Moonliner: No Stone Unturned

by Hanzel, Donald

  “Nothing at all? Come on!” Pender says; “I’m your old partner on this.”

  “They’re going back in time,” Cedric says.

  “The signals?” Pender asks.

  “Yes,” Cedric answers.

  “And you’re sure of this?” Pender asks, probing a little further.

  “Pretty damn sure,” Cedric replies; “the margin of error on this seems razor thin.”

  Pender rests on the back of the bench. He had suspected Cedric of greater successes than he’d led on. It doesn’t bother him that Cedric has been holding out on him a little. He’s still pleased to be this close to the action.

  “So how did you do it?” Pender asks after a moment of silence. “Can you let me in on any of the science? Were you ever able to lengthen the signals?”

  “I was,” Cedric answers; “and it worked.”

  “How much length and how many years are we talking about?” Pender then asks.

  “I’ve already said too much,” Cedric tells Pender.

  “Why all the secrecy?” Pender asks; “I’m not going to tell anyone.”

  “I know you’re not,” Cedric tells him; “I trust you. This has to do with my work being intellectually unadulterated, if that makes any sense.”

  “It doesn’t,” Pender says; “but I’m used to your whacked ways,” as he stands to leave. “I’ve gotta run,” he says. They slide and bump hands.

  “I really appreciate the sequencer,” Cedric tells Pender.

  “No worries,” Pender replies; “but don’t leave me in the dark long. I wanna know what’s going down.”

  “You’ll be the first to know,” Cedric tells him.

  Pender smiles, then turns and walks away. Cedric stays on the park bench, staring intensely at the clock on the tower, watching time slowly elapse.

  Moonliner 5:12

  At home, Cedric has cluttered his place again. His life is out of balance and it couldn’t be more evident than in his apartment. His obsession has consumed him. He plows through 3D grids and graphs, still desperately looking for that link to Nikki. He knows it’s a simple point and shoot, but without a frequency and direction, it’s understated to call a shot in the dark. He knows the path is there somewhere. There’s got to be a signal he can hack or overpower and it’ll kill him if he doesn’t find it. She’s out there just a transmission away. He has the means and the equipment to warn her, just not the know-how.

  “I wonder if there’s any way I can reverse a call to her,” Cedric thinks out loud to Phaedra, who remains silent. It was a statement not a question and warranted no response. Phaedra’s programed to interpret things quite literally.

  Cedric paces back and forth across his kitchen floor, often stepping out onto his balcony for a little fresh evening air, then right back inside. He again has an uneasy feeling, like he’s racing against time to resolve a problem; like he’s defusing a bomb.

  Then, from a neighboring radio, he hears that DP song again; the song of the summer of 69 if there ever was to be one. He doesn’t even know the name of it but stations haven’t stopped playing it all summer. It’s more than just a song, it’s a wave of energy. It may have peaked but it still packs a punch.

  Cedric sits back on his sofa and listens to it play so far away. Again it reminds him that it’s still summer; the same long summer he shared with Nikki; the same summer he contacted a guy who lives over half a century away. The song lowers his anxiety and the day begins to catch up with him. He yawns, letting gravity take over. The little blue light on his sliding kitchen door blurs.

  Cedric stands in the basement of the library, between stacks, staring at a wall of books in front of his face. He can’t read the titles. They seem to be written in a language he has never seen. The alphabetic characters are simple and geometric, using a lot of simple circles, squares and triangles.

  Cedric pulls one of the books off the shelf in front of him. He opens it, but again can read nothing. The center part of the book has a series of diagrams. He thumbs through them. One diagram shows the earth and moon, both on a grid of white lines. There are trajectories drawn on the grid showing a flight path between the two celestial bodies.

  A clock on the wall is ticking, loudly. When Cedric looks at it, he sees no hands on it, even though it is a face clock. Then he hears Nikki laugh. She sounds very near, possibly in the next aisle. Cedric walks around the shelves but doesn’t see her. Again he can hear her laughter. He gets a glimpse of her through the next line of shelves and quickly makes his way around them, but she’s gone. He’s perplexed and frustrated. Then it comes to him; this is a dream. He wakes up, stares at the ceiling for a minute, then gets out of bed.

  “Some news please!” he requests of Phaedra.

  “Hot, dry weather has led to over one hundred and eighty wildfires in our region. Sources say that most of them are most likely do to human negligence. Expect air quality to remain poor on the index over the next few days as a high pressure system moves in today and things heat up. There is a chance of rain on the horizon but not until next week. People are advised against running or doing any strenuous exercising outdoors,” a newscaster reports.

  The radio breaks to a commercial for dental implants.

  “Radio off,” Cedric requests of Phaedra, then sits in the ensuing silence.

  He looks out his window. The sun is just above the horizon and filtered with smoke from the wildfires. It’s quite a sight. He can look right at it, putting it into a different perspective, almost as if it were a bright red moon. It looks so spherical, and so three dimensional. The smoke filtering really brings that out. Outside, it looks more like Mars than Earth.

