Casey woke up refreshed, and only mildly itchy between the shoulder blades.

  “We should probably tell Lt. Anderson about this?”

  “Not necessary. We covertly put a remote outside her residence last night to reprogram the nano-machines. And before you say anything, by covertly I mean we concealed it from her neighbors. We notified her and her chain of command. They should see the email this morning.”

  Casey toasted with her coffee mug.

  “So. The moon.”

  “Yes, we will be setting up some equipment on the moon. Then we show you standard decon for zero-erosion dust hazards. After that, we hop back over to LEO to see the space station get brought in. Depending on how it goes we may get to introduce you to the station administrator, who is one of my mother’s more accomplished attendants. Then we hit the books, so to speak.”

  “Attendant?”

  “Our society consists of a hive structure. There is the Queen, who commands the hive and handles the reproduction, there are the princesses, who act on the Queen's behalf and with her authority. They are capable of reproduction but typically don’t unless commanded by the queen to prepare a splinter hive. There are the attendants who are tasked directly by the queen and act with her authority, but are biologically workers. Then there are the workers, who handle everything from labor to skilled trades. Workers are organized in a hierarchical structure. Workers have upward mobility, with the ultimate goal of becoming an attendant; but will never naturally be capable of reproduction.”

  “OK, two questions. Does your queen lay eggs all day, like bees do here on Earth?”

  “In our early ancestry, yes. Ever since technology made us effectively immortal, no. The Queen expands the hive to fit the ecology in a sustainable manner, and then only produces new larva to replace casualties.”

  “Next, you have differentiated from ‘naturally capable of reproduction’.”

  “I told you that due to technology we could go from organic to synthetic to electronic and back to synthetic or organic. That is the only way for a Worker to become a princess and then perhaps a queen in her own right. We used technology to overcome social mobility limitations in our biology.”

  “Is that what happened to you?”

  “Yes! I was one of my mother's most meritorious Attendants for seventy two of your years. She bestowed me with the title of Princess in your year nineteen and seventy three. Since then I rose through the ranks further to become first of her daughters. If something happened to mother then I would be queen, and if a splinter hive is authorized then I will be its progenitor.”

  “But you don't have a body?”

  “There is a princess larva in cryogenic suspension in case of emergency, otherwise I have the right to request one for a neuro-imprint.”

  “That sounds complicated, but kind of neat.”

  “Back to the original topic, I am approaching the lunar surface. Due to the dust hazard, I will not be landing. You will use a maneuvering frame to get down and back.”

  “That was faster than I expected.” Casey put her mug in the washer and headed for the airlock.

  “I have the acceleration to get here from the Earth in a surprisingly short time, but sometimes it is just easier to cheat.”

  “Oh, that black box space magic you were talking about?”

  “Yeah.”

  Casey pulled the outer layer of the eva suit from its locker in the airlock, and saw that it looked different.

  “This is new.”

  “It has a harness inside it to accommodate the new maneuvering frame. That will snap directly onto the hard plate on your back rather than the unit worn externally like the previous model. Also, the tether cables are on that bulky part around the hips, which is where the external air line attaches.”

  Casey opened the cabinet where the maneuvering frame was stored and saw a completely redesigned piece of equipment. There was a box about eight inches wide and twelve tall. It had three parallel rings sticking out of one side, and a fourth ring at an angle from the others. The rings were about three inches in diameter and had an internal circumference of about twenty four inches. Finally, each ring had five egg shaped orbs built into them, equally spaced from each other.

  “How do I use this?”

  “Step into the ring that is sticking out by itself with the other three rings behind you. Raise it to your ribs and hook the box over the top of your thermal layer’s backplate. Pull it forward hard to lock it into place.”

  Casey did so and saw that the ring she had stood within was now angled down in front of her at a forty five degree angle with the other three sticking straight out behind her. After a moment the two outer rings fanned out to a ninety degree angle from each other and the center ring rotated and folded up over her head, at a forty five degree up angle matching the lower ring's down angle.

  “Did you make this look like some dark fairy tech angel wings on purpose?”

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  “While I do admit the imagery did tickle my fancy, the two forward facing rings serve the additional duty of impact protection for your head, neck, and chest in the event of a crash. The rings are your gravity nodes and the orbs are the capacitors. This model adds a fourth gravity ring and increases the capacitors from twelve to twenty.”

  “That sounds good.”

  “And since the rings are all articulated the subroutines can move them to keep them out of your way. The bottom ring has limited movement because you are standing through it, but we did what we could.”

  “Awesome.”. Casey exited the airlock into the cargo hold, where Peggy had already removed the air and opened the floor hatch, configured like an elevator today. Next to it was a cylinder much the size of a pony keg and a lot of thinner cylinders that looked like the stands for a rope line.

  “We are above your Tranquility base, resting place of the landing legs for the lunar module Eagle. The Eagle is still in lunar orbit, and will remain so until we get confirmation of if NASA wants it returned here or taken to Earth. Either way, you and I won’t handle that, as my chassis isn’t big enough to accommodate that craft.”

  Casey looked down out of the hatch at one of the most famous sites in the history of human space exploration. It was magnificent.

