Found in Space -- an old short story of mine
Before LJ, my journal was the moshez.org mailing list, now long gone. I managed to rescue this old story.
Found in Space
--------------
Sam was finishing up his work on the hydroponics, and was whistling as he
walked away. His whistling was not solely due to the end of his shift at
the hydroponics garden, though with the smell of the fertilizer bad as it
was, it would have been enough. But to top it all off, Sam was planning
to see Jane from US14 in a little while. What with the school year
almost finished and the maintainance work that had to be done, he didn't see
her for almost a month now.
A short trip home in zero-gravity was just the thing he needed to work off
some of the andreanline that has been building up, he decided.
US27Sp was one of the more advanced settlments, and had the zero-gravity
tube, now common, going through it. Sam got in the elevetor, and floated home,
thinking. About Jane, about the embargo, in a dreamy haze.
"I'm going to Jane's, mom", Sam called as he rushed out of his room with
his space suit, "I won't be late". He knew he shouldn't give her time to
object -- Sam's mother, Hellen, was an earthy, and she never got used to
the ease and safety of through-space travel. "Sam, you be careful" was all
she managed to get in. He hoped none of his friends
were at the air lock just now, facing their taunts was beyond him. Luckily,
the airlock was deserted. Sam got into his spacesuit quickly, and set up
the man-cannon.
Sam was cruising through space at 200 km/h. He dialed Jane's number.
"Jane? I'm gonna be there in about half an hour. I miss you too. Bye"
Sam turned on the music player, and started on his homework on the
on-suit computer. His weak attempts of concentrating on newtonian
mechanics were mercifully ended by the warning light.
Sam was going to miss US14 by a kilometer. He released some of the compressed
air from his on-suit motors, and corrected the course, setting himself
into a spin. A more gentle application of the motors, and he was going
feet first into the colony.
Sam started the electrifying procedure.
When arriving at a colony, there was no need, and little ability, to use
the motors to stop. You just electrified your suit, and let the charged
port do the hard work of stopping you. While stopping through 100 meters
from a 200 km/h sounds painful, the only problem was that it was all
Sam could do not to get sick. The suit was more accomodating than the
best seat-belts, and all in all, it was a pretty comfortable way to travel.
Sam visibly relaxed when he saw the lettering on the colony:
"US14 -- New California". It was all automatic from here.
For some reason Sam could not understand, the earth-built colonies always
had those earth-bound names. He had all of ten seconds to contemplate
on that, going at neck breaking speed towards the colony.
Jane started the trip towards the airlock, when she heard Sam call.
Sam was busy for so long, and so was she. She started roller-blading
across the smooth outside window, feeling as though she was gliding
on space itself, with the stars rushing diagonally backwards beneath
her feet. She came to a grinding stop at the airlock elevator and went
up.
The airlock operator was vaguely familiar -- he was a friend of her
father's.
"Come in. You're Jane, aren't you?"
"Yes"
"You're waiting for that nice young man?" he asked, pointing at the
rapidly approaching form of what was probably Sam.
Jane blushed deeply and looked at her shoes.
Sam arrived at the north end. By convention, all space stations
rotate from west to east. He felt the electrical charge stopping
him like a giant foot crushing him for all of a second...and he
bumped lightly into the space station. Sam was somewhat off-center, but the
hand holds provided an easy way to get to the airlock. He pressed the entry
button and the airlock opened automatically. Of course, Sam knew some human
had to actually open it but he also knew the human's reaction
was probably just as automatic as the machine's. There were no burglars
in space. Sam got in, and took off his helmet. He liked the US14 smell,
and wished US10 got to grow flowers too.
Hugging a man in a spacesuit is somewhat problematic, and is harder still
in zero gravity. Jane wrapped her
arms around Sam as far as they could go, which was not much. "Hi Jane",
Sam said as he returned the awkward hug. He got out of the space suit,
and turned to the elevator. He always had a slight dislike of the ride
downwards, when he felt his weight slowly increasing, until weightlessness
seemed like a dream.
"I really missed you.", said Jane.
"I missed you too, but you know, with the embargo and all, we have to work
extra hard"
"I know"
The space embargo has been in effect for a few months now, and it was shaping
up to be quite annoying. The United States goverment has declared there will
be no shipments to L5 until the colonists will build only SPSes.
