Friday. 16:15 Command Classroom 15-C

John was very bored as he waited in the classroom for their professor. The fifteen-minute rule, while official according to him and his fellow cadets, was not in fact real, or even allowed. Several cadets had peaked out of the classroom to see if anyone was coming.

“Are we really going to wait here?” Kristin asked John.

John shrugged, “I would love to get to the commercial district and check things out. But I am not going to ditch class. Definitely don’t need to deal with any fallout from that.”

“The bruising on your face is largely healed, but your eyes…” Kristin’s voice trailed off.

“Are still horrifying. Doc thinks it’s going to be cleared by sometime next week.”

“Good, I don’t think I could continue looking at you with those bloody eyes.”

John laughed, “Wow, I didn’t think you were that vein. For shame.”

Kristin just stared at John and shook her head, “You are an ass.”

“I won’t deny it, but you are being awfully judgy.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a tall slender man, who was not their professor, that walked into the room. This newcomer walked straight to the lectern with a confident purpose. They plugged a data slate into a port and then began to speak.

“Apologies for your professor being unable to attend your class today. The class will be dismissed after I provide you this information about your expedition to the moon’s surface.”

The screens behind the man flickered on. Maps with the routes they’d travel around the Sea of Tranquility. The other screen displayed what gear they would be taking with them and the pairings.

John said under his breath, “Interesting, we’re going out in mobile exploration vehicles.”

“What’s that mean?” Kristin whispered.

“It’s a four-person RV basically.”

“Ahh. Whose group am I in?”

“You’re with Alice, Theresa, and Jessica,” John said pointing at her group.

“How can you read that?” Kristin was squinting and couldn’t make out where her group was.

“Good eyesight. Mine’s going to be interesting,” John chuckled.

Kristin looked over at John and asked, “Why’s that?”

“It’s Andern, Patrice, Dick, and myself.”

“I’m fucking Richard, not Dick you ass,” Richard said kicking his seat.

“Quiet down please,” the man at the center of the classroom said looking at Richard, “All of this information is being sent to you. You’ll be reporting to the hangar on Monday at 08:00. Ensure that only the items that are listed in the guide are what you bring with you. Space is at a premium on board the MEVs. That concludes the announcement. You are dismissed.”

“Time to get changed and relax. Probably freak out some civvies too,” John said with his characteristic dry sense of humor, “Gonna swing by the warehouse to verify something. Are you heading into the shopping center?”

“Nah, I’m going to wait until the rest get out.”

“Roger that, when y’all get their message me.”

John parted ways with Kristin as they walked out of the room. He was moving with a purpose; he didn’t want to waste any more time than he needed to. While he had requested that his suit of power armor be transported with them, he wasn’t sure if it actually had. The message he had received was a confusing mess of abbreviations and slang that John didn’t understand. The warehouse was about a ten-minute walk to and from so it wasn’t that large of a time investment to check things.

16:55 Tranquility Base – Commercial Zone

John was leaning against a tree and enjoying some ice cream. Peaceful moments like this were few and far between. He was watching the people going to and fro. So many people were at the station, the majority seemed to be in a hurry to get to places.

Two people caught his attention. A mother and what appeared to be an elementary school-aged child. John finished the ice cream and threw the plastic bowl in the garbage. He walked along the sidewalk towards the child, continually observing their movements.

John was about five paces away from the child and shook his head. They approached him as he took a drink from the water fountain. He began exuding a hostile intent. With his still damaged eyes, he looked the part all too well.

“Do me a favor and find honest work,” John stared down the young child as they froze in place.

“What… what… why are you so mean?”

“Cut the bullshit, you aren’t a child. You are far too coordinated on your feet. Your manner of speech also doesn’t fit with a child,” John had caught the attention of the so-called mother.

“I… I…”

The mother came over and was about to give John an earful when he instead rose his arm to shush her, “You can shut up. The two of you are running a scam. It ends now. I’m being kind by giving you an option to willingly choose to drop this bullshit. Push me anymore and the cops will get involved,” John leaned down and sneered at the child, “Or worse, I’ll end both of you permanently. Your choice.”

The child put their hands up, “Hey, no need to threaten us. You made us.”

“Fucking hell Todd. I told you…” the woman began to speak before John interrupted her once more.

“Look, shut up and get the hell out of here,” John pulled up his tablet and scanned for their Tranquility Base cards, “Perfect. Do me a favor and leave here. Expeditiously. The cops are going to be onto the two of you if you are still here.”

Todd, the dwarf imitating the child, nodded, “Sara, let’s get the hell out of here. This guy is seriously bad news.”

John shook his head as he saw the mismatched pair walk away. He had seen them once five years ago. Todd would run off with a woman. Then create a scene to get her attention and ultimately steal from her. Then he’d sneak off and head back to the park. Then they’d repeat the whole process over again with another unsuspecting mother.

