Moonliner: No Stone Unturned

by Hanzel, Donald

  “I’m not so sure this is a healthy obsession,” Lennox begins to say.

  “What do you mean?” Cedric asks.

  “It’s just that I think you might want to get on with your life,” Lennox says; “and I don’t think this is the way.”

  “I understand what you’re saying,” Cedric responds; “but this is small step on a simple path of events that looks almost like it was laid out for me; the dreams; the deja vu. If this plan fails, then fine,” he adds; “but I’m obliged to find out. It’s about exhausting all plausible options.”

  “Okay,” Lennox responds; “as long as you know when to say when.”

  “Listen,” Cedric says; “I’ve thought so myopically that I missed the big picture. This isn’t about transmitting a message to her; it’s about getting a message to her. I didn’t have to overcomplicate things,” he says laughing, then takes a sip of coffee. He looks at peace for the first time in a while.

  “So are you going to fill me in on this,” Lennox asks; “or just leave me in the dark here?”

  “Funny you should ask,” Cedric answers; “because I’ve already told you too much. It still isn’t quite foolproof. When it is, I’ll let you know. You’re going to be a pivotal player, as will be our old friends from Seattle.”

  “Really? So you really think you’ve done it?” Lennox asks once more.

  “I hope so,” Cedric responds; “I don’t see where this would fail.”

  Lennox pulls a few cold beers out of the fridge, seeing that Cedric has crossed a mental dessert. He has no idea if Cedric is really onto anything here, but can see that he is confident with his idea, which is enough to keep him occupied. At least Cedric has something to go on, which Lennox thinks is a good thing. Time will ultimately heal him, Lennox thinks, but having a hope in the meantime isn’t such a bad thing to help a guy get by. Besides, Cedric may really be onto something, a distinct possibility that Lennox knows not to rule out. Cedric has, after all, never failed yet to impress him with his endless aptitude.

  The two men look at floating, rotating, 3D, laser-generated images; tap bottles and tip back a beer that doesn’t just hit the spot, it hits the soul. They laugh, again just like they did back in the day.

  Moonliner 5:15

  “Can you recall all of Vancouver Public Library’s historical checkout data for a book entitled To the Moon?” Cedric asks Phaedra. Seconds later a laser-projected screen is in front of him. He scrolls through the data. Using hand gestures, he slides the screen upward, quickly scrolling through decades of checkout information on a book that’s been in in the library almost a hundred years. He slows the screen down as it arrives at the year 2014, carefully examining when the book was checked out, but unable to see who checked it out, information that is protected under privacy acts.

  He reads through news and popular magazines surrounding 2014. The more he reads the more he smiles. He reads of world events, local events, tragedies, economic data, and even sporting events. Within a few hours he knows more about the year 2014 than anyone on the planet, or at least more than anyone can remember.

  After several hours of reading, thinking, and note taking, Cedric’s finally ready to give it a shot.

  “Phaedra, can you record a transmission?” he asks, looking out his balcony window at a night full of lights.

  Moonliner 5:16

  Nineteen days later, Cedric meets Lennox in the lobby of the Bayview Towers, which stand downtown near the waterfront, overlooking the park. It’s a Sunday and the building is lifeless. Lennox seems busy, heavily burdened with his work, responding to a barrage of messages on his blue-beam as the two walk out of the building and down Water Street.

  They walk into Gastown just in time to watch the famous steam clock strike noon. It is peak travel season and the souvenir shops are crawling with tourists. People are lined up beside the clock to buy gelato from a guy with a refrigerated push cart. A cruise ship’s horn sounds to announce its noon departure, a few seconds out of synch with the steam clock.

  From there, they walk along the edgewalk, a newer development to the downtown built to reinforce the seawall. On the way, they grab some chicken kabobs and sparkling water. Seagulls are all around, hoping to share the side of pita bread that came with their order.

  Lennox and Cedric sit in a nice concrete cove with its own private view of the water, tucked nicely away from the public. It’s one of several on the lower level of walk, in a place often overlooked. They eat their kabobs, occasionally dishing a few pinches of pita to the gulls.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Ceric asks Lennox; “we could be opening some irreversible wormhole you know.”

  “Are you sure that you do?” Lennox asks in return.

  “Her death was wrong. I’m absolutely certain,” Cedric answers; “nothing has felt more right. I’m sure.”

  “Then so am I,” Lennox tells him. “Why not?”

  “Besides,” Cedric adds; “we’ve already done this and the sky hasn’t fallen yet.”

  “We won’t remember this, will we?” Lennox asks; “any of this?”

  “This is all new territory. I don’t know,” Cedric answers.

  “I mean if it didn’t happen,” Lennox replies; “we wouldn’t remember it.”

  “I don’t want to remember it,” Cedric says.

  “But nobody will know it happened, that you sent messages back and for through time,” Lennox points out.

  “She’ll know,” Cedric says; “She’ll get the message. It’ll be up to her if she shares it or not.”

  “Will you believe her if she does?” Lennox asks.

  “I don’t know,” Cedric answers; “I doubt it. I don’t even know if she’ll tell me.”

