Read Helium3 - 1 Crater for Free Online Page B

biovats, but it tasted real or at least as real as Q-Bess and her cooks could make it. The spoons and forks Crater and Petro were handed by a cafeteria waiter were moontype, which meant they were six times heavier than they needed to be, giving them the same feel and heft as similar utensils on Earth. That, however, wasn’t the reason for their design.
    When the pioneer owners founded the heel-3 towns, they were surprised when the young, healthy miners they imported to work the scrapes became sick and feeble after only a few years. Medical examinations revealed their bones had turned brittle, their muscles flabby, and their hearts weak. Living and working in a world that had but one-sixth the gravity of Earth caused the human body to deteriorate in almost every way possible because muscles, bones, and hearts—evolved to work efficiently on Earth—tended to relax in the light gravity of the moon. The solution was to make things much heavier than necessary. Steel shot was the most prevalent material added to increase mass, but molybdenum and titanium slugs were also used because they were byproducts of heel-3 production. Every hatch in most mining towns was moontype, which meant they were designed to require a hefty pull or push. Miners and their families were also encouraged to walk, do push-ups and sit-ups, and participate in weight training. Every child born on the moon grew up lifting weights. The strategy worked. The muscles, bones, and hearts of Moonians, for the most part, were as healthy as if they’d grown up on Earth.
    Q-Bess came over and sat on the bench opposite her boys, who were shoveling in their food as fast as good manners would allow. She knew everything that had happened on their scrape and allowed herself a moment of happiness that they were alive.
    Crater was such a handsome youngster, and his face reflected sweetness. Petro, she had to admit to herself, was a bit fox-faced and his eyes a little shifty. Unfortunately, the royal Mountbatten-Windsor lineage had more than a few men with that particular aspect although it didn’t hamper their intelligence. Or, she thought ruefully, keep them from being attractive to the ladies. Her grandfather, the last king of the United Kingdom, had been a brilliant ruler, but it was a woman who’d betrayed him and brought down the monarchy. Since then, the royal family had been on the run. Eventually, she had landed in Canadalaska where she had married Troyce Jones, a commoner and an engineer hired by the Colonel to help plan Moontown. Petro was their beloved son and, since there were no other males left in the family line, heir to the throne. When Jones had died of dust poisoning, Q-Bess, recognizing there was little or no hope of restoring the monarchy, had taken over the management of the bachelor’s quarters and raised Petro as just another Moontown boy.
    Asteroid Al, a longtime resident of the Dust Palace, came over and sat beside Q-Bess. He was famous on Earth for being the first human to walk on the asteroid Ceres. After his return, Al, unhappy with the government that ran his country, made his way to the moon, and thence to Moontown and finally the Dust Palace. “You boys keep the scragline picked up today?” he asked.
    â€œI guess we did,” Crater said, surprised that Asteroid Al hadn’t heard about what he and Petro had done. The gossips in Moontown were slipping.
    â€œI guess we could save the whole moon and this bunch wouldn’t care,” Petro grumbled.
    â€œWhat did you say, Petro?” Q-Bess asked.
    Petro stared at his plate. “Nothing, Mum.”
    Doom and Headsplitter, both refugees from the Indian subcontinent, walked by, nodding to the boys. The pair had taught Crater and Petro their version of the martial arts, which meant they’d taught them to fight dirty and with the utmost of violence.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, noogie?” someone called from one of the back tables. “You gonna