Moondust

by Gemma Fowler

  Aggie chewed her lip. So the Earth Relations girl had been keeping that secret too, as well as everything else. Typical.

  Rix’s face beamed out distractingly from the screen. ‘Citizens of the United Earth,’ he said brightly, flashing his trademark smile. ‘It is my personal pleasure to introduce you to the 546th Lunar Forecast. Live from the Sea of Tranquillity.’

  Aggie forced her attention on the screen.

  ‘Thank you, commander.’ Androgynous Celeste beamed. ‘This is a Waxing Crescent Forecast. The subject for today’s Forecast is life in the mines, as part of our tenth anniversary season.’

  Seb was staring at Aggie. She could feel his eyes burning into the side of her head. Maybe he could see it spinning? It certainly felt as if it was. Seb and Mir? Her Seb and perfect, annoying Mir? How in all the seven states did that happen? Had they kept in touch since the Academy? Seb had never mentioned her.

  ‘One of the questions we get asked many times,’ Celeste continued as the vid followed the mined lumite crystal down through the tunnel system, past the great cell packing machines and out onto the chaotic, dusty face, ‘is, how does Lunar Inc. change the minds and hearts of its prisoners? Well, to us, it is simple.

  ‘Our prisoners take great comfort that their hard work is keeping their families on the Earth out of the darkness. That every time a switch is pulled or a button pressed, their work is being appreciated by the great and the good. And we at Lunar Inc. make it clear to them that we appreciate them too!’

  Aggie’s stomach sank further. It had started – they were fighting propaganda with propaganda, reminding the United Earth what Lunar Inc. was giving them. Preparing the public for the party. For her.

  The vids changed to images of the prisoners themselves, hundreds of men and women dressed head to toe in red; drilling, sorting and fixing, and all the time laughing, joking and smiling. It made her feel as uncomfortable as when she’d seen Danny in the shuttle. This was her godfather’s prison mine. The things she’d seen done to Danny were Rix’s doing. Suddenly, her anger at Mir and Seb evaporated. Seb dating Mir might have been big news for Aggie, but the Angel had more momentous things to worry her. The thought made her sad.

  ‘Without their hard work, we would not have the lumite cell that powers our homes and our lives on Earth today.’

  The images changed to the happy citizens of the United Earth using the glowing violet lumite cells in their houses, their cars, their comms units and coffee machines.

  The vid pulled out slowly, showing the great towering factories where giant lumite cell cores pulsed in the generator rooms, revealing the violet streetlights and the glowing violet Hyperloop that connected the seven states at super-speeds. Finally, the footage zoomed out to reveal the Earth spinning in space, the trillions of lights that dotted its surface glowing violet with lumite.

  Seb was still staring at her.

  Aggie, needing more time to think, just concentrated on the screen. A selection of rehabilitated prisoners turned and smiled at the camera, ‘Thank you Lunar Inc.,’ they said, one after the other.

  ‘Be sure to tune in tomorrow for your own exclusive invite to the Lunar Inc. anniversary party. You won’t want to miss our special announcement.’

  Celeste winked.

  Aggie winced.

  ‘Stay bright, United Earth.’

  The Ether went back to its lazy black swirl. The room seemed quiet after the bluster of the Forecast, but Aggie was too numb even to move. Every day, as the party got closer, the reality of what was about to happen to her got more terrifying.

  ‘You sure you’re OK?’ Seb asked quietly.

  ‘What?’ Aggie snapped.

  ‘About Mir, the party?’

  Of course – the party. Aggie had more things to worry about at the party than her lack of a date. But still, the idea of Seb going with Mir was just weird.

  ‘Cosmic,’ Aggie said with a small smile.

  She pulled her shoulders back and tried to act as if there wasn’t an invisible hand around her throat.

  ‘It’s cosmic, really. I’m not really going, so . . .’

  Seb smiled at her suspiciously, ‘What? Dude, I know you hate humans and everything, but did you not just see that? This is going to be the most insane party ever. We’re going to be talking about tomorrow night for like, millennia. There’s going to be free food, free drink, Sonic Nugget are playing, and – oh yeah, that’s it, the fragging Angel of Adri-clagging-anne!’

  ‘That’s not confirmed,’ Aggie said nervously. ‘No one knows that that’s true.’

  Seb leant back on the bed. ‘C’mon, man, course it’s true. The whole base is talking about it.’

  Aggie smiled weakly.

  ‘I got fifty blips on it being her,’ Seb continued with a grin. ‘Everyone’s putting blips on it, like, everyone.’

  Aggie shivered.

  ‘Oh Aggs, some people have the most crazy ideas. Apparently some mine op put two hundred blips on it being Adam Faulkner in a wig! Two hundred blips! Ha, man. Can you imagine the wise old master of the universe shuffling out on stage with lipstick and red hair? I almost wish that was true, just so I could see it.’