  “What about your work?” Lennox asks. “Won’t you be losing your work, and your data?”

  “Remember,” Cedric says; “I was already having success and on the verge of a large scale discovery before Nikki went to the moon. Who’s to say that won’t play out again? Besides, what is science if it can’t be applied?”

  “I guess,” it just seems like you’re risking it all,” Lennox says.

  “I’ve lost it all remember,” Cedric responds; “I’m trying to get it back.”

  Cedric hands Lennox the transmitter.

  “The message is ready,” Cedric tells him; “you just have to push the large button once you’re onboard Moondock. It will find the relay station and repeat for as long as you’re on board.”

  “Is this even legal?” Lennox asks.

  “You’re the lawyer,” Cedric responds; “but I’ve looked into it and yes it is a legal transmission. You can still back out if you want.”

  “No, I’ve got nothing to lose,” Lennox says. He slides the transmitter into his pocket and zips it closed.

  Cedric begins to feel anxious, knowing that Lennox has taken the message. His plan is now under way. The fuse is lit. It would now take more effort on his part to stop it than to allow it to unfold. It’s now in the hands of fate.

  On the edge of the park across the water, Cedric spots a weeping willow gently swaying in the wind. He stares at it, letting the tree’s motion momentarily relax him. His mind is soon clear and his anxiety gone.

  Lennox excuses himself, telling Cedric he has to get back to the office. Cedric walks back with him as far as Water Street and bids him farewell.

  “I can’t thank you enough,” Cedric tells Lennox.

  “In case we don’t remember any of this later,” Lennox says; “It’s been one hell of a summer.”

  “That it has my friend,” Cedric replies; “It’s been a ride.”

  The two men smile, then give each other a pat on the shoulder before Lennox fades down Water Street.

  Moonliner 5:17

  The inner walls of Lennox’s shuttle stop vibrating as it clears Earth’s atmosphere and levels off. Its seats are equipped with gyroscopic shock-absorption and are counter weighted, so they don’t vibrate. The craft is now in an elliptical orbit, preparing to
acquire a little gravitational assist from Earth to increase its velocity. In other words, it’s getting ready to slingshot to the moon.

  Lennox puts on a headset and tunes into the cockpit control channel. He does this on every flight at the time he expects the captain to ignite the main outboard thrusters. The captain radios in a countdown at the end of a checklist before igniting them. Lennox hates to be startled by massive rocket-engine thrust and likes to know exactly when it’s going to happen.

  “Set azimuth heading to zero six-niner,” he hears the captain request. Activate long range sensors.”

  The sensors are a relatively new, laser technology which utilizes satellites to scan for objects that are, or will be, in the path of the spacecraft. They are highly sensitive and the slightest micro-meteor or piece of space junk would instantly trip them. Once the scans have cleared the craft, it’s time to hit the thrusters.

  “Earthport control showing clear skies to the moon,” a different voice says over the radio, then squelch.

  “Moondock control showing a clear flight path,” another voice says a few seconds later. Lennox grips his armrests.

  “Igniting main outboard thrusters in five, four, three, two, one, and,” the captain says just before Lennox feels himself sink deep into his seat. Not even a gyro seat can absorb the thrust when those engines are lit up. The burn is only long enough to achieve an escape velocity and align the craft on a trajectory to the moon, then the engines are cut and it’s a long, dark, quiet ride into the void of empty space. It’s much like being thrown to the moon, without gravity or air resistance to slow you down.

  The craft has picked up some serious speed. Weightless, it doesn’t really matter how you’re aligned with the earth and moon; it only changes your perspective. The shuttle barrel rolls, putting the earth overhead, now flying beneath it with the moon dead ahead. Lennox is lucky enough to have a seat in a dome-like section near the front of the craft, giving him an obstructed but beautiful forward view of the flight. Earth looks so warm and sunny today, making it even harder for Lennox to leave it.

  The spacecraft veers a little further from Earth on its calculated trajectory to the moon.

  Moonliner 5:18

  Nervously, Cedric stands in front of his mirror. How could the hour have come so soon? He has half a mind to call Lennox and call it all off, but knows he can’t and won’t. It’s not that he doesn’t want to go through with it, or to see Nikki again; he wants nothing more. He’s simply worried that she won’t want to see him. Then he remembers, this isn’t about her taking him back. No, this is about him never losing her. He takes a deep breath and puts on his favorite shirt.

  Time pushes him along. He sits on the Skytrain with his sunglasses on, zoned out, trying to think of this as just another day. He gets off at Park Station, walks along the platform, up the escalator, and into the park. What better place to be when Lennox transmits the message?

  He strolls his familiar path to his sacred bench beside Lost Lagoon, only to find another couple occupying it. His heart sinks, taking this as a bad sign. Moments later, however, the couple gets up and strolls away. Cedric walks over to the bench and sits down.

  The trees are swaying; it’s a breezy day. The park appears empty, except for an old man sitting on a bench across the footbridge that crosses the northern tip of the lake. The sky has a dry, yellowish hue to it. The park is dry too; all the grass is dead, which is typical this late in summer.