The colonists, who had their hands full building more space colonies and
were already feeling the space constraints, refused. They had the necessities
of life in the colonies, but luxuries were still imported from earth.
Jane lived towards the south of US14a, which was a few hundred meters of walk.
They walked towards her place slowly, hand in hand.
When Sam and Jane have been about half way to Jane's, they heard a commotion
from one of the common rooms. People have been squeezing to get in and it
has been packed full.
"What's up?" Jane asked someone.
"There are news from Earth"
The face on the big TV screen was the US president's. "...I regret to say
I found I have to send the military to restore order to the space colonies..."
Sam could take it no more, he turned his back and left, Jane rushing after
him. "Sam, Sam. You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"
"I just can't take it. Let's go to your place."
Later: "They can't win, you know."
"Who?"
"The earthies."
"Sam, you can't fight them. They'll...they'll...have weapons."
"They don't know space. We do."
"You are going to do something stupid."
"Let's go look at the stars."
Since the dawn of humanity, humans have looked up to the stars. Sam and
Jane looked down on them. Hand in hand, as they were lying on the transparent
floor, they saw the stars moving below them. Sam felt he could lie like
this for hours and hours. Sam woke up, and looked at his watch. Predictably
he was late. "Jane, wake up. I've gotta go".
Sam was back at the hydroponics garden inside an hour, not noticably late.
He was working with Al. "You heard the news?", asked Al.
"Yah", he muttered, "they have no right to do it."
"Cheer up, man. They said they're going only after the earth-built colonies."
"Jane is in an earth-built colony."
"Right, Jane."
"You realize they'll take us over next?"
Al shrugged, "What do you want us to do?"
"Take over"
Alarms were squealing in US14. Major Hardy woke up from an uneasy sleep.
Major Hardy (Dan, to his few friends) hated space. He hated having nothing
between him and vacum except for a bit of steel. He hated the uncanny
feeling of looking up and feeling the world is going to topple on him.
In short, Major Hardy missed good old earth. The same Major Hardy who
had every premonition about space become true when the soldier on duty
reported, amidst the alarms and flashing lights, that a hull breached
occured.
"What do you mean, a hull breach?", yelled Major Hardy, "the scientists
claimed it was supposed to occur only once every million years. Get all
men to the hull breach! Pronto!". The Major's hair was a mess, his
eyes were red, and he already had trouble breathing in the thinning
atmosphere. Then, another soldier came in to report.
"Sir, it appears we have another hull breach -- in b section."
"Damn b section to all hells"
The Major's men did not have much experience with repair, but he dared
not trust the rebels with it -- not yet. In the hours it took the marines
to fix a breach that any space-born could have fixed in half an hour,
fifty young people from US27Sp, US28Sp and US29Sp crept in silently
through the man sized hole they made through section b of US14, and
neatly closed it after them. They counted on the Major panicking from
a hull breach in his section to give them enough time to get inside
the station. By the time the Major conducted an investigation and
found out the breach was not made by a meteorite, they would be
on their way back.
Section b, they knew, was where the SPSes components were stored. It
seemed a shame to do what they were going to. Oh, well. Within hours,
all the components were floating in space. By the time Major Hardy
was discovering that US14 suddenly had no available components for
building SPS and that, basically, the next shift of builders had
nothing to do, he was getting reports from all the other stations.
No other station had any SPS components on board, and L5 had them
floating in it.
Sam knew Jane was not going to like it. She was born on earth, and was
still thinking like an earthy. Earthies always think the guy giving orders
is somehow all powerful. They are always forgetting there are two sides
to an order: the guy giving it and the guy receiving it. Both sides are
equally necessary. In any case, the ball was in the other team's part.
All Sam had to do was wait. For word from Jane. For the reaction of the
military. Anything.
One reaction came soon enough. One was a long time coming. As always,
the one he dreaded more came first. They got the word less than two
days later. The military was going to take over the space-built stations
too. They had a week to surrender, and then they will be invaded. The
ruse was obvious to Sam -- NASA needed the week to train enough soldiers
for space, and prepare the launch. Sam and his friends spent the week
preparing.
The week went by fast. By the week's end, the atmosphere in US27Sp
was thick with tension. Sam was right next to the dock operator.
"This is the US shuttle 'The Lincoln'. Prepare for docking" The message
came over the radio, loud and clear.
"We are sorry we are unable to comply with your request, but unfortunately
our docking equipment is damaged."
