The Blue Moon - Part 1 - Into the Forest

by Nolan Bauerle

  The Moon is filled with hotels, spas, beaches, resorts, mountains, lakes, forests, restaurants, amusement parks, and, of course, meditation retreats, where people learn from robots how to quiet their mind. Know that robots are extremely hospitable to tourists. They love to entertain and host and the Moon is the cheapest vacation spot in the Solar System, near free prices.

  Emmy put the book down as the agents removed the last of her mother’s things. They left the house, slamming the door in some childish outburst of defiance.

  Emmy was unruffled. All her attention was on her birthday present. She was certain her mother intended for her to have the travel guide. This encouraged Emmy. It meant her mother wanted her to have a tool to help her travel.

  Her mother had told her that things might change regarding travel on and off of St. John’s. She could see that with the Blue Moon gone, change would have to happen. Perhaps they would need to build a new Rock Sun to make up for the lost energy supply. New firesail ships would be needed to go looking for materials in the Asteroid Belt. They’d also need trade with other space-islands in order to procure new equipment.

  Emmy could see there would be opportunities for travel developing. These opportunities would arise soon if the Blue Moon showed no sign of returning. But, Emmy wanted to leave right then and there. She wanted to go looking for her mother, not wait around for some imaginary opportunity to travel.

  The only way on or off St. John’s that she knew was through the ADF. They had all the ships, the space-island’s only spaceport, controlling all movement up and down in their lakefront, space balloon harbor.

  The problem was the ADF didn’t sell tickets. Only their officers, as well as scientists like Dr. Whitewood, were legally allowed on the ships. All others were banned by the strict travel laws of the space-island.

  Emmy seized on the question: how do I leave St. John’s?

  The question scattered into chaos, like yelling into crashing ocean waves.

  While her gift hinted at what she was supposed to do, it only served to compound her frustration.

  She slouched and felt defeated by this thought.

  A flash lit through her mind. Some subconscious search engine pumped up a memory of something her mother had told her.

  Emmy flipped to the index at the back of the book. It was a single page, with an empty large rectangle and the framed word SEARCH below it. Emmy touched it and a keyboard slid onto the page. She typed St. John’s. She touched the SEARCH button. A list came up on the page. It was second from the top, under ST. JOHN’S, NFLD, CANADA, EARTH. She touched the line titled, ST. JOHN’S SPACE-ISLAND.

  The book flattened itself against her lap. Emmy could feel the pages trying to move under her grip. She let go and the pages flipped and stayed open at a page with a picture of the Shamrock Forest and a list of items to search. Emmy touched the GETTING THERE AND AWAY button. A box of text slid onto the page.

  St. John’s is a tough place to get to. Not only is it at the outer edge of the Asteroid Belt, making it both a long and dangerous trip, but local laws make it even harder. This space-island has an outright ban on foreign visitors. They are one of a handful of hermit space-islands, but their prohibition against visitors is the most rigid. A principal idea of their foundational constitution states they shall have no contact with the outside Solar System, all in an effort to restore the miracle of life. The only way to travel to St. John’s is illegally, through smugglers.

  Emmy’s posture deflated again. Smugglers? Emmy didn’t know where to find smugglers. There was nothing foreign on St. John’s, other than original artifacts and relics brought by the first settlers.

  Emmy’s thoughts drifted into naught for several hours. She stared out the window and watched as the Rock Sun extinguished, ending the day. The circular, ridged peak surrounding their civilization reflected the molten black, orange, gold and red of the burning Rock Sun and made the jagged, mountainous space-island resemble the cap of a smoldering volcano — filled with streaks of rich crimson lustre. As the last light from the Rock Sun went out, thin red streaks tapered into a faint blush which they held before turning black.

  Before being overtaken by the darkness of outer-space, Emmy turned her attention back to her guidebook. She realized there was another question beyond how to get off of St. John’s. She also needed to find out where to look for her mother. While the guidebook was of no help getting off of St. John’s, Emmy knew she could use the book to help find out where to go. The thought compelled Emmy to bury her nose in the guidebook.

