"It was a close call," Lisa said to the cla.s.s, "now what can we learn from this?"
She looked around for a volunteer to pick on.
"Daniel, how about you, what have you learned by this incident?"
Daniel looked a little embarra.s.sed but said, "We should be more careful near the lake miss."
"Yes, good, but what else? Sh.e.l.ley, how about you?"
"We should never give up miss."
"How so?" Lisa asked a little bemused.
"Well, Katy looked to be dead, she had stopped breathing and there was no pulse, but Sam came along and changed what he saw. He didn"t give up just because it looked hopeless."
"Excellent Sh.e.l.ley," Lisa complimented her, "that is wonderful, a lesson well learned. Now, is there anyone else?"
Chris" hand went up, "Yes Christopher."
"All life here is precious, we are the remnant of the whole human race, and we should face up to the responsibility of that."
Lisa was taken aback, she hadn"t expected such answers.
"Cla.s.s," she said, and paused, leaning on her table, "I have a confession to make." All ears p.r.i.c.ked up. "I had not realised just how much you have all grown up in the time we"ve been here. It"s obvious to me now that you are more aware of our situation than I am. I apologise for not giving you credit for who, and what you are."
This last sentence cost Lisa some tears. The cla.s.s gathered around her but it was Katy who spoke.
"And I apologise to you all," she sobbed, "I was careless and could have caused you all much pain. We are here for a purpose, and I nearly let you down by not fulfilling mine. I"m sorry."
There were hugs a-plenty until it was time to end the lessons. When Lisa got home she hugged John and said, "I have not been the teacher I should have been to the children, but today, they have become my teacher. I am so humbled John, just to be here."
John held her close and said softly, "Whenever did you hear of a teacher admitting to being taught by children? You certainly are the teacher they need, and I"m proud of you."
Time pa.s.sed, and everything settled down after the accident. Clare heeded Sh.e.l.ley"s request and gave birth to a daughter. They named her Hope, because she was the first human being to be born in s.p.a.ce, and in her, and the others that would follow her, there was hope. She was a positive sign that the human race was not only surviving, but also growing.
They held a service to celebrate Hope"s birth, and Steve stood to speak. "Friends," he began, "today is a truly momentous day. We have seen the rebirth of humanity, and this little child is living proof that we are doing what General Hammond envisioned we would do, we are expanding. Hope is the first, but there will be others...There must be others." He said, looking around. A few of the older ones laughed.
"I"m reminded of the story of Noah, and how he heard from G.o.d that disaster was coming. Noah was told to lay in provision for the survival of the human race, and he did so. It took him 120 years, but time and humanity has moved on, and our Noah, General Hammond, did it in ten. Who"s to say that he didn"t hear from G.o.d? The ark he built certainly seems to be a miracle. The only difference is, that he didn"t live to sail in her. Let us all stand, and acknowledge that in this little child, Hope, both General Hammond"s vision, and G.o.d"s will have been fulfilled. G.o.d bless us all."
"G.o.d bless us all." Came the hearty cheer.
Later, when they were alone, Clare said, "You know Steve, you"re getting better at making speeches."
"What is it Bill?" Steve responded when Bill tugged his sleeve.
"Eric and I have been talking, and we think it"s time to enter the sealed chamber in the power level, and take a look at this gravity idea."
"You know, I"d forgotten all about that, let"s do it!"
The three men set off for the power level. On reaching the sealed doors, Steve entered the code and they opened up. "Wow," Eric gasped, "just when you think you"ve seen everything, this happens."
The entrance to the sealed chamber led out onto a balcony looking down over 500 feet to the floor below. They couldn"t see much else because of all the pipes and coils.
"I"ve never seen coils as huge as that," Steve said, "just look at how thick the cable is."
"What do you reckon Eric?" Bill asked.
"Magnetic...It"s got to be magnetic."
"You mean some sort of powered magnet?" Steve asked.
"Not exactly," Eric answered, "give me some time to study the plans will you."
"Sure thing," Steve replied, "let us know when you have something."
"Will do," Eric said, wandering off into the bowels of the huge machine.
A couple of hours later, Eric emerged very excited. "I know what it does," he shouted, "it"s brilliant."
"OK, calm down and let us in on it," Steve said, grabbing Eric"s shoulder.
"It"s a series of coils," Eric began, "only not coils as we know them, they"re enormously powerful pulse coils-"
"Pulse coils?" interrupted Steve.
"Yes, and they"re laid out in a line for about half a mile. According to the plans, they fire in sequence from one to ten and loop back to one. As far as I can see, everything is ready to go, but it doesn"t look like they"ve ever been powered up."
"They"re untested then," Steve said.
"Yes, I guess so."
"Hmm," Steve murmured thoughtfully. "There must be a reason they were never tested."
"There may not have been time," Bill suggested.
"That"s probably it," Eric agreed.
