With the added safety factor of the new airlock doors, Daphne and Kimberly had joined Dale and Brad in the habitat. Sally remained in Phoenix Labs, assisting Fredricks with the portals. For Kimberly, her visit to the Habitat combined several firsts. First portal transit, first time in space, first zero-gee—she hugged Daphne and Dale.
“We need to try this out together,” she said quietly.
“Not any time soon, unfortunately,” Dale said. “We’re setting up right now…”
“...to install a thinsat manufacturing facility,” Daphne said, finishing his sentence.
DENVER—PHOENIX LABS
While Fredricks and the others were inventing, designing, building, and installing MERT Portals, and while they were rigging a habitat at Earth-Moon L2 behind the Moon, Thorpe and Braxton concentrated on the design for ma