The Lincoln, having prepared for this eventuality, has docked at the US9,
which had perfectly usable docking equipment, the marines having guarded
it from potential saboteurs.
Back on earth, the Secretary of Space was having an interview in CNN.
"Hello, George. Nice to have you with us."
"Hi, Kevin, it's good to be here."
"We understood that you're sending troops to force the colonies
to work on the SPSes?"
"The issue is not forcing. The issue is that the United States of America
is counting ont he Solar Power Stations to supply much needed energy. We
sent those people into space for a job, and they spit in our eye. We
must not let them steal those space stations from the American public."
Jane was in her room, sulking. She knew Sam would do something stupid.
Like throwing the SPS parts in US14 to space. Or knocking off parts of the
dock station on US27Sp. He was just being silly. She remembered how
he came to visit her on the night of the "Space Tea Party", as it
was to be known later. She was besides herself with fury. But now
she missed him. The radio-phone still worked. Jane dialed Sam.
An almost unheard, shy "Hi."
"I thought you didn't want to speak to me again."
"I thought so too."
"I miss you."
"I do to. Come here."
"I can't."
"Sure you can. Nobody is guarding the airlock in section b, right?"
"I missed you so much!", said Sam. Now, it was Jane's turn to hug
him awkwardly, still wearing a space suit.
"I missed you too."
It is hard, though possible, to kiss someone wearing a space suit.
When the kissing subsided, Sam asked Jane,
"You remember when you just got here?"
Jane did.
It was five years ago, when she was 12. She was surprised to hear both
her parents got their dream jobs. She was shocked to hear where they
are relocating to. She decided she won't go. Her mother had a talk
with her.
"Why don't you want to go?"
"There's no air there."
"There's air enough in the colony."
"What if a meteor comes?"
"That is likely to happen once in a thousand lifetimes. And even ifit
does, it takes a week for the colony to depressurize."
Jane sulked, which generally seemed like a good way to close arguments.
When she just got on the colony, she was deathly afraid of everything.
Then she met thirteen year old Sam. They were together in Zero-Gravity
Gymnastics class. Jane's mother made her take it to cure her of her
phobias. Sam's parents made him take it to keep him out of trouble.
They both hated it with passion, and they both met each other hiding
in the back. Sam hanged upside down of her. On purpose.
"You're still that crazy kid.", she said.
"I can still get you to do crazy things. Race you to the 0-g room."
"So, what are we going to do now?"
"We should phone my mother. She must be going insane."
Space is a cold, dark place. Especially for a newcomer. Sergeant
Gant was a newcomer. He hated space. And he felt space hated him
right back. If there was one thing he hated more than being on a spaceship,
it was being in a space suit, floating through space. Sergeant Gant,
however, had a mission. He would see to it that him and his men would
see it through. So, he was heading at 100 km/h, along with ten of his
men, towards US27Sp.
"Sam, please don't go there."
"Please don't come with me."
"If you go, I go."
They were hiding in the space between the cylinders, with some friends.
They weren't sure yet how the marines were planning to get in, but
they were planning to stop them. The site of the two cylinders going
in opposite directions was somewhat unnerving, and was already starting
to make them dizzy.
The marines were headed towards the other end of US27bSp -- the supplies
cylinder. They had to beat them there. Wordlessly, they jumped into space,
turned their motors on and hurtled the kilometer towards the other end
of the b cylinder. Sam, Jane and a couple of the others got to the
end of section b just a few minutes before the marines. If it wasn't
that serious, it would have been funny.
When Sam said the marines didn't know space, he didn't know how right
he was. As soon as they sighted resistance, they fell into the common
procedure of taking cover. But there is no cover in space, and stopping
is a delicate procedure which is liable to leave the untrained flier
turning about himself. Before the marines had realized that, some young
people who have been flying through space whenever they could had disarmed
them, and were heading back to section b's airlock. The marines had
just enough presence of mind to retreat to US9.
Jane was in her space suit, doing 500 km/h. She'd be in SP209 in a few
minutes. "Grandma Jane? Yes, I'll be there in a few." Jane loved to hear
Grandma Jane talk about the old days. Things must have been so primitive
and exciting.
"Hi, dear, come right in. We just got a shipment of Belgian chocolate".
With the price of energy going up, and the SPSes providing over 80% of
the earth's energy needs, Belgian chocolate stopped being a rare luxury --
but it was still Jane's favourite.