  And she did so for several days thereafter. Her reading was driven by an appetite to discover any hints or clues her mother may have left in the book. She scoured through it, reading thousands of articles, and watching hundreds of video clips.

  Her schedule in the following days was simple: she woke, and before the Rock Sun ignition, she prepared her solar energy collectors. She would go back inside and eat some eggs for breakfast, brew up a boiling pot of silver leaf tea, get cozy and read her book.

  She spent most of her time reading about Earth. The old planet seemed to be the most interesting place in the Solar System. Half the guidebook covered Earth and the things to see and do there. She believed Earth resembled paradise. Pristine and beautiful natural settings, clean and bright cities which sparkled all the time. All the water was pure in every lake and river, and everything grew plentifully.

  After several days, though, this exercise became discouraging. Her patience began to wear as she couldn’t find any clues in the book. She was also no further along in finding a way off St. John’s. No trade to gather equipment had begun with other space-islands, no ships went looking in the Asteroid Belt for materials. People on St. John’s just worked harder and tried to pretend everything was normal by forgetting there ever was a Blue Moon in their sky.

  Emmy had stopped studying for school. She stopped everything, except reading her guidebook and thinking of ways off St. John’s.

  Late one night, Emmy returned to the chapter on St. John’s, looking for any information that might be of use. While looking through the selection of videos, she found one that caught her attention. It was a video called THE BLUE MOON — COMET H. It was a movie about her father and the night the Blue Moon arrived. The St. John’s Council had the movie produced on the tenth anniversary of the Blue Moon. Emmy remembered her mother making fun of it and refusing to take her to see it at the movie theatre.

  She started the video and watched it for the first time. Her first glimpse of the actor playing her father was when he arrived at the ADF station. Several officers briefed him on the comet. Comet H it was called. It was the biggest he’d ever heard of.

  Emmy cherished each image of her father. She was engrossed in the movie.

  She watched as William boarded a firesail ship and floated up and off the surface of St. John’s and into space. Firesail ships and a way off of St. John’s had been the constant object of Emmy’s dreams over the previous days. She admired the ship as it pierced the thin atmosphere of the long space-island. The balloon let out its air, causing the frame to be exposed, revealing two curved firesails forming a massive oval above the hull.

  She understood more than ever how difficult it would be to leave the space-island when she watched nuclear missiles fly from the top of the hull and strike the stern sail, exploding one after the other. A huge ball of fire gathered between the two curved firesails made of unburnable aerogel, propelling them forward. The ship’s hull sped under this rotating cloud of fire and exhaust. Smoke trailed behind the stern sail as the ship muscled through the void.

  The atmosphere of St. John’s colored a thin grey line between the surface of the asteroid and the blackness of space. The space-island below looked like a bright, white and silver spider web floating in a vast sea of darkness, punctuated by starlight.

  Emmy stopped the video before watching what came next. She knew already. She cried and wiped the tears away.

  As she wiped the tears away, something
inside her finally submitted to the inescapable truth; the ADF was the only way off St. John’s. It was the only way off, and she was going to have to use it. She knew she didn’t have a legitimate reason to be there, so she’d need to sneak, she’d need to spy.

  After days of inaction, Emmy jumped to her feet, ran outside and got onto her bicycle. It was still dark out, she was going to use the cover of darkness to stake-out the spaceport.

  Emmy peddled hard, her muscles burned. It was too dark to see, so she didn’t stare at the road in front of her, but kept her gaze straight upwards. The blackness of the sky was slightly darker than the outline of the forest, allowing her to navigate and stay on the road.

  She managed the bumps in the hardpan material of the roads and came at last to the ADF spaceport. She arrived and got off her bike, hiding it behind some small trees before walking around the walled perimeter. She kept walking around the wall, hoping to find a place where she could get a better view inside.

