The Blue Moon - Part 1 - Into the Forest

by Nolan Bauerle

  “How old were you?”

  “I worked at the camp from when I was seventeen until twenty-one. Your father only worked there for two summers. He always knew he would work in space for the ADF, so he didn't bother with college. He was in space the day he turned nineteen.”

  “So you two were together for awhile before you created me?”

  “That's right.”

  “Did you live together?”

  “Not officially, but for the most part. He lived in this very house when he was able to get away from the ADF barracks. He lived on the lakefront to be near the spaceport in case he needed to deploy on an emergency. He loved the ADF and he loved being up in space. But he loved me most of all. He was a good man.”

  There was a heaviness in the air while both mother and daughter were lost in their own thoughts of what might have been. Dr. Whitewood shook her head as she took a deep breath. She'd seen something out of the corner of her eye. She stood up from the kitchen table. “I'm sorry my love. My driver is here earlier than I expected. My balloon back up to the Blue Moon is leaving. A short visit, I know. I’m sorry, it can’t be helped. I’ve got to go.”

  “When will you be back?”

  “Not sure love. Not sure. As soon as I can. Things are… busy at the moment. When I’m through this stretch, I’ll know. But before I go, I almost forgot. I have a gift for you.”

  Dr. Whitewood put her backpack onto the kitchen table. She pulled out a wrapped present. “Happy Birthday love.”

  Emmy took the gift and unwrapped it. It was a thick, leather bound book. The title read, The Traveler’s Guide to the Solar System. Emmy looked at the picture on the cover and couldn’t decipher what it was.

  “That’s the waterslide going down Niagara Falls, back on Earth,” Dr. Whitewood said, anticipating her question.

  Emmy opened the book and the pages became backlit and glowed. She rubbed the page’s material between her fingers. They were more rubbery than the pages of books she was used to reading.

  “It's an old contraband book from Earth. It’s about all the places in our Solar System. It’s for tourists. There’s video embedded in the pages. You can watch or read about where to eat, how to get somewhere, how to get away from somewhere, the history of that place… basically, anything to do or see in the Solar System.”

  “It’s amazing, but isn't this book illegal?”

  “Pfff,” Dr. Whitewood said. “Be a scofflaw, live a little. You’ll see how small and insignificant our space-island is. Some laws are worth ignoring.”

  Something else about the gift bothered Emmy and she said, “What good is a travel book for someone who lives on a space-island where travel is forbidden? I can never visit any of these places.”

  “Things might change Emmy. They might change soon. Look on the bright side; there are better days yet to come for St. John's, I know it."

  “It would be amazing to travel.”

  “And who cares, just because we’re forbidden to travel doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy the book. You’re in college now. Isn’t that what college is all about? Isn’t that what college kids do? Read the long list of books that are banned on St. John’s.”

  “Yeah, people like contraband.”

  “Give it a chance sometime, if you’re bored. I loved this book when I was a camp counsellor. Your father used to read this very copy. Read it, think of both us when I'm gone."

  “Alright. I miss you already. I love you.”

  “I love you too."

  Dr. Whitewood led Emmy outside, but stopped her on the porch. She hugged her daughter extra-tight, then walked out under the dark blue night sky. She got in the passenger side of the truck, rolled down the window and said, “I love you so, so much. I've got to go and spend some time in the Blue Moon, but you'll always be close to my heart, no matter how far I am from you.”

  Dr. Whitewood took a deep breath before she added, “I hope I’ll be able to see you soon.” She kept an intense stare as the truck peeled off in a hurry.

  Emmy was startled by the look in her mother’s eyes. She forgot to wave back and played over the words her mother said as she left. Emmy felt there was something curious about the entire goodbye.

  But, there were too many thoughts in Emmy’s mind to consider this for long. She had a father, a new birthday, parents who were once in love… she wasn't just the product of the government DNA bank. She was the original combination of two people who loved each other. Emmy had never been bothered by her creation story, but when she found out the more romantic truth, she felt an immense fulfillment.