Found in Space
--------------
Sam was finishing up his work on the hydroponics, and was whistling as he
walked away. His whistling was not solely due to the end of his shift at
the hydroponics garden, though with the smell of the fertilizer bad as it
was, it would have been enough. But to top it all off, Sam was planning
to see Jane from US14 in a little while. What with the school year
almost finished and the maintainance work that had to be done, he didn't see
her for almost a month now.
A short trip home in zero-gravity was just the thing he needed to work off
some of the andreanline that has been building up, he decided.
US27Sp was one of the more advanced settlments, and had the zero-gravity
tube, now common, going through it. Sam got in the elevetor, and floated home,
thinking. About Jane, about the embargo, in a dreamy haze.
"I'm going to Jane's, mom", Sam called as he rushed out of his room with
his space suit, "I won't be late". He knew he shouldn't give her time to
object -- Sam's mother, Hellen, was an earthy, and she never got used to
the ease and safety of through-space travel. "Sam, you be careful" was all
she managed to get in. He hoped none of his friends
were at the air lock just now, facing their taunts was beyond him. Luckily,
the airlock was deserted. Sam got into his spacesuit quickly, and set up
the man-cannon.
Sam was cruising through space at 200 km/h. He dialed Jane's number.
"Jane? I'm gonna be there in about half an hour. I miss you too. Bye"
Sam turned on the music player, and started on his homework on the
on-suit computer. His weak attempts of concentrating on newtonian
mechanics were mercifully ended by the warning light.
Sam was going to miss US14 by a kilometer. He released some of the compressed
air from his on-suit motors, and corrected the course, setting himself
into a spin. A more gentle application of the motors, and he was going
feet first into the colony.
Sam started the electrifying procedure.
When arriving at a colony, there was no need, and little ability, to use
the motors to stop. You just electrified your suit, and let the charged
port do the hard work of stopping you. While stopping through 100 meters
from a 200 km/h sounds painful, the only problem was that it was all
Sam could do not to get sick. The suit was more accomodating than the
best seat-belts, and all in all, it was a pretty comfortable way to travel.
Sam visibly relaxed when he saw the lettering on the colony:
"US14 -- New California". It was all automatic from here.
For some reason Sam could not understand, the earth-built colonies always
had those earth-bound names. He had all of ten seconds to contemplate
on that, going at neck breaking speed towards the colony.
Jane started the trip towards the airlock, when she heard Sam call.
Sam was busy for so long, and so was she. She started roller-blading
across the smooth outside window, feeling as though she was gliding
on space itself, with the stars rushing diagonally backwards beneath
her feet. She came to a grinding stop at the airlock elevator and went
up.
The airlock operator was vaguely familiar -- he was a friend of her
father's.
"Come in. You're Jane, aren't you?"
"Yes"
"You're waiting for that nice young man?" he asked, pointing at the
rapidly approaching form of what was probably Sam.
Jane blushed deeply and looked at her shoes.
Sam arrived at the north end. By convention, all space stations
rotate from west to east. He felt the electrical charge stopping
him like a giant foot crushing him for all of a second...and he
bumped lightly into the space station. Sam was somewhat off-center, but the
hand holds provided an easy way to get to the airlock. He pressed the entry
button and the airlock opened automatically. Of course, Sam knew some human
had to actually open it but he also knew the human's reaction
was probably just as automatic as the machine's. There were no burglars
in space. Sam got in, and took off his helmet. He liked the US14 smell,
and wished US10 got to grow flowers too.
Hugging a man in a spacesuit is somewhat problematic, and is harder still
in zero gravity. Jane wrapped her
arms around Sam as far as they could go, which was not much. "Hi Jane",
Sam said as he returned the awkward hug. He got out of the space suit,
and turned to the elevator. He always had a slight dislike of the ride
downwards, when he felt his weight slowly increasing, until weightlessness
seemed like a dream.
"I really missed you.", said Jane.
"I missed you too, but you know, with the embargo and all, we have to work
extra hard"
"I know"
The space embargo has been in effect for a few months now, and it was shaping
up to be quite annoying. The United States goverment has declared there will
be no shipments to L5 until the colonists will build only SPSes.
The colonists, who had their hands full building more space colonies and
were already feeling the space constraints, refused. They had the necessities
of life in the colonies, but luxuries were still imported from earth.
