Grey Moon, Red Mars, Green Earth - Chapter 3

Meera and Shruti walked up to the elevator and went up to the train station. They only “spoke” on an app that was local to the Moon. Ravi was a hosting the app on a server in his house. They left Discord looking at the number of surveillance software installations. But, running the scanning software had become second nature to Meera.

Shruti pointed to her phone with her eyes. Meera looked around and then pulled out her phone. They got into the train.

“Do you want something to cover yourself?”

Meera looked around her and found people staring at her. Her Earthly instinct was to smile. She fought hard to supress it. People only stared in return. Shruti indicated to her to relax.

They reached Shruti’s office and got a visitor’s pass for Meera. The security guard eyed Meera suspiciously as he entered her details on his system. When she got the pass, she went quickly past the security gate and into the office building. Space Colony Construction, Inc. said the big words along the side wall. The other wall had a bank of elevators. Shruti took Meera by hand down to the fifth level. She left the elevator and walked towards the office at the end of the long hall.

She reached the door and knocked. It opened automatically. Meera noticed that the person inside probably saw them coming using closed circuit cameras. There was no surveillance on Earth and ubiquitous surveillance on the Moon. This made her notice it distinctly. It also made her skin crawl.

“Gafoor sir, this is Meera from Earth. She is a space architect.”

Gafoor stood up. It felt like Meera was a VIP. He asked her to sit down.

“Yes, of course. Thank you for guiding her here, Shruti. You can leave for work. I will make sure that I take Meera personally to complete her HR paperwork and then guide her to her room. She will be sitting on this floor.”

“Sure sir.”

Meera looked at Shruti and gave her a thumbs up. Gafoor’s eyes followed Shruti as she left the room. He then watched her leave the floor on the camera in the system.

“Meera, we are so happy to have you here.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“The HR process is completed. Let me take you to your office. All the access cards, and office work equipment has already been setup there.”

He stood up abruptly and walked out of the room. Meera followed him. He kept the room door open for Meera and then led the way in the hall towards the elevators. He stopped as abruptly as he had stood up, five doors from the elevators. He opened the room with his own access card and led her in.

Meera saw that a computer had been setup on her desk. The access card lay on the table.

“Your access card will give you access only to the fifth floor for the first week. We will give you access to other parts of the building as soon as we complete your onboarding. I hope you are comfortable staying with Shruti. If you want an alternative hostel, please let HR know.”

He left the room before Meera could reply. Meera saw that the company email programme had been setup. She saw welcome emails from HR, Gafoor, and the Chief Architect to whom she would report in the organisation. There were a bunch of documents that HR had shared. She spent the morning and most of the afternoon reading the documents.

Shruti checked in on her during lunch. They went together for lunch at the end of the hall.

“There is a lunch room on each level. The food is company provided. I would suggest not to eat a lot. It takes some getting used to. Anwar can attest.”

Anwar was a frail guy who had joined them at their table.

“I had fallen sick. Gafoor sir took me to the Hospital. I am much better now. I would agree with Shruti’s dietary prescription. I did suffer because I didn’t get such sage advice. By the way, I am Anwar.”

Meera introduced herself.

“Anwar works directly under Gafoor sir. He is in Accounts. Meera is a Space Architect.”

Anwar smiled. Meera smiled back. He seemed really weak to her. She was not sure how he was functioning. He looked as particular about things as Gafoor. Perhaps even a younger version of Gafoor.

Shruti suggested Meera stop eating. They both left the office and spent some time in Meera’s office.

Meera saw an email from the Chief Architect. It asked her to meet him.

“What do you know about the Chief Architect?”

“Rajeev sir? He is a gentleman. He is a genius. He is also an ideal mentor for you.”

Shruti told Meera that Rajeev sir’s office was just near Gafoor sir’s. She was walking towards Rajeev sir’s office when she saw Anwar leaving Gafoor’s office.

“Meera, have you met Anwar?”

“Yes, we met during lunch,” Anwar replied.

“Yes, sir. Rajeev sir had called me.”

Gafoor smiled. He went back in while Anwar went to the room across the floor. She entered Rajeev’s office.

“Hello, good afternoon, Rajeev sir.”

Rajeev was sitting in front of a panel of three screens. His table was clean. She saw that he had a draughtsman’s table as well. There were a few drawings strewn on top. There was a architect’s drawing printer below the table. There were pictures of his wife and children. He stood up, walked over to the door and welcomed her to the office.

“I hope you had the chance to review the HR email. It’s boring but necessary. There are a few reference documents that we have for space architecture department that I have sent to you. I want you to review them and tell me what you think about these guidelines when we meet tomorrow.”

“Sure, Rajeev sir.”

He smiled. The meeting was over. She thanked him and left the room. She walked over to her office. He saw three emails with the reference documents that Rajeev had mentioned.

Shruti showed up at her door in the evening. She had to learn to understand that this was not synced to the Moon’s actual time. This was an artificially maintained time. They left for home together.

At home, she helped them with house chores. She was responsible for cleaning the front room today. The atmosphere in the room was completely silent. The workplace was livelier. She wondered why the difference in atmospheres. She expected the opposite. She expected more restraint in a corporate environment than in the residential environment. She had finished cleaning when Janaki announced that food was ready. Just like lunch, Shruti did not let Meera eat more food even though the food was delicious.

—

Gafoor had not left office when Meera did. He was looking through the files that Anwar had submitted for his review. After he completed the work, he pinged a number.

“Hello,” the person at the other end answered.

“Meera reported for work here.”

“OK.” The line went dead.

He did not know what to do next. But, the instructions would come. He was sure of that. He now focussed his attention on Anwar. He thought Anwar had joined back to work a little earlier than he had expected. He thought that there could be some advantage to building a friendship between Anwar and Meera. It might help him when the instructions do come.

Anwar was the obedient kind. Meera seemed a little rebellious but could be largely compliant, especially in the corporate setting.

Gafoor looked at a photograph on his table. He packed for the day. He left for the train station. He did not want to miss when his son would return home from his work place. Rajeev joined him in the elevator.

“Gafoor sir.”

“Rajeev sir.”

“I have given her work that will keep her occupied in the first week. After that, the quantum of work would take care of mostly everything.”

“Thank you, sir. Do keep watch closely.”

“Yes, I have asked her to review the architect’s guidelines by tomorrow.”

Gafoor reached home and was met with his wife and son. He closed the door behind him. It secretly activated the surveillance screen.

—

Meera sat down in a table in the living room to review the architecture guidelines. It seemed to be detailed and meticulously made. She made her notes on the work-provided notes app. When she was done, the time showed that it was way past midnight. She scanned through her notes. She made a few suggestion notes. She closed the work computer and packed it below her pod. It had been a long day. She had not had a chance to catch up with Ravi or Janaki yet. She went to sleep on the pod. When she woke up, the whole day repeated till they got to the weekend.

She felt that she had got the basics of how the company worked. She wanted to call her parents but was not yet comfortable doing so. She did not feel comfortable doing anything outside of work. She helped with some household chores but mostly stuck to work. That’s when her phone display lit up.

She ran the security scanner before opening the app. It was a message from Ravi.

“Let’s meet on the weekend. Remember what you’re here for.”

She locked her phone and shut the pod. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She had not had her flashback since she had it on her first night on the Moon. This night may be different.