  She was scintillating in her core, so she went back inside and walked up the creaky, narrow spiral stairs that led to her second floor balcony. She sat outside on her perch and looked out onto the landscape washed in the blue light. It was late, and the Blue Moon colored the entire space-island.

  Her view from this balcony extended across the white fields, far off to the Shamrock Forest. The pale green forest canopy twinkled as it crawled up the encircling mountain range, coming to a stop in a long, uneven line. The mountain range formed the perimeter of St. John’s. The peaks were covered with solar energy collectors. These energy collectors reflected the Blue Moon’s light — against the backdrop of space, Emmy thought St. John’s looked like iceberg lit by moonlight floating in a calm sea at night.

  She had too much to consider, so she just let it all sink in as she took in the view. Emmy had no idea how long she'd been there when she caught the faint outline of her mother's space-balloon as it floated up above the ADF's spaceport. The balloon expanded as the hull below went higher and higher. When the large balloon reached space, the lack of pressure caused the balloon to expand beyond its maximum elasticity — it popped. All that remained was the balloon’s frame: two blue firesails forming a huge oval above the hull. A single nuclear explosion filled the firesails, a churning fireball gathered between the blue material, then started rotating top over bottom. The small firesail ship drifted towards the Blue Moon.

  Emmy watched as the tiny ship disappeared inside the Blue Moon. When there was no trace of it, she decided it was time to try and sleep. She turned from the balcony, opened the door and started down the narrow spiral stairs. As she took her first steps towards bed, the moonlight helped guide her way.

  Until it didn't.

  Everything went dark. Emmy stubbed her toe and almost tumbled down. She steadied herself and swallowed the pain, but she was stranded in the dark on the stairs. Emmy spun and looked outside. It was pitch black. She felt her way back up the stairs and returned onto the porch. There was only a bit of starlight in the sky, and nothing else.

  The Blue Moon had vanished.

  Chapter 2

  The Blue Moon — Comet H

  THE DARKNESS SURROUNDING Emmy felt heavy, as if it had real weight. Without the moonlight, she was stranded on her small, second story balcony. Even if she had light to help her move around, she couldn’t have — she was certain her mother disappeared along with the Blue Moon, and this fear paralyzed her.

  All she could do was stare into the void of space surrounding her, searching for any sign of the Blue Moon. But, she had to stop doing this. Staring into this void gave her the feeling of vertigo. The darkness was suffocating. She blindly felt her way back to her chair, sat down and buried her face in her hands, both to shield herself from the outside, and to fool herself into thinking she had control over the darkness. She choked back tears as she tried to calm herself.

  Eyes covered, Emmy forgot the darkness and focused on her mother. Her thoughts gathered around the curious way she’d said goodbye. Emmy fixated on why she'd found it so strange. It struck her that the goodbye seemed rehearsed.

  She wiped the tears that had gathered in her pale eyes. She began to believe her mother was aware the Blue Moon was going to disappear and that she knew what she was getting into. As if in defiance of the darkness, Emmy whispered, “She knew she was leaving. She must have a plan to come back. She wouldn’t have said she
hoped to see me soon.”

  Saying it aloud, Emmy couldn’t help but think how bizarre her night had been. The thought crossed her mind that she might be asleep, dreaming. For a moment, she looked forward to waking up and laughing off the troubles.

  This play stopped when the St. John's sky unexpectedly changed again.

  The Rock Sun ignited. Like the rock suns of all space-island colonies in the Asteroid Belt, the St. John’s Rock Sun was made from a nanoengineered rock built the size of a mountain. This rock had such high melting and boiling points that it could withstand large nuclear explosions in a thin, super-porous, aerogel state. Since it could sustain multiple nuclear blasts, the middle of the rock was loaded with thousands of atomic bombs every day. It was blown up and burned in the sky above St. John's for a few hours, depending on how many nuclear explosives it was packed with.