Jane lived towards the south of US14a, which was a few hundred meters of walk.
They walked towards her place slowly, hand in hand.
When Sam and Jane have been about half way to Jane's, they heard a commotion
from one of the common rooms. People have been squeezing to get in and it
has been packed full.
"What's up?" Jane asked someone.
"There are news from Earth"
The face on the big TV screen was the US president's. "...I regret to say
I found I have to send the military to restore order to the space colonies..."
Sam could take it no more, he turned his back and left, Jane rushing after
him. "Sam, Sam. You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"
"I just can't take it. Let's go to your place."
Later: "They can't win, you know."
"Who?"
"The earthies."
"Sam, you can't fight them. They'll...they'll...have weapons."
"They don't know space. We do."
"You are going to do something stupid."
"Let's go look at the stars."
Since the dawn of humanity, humans have looked up to the stars. Sam and
Jane looked down on them. Hand in hand, as they were lying on the transparent
floor, they saw the stars moving below them. Sam felt he could lie like
this for hours and hours. Sam woke up, and looked at his watch. Predictably
he was late. "Jane, wake up. I've gotta go".
Sam was back at the hydroponics garden inside an hour, not noticably late.
He was working with Al. "You heard the news?", asked Al.
"Yah", he muttered, "they have no right to do it."
"Cheer up, man. They said they're going only after the earth-built colonies."
"Jane is in an earth-built colony."
"Right, Jane."
"You realize they'll take us over next?"
Al shrugged, "What do you want us to do?"
"Take over"
Alarms were squealing in US14. Major Hardy woke up from an uneasy sleep.
Major Hardy (Dan, to his few friends) hated space. He hated having nothing
between him and vacum except for a bit of steel. He hated the uncanny
feeling of looking up and feeling the world is going to topple on him.
In short, Major Hardy missed good old earth. The same Major Hardy who
had every premonition about space become true when the soldier on duty
reported, amidst the alarms and flashing lights, that a hull breached
occured.
"What do you mean, a hull breach?", yelled Major Hardy, "the scientists
claimed it was supposed to occur only once every million years. Get all
men to the hull breach! Pronto!". The Major's hair was a mess, his
eyes were red, and he already had trouble breathing in the thinning
atmosphere. Then, another soldier came in to report.
"Sir, it appears we have another hull breach -- in b section."
"Damn b section to all hells"
The Major's men did not have much experience with repair, but he dared
not trust the rebels with it -- not yet. In the hours it took the marines
to fix a breach that any space-born could have fixed in half an hour,
fifty young people from US27Sp, US28Sp and US29Sp crept in silently
through the man sized hole they made through section b of US14, and
neatly closed it after them. They counted on the Major panicking from
a hull breach in his section to give them enough time to get inside
the station. By the time the Major conducted an investigation and
found out the breach was not made by a meteorite, they would be
on their way back.
Section b, they knew, was where the SPSes components were stored. It
seemed a shame to do what they were going to. Oh, well. Within hours,
all the components were floating in space. By the time Major Hardy
was discovering that US14 suddenly had no available components for
building SPS and that, basically, the next shift of builders had
nothing to do, he was getting reports from all the other stations.
No other station had any SPS components on board, and L5 had them
floating in it.
Sam knew Jane was not going to like it. She was born on earth, and was
still thinking like an earthy. Earthies always think the guy giving orders
is somehow all powerful. They are always forgetting there are two sides
to an order: the guy giving it and the guy receiving it. Both sides are
equally necessary. In any case, the ball was in the other team's part.
All Sam had to do was wait. For word from Jane. For the reaction of the
military. Anything.
One reaction came soon enough. One was a long time coming. As always,
the one he dreaded more came first. They got the word less than two
days later. The military was going to take over the space-built stations
too. They had a week to surrender, and then they will be invaded. The
ruse was obvious to Sam -- NASA needed the week to train enough soldiers
for space, and prepare the launch. Sam and his friends spent the week
preparing.
The week went by fast. By the week's end, the atmosphere in US27Sp
was thick with tension. Sam was right next to the dock operator.
"This is the US shuttle 'The Lincoln'. Prepare for docking" The message
came over the radio, loud and clear.
"We are sorry we are unable to comply with your request, but unfortunately
our docking equipment is damaged."
