The Outer Moon (A Sapphic Sci Fi Adventure)

Chapter 19

"I think we're almost ready." Pepper leaned back in the chair that they'd taken from the flight ready room of the Atlantis. Much of the equipment from that ship was being repurposed now as daily trips from all the pilots made salvage runs up there, with help from Abby and Yasmin, the remining members of Jason's team. "We're in pretty good shape here if we want to try to make contact with the foxes."

"I'm betting they already know we're here. The ships taking off and landing for the last few months have surely been seen, but they haven't come over."

Pepper snorted. "Would you? They're probably terrified of the noise. No, we need to make the first move."

"You've been amazing, honey." Vanessa knelt next to the blonde, hugging her tightly. "Are you sure you don't want to relax a little? We don't have to rush everything. I know we need to get more help here."

Pepper nodded wearily. "I guess that maybe we can wait a week? I'm pretty tired," she admitted. "This baby is gonna take a lot out of me." She would never ask someone to do anything that she wouldn't try to do herself, so she had taken it upon herself to try the first baby sperm donor making attempt here on their new planet. Some of the other couples still did it the old fashioned way, but Pepper knew many women would try what she was doing. Working with Lily, she had lain in the medical bed, letting it do the normal tune up on her, then Vanessa held her hand as Lily used the applicator to get the donor sperm into her. Once that was done, they closed up the bed, and turned it back on. They thought it was a good sign that the second time in the medical bed took almost an hour, and they hoped that it had indeed done what they hoped. A week later, a blood test confirmed that Pepper was pregnant, and she and Vanessa were thrilled.

But now she was perpetually exhausted.

Fluffy little James, the squirt named after Jason's last name, jumped into her lap, curling up and giving a satisfied squeak as it got comfy. Pepper couldn't help but smile at the little creature, one of the many things about their new home that continued to delight them. For instance, nights took some getting used to. There was no moon, since they were the moon, but on many nights, it never got too dark as the bulk of the massive gas giant still reflected enough light to go outside and see just fine. On other nights, the giant was to either the east or west, and just provided an astounding view. But the best nights were when the gas giant was between them and the sun, blocking all of the light, and the sky was filled with a stunning view of the stars in constellations that they were still struggling to name. They were already wishing they had some of the advanced orbital telescopes from Earth, and the astronomers to use them.

Naming some of the other things, like calling the town New Atlantis, were too easy. Everyone agreed on that, just because it was so fitting based on all that they had discovered. But they were holding off on other names, just because they wanted to know what the foxes had called the same features, like the ocean and the planet.

As far as constructing the town itself was concerned, they had done a good job so far, but it didn't seem as though the work would ever end. The craters that were scattered around the island, as well as the mountains to the northeast, provided plenty of stone, and the laser cutters made it easy to cut the rock into uniform rectangles. But it was still time consuming, and the stone still had to be transported back to the city to be used. Like many people, Pepper and Nessa were living in a cargo container, as they had flatly refused to be the first ones with a house. Pepper wanted to concentrate on buildings for a school that had room to be expanded, an outdoor amphitheater for music and a central square for gathering and dancing. In their mind, keeping everyone's morale up was critical to not only their survival, but also keeping their new settlement thriving. That was much more important than their house.