  It was only 4am, a full three hours earlier than the Rock Sun was scheduled to ignite. The brightness assured Emmy she wasn’t sleeping. The ignition was real and in a few moments, Emmy felt the heat from the Rock Sun reach the surface of the space-island.

  Emmy needed to squint and protect her eyes during the ignition, as it was far too unpleasant to look at. Shielding her eyes with her forearm, Emmy considered what to do. The early lighting of the Rock Sun meant the missing Blue Moon was real. The St. John’s Council had to have ordered the Rock Sun lit, probably so everyone could get to work on energy collection, which would soon be in deficit without the night light of the Blue Moon.

  Emmy thought about what to do next. She knew there was no one from her mother’s work she could contact — she’d never met a single coworker. The Council kept a few desk clerks for customer service, but the lines to communicate were always long. They would be around the block with the moon gone and the Rock Sun igniting early. Communicating with them was a waste of time anyway. They rarely gave straight answers. They responded by pro forma letter, delivered by mail several weeks after the initial inquiry.

  The ADF was more of a military outfit and kept no customer service or communication department. They were shut-off from contact and remained in their walled and heavily fortified spaceport on the shores of the lake in the middle of St. John’s.

  The only place Emmy knew she could get information was the black market. The black market was located in the city, in a neighbourhood filled with bureaucrats. The bureaucrats were the ones who operated the black market, selling the very things they were supposed to control. The black market always had a few opinionated people and it was a good place to get rumors.

  Emmy was a regular at a shop that sold books and tea — run by a man who was supposed to get rid of contraband books and obsolete literature. It was a back alley shop where people discussed current events, politics and off-space-island rumors.

  When the Rock Sun faded to red, orange, and gold and the sky turned from ultra-bright to crimson, Emmy jumped from her chair on the balcony and went down the narrow spiral staircase. She put on a jacket, grabbed her backpack, went outside and got onto her bicycle.

  Emmy rode her bike, terror fuelling her pace. She pedalled fast down the long farm roads of white hardpan, cutting through hilly fields of white plants surrounded by mirrors, dotted by the occasional greenhouse.

  After over an hour of hard pedalling, the farm fields gave way to apartment blocks and streets of townhouses. All the homes were made of the same grayish, hard material, with dark black roofs covered in a thin solar energy collecting film. She moved through the outskirts of the city until she arrived at the black market, located in a series of alleys made up of small, two-story townhouses where St. John's sizeable bureaucracy found its lodgings.

  Emmy arrived at the black market and had to get off her bicycle because of the crowds. The black market was normally a clandestine, discreet place. On that morning, it was rammed with people.

  Moving through the crowds, towards the book and tea shop, Emmy arrived and opened the door. She found the place full of customers while the owner, Clarence, was at the cash finishing an exchange.

  Emmy waved, trying to get Clarence's attention, but he remained busy serving at the counter. She approached the cash and said, “Clarence.”

  He finally acknowledged her by holding up a single finger as if to say, wait a second. She stood in the crowded shop and waited, but Clarence continued to work his cash. Emmy picked up a small bag of silver leaf tea and got in line to pay at the cash like everyone else, hoping she would be able to ask him what he knew.

  Clarence looked up to the next customer in line and found Emmy. She noticed him wince when he saw it was her. “Hi Emmy, what can I do for you?”

  “You can tell me what you've heard so far this morning.”

  “Not much. No one knows a thing. No one on Council or ADF. Everyone was surprised.”

  “Have you heard if my mother was in the Blue Moon when it disappeared?”

  Clarence nodded slowly. The shop had become quieter, with lots of people interested in what Clarence had to say. Emmy’s mother was one of the highest ranking public servants in a space-island obsessed with status — she could sense some people recognized her.

  Emmy swallowed and stood up straight, ignoring the prying eyes. “What are people saying?”

  “A lot of people are blaming her of course. She was in charge up there. People were always uneasy about a geneticist being in charge up there. They didn’t understand why. What does a comet have to do with DNA? And you know how suspicious people are of geneticists as it is.”