The Lincoln, having prepared for this eventuality, has docked at the US9,
which had perfectly usable docking equipment, the marines having guarded
it from potential saboteurs.
Back on earth, the Secretary of Space was having an interview in CNN.
"Hello, George. Nice to have you with us."
"Hi, Kevin, it's good to be here."
"We understood that you're sending troops to force the colonies
to work on the SPSes?"
"The issue is not forcing. The issue is that the United States of America
is counting ont he Solar Power Stations to supply much needed energy. We
sent those people into space for a job, and they spit in our eye. We
must not let them steal those space stations from the American public."
Jane was in her room, sulking. She knew Sam would do something stupid.
Like throwing the SPS parts in US14 to space. Or knocking off parts of the
dock station on US27Sp. He was just being silly. She remembered how
he came to visit her on the night of the "Space Tea Party", as it
was to be known later. She was besides herself with fury. But now
she missed him. The radio-phone still worked. Jane dialed Sam.
An almost unheard, shy "Hi."
"I thought you didn't want to speak to me again."
"I thought so too."
"I miss you."
"I do to. Come here."
"I can't."
"Sure you can. Nobody is guarding the airlock in section b, right?"
"I missed you so much!", said Sam. Now, it was Jane's turn to hug
him awkwardly, still wearing a space suit.
"I missed you too."
It is hard, though possible, to kiss someone wearing a space suit.
When the kissing subsided, Sam asked Jane,
"You remember when you just got here?"
Jane did.
It was five years ago, when she was 12. She was surprised to hear both
her parents got their dream jobs. She was shocked to hear where they
are relocating to. She decided she won't go. Her mother had a talk
with her.
"Why don't you want to go?"
"There's no air there."
"There's air enough in the colony."
"What if a meteor comes?"
"That is likely to happen once in a thousand lifetimes. And even ifit
does, it takes a week for the colony to depressurize."
Jane sulked, which generally seemed like a good way to close arguments.
When she just got on the colony, she was deathly afraid of everything.
Then she met thirteen year old Sam. They were together in Zero-Gravity
Gymnastics class. Jane's mother made her take it to cure her of her
phobias. Sam's parents made him take it to keep him out of trouble.
They both hated it with passion, and they both met each other hiding
in the back. Sam hanged upside down of her. On purpose.
"You're still that crazy kid.", she said.
"I can still get you to do crazy things. Race you to the 0-g room."
"So, what are we going to do now?"
"We should phone my mother. She must be going insane."
Space is a cold, dark place. Especially for a newcomer. Sergeant
Gant was a newcomer. He hated space. And he felt space hated him
right back. If there was one thing he hated more than being on a spaceship,
it was being in a space suit, floating through space. Sergeant Gant,
however, had a mission. He would see to it that him and his men would
see it through. So, he was heading at 100 km/h, along with ten of his
men, towards US27Sp.
"Sam, please don't go there."
"Please don't come with me."
"If you go, I go."
They were hiding in the space between the cylinders, with some friends.
They weren't sure yet how the marines were planning to get in, but
they were planning to stop them. The site of the two cylinders going
in opposite directions was somewhat unnerving, and was already starting
to make them dizzy.
The marines were headed towards the other end of US27bSp -- the supplies
cylinder. They had to beat them there. Wordlessly, they jumped into space,
turned their motors on and hurtled the kilometer towards the other end
of the b cylinder. Sam, Jane and a couple of the others got to the
end of section b just a few minutes before the marines. If it wasn't
that serious, it would have been funny.
When Sam said the marines didn't know space, he didn't know how right
he was. As soon as they sighted resistance, they fell into the common
procedure of taking cover. But there is no cover in space, and stopping
is a delicate procedure which is liable to leave the untrained flier
turning about himself. Before the marines had realized that, some young
people who have been flying through space whenever they could had disarmed
them, and were heading back to section b's airlock. The marines had
just enough presence of mind to retreat to US9.
Jane was in her space suit, doing 500 km/h. She'd be in SP209 in a few
minutes. "Grandma Jane? Yes, I'll be there in a few." Jane loved to hear
Grandma Jane talk about the old days. Things must have been so primitive
and exciting.
"Hi, dear, come right in. We just got a shipment of Belgian chocolate".
With the price of energy going up, and the SPSes providing over 80% of
the earth's energy needs, Belgian chocolate stopped being a rare luxury --
but it was still Jane's favourite.