In the last 150 years of the Moon Array’s existence, a massive structure mind you, we’ve found some amazing things in the universe. Turns out, space is littered with planets. That’s not anything new of course, they knew that when the first planets were being found 300 years ago. What have we not found though? Everyone knows it. In all the planets, moons, asteroids, solar systems, galaxies, everything we’ve looked at, not one shred of evidence of intelligent life out there.

So what I guess. It gives the religious right some strong ammunition of course. Every year that passes with no sentient life found outside the system is another year the Right grows stronger. I have to admit, it is a bit odd that there’s nothing out there. I’m no scientist but doesn’t some rule state if you take 1% of all stars and 1% of all those that have planets and 1% of all those that have atmosphere’s and 1% of those that have life and 1% of those that have intelligent life, that there would be millions of sentients out there. Who knows. Maybe they are out there but just can’t get here. Maybe there’s solar systems chocked full just like ours is.

I stopped by the science department recently and asked some of the astrophysicists there what they thought. Most thought there was intelligent life out there but we just haven’t found them. Also, it’s only 3,000 earth-like planets. If there are 1 million out there, what we’ve found is very small. And, perhaps we are looking in the wrong place as well. We still are only focusing on the visible spectrum, radio waves and a few other bands in the electromagnetic spectrum. Maybe they talk to each other in something else. If so, they’d be invisible to us.

Whatever the reason, we haven’t found em. And can you imagine what it would be like if we did? There are, right now, nine fully recognized sentients and two more that have petitioned for recognition. I think we have our fill of intelligent life right here in our own back yard. Sure they are all born from the original humans, Primes, but they are still right now wholly and completely separate species.

So, I say, big deal. Stop interrupting my morning news with announcements of newly discovered planets. At least lets hear about the seeder ships that we sent out to those planets or the up coming FTL tests. That’s interesting to us all. If those work we can just go there and find out if life is there or not! You know I’ll be on the first transport to alpha centauri!

Whatever my reasoning, I decided to hop an elevator to upper orbit, rent a room and schedule a seat on the next Luna bound shuttle. I must say the elevator ride is quite pretty, though a little long. You get an incredible view of the Earth. I live in DC, so I took the North Atlantic elevator up. Great view of the eastern seaboard and you can see western Europe.

So a short trip up and I was at the Hyatt. That place is getting a little run down I must say. Why is it that companies are unwilling to spend on upgrading things in orbit? I dunno. The Hyatt is based on the old Bigelow design from 300 years ago, again the 300 year theme.  It’s not an actual construction from that time of course but it’s one of the inflatable designs. It’s just such a good, cheap design why make anything else? Of course, other designs have been made. My room didn’t’ have a window but I did go down to the viewing hub and took a look around. It’s crowded out there. I saw three pinwheel hotels, several science stations and a few military installations. The giant O-Ring station was just visible to me. It is the largest station in earth orbit, with offices for nearly 35,000 people, 5,000 of them living there. It is a massive construction. It single handily controls all space traffic for the entire inner system , earth orbit and ships entering or leaving Earth. It is a primary docking station for ships leaving or arriving at Earth.  I do want to tour that place one day, they do offer tours. It really is a building in space. Though not the biggest man made space bound construction out there, it is the biggest in earth orbit.

But at any rate, I stayed in the viewing hub for a bit, watched stations whiz by, a few yachts, some space skimmers, I even saw a girl in a fly suit, those things are wicked! Latest thing out there for space survival and of course someone took it, tweaked it and made it into a luxury item. Love it.

I crashed out and the next day caught a speed shuttle to New Luna. Those things are quick. It’s a “goo” ship, technically called a Fast Inertial Suppression Transit ship, commonly called a FIST ship, obviously.  Kinda gross really. But I wanted to get to New Luna and back in a week and this was the cheapest and best bet. No way in hell am I ever going to scan myself there. That stuff is just not for me, not my way to travel. I don’t care what anyone says.

At any rate, I got submerged in goo, the FIST ship got me to New Luna just under 2 hours. After a very long shower I hit the streets. Ah New Luna. Love that place. It has grown since I got there last. I honestly think they are just going to grow an grow until they’ve hollowed out the entire moon. Though of course, that’s a big exaggeration. They are only 60 or so square miles, roughly.

So anyway, on the first day I walked the main drag, ate some great Italian food, not as good as Little Italy in NY of course but still pretty good. I played a bit in the low grav sector. It’s actually neat how they’ve done it, some streets are low grav and some are Earth normal. Grave plates were a neat invention for sure.

The second day I wanted to go caving. They have tunneled out a massive caving system for tourists. Whole thing is all moon standard gravity. You can practically float from hand hold to hand hold down the caves. It’s a great day trip. There’s a lake down there they have, going swimming in log grav is a unique experience. They have life guards there though, even experienced swimmers can’t handle the uniqueness of low grav swimming.

Day three I decided for debauchery and gambling. I hit the casino district and just played poker for awhile. I actually won some money. And since I won some money I decided to play on the fourth day of my stay and lost it all back again. Ah, gambling.

I ended my week vacation with doing some site seeing. I went to a few museum’s, went to the home of the first president of New Luna, Constitution Hall and the a bunch of the other general tourist places.

After my excursions I grabbed a FIST ship, headed back to the North Atlantic elevator and went home. Was a great trip I must say. I once fancied the idea of moving up there but I couldn’t handle all the tourists. The one great thing about living in a terrestrial city is you don’t have as many damn tourists. No one cares about visiting DC anymore, well that’s not true, we do get our share. But no where near as many as you get on some of the other hot spots in the inner system. The outer system, of course, is more for the hard core enthusiasts. There’s still a sense of ‘wild’ out there and in many places it’s lawless. I much prefer the civil and ordered cities of the inner system. Next up, I think i’ll head to Sphere’s. That is a neat place!