  There it is, he thinks to himself; our star, just over eight light minutes away. The next one is over a four light years away.[10] Space is vast, cold and empty. It’s no wonder early religions worshiped the sun; it’s our campfire in a dark, cold galaxy.

  Then something triggers Cedric’s memory of his dream last night. He recalls the library and Nikki laughing, and how he searched for her. He also remembers looking through the book at the pictures, and the odd language. The dream is coming through in fragmented glimpses but vivid ones. His memory of it is mostly intact.

  He calls Chara. The phone rings several times before she finally answers.

  “What’s up Cedric?” she asks.

  “I’m really sorry to call so early,” he tells her.

  “No worries, I’m up. In fact I’m almost out the door,” she says.

  “Did Nikki check anything out from the library that day you were with her?” Cedric asks Chara.

  “Not that I remember,” Chara answers; “but we weren’t allowed to check anything out from the stacks.”

  “Do you remember any materials you looked at with Nikki?” he asks.

  “Nothing by title, no, but I may be able to find a book. I do remember her looking at an old lunar map in one of them,” she tells him.

  “I hate to bother you,” Cedric says; “could you meet me at the library whenever you’re free?”

  “Sure, how about this morning. I have to go on assignment this afternoon and it’s as good of a time as any,” Chara says; “Oriona is working with me today. I’ll bring her along too. She might remember something.”

  “That’d be awesome. What time is good?” Cedric asks.

  “We break at ten,” she answers; “how about ten fifteen in front of the library entrance?”

  “That sounds perfect,” Cedric says; “I really do appreciate this.”

  “It’s nothing Cedric. Anything for Nikki,” Chara replies.

  “Thank you,” Cedric tells her.

  Moonliner 5:13

  A few minutes early, Cedric stands just outside of the library entrance. The building is nautilus shaped with a courtyard tucked within its curved outer shell. People are sitting at small tables, having coffee, chatting, and reading in the mid-morning calm. Barring the poor air quality, it’s a decent day.

  Chara and Oriona walk into the courtyard
right on time, smiling warmly. They each hug Cedric briefly, then exchange greetings.

  “Now is this about the biography you’re putting together?” Chara asks.

  “Not as much,” Cedric answers; “it’s more for my personal journals.”

  “It’s just that it seems really important to you, that’s all,” Chara says, not wanting to be nosy.

  “I guess I get a little weird about my journals, especially with info on Nikki. It’s the perfectionist in me,” Cedric tells her; “I look at is as history and I don’t like to lose it.”

  “That’s not so weird,” Oriona adds; “I can understand that.”

  “Thanks,” Cedric responds.

  The three walk swiftly into the entrance, knowing how little time Chara and Oriona have to waste today.

  “Try to remember everything you guys did,” Cedric tells them as they approach the door. They enter and walk toward the elevators.

  “I remember riding the elevator with Nikki,” Chara says; “she uplinked to her library while on the elevator.”

  “Which elevator?” Cedric asks as they get closer to them.

  “The one on the right; the one closer to the entrance,” Oriona says with confidence. Chara nods in agreement.

  They hit the down button and the doors to the other elevator, the one further from the entrance, open. Cedric steps into it and pushes the button to the top floor. He quickly steps out and lets the doors close, letting it go, then hits the down button again on the wall. Within a few seconds, the elevator he wants to ride arrives. The two women look at each other and smile, thinking it a little odd but both knowing how eccentric Cedric can be. They all take the elevator down to the stacks. Cedric takes pictures of the panel before getting off.

  “This wouldn’t have anything to do with your work?” Chara asks.

  “What work are you talking about?” Cedric asks.

  “Your thesis work at the University,” she answers, taking Cedric a little by surprise.

  “No,” Cedric answers; “this is separate from my thesis.”

  “Sorry, it’s the investigative journalist in me,” Chara adds.

  “You remind me of Nikki,” Cedric says. “Tell me. Has Nikki mentioned anything to you about my thesis work?” he asks. The women look at each other and shrug a little.

  “Not much,” Oriona says; “she said you were trying to send things faster than light, or something like that.”

  “She really didn’t tell us much,” Chara adds; “sorry.”

  “That’s okay,” Cedric says; “I’m just asking.”

  The three have to sign in at a desk with a librarian guarding the stacks. She’s the keeper of the stacks. Cedric doesn’t have the necessary credentials, but Chara smooths the situation over, presenting him as her interviewee. He’s immediately given a DOT-5 guest pass and all of them sign in with a bio scan.

  The view inside is unreal. There are walls after walls of books, something you seen more in old movies than in real life 2069. It’s a maze. Cedric wonders how they’re ever going to find any books that Nikki viewed, especially given the short window of time. Chara and Oriona, however, are highly resourceful news women, both with an eye for detail.

  Within seconds, the three find themselves standing directly in front of a section of books on the moon. Chara had taken them right to the place. She quickly slides her thumb down the row of books on the far right side of a center shelf, right next to an aisle. Within a few more seconds she has a book in her hands.

  “Here it is,” she says; “she looked at this one,” she adds, holding a book titled Lunar Rendezvous.

  “Are you sure?” Cedric asks.

  “I’m pretty sure,” Chara answers as she looks carefully through it.