  An hour passed, and Emmy had seen nothing but dark wall. She didn’t see any space-balloons take off, nor did she see much activity of any kind. As her enthusiasm waned and she started to think of heading home, she finally found something.

  There was a ladder built into the wall. The only problem was the floodlight blasting its brightness straight up its path. It would be impossible not to be spotted if she climbed and looked over the wall.

  She thought the Rock Sun ignition might provide her with the cover she needed to climb up and over the ladder and into the spaceport. Earlier that day, she’d heard that the Rock Sun would be lit at 7am that morning. She decided to wait.

  When it was time, Emmy crouched and put on sunglasses. The Rock Sun erupted and a blinding brightness swept the dark, shadowy land. Emmy ran up the ladder. When she got to the top of the wall, disaster struck. An electric shock passed through her and sent her flying backwards.

  Before crashing into the ground, her elbow caught the lamp, shattering its glass cover. She landed hard, small pieces of glass slid deep into her elbow.

  Chapter 3

  The Blue Light

  EMMY SAT IN the physician’s office and waited. Her long silver hair was disheveled. There was dry blood on her grey upper-lip, dirt covered her bright white complexion.

  Worst of all, her bony elbow was cut deep with a few pieces of broken glass stuck in the skin. The bleeding had stopped, but what had leaked from her veins was still dripping from the torn sleeve of her thick and dirty grey dress.

  There was a short table piled with newspapers and leaflets in front of her. The same old edition of the St. John’s Gazette that had been sitting on her own kitchen table sat atop the pile. This newspaper hadn’t been published since the Blue Moon disappeared, so this particular edition seemed to be on top of every reading pile.

  Although she’d read it countless times, she picked it up and read it again.

  The physician entered the waiting room and said, “Ok Emmy, come in and I’ll get that elbow repaired.”

  Her doctor was a short and wiry woman with thin lips and a pointy nose. She wore her straight grey hair pulled back in a tight bun. Emmy thought everything about her was stiff and rigid, except her eyes, which were round and gentle.

  The slim doctor with the soft round eyes led Emmy to a bright room. It was so bright Emmy needed to squint and couldn’t see where she was going. The physician led her to a long padded table, had her lay on her stomach, propped the elbow so that the knob faced up, then started to clean the cuts and get them ready to be stitched.

  When the physician was done, Emmy tossed her thick, shiny silver hair back as she sat up all in one sleek movement. She rubbed the thin bandage on her elbow.

  She began staring at the door, hoping to be gone soon, before the physician started asking questions. She started fidgeting, holding her long and straight silver hair up in different styles and moving around while the doctor finished some paperwork.

  “Thanks for your help doctor,” Emmy said. “I tried to clean it myself, but I couldn’t. It hurt too much.”

  “It was pretty nasty. It’s all cleaned up and you’re ready to go. But first, I want you to tell me what happened.”

  “I crashed my bicycle,” Emmy lied.

  She was a bad liar and the doctor was suspicious of the answer.

  “With what’s going on here on St. John’s, with the Blue Moon disappearing from our sky, and with your mother being public suspect number one... Now I don’t care about that side of things. I’m your doctor and I want to help. I care about the side of things that relate to the problems you’re going through — your health. I know you must be angry and frustrated. I’d say there might be some things you’d like to talk to someone about, so you don’t lose your temper and get into more fights and really get yourself hurt.”

  A moment of silence passed as Emmy thought about what to do. She knew she couldn’t tell her the truth that she’d tried to break into the ADF spaceport. She decided to lie again. “Someone recognized me, and said something about my mother. I called him a liar, then I told him to take it back. When he wouldn’t, I took a swing. It ended differently than I thought it would.” She rubbed her elbow as she spoke.

  “If the police weren’t so busy looking after all of the members of the St. John’s Council, you could have gotten in a lot of trouble for fighting.”