“Excuse me, but why were you so angry with that mother and child?” a woman said from John’s left.

“They weren’t mother and child. They were a pair of grifters. And the child was a midget that was older than I am,” John said as he turned to face her.

“Are you for real? They sure looked like a child to me.”

John smiled, the same smile you give when someone says or does something idiotic, “You can believe what you want too then.”

John continued to smile as he walked past the wild Karen. Continuing the conversation was simply not worth it. It was clear as day that she felt she knew more than John. Getting irritated by the woman is not on John’s list of things to do.

It didn’t take long to walk out of the park district and get into the shopping district. There were three stories of shops and attractions. Another five floors were on top that consisted primarily of office space. It was at least a full kilometer long and plum full of people coming and going.

John walked up to a smooth shop and ordered a large strawberry-banana. After receiving his order, he continued his casual stroll through the retail area. John was enjoying this quiet time alone far more than he expected. He supposed there was something to be said about decompressing by oneself from time to time.

He leaned up against a sign and watched the trams rapidly pull up to their platforms. Their doors opened up and deposited new people into this area. Then they were quickly filled by those queueing up and then they flew down the tracks. Then John’s tablet range.

John pushed himself off the signpost and transferred the call to the terminal on the sign, “Sup, where y’all at?”

“We’re at the Fifty-Niners Bar and Tavern,” Andern said, “By the way. I’m fucking thrilled about next week.”

John chuckled, “I can tell.”

“What’s your ETA? Your wife is annoyed that you split early by the way,” Andern said, “No, I don’t care if you told me not to tell him. I’m not that guy.”

John smiled as he halved the screen and brought up the map, “I’m two floors down and a decent walk to get there. Call it fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen. Cool, cya soon.”

17:45 Fifty-Niners Bar and Tavern

The amount of random shit on the wall was astounding. Old space collectibles from the 20th and 21st centuries along with helium-3 mining equipment used in the sea after the base was formed. In between the space junk athletic items were included. Jerseys, sticks, bats, clubs, and more. John smiled as he stood there and had his eyes assaulted with everything.

“John, stop standing there and get your ass over here!” Kevin shouted from the back corner of the tavern.

John stopped at the bar and ordered a triple Kilchoman Sainig neat. He added it onto the tab that they had already opened up. The group was already two drinks into the evening and playing cornhole and pool. Kevin tossed a bag at John as he saw him walk up. John caught it and quickly threw it back at the far board and airmailed it by tossing it over Theresa’s head and an exposed girder in the ceiling.

“I’m still the best,” John smiled as he took a drink of the scotch.

Alice hugged and kissed him, “Still humble as ever. Why the hell did you leave early?”

John shook his head, “We were let go early.”

“Heard you and Andern drew the short straw,” Jessica said with a laugh.

“It is what it is. It’s only like four days.”

“It’s going to suck balls,” Andern looked like his spirit had left him.

“He’s been whining about it for the last hour or so,” Nathan said laughing, “Didn’t he call you a crybaby recently.”

John smirked, “Now that you mention it, he did just before the semester break.”

“Shut up,” Andern said before drinking his beer.

“I could get on your side if it was just, you and two of Patrice’s of cronies,” Brian said from the pool table.

The crew continued to hammer Andern for his whining. John just sat back and enjoyed the moment. These happy and laid-back days were soon going to be few and far between. They’d all be heading their own ways to forge their own path, away from one another.

As the night and drinking wore on, the conversations, arguments, and game-playing became nonsensical and generally awful. Except for John whose wit or abilities didn’t seem to diminish to the same degree that his friends had.

At some point, they were politely asked to make way for other customers. John began the arduous process of herding cats back to the barracks. It should have taken five minutes to get to the tram, but it took nearly thirty. Thankfully their level of inebriation didn’t affect the tram’s ride time any. It took another hour until they got back to base.

John did everyone a solid by ensuring they got into their rooms and didn’t wander off or pass out in the hallway. None of them needed to get into trouble this late in their academic careers. He neither wanted nor needed that on his conscience. Even if he can’t control their actions, the games of ‘what if’ didn’t have to be played out in the future.

Eventually, around 03:15 John got back to his and Alice’s room. Only to find Alice sleeping in the middle of the bed and spread out in a way to take up all space on the bed. John took a picture of the mess that she had made on the bed, pushed her onto her side of the bed, then crawled onto his side and fell asleep.

3 Days Later, Monday. 04:00 Mobile Expedition Vehicle Hangar

This was the first proper test of the cadets being in a completely hostile, with no one from the academy being on hand with them. Andern looked like a zombie and was very quiet. The coffee hadn’t kicked in apparently.

John was in their assigned MEV reviewing their stocks, “Dick, we’re missing the chicken turmeric and the kung pao chicken.”

