Nanoprep 2023 Day 13: Bar Moanne
By Robin de Voh on 2023-10-18
I wiped the glasses down and put them back in the dispenser. Wiping the counter down, the first customer of the night walked in. I nodded to him, he raised a single finger, and then sat down at a table near the door. One beer coming up. I took a can from the fridge and walked over.
"Here you go," I said, handing it over.
"Hey, can I ask you something? It's my first time here, anything I really should go see?"
I chuckled. We've been getting more tourists lately, ever since they decided that the budget needed some more help. And, true, it's definitely something else here, but it's almost like these tourists can't read the brochure I know they were given.
"Well, first off, if it's your first time here, you'll want to be careful of opening that beer. It'll spray out if you're not careful. Wait, let me get one and show you our trick to prevent that."
I walked back over to the bar and grabbed myself a can as well. Nice, an excuse to drink on the job.
"So what you do..." I said as I showed him how to carefully lift the tab close to your face, immediately put your mouth on it, and wait until it calmed down. "And then you open it about halfway. It'll try to crawl out -- don't ask me why -- and just drink as usual."
"Wow, that... That's different. Is this something I'll need to know about every drink?"
"Only the fizzy ones."
I looked at the entrance. Nobody else.
"Mind if I sit down and tell you some of the sights?" I asked him.
He gestured to the seat opposite him.
"I'm Michael," he said, reaching out his hand.
I shook it. "Hidde," I responded, as I sat down.
"So, obviously you'll want to go to the Apollo 11 memorial. The flag is actually still up, contrary to rumors I've been hearing."
"Yeah, that's the one thing I knew about, but the wait time is pretty long, it's quite popular."
"It's kinda the biggest thing we've got, though. It's nice here, but we're still coming into our new tourist thing, you know? Oh! They recently set up transport to Lunokhod 1, you could do that. It's less known so far, but it's also pretty cool. They have a gift shop."
"What, the Russian lander? It's still intact?"
"Everything that's ever landed here is still intact. Probably not working anymore, but definitely intact."
Michael seemed to be thinking it over.
"That might be interesting. I'll get tickets for Apollo 11 regardless. We'll see when a time slot opens up."
Someone walked into the door. A woman, middle-aged, definitely not looking all that touristy.
"Hi, this is Bar Moanne, right?" she asked carefully.
"It sure is! Come on in, grab a seat, I'll be right with you!" I said cheerfully.
I got up, told Michael to enjoy his drink and not hesitate to ask me any other questions, and walked back to the bar. The woman walked there as well and sat on one of the barstools.
"I'm new here," she said, sounding not very sure of herself.
"That's alright! A lot of us are quite new here," I said. "You here as a tourist, or for something else?"
"Visiting my sister," she said, "which is why I'd like to ask if you have any vodka."
I laughed, winked at her, and then turned to grab the locally produced Luna Vodka. We didn't have much industry other than Helium-3 mining yet, but some adventurous upstarts were trying to get some off the ground. There was also a cheekily named cake bakery that had opened a few months back, and I don't mind at all. My morning walks have become a lot nicer now that I can get a fresh espresso and a nice little cake to go with it.
I put the glass of vodka in front of her carefully, and gave her a slightly similar warning as I gave Michael. From what I've been poorly explained, the low gravity makes fluids kinda crawl up the sides of glasses and cans. With beer it's worse though, due to the CO2 trying to escape.
"So just keep an eye on it, I guess," I said as I put the bottle back.
"What's it like, living here? Sorry if I'm prying, but I don't really want to think about my sister right now."
"Well, if I didn't enjoy talking, I shouldn't have opened a bar, right? Let's see. My bed's way softer than back home, really helped with my lower back issues. In general I feel much lighter here, obviously, and it's been perfect for some small issues. So in that sense, it's been great."
I took a sip of my beer and looked around.
"It's really quiet though. There's only a couple thousand of us, and most work in mining, working long days. The weekends are okay, but generally it's the admin staff and visitors that I get here during the week."
"Was it difficult leaving everyone behind?"
"No. No family left, never married, and drifted away from my friends -- in the end literally," and as I said it I laughed at my own joke. "There was... How do I put it? A lull in my social life. And my professional life. I guess I wanted something new and exciting already. And in that lull, an opportunity here came up."
"What opportunity was that, if I may ask?"
"This bar! It used to be called something else, the Regolith Cafe, but I renamed it to something that makes me feel a bit more like home when I took over. A friend of mine knows the previous owner, who wanted to go back home. He knew I was looking around for something new, something different, so he hit me up."
"That's quite lucky, I'm glad you found the adventure you were looking for."
"Now, may I ask a personal question in return?"
"Is it about my sister?"
"It is," I said cheerily.
She sighed and emptied her vodka in one go. She then groaned.
"Only if you pour me another one."
I nodded and grabbed the bottle again, filled her glass, and just left the bottle there.
"Just in case," I said.
I could see Michael finishing his beer and getting up. "Hidde! I booked both trips, and the Lunokhod 1 trip leaves in an hour, so I'm going to go! I'll come back and tell you whether you screwed me or not!" he said with a grin as he went outside.
"Please do!"
I turned back to the woman, and realized we'd already talked about some personal stuff, but I didn't know her name yet.
"As your fellow visitor just said, my name is Hidde, and I seem to have forgotten my manners. What's your name?"
"Alesia, and yes, it's weird, but I like it."
"I like it too, a toast to Alesia, weird but likable," I said as I raised my can of beer.
When she toasted with her vodka glass, the sudden tap caused some of the beer to shoot out of the top, which then slowly drifted down to land on my arm.
"This place..." I said as I wiped my arm on my towel while grinning.
Alesia laughed and finished her glass again, putting it down and tapping it on the side.
"You're a weird one, Hidde, but it's nice to meet you. Certainly the highlight of my visit so far."
"Well, what can I say, my bar isn't busy, but it's always a good place."
I filled her glass again.
"Now, about your sister and you. Spill the tea."