  “I know, I know.”

  “You can’t worry about what some people might say about your mother. Most reasonable people know there is no explaining the Blue Moon. Your mother was an innocent bystander in its disappearance.”

  The doctor turned down the lamp and sat next to Emmy.

  “Emmy, you need to remember: with all that’s happening, people are scared with the Blue Moon gone… It’s a lot. It’s so much darker here without it. There’s less energy, which means less heat. We struggle more than usual. People don’t know how to react. Some people blame your mother because she was in charge up there. Plus, she’s not around to defend herself. You’re going to need to be patient and show some discipline. If your mother were here she would say the same thing.”

  “That’s a paradox doctor. I wouldn’t be feeling like this if my mother were here to give me advice.”

  “Emmy, please. I’m trying to help.”

  Emmy relented. She’d always liked her doctor and knew her intentions were honest.

  Emmy let out a deep breath, then began, “The thing is, being alone, people blaming my mother, I can deal with that. My mother has been gone most of my life, working. I’m used to being alone. I’m fine with it. I liked being alone and I liked that my mother loved her work.

  “I also don’t think she’s gone-gone. She’s alive. There’s no doubt in my mind. She’s simply not here. She’s somewhere else. I know it. But I can’t go and look for her, now can I? That’s where my real problem begins.

  “I’m from St. John’s, which means I can’t leave this place. It’s illegal. I’m an adult, I’m nineteen years old. I should be allowed to search for my mother. How can anyone stand this place? Our laws on travel are pathetic. We must be the laughing stock of the entire Solar System. I’m happy for my mother, if it means she got away from here. And me, I’m just sitting around every day. I have to sit and wait for something to happen, and nothing ever does. I want to look for my mother, I want to hunt down answers, find out what’s going on.”

  Emmy stood up and paced the room while the cadence of her voice accelerated. “I mean, I’m sure I can do a better job than the St. John’s Council. The ADF have no idea what is going on. They’re as clueless as any two random people. But I know one thing they won’t admit — what’s going on with the Blue Moon involves other people and other places in the Solar System. You think the ADF or the Council are going to look for answers off St. John’s? Heck no they won’t. I know that someone, somewhere has some answers. I know my mother is out there and alive. I need to leave St. John’s and look for her myself.”

  Emmy was steaming and hadn’t noticed
the doctor’s wide-eyed, mouth-gaping reaction to the display of emotion.

  The doctor took a moment before replying. She regretted prying into Emmy’s business. People on St. John’s believed that their isolated and private ways were important for their culture to survive. People who spoke about travel off of St. John’s were considered cultural heretics. But, the doctor wanted to help the young girl, so she needed to empathize with her and avoid a political debate.

  In her softest voice, the doctor continued, “Emmy, you know you can’t do that. You know people don’t leave here. St. John’s was founded as an isolated place. It’s the law. What’s gotten into you?”

  “I know that doctor. Everyone at least thinks about this stuff from time to time. It’s just harmless daydreaming. It helps me. And you asked me to tell you what’s bothering me. So, there it is. Are you telling me you didn’t really want me to tell you?”

  Emmy knew how to make the doctor feel guilty and the doctor fell for it.

  “Of course not. You’re right. But you’re assuming the answer is out there in the Solar System. It’s a waste of time to think about such things. You know you can’t leave here.”

  “I know my mother is out there. I mean, it’s such a strange thing to happen. The rest of the Solar System isn’t like us. They’re curious. There must be a bunch of people who are interested in the Blue Moon. People who are smarter than the boneheads running this backwards place. People who don’t come from somewhere that bans all technology with a microchip.”

  “You might be disappointed by what you think you know about the rest of the Solar System. They’re all too busy navel gazing to care about what’s going on elsewhere. They’re too busy playing with their toys, trying to stay young and throwing themselves at every indulgence that’s invented.”

  The doctor repeated what people on St. John’s were taught in school.