Fixing plumbing was just the sort of tedious job that gave you plenty of time to think about other things. Right now, Payton Shaw was planning his playlist for Sunday’s show. He usually tried to achieve a mix of the songs everyone knew by heart and deep cuts only the real Elvis fans recognized. And a few covers for variety, like ZZ Top’s take on “Viva Las Vegas.”
A sharp buzz brought him out of his thoughts, and for a moment he wondered if he’d made a major mistake and set off a pressure alarm. No, that was coming from his phone, which he’d put in his tool bag while he was doing this.
He set his pipe wrench down just long enough to check. Solar storm watch declared for lunar Farside and cislunar space. Solar disruptions indicate that a flare or CME with significant radiation potential may occur at this time.
Not exactly the sort of thing you want to hear when you’re trying to finish an important project. Especially one in an area which had only the minimum level of protective regolith piled over it, so it would have to be one of the first areas evacuated if radiation levels started to rise, before the general alarm for everyone in the settlement to retreat to the storm shelters.
He’d just put his phone back and was about to start working again when it chimed incoming text. It’d better not be Ken down in Engineering telling him to wind it up early. The last thing he needed right now was Alice Murcheson on his case because he hadn’t finished and the irrigation lines were still out of commission in this section. Never mind direct orders from his actual boss, she’d be down his throat, not Ken’s. And given that she was married to Bill Hearne…
As it turned out, it was a not-quite-panicky text from his girlfriend. She was a relative newcomer up here, and she’d never been through an actual solar storm. Of course she’d gone through the standard drills — those happened on a monthly basis, with the occasional surprise drill tossed in just to keep everyone sharp.
Better reassure her, especially with everyone already keyed up from everything going on down on Earth. This is a watch, not a warning. Think of it as being like tornado watch and warning announcements. Right now someone’s picked up a pattern of solar activity that looks concerning, so they want all EVA’s finished and everyone back indoors. If there’s an actual CME approaching and it’s clear there’s no way it will miss us, they’ll up it to a warning and have everyone ready to go to the storm shelters on a moment’s notice.
Then I shouldn’t worry because the teacher told us to keep working on our experiments.
Jodi was taking a basic chemistry class right now. Payton tried to remember where the chem labs were in relation to the rest of Miskatonic Sector. You’re probably safer where you are than I am right now. Just keep focused on what you’re doing, and I’ll get back to Engineering as soon as I get this job finished up.