  Cedric watches Chara’s face closely, but page by page the book looks less and less familiar to her. She finally puts it back and keeps looking down the line. Finding nothing, she moves to the next shelf down and does the same. The further she goes the less familiar any of it looks.

  “You went right for the middle shelf when you walked into this room,” Cedric says; “is that where you remember the book?”

  “Yes,” she answers; “but books can shift over time.”

  “True, but not likely this soon,” Cedric points out.

  “I think it was this book,” Oriona says, holding up a book with the title To the Moon.

  “No, it wasn’t that simple,” Chara says; “I remember there being maps and charts in the center of the book.”

  “This one has maps,” Oriona says.

  Chara doesn’t listen to Oriona. Instead, she keeps scanning the shelves, book by book. Cedric just observes, hoping to soon move along. He can see that Chara and Oriona are enjoying the memory challenge, and thinking themselves helpful but the fact of the matter is that these stacks are primitive relics of an analog era. There isn’t much chance of transmitting a message to Nikki down here.

  Chara once again goes back to the point of her search’s origin, both running out of break time and patience, yet too determined to give in. She comes across To the Moon. She picks it up and starts thumbing through its pages.

  “Wait, this might be it,” she says with a look of familiarity on her face.

  “That’s the same book I just asked you about,” Oriona tells her.

  “It is? I’m sorry, I was so absorbed in my search,” Chara replies; “I can be so stupid sometimes.” They laugh.

  Chara flips to the center of the book. Sure enough, there’s a section of images. She peruses each page, each picture, and every caption. Her face suddenly lights up when she comes across a copy of an anonymously made, ancient, Italian, maritime map of the moon.

  “This is it,” Chara says excitedly; “this is the one! This is the map that Nikki looked at that day we were in the library.”

  “It is,” Oriona recalls; “I remember it too. Nikki found it and showed it to us. She stared at it for a while, I remember.”

  Cedric snaps pictures of the map, the book cover and the cover page, which are almost identical. He’s careful to remain undetected, having read a NO photography in stacks sign on the front desk when they signed in.

  Suddenly deja vu hits Cedric as the three of them stand there in the stacks.

  “I’ve been here before,” he tells them.

  “In the stacks,” Oriona asks.

  “No, in this situation,” Cedric answers, looking around the room; “or was it the dream?” he asks aloud, looking at the clock on the wall. Chara and Oriona look a little surprised but don’t really think much of it. Within a few brief seconds, it wears off.

  The three return to the main floor of the library, where they stand around for a few minutes. Cedric can see that both of them are out of memories. He doesn’t want to press them anymore.

  “I had better let you both get back to work,” he tells them. They look at each other, then check the time.

  “Yeah,” Oriona says.

  “We really are busy today,” Chara adds.

  “I know you are and I’m really thrilled that you could help me out,” Cedric says. “Thank you both so much.”

  “Thank you,” Chara says.

  “It was fun,” Oriona adds.

  They wave goodbye and walk out to Robson Street, smiling as they go. Cedric watches them walk away, giving them one more wave as they make their way down the street. Cedric sits in the atrium, feeling defeated and somewhat stupid. On a whim, he’d followed a dream to nowhere, and wasted their time in the process.

  Then it hits him like a typhoon. How could he have missed it the first time? The solution couldn’t be simpler; it’s right in front of him. He smiles a huge smile of relief, then laughs to himself, trying to keep it in. He unwittingly stops dead in his tracks to think. Library patrons have to walk around him. He sits down at an empty table inside the atrium to keep from dropping to his knees; he needs every iota of energy to fuel his racing mind.

  “Could it be so easy?” he mumbles to himself, then laughs agai
n, shaking his head.

  Moonliner 5:14

  Cedric buzzes Lennox’s condo. After several seconds of waiting, he hits the buzzer again.

  “What’s going on Cedric?” Lennox’s voice is heard asking over the intercom.

  “I’m on my way back from the library,” Cedric answers.

  “Let him in,” Lennox can be heard over the intercom instructing Morgan, his own Phaedra of sorts. In fact, he followed Cedric’s lead on choosing a sexy female voice with which to interphase, only Lennox opted for a British model.

  Cedric enters the concrete building. Lennox’s security system lightens a path for him to the right of the entrance and up the stairwell. Lennox opens the door to his condo and waits for Cedric at the top of the stairs. Once inside, the two sit down.

  “Coffee?” Lennox asks Cedric; “I was just about to pour myself a cup.”

  “I don’t drink coffee often, but why not?” Cedric responds. Lennox, a barista during law school, can not only whip up the coffee of your choice, but it comes so nicely garnished. He can even pour the froth in a way that it forms a leaf. It’s done so well that you hate to drink it.

  “When is your next trip to the moon?” Cedric asks Lennox.

  “August twenty-sixth,” Lennox answers; “it’s a Monday.”

  “Can you transmit another message for me?” Cedric asks, barely able to contain himself.

  “Sure, why?” Lennox asks; “what have you got?”

  “I found it!” Cedric tells Lennox; “I have a way to get a message to her, and to warn her not to board that shuttle.”