  “They should have sent a poet.” She quoted.

  “That squat unit by the hatch is a projector. You will place it on the highest point, which would be on the landing legs where it has a clear line of sight to the rest of the site. It will protect both warning signs not to get too close as well as simulations of things that happened here. The rest of this stuff is just bollards. Ring the site with them. Do not touch anything! Do not kick up excessive dust.”

  “Got it!” exclaimed Casey, feeling pumped. She picked up the projector and stepped off the rim of the hatch, floating down to the lift platform below.

  “You have the controls?” She asked Peggy.

  “I have control.”

  Casey stepped off again, and drifted lightly to hover within arms reach of the platform that Eagle had once sat upon. Sitting firmly upon her sudden undisciplined thoughts, she lightly rested the projector on the corner of the platform closest to the flag, and Peggy pulled her back up.

  She grabbed a bollard in each hand while Peggy moved the ship to the new perimeter. Up and down she went, and fifty bollards later she was done. Then she sat on the edge of the lift and watched as the projector calibrated its position relative to the rest of the site and started cycling through historic reenactments of Neil and Buzz doing their thing on the lunar surface.

  “It’s time to go, Casey. The next big thing is coming up.”

  Casey headed to the airlock.

  “Now we wash you until you are ready to scream.”

  The door closed behind her and a spray of some fluid she couldn’t identify hit her at a constantly changing angle. After a few moments it stopped.

  “Take off the maneuvering frame and stow it please.” Casey did, and the process repeated.

  “OK, now take off the thermal cover, and put it in this compartment.”. A washer unit opened up. Stripping out of the outer layers, Casey stuffed them into the washer.

  “Now hold your hands up in front of you. Pretend you were just frozen in a carbon block.”

  “That isn’t what it was called.” prompted Casey, but she did as she was told.

  “Whatever, nerd.” Peggy taunted, and the spray started again, focusing especially on her hands. After another minute, a mask dropped from the ceiling and hung by a tube.

  “This is the dangerous part. Do I have your undivided attention?”

  “You have my undivided attention.” Casey confirmed, after quickly deciding not to sass this part.

  “On the command word of execute, you will remove your helmet and drop it. I will keep it suspended while you use both hands to quickly secure the mask in front of you and put it on. Do not hold your breath while you do this, as it will damage your lungs. When you have the mask on and sealed, turn the blue valve to restore breathable atmosphere to your lungs. You will have five seconds to complete this series of tasks. This gives you a comfortable margin of error, as you will probably survive over twenty seconds. Do you have any questions?”

  “I have no questions.”

  “Repeat the steps back to me.”

  Casey leaned on her phenomenal memory and repeated what Peggy had said, duplicating the intonation and the lengths of the pauses.

  “Are you ready?”

  “I am ready.”

  “Execute.”

  Casey popped the seal and flipped the helmet forward over her head. One. Discarding the helmet immediately, Casey reached out with both hands and grabbed the mask in one hand and the head straps with the other. One point seven five. Mashing the whole thing against her face, she yanked the straps over the top and behind. Two point three seven. Moving her hands to the side of her head, she yanked the straps hard. Two point six. Still exhaling continuously, she felt pressure build up, confirming the seal, and reached for the valve. Two point nine five. A quick turn and positive pressure returned to her face and lungs. Three point two five.

  Taking a deep breath, she held up both thumbs.

  Another washer unit opened up, and her helmet floated into it from where Peggy had been holding it still in front of her. Once that one closed, a final washing unit opened up, and Casey was spot lit by small tight beams of light that directed her attention to the activation buttons on her ship suit. Stripping that off, she put it in the washer as well. Once again, she was sprayed from every angle with the weird fluid. Once it stopped, Casey felt the air being pumped back into the compartment. Once she had the pressure in her ears fixed, she pulled off the mask.

  “Was all that really necessary?”

  “You were quite careful, so probably not. However, now you know how it is done.”

  “Remind me to put some towels and a robe in here. I’m wet and I’m naked.”

  Casey stormed off to her cabin and got dried off and dressed again.

  “Would you like to grab a snack and return to the piloting compartment? This will be worth watching.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Casey was still a little grumpy about that whole thing. She grabbed a bag of chips out of the cabinet in the galley and a bottle of tea from the fridge.

  Peggy lowered the lights as she plopped herself down into the pilot’s seat. A ring folded out from the left side.

  “Cup holders!” she exclaimed.

  “You are easy, aren’t you?”

  “Oh, I’m still mad.”

  Casey was suddenly interrupted by the view outside. In the middle distance she could make out the ISS. Out past that a sudden storm of violent energy coalesced into a massive ball. As suddenly as it had arrived, it winked out of existence, leaving behind a spindle that was about one thousand meters long. At the tips, it was probably around two hundred meters wide, swelling to four hundred meters in diameter in the middle. About a quarter of the way from the top and bottom, there were detached rings composed of stacked rows of hexagonal pods. Each pod was about three stories tall and twice as long. From this far out it looked like cleated bike tires.

  Casey noticed she had dropped her chips.

  “Peggy, I’m not mad anymore.”