tourism is slated to provide 51.2 percent of the working budget for MBA. That adds up to billions of dollars a year coming from the private sectorârather than taxes.
SPACE JERKS
Lunar day 188
Afternoon
I had to find Roddy. I didnât know how to hack the computer and dig up the security footage on my own.
Now that Nina and everyone else were distracted by the arrival of the new Moonies, I figured Roddy would probably have returned to the rec room to play veeyar games. Sure enough, I found him there, jacked in as usual.
Unfortunately, I also found Patton and Lily Sjoberg.
The Sjobergs and their parents were the first lunar tourists. Since Moon Base Alpha ended up costing more than five times what NASA had originally projected, the agency was forced to get additional financing from space tourism.Maximum Adventure Travel ponied up the money in return for two concessions: 1) A residence at MBA would be converted into a âdeluxe lunar hotel suite.â 2) Maximum Adventure had the exclusive rights to charge incredibly wealthy people staggering sums of money to come stay at Moon Base Alpha.
In truth, the âdeluxe lunar hotel suiteâ isnât that deluxe. There was no way to deliver anything particularly fancy to MBA, like nice mattresses or Jacuzzi tubs. The suite has an actual window, and the SlimScreens are slightly higher quality than ours, but other than that itâs as lame as every other room at MBA. The tourists still have to eat the same awful food we do and use the same sadistic toilets. And yet MBA is the only place for tourists to stay on the moon, so incredibly rich suckers are lining up to shell out big bucks to come here. The Sjobergs outbid hundreds of other elite families in a silent auction, spending whatâs rumored to be more than half a billion dollars to be the first lunar tourist family. The money bought them a four-month stay at MBA, which they were already four weeks into.
Hard as it is to believe, half a billion isnât much money for the Sjobergs. They are some of the richest people on earth. Lars, the father, made his fortune in deep-sea oil drilling. Sonja, the mother, inherited half of Norway. Together they have so much money, theyâve run out of ways to spendit. They have more homes in more countries than anyone can count, a fleet of private jets, a solid gold bathtub, and a pet snow leopard named Schatzi. Theyâve already visited every place on earth, so when the chance came to go to the moon, they jumped at it.
Unfortunately, just like the rest of us, they discovered Moon Base Alpha wasnât what theyâd hoped. But even if MBA had been absolutely incredible, with fancy suites and gourmet meals, I still doubt the Sjobergs would have been happy. Theyâre spoiled rotten. Back on earth, servants did everything for them. And I mean everything . They had cooks, gardeners, butlers, dog walkers, maids, doormen, barbers, decorators, masseuses, stablemen, pool boys, and art curators. But since there were only four seats available on the rocket, there was no way for them to bring even a single butler to MBA. So, for the first time in their lives, the Sjobergs have to do things for themselves. And they hate it. Theyâve been so pampered; none of them has the slightest idea how to work anything, no matter how simple. On the first night at MBA, Lars Sjoberg nearly lost a finger trying to use a can opener.
Once they learned they were incompetent without servants, the Sjobergs came up with a new plan: Try to make everyone else at MBA do things for them. This didnât work out so well either. In the first place, they never asked us to do anything. They ordered us to do it. Second, all the adultshad plenty to do already. They couldnât just drop everything to make breakfast for a bunch of helpless rich people. So everyone told the Sjobergs theyâd have to handle things on their own. (Except Chang Hi-Tech, who bluntly informed Lars Sjoberg that
SPACE JERKS
Lunar day 188
Afternoon
I had to find Roddy. I didnât know how to hack the computer and dig up the security footage on my own.
Now that Nina and everyone else were distracted by the arrival of the new Moonies, I figured Roddy would probably have returned to the rec room to play veeyar games. Sure enough, I found him there, jacked in as usual.
Unfortunately, I also found Patton and Lily Sjoberg.
The Sjobergs and their parents were the first lunar tourists. Since Moon Base Alpha ended up costing more than five times what NASA had originally projected, the agency was forced to get additional financing from space tourism.Maximum Adventure Travel ponied up the money in return for two concessions: 1) A residence at MBA would be converted into a âdeluxe lunar hotel suite.â 2) Maximum Adventure had the exclusive rights to charge incredibly wealthy people staggering sums of money to come stay at Moon Base Alpha.
In truth, the âdeluxe lunar hotel suiteâ isnât that deluxe. There was no way to deliver anything particularly fancy to MBA, like nice mattresses or Jacuzzi tubs. The suite has an actual window, and the SlimScreens are slightly higher quality than ours, but other than that itâs as lame as every other room at MBA. The tourists still have to eat the same awful food we do and use the same sadistic toilets. And yet MBA is the only place for tourists to stay on the moon, so incredibly rich suckers are lining up to shell out big bucks to come here. The Sjobergs outbid hundreds of other elite families in a silent auction, spending whatâs rumored to be more than half a billion dollars to be the first lunar tourist family. The money bought them a four-month stay at MBA, which they were already four weeks into.
Hard as it is to believe, half a billion isnât much money for the Sjobergs. They are some of the richest people on earth. Lars, the father, made his fortune in deep-sea oil drilling. Sonja, the mother, inherited half of Norway. Together they have so much money, theyâve run out of ways to spendit. They have more homes in more countries than anyone can count, a fleet of private jets, a solid gold bathtub, and a pet snow leopard named Schatzi. Theyâve already visited every place on earth, so when the chance came to go to the moon, they jumped at it.
Unfortunately, just like the rest of us, they discovered Moon Base Alpha wasnât what theyâd hoped. But even if MBA had been absolutely incredible, with fancy suites and gourmet meals, I still doubt the Sjobergs would have been happy. Theyâre spoiled rotten. Back on earth, servants did everything for them. And I mean everything . They had cooks, gardeners, butlers, dog walkers, maids, doormen, barbers, decorators, masseuses, stablemen, pool boys, and art curators. But since there were only four seats available on the rocket, there was no way for them to bring even a single butler to MBA. So, for the first time in their lives, the Sjobergs have to do things for themselves. And they hate it. Theyâve been so pampered; none of them has the slightest idea how to work anything, no matter how simple. On the first night at MBA, Lars Sjoberg nearly lost a finger trying to use a can opener.
Once they learned they were incompetent without servants, the Sjobergs came up with a new plan: Try to make everyone else at MBA do things for them. This didnât work out so well either. In the first place, they never asked us to do anything. They ordered us to do it. Second, all the adultshad plenty to do already. They couldnât just drop everything to make breakfast for a bunch of helpless rich people. So everyone told the Sjobergs theyâd have to handle things on their own. (Except Chang Hi-Tech, who bluntly informed Lars Sjoberg that
Similar Books
