Just how were they supposed to share sanitation facilities intended for fewer people, anyway? (Prompt: 002 Bathroom)

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Normal Biological Functions

Danziger looked up when True slid out from underneath the Dune-Rail, where she'd been checking electrical connections. "You get them all done that fast?"

"Not done," she answered as she lay her meter on one of the seats. "I have to pee. I'll be right back."

"All right." He bent over his own task again but looked up a moment later. "True."

"Yeah?"

"Bio-dome's that way."

She made a face. "Someone's always in that one. I'm going out to the woods."

"Okay." He started to go back to cleaning and resetting the solenoids, but then stopped and looked up again. Thoughtful, he watched her head away from camp and disappear behind the trees.

Tonight was going to be another cold one, so they lingered in the bio-dome after dinner. Cameron and Mazatl were sitting together with diagrams spread in front of them, and as he came back from clearing his plate, Danziger could overhear their quiet discussion.

"I'm not sure," Cameron was saying. "I haven't had a chance to study the drainage patterns, so I can't be sure it won't end up in the stream."

"The soil wouldn't simply absorb it?"

"I haven't had a chance to look at that either. Even if it did, it might poison the land."

Mazatl frowned. "How? It's a normal biological function."

"Do you really want to hear all the details about what's in it? Besides, this is a different planet. With different biology."

Danziger stopped beside their table. "You talking about what I think you're talking about?"

"If you think it's about expanding the toilet facilities, then yes," answered Mazatl. "I checked stock. There's enough unused piping for me to build a rainwater-flush system."

"But we don't know where we'd send the waste," said Cameron. "What brings you over, Boss?"

"Exactly that." Chuckling, he sat down. "Great minds, I suppose. I didn't really think about it until True told me she was going into the woods today, because there's only the one bathroom in here. That'll hold for a day or two, but I can't imagine it working for the entire winter."

"It won't," said Cameron. "It'll start breeding diseases sooner or later, and not necessarily just for us." He turned back to Mazatl. "What about building holding tanks out of those prefab building sections we found?"

The other man shook his head. "They aren't designed to hold liquid. Only to protect against it. The bio-dome toilet is using a tank that's properly made for its function, but I couldn't guarantee that anything we substituted wouldn't burst under pressure. And you need not explain that would be worse than the current situation."

Danziger grimaced at that image. "Isn't there some way to treat the waste water?"

Cameron, who was the closest thing they had to a chemist, shook his head. "That's what we were going to do with the permanent colony, but the chemicals were in Pods 4 and 6. I went through what we have, but couldn't find anything else that would work. I even asked Yale to go through his files, but he couldn't find an alternative."

"In the chemical or materials science databases," chimed in Yale from behind them. "But it just occurred to me: surely others have had to face this same problem."

"The history files?" asked Cameron in a doubtful tone.

Danziger shrugged. "It's as good a thought as any. Let's get started."

It wasn't in the history files, either; but a wider database search finally locked on to, of all things, information about recreation. Before the pollution got too overwhelming, camping had apparently been something of a leisure activity on old Earth. None of them could imagine how that possibly held any appeal, but Bess had confirmed that the pit toilet solution they'd developed had still been in use even now, among the poorer folk left behind who didn't even have running water.

Mazatl drew up a plan for an outhouse with three private stalls. "Our group is sixteen people," he explained. "Including the bio-dome, that will give us one stall for four people. Minimum standard on the Stations was one for five."

Some of the Ops crew had snorted at that — there were places in the Quads where one for ten was doing well — but everyone pitched in to dig the toilets and build the outhouse. After they were done, Cameron pointed at the pile of dirt they'd left in one corner, with a shovel hanging on the wall above it. "Just remember," he instructed. "Every time you use one of these, you need to be absolutely sure you cover everything with dirt afterward. And I mean everything."

Baines rolled his eyes. "Might be better to just keep going out into the woods if it's only to —" he broke off, noticing that True and Uly were present. "Um. If it's just to take a leak."

"Maybe for the men," said Bess. "But not for us ladies. True? You went out there just today. What do you think?"

The girl nodded firmly. "It's real easy to make a mess, even when you're just peeing. This'll be better."

"There we go. So," Bess continued brightly, "who's going to be the first to try it out?"

Everyone suddenly needed to look somewhere else.

With a shrug and a sardonic laugh, Bess grabbed the shovel and headed for a stall. "Fine, then. I'll do it. It's a perfectly normal part of our biology, after all."