a lot more social and recreational space, plus additional guest accommodation been built there. In regards to the other Lunar bases on the moon, it had been decided by the High Council to have six new bases, that will be built in groups of two, with a central space terminal and additional storage and recreational space for both bases to share.

The construction of these six bases would be delayed until the Space Port and ESA additions are at least 75% completed, so as to have the additional space to accommodate the construction teams that are building the new lunar bases.

The Sahndrol High Council had decided that the Chinese and Russian Bases should be paired together, the Indian and the South Korean Bases be paired together, and NASA will share a base with Japan. Meanwhile other countries that are ready to try Lunar exploration, and at the moment, are Brazil, Canada and Australia.

The International Space Federation in Geneva has been working closely with the United Nations in regards to working on the conflict issues with some countries wanting more access to space facilities, but now they were coordinating the preparations for the transfer of personnel up to the lunar bases on the moon, and because of that, the ESA had allowed two representatives of the ISF to be based at the ESA Luna Base for the past few months.

With the news that each Space agency would be getting their own lunar base, but them been paired together, helped to ease the tensions between the two countries that had been causing all of the issues, and the other countries were extremely happy to be able to have their own Luna bases soon.

Two months after our family moved to Deimos City, we boarded the Star Voyager, for the rather long journey to the home world, to attend the wedding celebrations of our uncle the Emperor to his fiancé – Saryne, with Mrs Otterman and her two boys travelling with us, as our assistants. In addition to the Otterman family, we have a crew of nine travelling with us, including three pilots, two chefs, two galley stewards and two cabin stewards.

We would be gone for a total of twelve weeks, with us only staying for just six days, and by the time we return, the construction work for the six additional Luna Bases will be close to been completed. “I’m not looking forward to this exceptionally long trip,” I commented as we settled into the lounge area just before departure, from the space port on Bermuda.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you, last time that the Star Voyager was at Ganymede, we had some modifications done, so it will cut the travelling time by a good amount,” Mum announced to us all. “Oh, this is news to me dear,” Dad commented with a bit of a frown.

“Sorry, with everything happening lately, it slipped my mind. The pilots were told to go at the usual speed for the trip back from Ganymede, so as to let the modifications get settled, before putting them to the full test. We will be able to travel in half the time now, meaning that we will arrive at Ganymede for a brief stop in just one and a half days,” Mum announced to us.

“So instead of over five weeks to the home world, it is going to take us what? Three weeks?” my brother asked, and I smiled when I heard this, “Yes, just over 21 days,” Mum replied happily. “That is wonderful news dear… but the look on your face there is more news?” Dad said.

“Yes, and not even the Crown Prince knows about this. When Deimos was built, it was designed to be the new city of the URP, and as you may not know, Deimos is only at one third capacity with its population. On our return trip from the home world, we will be escorting six more ships back to our solar system, with an additional 12,000 Sahndrol citizens wanting to settle in the New World as it is now referred to on the Home world,” Mum announced.

I stood up and headed for the cockpit, “Son what are you doing?” Mum asked me, “I stopped at the door and turned to Mum, I’m going to make a call and chew someone’s arse off for not telling me all about this,” I replied sounding annoyed.

“If that someone, you are referring to is your Uncle, I would not do that, firstly because it may be not be the Crown Prince for too much longer, and you will have to revert back to your original title of Lord Lenegan, and secondly you cannot under any circumstances chew off the arse of your Imperial Leader, and if you did, I would have to take some drastic actions against you,” Mum said to me sternly.

I sighed when I realised that Mum was right, and I returned to my seat, just as we started to launch, and I spent a few minutes watching Earth quickly disappear, before I headed to my living quarters, to have some time to myself. For the next three weeks, we had an uneventful if not boring journey to the home world.

While the family settled into our assigned quarters for our short stay on Ganymede, the Otterman family were been transported to their former home colony, so that they could visit their good friends and former neighbours, and as expected we received word that they had been invited to stay for a few days, and would return to the city in time for departure to the home world for the wedding.

The day after our arrival back at our home world, Mum and I went to meet with my Uncle, the Emperor, who wished to discuss a few matters with us. “Welcome back to the home world, have you settled in, ok? I hear nephew that you wanted to have a few choice words with me a few weeks ago?” my Uncle said to me and I went red with total embarrassment on hearing this.

Mum just chuckled at this, and I was not sure if I should respond or not. “Sire, I do apologise to you for that weakness in my judgment, I am sure that I would not have been allowed to get even close to actually doing that,” I did say eventually, and my Uncle laughed.

“Let’s forget about it shall we, no one else needs to know, and no harm has been caused,” my Uncle said to me, knowing that I could have been in extremely big trouble if I had actually gone ahead and spoken to the Emperor in the way suggested. I knew that capital punishment did not exist in the Sahndrol Empire, but that was not to stop me from been punished in another way.

“Now, the reason I wanted to speak to you both today, is to inform you both, that I have asked the Ganymede Building team to not only continue with the construction of the extensions to the European Space Port and City, but also to start on expansion work on the SRTA - Space Research and Training Academy.

I want some of the new arrivals from the home world to settle on Mars, and help the scientists and researchers from Earth to learn more advance technologies, when they come up to Mars. So, there will be additional accommodation, living and recreational space as well as research facilities included in the expansion work there,” my Uncle announced to us both.

“That sounds all good Sire, and a lot more of a work load for me by the sound of it, but what about the construction projects for the additional Colonies on Mars? It sounds like they are going to be delayed by this additional work at SRTA as well as at Deimos?” I asked.

“Yes, there will be a delay of about a year in Earth time, but I am sure that you will be able to convince them that the delay will end up be more beneficial in the long term,” my Uncle replied. After a bit more discussion on the matter, Mum and I returned to our family quarters, and we relaxed as the wedding would be taking place in less than two days’ time.

I also had a meeting with the new colony leaders the day before the wedding, to discuss matters regarding the travelling to Mars, settling into their new roles at Deimos and also the transporting of some of them to the SRTA on the Moon once the extensions are completed, there and at the Space research and Training Academy.