Richard dropped the box and spun around, “For fuck’s sake. Stop calling me Dick.”

Patrice tried to hide a laugh or two, “The chicken Turmeric is in this box.”

He threw the box up to John, who snatched it out of the air and opened it as he set it down on the counter. John then began placing the ready-to-eat meals in the pantry. Richard found the kung pao chicken and brought it into the vehicle while cursing at John under his breath.

This odd dynamic continued for another hour. By that point, all four had signed off that everything had been loaded and properly accounted for. Richard had been staring at a brushed metal box in the aft airlock. He walked over to another MEV and looked in their airlock.

After walking back to the group, he spoke up, “What the hell is the box in the airlock? The others don’t have that.”

“My power armor. Wasn’t any room to store it in the cabin,” John said as he was sitting on a box.

“Don’t think too hard about it,” Andern said sarcastically, “It might hurt you. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.”

Richard stood there for a moment before his expression changed to one of annoyance at being talked to in that matter. John and Andern continued their banter, which both of their current squad mates found highly annoying. Patrice stood up and stretched.

After stretching he turned to face John and Andern, “I presume you have a plan already John?”

John smiled and stood up, “I do, was going to bring it up after we were underway. But since we’re doing fuck all let's step inside and I’ll share with y’all my plan.”

The squad entered the MEV and walked to the center where the booth and table were. John stood up at the terminal on the wall and brought up a map of tranquility crater. Their recommended route was then overlayed over the map.

“Ok, so rushing everything doesn’t actually help because we actually can’t bring them back before Friday at 06:00. The red line is the academy’s recommendation. The green line is mine.”

As John was talking one of the Academy’s overseers for this program walked by their MEV. They stood and silently observed from the ground floor. They were impressed with the changes that they could see in the route planning and the modifications to when they would do their tasks.

Andern, Patrice, and Richard looked at John’s recommendation. Each took it in, along with John’s notes for each change. Andern liked the idea of heading straight toward the dig site. The academy recommended that they do that on day two. The first two dig sites would be taken care of by the time they eat chow on the second day. Wednesday would be a traveling day, where they’d camp at their third dig site.

Thursday would be a busy day where they’d travel twelve hours between dig sites, but they’d be finished with everything except traveling. They would also take shifts driving back to the base overnight. If John’s estimates were correct, they’d arrive back at Tranquility Base at 06:15 Friday morning. Effectively giving them an extra day off for the weekend, but more importantly, getting them back as soon as possible.

“I’m OK with this,” Andern said, “Three-day weekend to cap off things beats their plan which is to roll in at 14:00 or later.”

“Why the rush though?” Richard appeared to be protesting for the sake of protesting.

“Three-day weekend. Also means we get out of our temporary coffin ten plus hours earlier than planned,” John said as he sat down on a stool that he pulled from under the counter.

“I agree. And driving time is exactly the same. The extra day off will be nice and to be blunt, I am entirely on board getting back at the earliest possible moment,” Patrice said.

The overseer then climbed up the aft steps and entered the MEV, “Good morning, I’m Lieutenant Silva. I can see that you have all signed off on your equipment. You’ll be third in the queue to depart. You can drive up and take your place in line after I leave. Do you have any questions for me?”

“When are we able to leave?” Richard asked.

“Within fifteen minutes.”

John looked at the others, they nodded back at him, “Thank you, we’re ready to go.”

The overseer smiled and bid the cadets good luck and safe travels. Andern followed him to the airlock and closed the outer door when they walked out. The inner door was then sealed. Richard and Patrice were putting a few things away in the living space.

John shut the display down and walked towards the door to the forward hallway and airlock, “Remember, this door is to be closed at all times. Just in case.”

“Got it,” Patrice said.

John opened the door and walked into the small hallway. He checked the airlock; the outer door was already confirmed sealed. The inner door was closed but not sealed, John pressed the button on the screen to the right of the door to finish readying the outer doors. He then walked down the hall and up the stairs to the bridge.

He closed the door behind him and took the driver’s seat. There were four stations for all of the cadets to be up there if need be. John tried to settle into the seat, but the void sheath made it difficult to really get comfortable.

John flipped a couple of switches and the onboard micro-fusion reactor fired up causing a slight hum to be heard everywhere within the MEV, “Y’all ready back there?”

Patrice clicked on the intercom button on the central table’s terminal, “We’re ready to go.”

“Roger that, tally-ho!”

The MEV began moving forward slowly. John guided her into position behind the other two that had been cleared to leave before them. The inner door opened in front of the first two MEVs, which prompted them to drive through it.

John crept their MEV forward to the red line awaiting their turn. He didn’t have to wait for long as the inner door opened up once again. A short two minutes later John left the confines of the base and was on the lunar regolith, he increased the throttle and began following their agreed-upon path.