Charles Ott

Something Made of Vacuum Charles Ott

Something Made of Vacuum is a science fiction romantic comedy, and here's the complete plot spoiler: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. That's complicated enough anywhere and in any time. It's more complicated on the Moon.

Tom is a Moon Man, part of the staff that serves the spaceports on the Moon. It's inconvenient to change back into clothes, so Moon Men wear their spacesuits round the clock and live in the vacuum, in a "village" that has no houses. For purposes of romance, they rent a hotel room in the domed crater city they call "Air Town." Otherwise, they work, dance, eat and sleep in spacesuits.

Helene is from Earth, and Moon Men find it odd to think she regularly wears clothes, gets rained on, and doesn't think it's icky to walk around with her face hanging out, breathing air that has been exhaled out of the wet lungs of strangers.

Tom and Helene are a couple with baggage like no other. She's got a boyfriend whose shell she literally can't get past. He's got a girlfriend who doesn't understand all the precautions and safety checks necessary before a kiss. The course of true love never did run smooth.