Artemis

by Andy Weir

It’s hard to run with a hundred kilograms of gear on—even in lunar gravity. But you’d be amazed how fast you can hustle when your life is on the line.

The smelter uses insane amounts of heat and extremely nasty chemicals, so everyone agrees it should be far away. As for the reactors…well…they’re nuclear reactors. We like those far away too.

“This is my first visit to the moon. I’m like a kid in a candy store! I’ve always been a fan of science fiction. I grew up watching Star Trek. Now I get to live it!” “Star Trek?” Trond said. “Seriously? That’s like a hundred years old.”

“Coffee’s just a bad kind of tea,” I said. “Black tea is the only hot drink worth having.”

That’s how justice works around here. We don’t have jails or fines. If you commit a serious crime, we exile you to Earth. For everything else, there’s Rudy.

Five a.m. was a largely theoretical concept to me. I knew it existed, but I rarely observed it. Nor did I want to.

Good morning, Moon!

Wax + oxygen + heat = fire. Fire + confined volume = bomb. (Bomb + harvester) ✕ 4 = 1,000,000ğ for Jazz.

Shadows on the moon are stark and black. No air means no light diffusion.

I tried not to move. It’d be pretty spooky for people in the train if they heard noise coming from the wall from outside. Attack of the Moon Woman Who Made Bad Life Decisions.

“Nope!” I said. I spun on my heel and stormed back into the hallway. “Nope, nope, nope!”

That’s the thing about crying yourself to sleep. When you wake up, the problems are still there.

I channeled my inner “dumbass in a horror movie” and walked back to the door.

(Only Americans wear Hawaiian shirts on the moon.)

I clicked the trigger and the blowtorch flamed to life. I held it out at arm’s length toward the approaching Lefty. “Which part of your face you want crème brûléed, asshole?”

There was something weird about being on the moon fighting for your life with a stick and some fire.

“Himmelen er ikke grensen. It means ‘The sky is not the limit.’ ”

Very few people get a chance to quantify how much their father loves them. But I did. The job should have taken forty-five minutes, but Dad spent three and a half hours on it. My father loves me 366 percent more than he loves anything else.

“On a scale from one to ‘invade Russia in winter,’ how stupid is this plan?”

“It’s all part of the life-cycle of an economy. First it’s lawless capitalism until that starts to impede growth. Next comes regulation, law enforcement, and taxes. After that: public benefits and entitlements. Then, finally, overexpenditure and collapse.” “Wait. Collapse?”