  There was a brief silence as Emmy accepted the news she'd anticipated: her mother was gone and people were blaming her for the disappearance of the moon.

  Clarence said, “Do you know anything about what's going on?”

  “Of course not. I'm here to find out what you know. I don't have a clue what's happening. My mother never tells me anything about what's going on up there.”

  Clarence didn't respond. The silence was becoming awkward and Emmy felt Clarence’s coldness. She still needed to find out what Clarence had heard that morning, so she asked, “Has the Council or the ADF made any statements? Did they provide any useful information?”

  “Of course not. No one has a clue what’s going on. The Council and ADF released a joint statement about 30 minutes after the Rock Sun ignited. They said they’ll be looking into an energy solution. That’s it. People have reacted to that news by stocking up on provisions.” Clarence waved his arm, indicating the first-ever crowds in the black market. “People are worried the Blue Moon is going to be gone for awhile.”

  Clarence checked the growing line behind Emmy and said, “I can't help you more than that. I'm going to have to get back to work. The silver leaf tea is on the house.” Clarence's eyes refocused past Emmy and towards the next customer.

  Emmy left without saying goodbye. Her trip to the city had been a waste of time. She had no idea what to do or where to go, but she wanted to get away from the crowds. She got on her bike and pedalled back home.

  When she arrived at her cottage, she didn’t find any peace and quiet. Her home was swarming with government agents. They were carting out boxes of her mother’s things. Furniture, the entire contents of her library, all the files in her office.

  Emmy skidded her bicycle to a stop, dropped it onto the driveway and rushed inside. An agent stopped her on the front porch.

  “Ah, Emmy Whitewood. We’ll be out of your way in a few moments.”

  “Where are you taking this stuff?”

  “Evidence.”

  “Evidence of what? My mother hasn’t committed any crime. She’s a missing person.”

  “Did your mother give you any idea of where she was taking the Blue Moon?”

  Emmy had stopped paying attention to the agent. She’d spotted something she’d forgotten about: her birthday present. She’d placed the guidebook her mother had given her on top of a pile of books, and there it was, a piece of contraband, in the living room, calling her.

  The opportunity started
her scheming. A smile spread across her face as she stared at the book, but she stopped when she saw an agent moving to pack up that stack of books. She turned to the officer trying to interrogate her and said, “Uh, officer, can you please tell me what your orders are? Read them to me, I want to know exactly.”

  The agent pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and read, “Gather all of Dr. Whitewood’s things from her home. Bring them to investigations HQ in First City.”

  “Hey guys, hate to be a bother, but really? You must follow the rules. You are to confiscate my mother's things. I heard what your orders were. They didn't say anything about taking my stuff.” Emmy grabbed the stack of books from the agent’s hands. She turned back to the agent questioning her and added, “Nor did they tell you to harass me with your questions. If the Council wants the daughter of a Blue Moon scientist to be questioned, they will send someone with orders to do it. No one asked you for extra work.”

  The agents were helpless with Emmy's argument. Almost no one bothered doing more than the government asked of them. They quit talking and ignored her while they completed their orders.

  Emmy had no problem ignoring them. She sat down in her reading chair with the book she'd snatched from the agent's hands. She covered its flagrantly illegal title by burying the cover in her lap. She opened to the start of a random chapter and read.

  EARTH’S MOON

  Earth’s Moon, whose official name is The Robot Kingdom of the Moon in Orbit of Earth, is a unique place in the Solar System. Brought to life by humans over 300 years ago, considered a miracle at the moment of their creation, robots continue to form the incredible civilization that calls the Moon home.

  Still guided by the Master Program, the first ever sentient robot, the Moon offers every experience imaginable for the visitor. Since humans bequeathed their miracle a home of their own, robots have gone on to create a visitor’s paradise. City domes dot the landscape, all of them connected by high speed rail, making the civilization’s spread look like a full-blast firework explosion floating in the black sky.