Here's the second submission for round 3.

The Rock

by Hazen Wardle

“The little planet looking thing in the distance there,” I told my grandson, who was perched on my
knee. “That was my home. And that is me, there, on the surface of that asteroid.”

“Really?” he asked, eyes wide with wonder.

“Yep. That was house and a space-ship. They did not make very many like that. It was an experimental
model, the first with true-artificial gravity.”

“Et-sterimental” the boy parroted. “Grabity?”

“Experimental,” I corrected. “It means it was the first one. It was built for practice.”

He nodded, a look of vague understanding on his face. “And gravity, my boy, is the stuff that keeps you
stuck to the floor. If we turn it off you’d float all over the place, like a balloon.”

“That was your house?” my other grandson asked. “It looks huge!”

“Actually, it wasn’t very big at all. Your grandmother and I lived in it quite nicely for many years as
we traveled through the solar system. It was comfy for us, but we would not have had much room if
someone were to come with us.”

“Well if it was not very big, how did the gravity work?”

“That’s the neatest part about it. The ring around the outside wasn’t just for decoration or to make it
look like Saturn, though if some amateur astronomer were to view it through a telescope it may confuse
them.” I chuckled in spite of myself, but the humor was lost on the kids so continued my tale. “The ring
actually spun around the rest of the sphere. It was nuclear powered, so it could go for years and years.
The spinning generated the electricity and created the gravity.”

“How’d it do that, Grandpa?” my oldest grand-daughter asked.

“Well, you know how electricity is generated. Spinning a magnet inside a coil of wire.”

“Yes, silly. I know that. I mean how’d the spinning create gravity?”

“Ah, that’s a secret I don’t really know the answer to. Physics and gravometrics is not my area of
expertise. I just know it worked.”

“So what did you and Gramma do in it? Where did you go?”

“We went all over. We visited Earth’s moon. Jupiter, Mars, Saturn. The Asteroids.”

My oldest grandson snickered. “That must have been funny to see a mini Saturn orbiting the real one.”

“Oh, I imagine some of the space stations then orbiting Saturn thought so too.”

“So what were you doing on the asteroid?” my grand-daughter asked.

“Checking samples. We needed to refill the supply tank for the food production unit. As long as it had a
good supply of most elements and minerals, it could make nearly anything. “

“Did you find any?”

“Oh, yes. We found what we needed. I even found a small rock I later had made into a ring.”

“Is that the ring Gramma always wears? That ugly little stone?”

I smiled. I never really thought it was ugly. “That is the one. It’s made out of some really special stuff.”

My young grandson on my knee pointed at the picture in the album, indicating me in the space-suit. “If
that is you, where is Gramma?”

I rubbed his head and chuckled. “Why, she is the one taking the picture. She wouldn’t let me go down
onto the surface of the asteroid without her. ‘There is no way I am going to stay cooped up in this thing
while you go down and have fun.’” I tried mimicking her voice but did a terrible job at it.

All the kids laughed. “Gramma? In a space suit? That I gotta see. Do you have a photo that?”

“Yes, it’s around here somewhere.” I answered, flipping through the photo album. “Ah yes, here we go.”
I pointed out a group of astronauts, each decked out in flight gear and a helmet tucked under one arm.

“That’s Gramma? But Gramma has white hair!”

“Silly boy. Of course that is Gramma. She was young once, and she had flaming red hair to boot.”

“She’s perty,” my littlest granddaughter commented. “That’s right, sweetie” I responded, rubbing her
hair affectionately.

Ignoring the mushy stuff, one of my grandsons jumped back to the photo at hand. “So what did you find
on the asteroid?”

“Ah, yes.” I leaned back and laced my hands behind my head.

“Well?” he pushed anxiously.

“We got the mineral supply we desperately needed, if that’s what you mean.”

“But…you got something else didn’t you?” I just grinned. He grinned back before coaxing it out of
me. “Come on, Granpa, tell us. What did you and Gramma find?”

“It was just after she took this picture,” I answered, pointing at the photograph. She had just jumped
from the ship and was in the process of landing. You see, the suits we wore could do that in light gravity,
easily go to and from the ship. We couldn’t land on Earth. The gravity alone would kill us if re-entry
didn’t burn us up first.”

“So what happened, Grandpa? What did you find?” one of the girls asked.

“Believe it or not, this little rock had a cave. It wasn’t a cave in the traditional sense. It was more of a
hole in the ground. Drilled into the face of the rock by a smaller asteroid. She stumbled upon it, well,
nearly into it actually. She had to hop over it, but that was easy as this little rock had very little gravity.
She reversed jets on her pack to keep from floating away, and the hollered for me to come check it out
with her.”

“Did a monster jump out at you, Granpa? Were you scared?”

“Nah. We weren’t scared. Maybe we should been, but we were young and reckless. But it didn’t matter
at the time, thankfully.”

“So what happened?”

“It was a gold mine.”

“Gold, Granpa?”

“Well, not actually gold…” I was stringing them along, drawing it out.

“Not gold?” the little girl asked.

“Nah. We found two things. One was a new mineral. Gilsonarium-that’s what’s on your Grandmother’s
ring. The first piece of it from the rock. They use the stuff in star drives now.”

“And the other?”

“Diamonds. Lots and lots of big diamonds…” I made a motion with my hands as if holding a basketball.