  Cedric questions whether this is going to work at all, then again works his way through the plot in his mind only to again conclude that it should. Should, however, is not certainty. Any number of things could still go wrong.

  A waning moon is still visible in the morning sky. Cedric stares at it, now feeling more aligned with it. Lennox should be there by now, he thinks, somewhere around that ball in the sky.

  “It should have worked by now,” Cedric says under his breath; “He should have sent the message by now. It didn’t work.” The suspense starts to consume him, causing time to slow from his perspective. He leans forward on the bench, resting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands, now having real doubts that this will work.

  Moonliner 5:19

  Lennox’s shuttle docks with Moondock. He feels the craft’s motion smoothly shift to match the space station’s rotation. The vessel connects from its side via a pressurized tubeway, with the bottom of the craft facing outward from the center of the ring’s rotation, thus allowing shuttle passengers to rapidly regain their lost weight upon docking. It’s an awkward sensation for newcomers, but one with which Lennox is very familiar. He often describes the feeling as being caught.

  Lennox grabs his belongings and decrafts though the tubeway. Again, he’s on the controlled access, lower ring of the station. There are a few people there to greet his flight, but they soon disappear down the ring’s central tube. He sits alone by a viewing window, watching the station roll into the dark side of the moon. As it does, the windows and interior lighting adjust automatically to mitigate the harsh shift in outside conditions. Unless you’re looking directly out a window, you don’t even know you are moving out of the sun’s burning radiation and into the deadly, frigid darkness of outer space.

  Lennox pulls Cedric’s transmitter from a pocket in his shoulder bag. He looks at it for few minutes, then taps it twice to turn it on. A blue button illuminates. If this thing does what Cedric programed it to do, he thinks, then this is likely to be the most profound pushing of a button in human history. He looks at the button somewhat timidly; a button that could blow a hole in the universe for all he knows; a button that could change the course of human events. He taps the transmitter twice to turn it off.

  He walks down the central tube to his hotel and checks in. Again, there is hardly anyone around. It’s like he has the station to himself. He is shown to his room by the hotel’s concierge. Being a frequent guest, they like to keep his business. Rates on Moondock, to say the least, are astronomical.

  Once inside his room, Lennox flops down onto the bed, exhausted from his travels. Aware of elapsing time and his obligation to Cedric, he again pulls the transmitter from his bag and taps the power on. Again, a blue button on the device illuminates, sending another shot of adrenaline down Lennox’s spine. This is much harder than he thought it would be. He double taps the transmitter and it shuts it off again.

  He steps into his washroom and splashes his face. He gargles, then takes a long look in the mirror at himself. After a few seconds, he nods, then returns to the bed, knowing what he has to do.

  He picks up the transmitter and walks over to the small viewing window in his room. He opens its mini-blind and watches the moon spin round and round. He gets a short glimpse of Earth and thinks of Cedric sitting there in the light, waiting for the transmission.

  He taps the transmitter again. It turns on and once again the blue button lights up. He lifts his thumb to press it, then hesitates for few seconds. He takes deep breath and presses the button. Cedric’s voice then carries through time, echoing these words:

  “To my friends Beau and Kendra, thank you. I’ve received your metal plate. I am completely convinced that you are who you say you are, and that my transmissions have landed in the year 2014. I’m astounded beyond words at the magnitude of this success and I owe an endless debt of gratitude to both of you. I have instead, however, a favor to ask of you; the nearest and dearest person to me was tragically killed on a flight to moon just after sending your first message from lunar orbit for me. I’d like you to warn her not to board that ill-fated flight, and this is how you can do that; she was in the Vancouver Public Library on the day that she got the assignment to go, looking through a book entitled, To the Moon; a look at mankind’s quest for the moon, by Tim Nelson. She looks at an ancient, Italian lunar map amidst several graphics near the center of the book. The map’s author is unknown. I need you to find that book and to write a message to her on that map, telling her not to board her flight to the moon. Her name is
Nikki and you can tell her that I warned you from the future through my laser experiments. She’ll have to believe you. I’m sorry to ask so much of you, however, in exchange for this and all that you have done for me, the Washington State Powerball prize of 120 million dollars on December 31, 2014 shows no winner. The Powerball numbers are: 17-27-37-40-53 & Power Ball 35. Please do nothing with this information that would alter my life in any way. And if we never hear from each other again, it’s been a riveting adventure to say the least. Best wishes, your friend from the year 2069, Cedric.”

  Moonliner 5:20

  Cedric looks up from the park bench. The day is picturesque; the air is still and the sky so blue. There’s nobody around at all, not a soul. The only thing moving is a goose, eating what little grass it can find by the edge of the lagoon.

  A Skybus drifts slowly and silently overhead, across the park toward the north shore. Cedric watches it closely as it takes in a bird’s view of the park. He can see people on its outer viewing deck, which is typically open only in summer. It slowly fades out of view behind the treeline. The moment couldn’t be more placid, nor could Cedric be any more relaxed.

  “Is anyone sitting here?” a familiar voice asks out of the blue.

  Cedric turns to see Nikki standing behind him, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight with her hand.