JAX LUNAR LUMBER Chapter 10: Pushing Out the Borders

On the way to the neighborhood Home Depot for the obligatory weekend project as well as a load of flowers and potting soil, I started musing on my hitch as a “yard ape” for a company called Knox Lumber. We, too were busy this time of year, and it was a familiar feel whenever I went to one of these stored. Know was one of the original “Do It Yourself” (aka DIY) stores, a precursor to today’s Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot. Eventually bought out by Payless Cashways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payless_Cashways The rumor in the store was that you could build an entire house by waiting patiently for a year while EVERYTHING went on sale…Rolling down the driveway, I suddenly had a thought and snickered.

When my wife asked, “What?” I shook my head. “No, what?”

I reiterated the train of thought above, then added, “I was wondering if it would be possible to build a colony on the Moon using just what you could buy at Knox?”

We pondered it for a few moments, then suddenly said in unison, “Yes!”

Inspired by Matt Weir, the result of my musings continues below.

LAST TIME

I leaned in, “You might want to read through Lunar Law, Mr. Turdland.” I turned and walked away. I turned back, “Just to show you there’s no hard feelings, the venue you’ve been offered is owned by Jax Lunar Lumber, Limited Liability Lunar Company.” I turned and headed down the hallway as the door slid closed behind me. I was under no illusions that I had won anything but a brief reprieve from conflict between myself, family, and this man…

I ‘pinged’ the Lead Grandkid and whispered, “He’s going to be a big problem, Sweetie. Prepare the Forces.”

Nat said, “Hearing you loud and clear Grandpa!”

“Also,” I said, “Sturdlan Vilbix is armed, possibly even to the teethe – literally. But the scan of his skull wasn’t clear. If you could get a closeup, maybe dental X-rays, I’d appreciate it.”

“Ten-four, grampa!”

I pulled up the security feed and settled back to see what our uninvited guest was up to. He stormed down the hall, pushing past anyone who got in his way. I grimaced. He was not going to make this difficult. He reached a short section of corridor, and I sealed him/them in. First he rammed into the door, expecting it to open for him. Then he turned up, faced the image feed and flipped me off. The feed shut off.

I smiled and turned it back on, touching an audio feed and said, “You think we’re some sort of amateurs up here, Mr. Turdland? You may have dealt with Earth security…” He shut me down again. I turned on a different speaker, “But this is the Moon. We’re a bit more…” He shut me down, I opted for a feed next to his ankle. I cranked the volume and said, “…sophisticated than you seem to be prepared for.” I was glad he jumped when I opened the door at the same time. “If you’d follow the directions you’ve been given to your accommodation…”

“This is kidnapping!” he shouted, turning to the visual feed and flashing both of his middle fingers at me.

“If you’ll read your Lunar Rights Manual, you’ll see it’s not.” I hung up on them as they raised both of their hands again. I added a spray of ultrasound to mess with his enhanced hearing as well as check his teeth – and the rest of his body – for weapon implants.

I went to my messages and skimmed them, then stopped in startlement…I read, “We’ve found it!”

I shook my head, pulled up the list and laid it alongside the list one of my spies had sent me. Scowling, I read, “Nearly all the seeds germinated successfully, and after a few years, the Forest Service had about 420 seedlings.” I nodded. We knew that much. What was interesting though, was that the list of known Moon Trees was only one-hundred and twelve. A bit over three hundred of them were unaccounted for. Redwood, sycamore, Douglas fir, Loblolly pine, and sweet gum. Where were they? What about the trees in Brazil? Planted in the Amazon Rain Forest? There are even a few whose status remained unknown. Why is that? You’d THINK four hundred seedlings, some of which were ceremonially distributed, then “lost”, and when located, left a fourth of them unaccounted for.

NASA and the world forgot about the trees for a while – did they have something to hide? And now it seemed like at least a few of the missing trees had been discovered. And suddenly an exploitative talent agent show up on the Moon, ready to take “his talent” all over the planet… Scratching my chin, I scowled. Brad Barphmin, alias Sturdlan Vilbix shows up with a key to anywhere on the Moon he wanted to search for the lost Lunar Trees.

Why? What exactly did he want? WHO did he need?

I bit my lower lip, then called Solar Commonality Intelligence. This would likely call for cooperation of everyone in the volume of the Oort Cloud. And we would best get our act together, soon. While I was happy to Jax Lunar Lumber to do its duty, it was way bigger than I’d thought.

Resources: The Moon Trees, https://www.urbanforestdweller.com/we-almost-forgot-about-the-moon-trees/ ; https://www.space.com/moon-colonists-lunar-lava-tubes.html

Image: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YkAeUwwE2aksDqd5tgwyec-970-80.jpg.webp