"Right, this is what we"ll do," Steve said, "Eric, spend some time really checking this thing out, and when you"re sure it"s safe, we"ll fire them up."
"Sounds good to me, see you later," he said, and was off, back into the bowels of the machine.
It was three days later when Eric sought Steve out to bring his report. "Steve, I"ve figured it out and it"s real simple."
"Vinkle"s things always are," Steve joked.
"It works on the molten core by firing incredibly powerful pulses in sequence. The pulses are intensely magnetic and so attract a narrow section of the core pulling it upwards. As the sequence fires, the raised section of core moves to follow the coils. It"s like running round the edge of a swimming pool, eventually, it will start a rotating motion in the core-"
"And that will start the Moon rotating!" Steve jumped in excitedly.
"In theory Steve, in theory."
"How long do you think it will take?"
"There"s only one way to find out," Eric replied with a grin.
The next day a meeting was held to inform everyone what was about to happen.
"We don"t know exactly what will happen when we fire up the coils," Steve said, "I suspect that we won"t feel anything for quite some considerable time, but we just don"t know. So, if there are no objections, we"ll fire it up today."
There were no objections so Steve gave Eric the go ahead to proceed. "We"ll need to run the extra turbines Steve, this baby is going to eat a lot of juice."
Steve looked at John..."General Hammond!" they said, in unison.
Roland went and fired up the five extra turbines, and Eric threw the switch to start up the gravity machine. A siren sounded and a prerecorded voice warned that the doors would close in two minutes, and it would not be possible to open them again whilst the coils were in operation. "Now they tell us." Jimmy said, and the doors swung shut, and heavy bolts could be heard locking them securely.
"Well, that"s it," Eric announced, "now we just wait and see."
So it was, and everyone settled back into their normal routines and time pa.s.sed.
Little Hope was five years old and it was her first day at school. Sh.e.l.ley and Chris took a hand each as they marched her off through the door. "It"s a big day in her life Hun," Clare said, waving. "Remember your first day?"
"Nah," Steve replied, "I never went to school, I was born brainy!"
"Brainy my foot," she said chasing him back inside.
Since Hope"s arrival, there had been several other children born, and Steve and Clare wondered what it would be like to have never known Earth.
"You know Sweetie," Steve said wistfully, "one day, there will be no one left who remembers Earth. Hope, and her generation will have no first hand experience of what it was like. The water-falls, sun-light, blue skies-"
"Rain, snow, ice," Clare broke into his reverie.
"Do you think the moon will ever be like that?" he asked her.
"Who knows Hun, we"ll have to wait and see."
The gravy machine, as it had become known, had been running non-stop for two years when the alarm sounded.
"What is it this time Bill?" Steve asked. "I"m not sure, but it sounds like the intruder alarm."
"INTRUDER alarm...You mean we"ve got burglars!"
"Ha, it does seem a bit far fetched doesn"t it, but there has been a change of pressure up there, we"d better investigate."
"Is it safe though Bill, the radiation I mean?"
"It"s still contaminated up there, but a s.p.a.ce suit should be sufficient protection."
"I"ll go," Jimmy said, "with all this good living, I don"t think either of you guys would be able to fit into one!"
"Point taken," Steve said. "OK, get suited up."
So Jimmy donned a suit and left Lark, the first to do so in almost eight years. "Take care," Steve said, "and use the coms."
"Will do," came the reply as the doors closed.
When Jimmy got to the top and the doors opened, he was greeted with a sight of utter devastation. "Are you seeing this?" Jimmy checked with Steve.
"Crystal clear Jimmy, watch your step."
Jimmy stepped cautiously out of the elevator. There was dust piled up against the walls. "How did that get there?" he said, thinking out loud. He looked over to the air lock, it was still sealed.
"Beats me," Steve said over the coms. "Look up will you,"
Jimmy looked up to see a hole in the dome. "Do you think the flare did that?" he asked.
"That"s not very likely," Bill answered, "look for a rock."
"Gotcha," Jimmy replied, "a meteorite, yes that would do it."
Jimmy looked for some time but found nothing suspicious.
"Hey Jimmy," it was Eric, "look up again will you."
Jimmy looked up. "What is it guys?" he asked.
"No Earth!" came the reply. "The Earth"s gone!"
"Whoa!" Jimmy yelped, "what"s going on here? Have we gone out of orbit?"
"No, our orbit is fine." Bill came back.
"Then what does it mean guys?" Jimmy asked a little panicked.
"It means we have gravity," Steve answered, "the Moon is rotating! From now on the Earth will rise and set, just like the Moon does from Earth."
Jimmy returned to Lark a little more excited than before he left it. "There"s a lot of devastation up there guys, it"s a real mess."
Steve slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Thanks for going Jimmy, you did good."
"In light of what we"ve just learned," Steve said, to the section heads, "I think we should start releasing oxygen to the surface."
"Good idea," Clare jumped in, "we should lace it with seeds too, the stuff I"ve been working on will grow just about anywhere."