  Aggie turned her back and looked out of the window. Seb tapped her shoulder, ‘Hey, I can talk to Lucas on E, put some blips on it for you if you want? You must have some Craggie theory about it, right?’

  Aggie shook her head. ‘I’m not going to the party. I’ve got . . . work stuff.’

  ‘What? An emergency dust contamination? A last-minute drain blockage that just can’t wait?’

  ‘Seb, really, I don’t want . . . it’s nothing.’

  Seb smiled, ‘Dude, there’s no such thing as “nothing” with you. What is it? The secret mission? I knew Astrid wasn’t lying. She can’t lie, she’s too . . . eager.’

  Aggie sighed and looked out of the window. In the distance, a clean-up drone skittered across the base of E Face; a piece of junk glinted in its metal claws. Aggie stood up, she could see two more tiny drones, tidying the areas around the shuttle tubes. She’d never even considered the clean-up drones before.

  ‘Seb, do you ever see the clean-ups on your border patrols?’

  ‘Huh? Clean-up drones? Oh yeah, tonnes of ’em. Once, I saw one just going round in circles. I saw it for two whole weeks, just going round and round and round . . . Hang on, you’ve not got one under your bed, have you?’

  Aggie just stared out of the window.

  ‘Aggs?’ Seb said from the bed. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Nothing.’ She said distractedly, watching the drones gather up anything that wasn’t where it was supposed to be. She shook her head. ‘Nothing.’

  Day-Cycle 10

  Aggie lay in the dark and concentrated on breathing. Her whole body felt as if it had been buzzered. A horrible jolty feeling spread out in waves from her chest down to her fingers. She felt sick, even though she hadn’t eaten anything more than a lemonade-flavoured Spacefood bar all day.

  The blinds on her pod window were open, but the waning day-cycle meant the sun had sunk days ago and the room was cast with a gloomy grey. Aggie liked it – the colour matched how she felt.

  Today was the tenth anniversary of the Adrianne Disaster. It had always been a day of solitude for Aggie, for taking a day off and hiding herself away in her pod, alone with her memories. She longed with every thread of her being that that was all she had to do this time.

  Everything she knew had shifted slightly. The same, but different, as if she was finally beginning to see the base in a colder, harsher light. Aggie wished she could go back to how it was; to her bright, colourful, sunny world of custard carts and rec rooms and jokes with Seb. But it was pointless. Rix was about to rip it all away.

  Slowly, Aggie reached up and plucked her contact lenses out of her eyes. She flicked them one after the other onto the messy floor. Tonight, Agatha Sommers died, and the Angel rose up out of the ashes. Tonight, the whole world would be her friend again and her only real friend
would find out she’d been lying to him.

  Aggie jumped at a knock at her door.

  ‘Aggie?’ A soft, pretty voice called from the corridor. ‘Time to go.’

  Aggie followed Mir and a heavily armed security detail down the dorm corridor and onto a waiting scrambler. Aggie sat in the middle, flanked by the two guards. This was how her new life would be, she concluded, feeling her stomach screw up into a ball.

  Mir didn’t speak to her as she climbed into the front, her dress overall sparkled at the seams as if it were lined with lumite. Her hair was tight to her head, not one strand out of place. Her eyes were highlighted with shimmering blue liner, and tiny earrings in the phases of the moon sparkled along the edge of her ears. Aggie could just imagine Seb’s face when he saw her. The stomach ball scrunched up even tighter.

  Aggie watched the corridors of the Analysis dorms disappear as they sped past groups of personnel gathered in the rec rooms, laughing and sparkling in their dress overalls. The air around them seemed to fizz with excitement.

  Finally, the scrambler emerged from the service tunnels and onto the wide open concourse that led to G Face. Aggie gasped. She’d been on the face only a few days ago. The transformation was incredible.

  The thin, plastic hab that had covered the half-built entrance on Aggie’s last visit had been replaced with a shining Plexiglas concourse. Lights hung from every support, winking like the stars in the sky through the windows. Rope lights around the edge of the great airlocks flashed in the colours of the Infospectrum, changing to match the member of personnel who was coming through. There were stalls set up around the airlocks, serving brightly coloured cocktails and bags of sweets that glowed blue in the dim light. Glittering groups mingled around them, their mouths glowing as they munched on their bioluminescent treats.

  The sweet, sickly smell of Spacefood and alcohol mixed with the metallic odour of dust as it escaped through the airlocks. The air was smoky with it as the scrambler slowly made its way around the crowds and followed the curve of the dome wall until it came to an entrance Aggie hadn’t seen before.

  ‘Hey Agatha,’ Celeste chimed in her helmet comms, ‘Welcome to the G Face opening party.’

  Aggie ignored her.

  Another set of guards nodded and opened the huge manual airlock, allowing the scrambler to pass through and out onto the face.

  The face itself had been cleared. Aggie could almost make out distant cliffs where the dome met the surface as the scrambler raced towards the staging area.

  Huge drill machines still stood in a semicircle on the untouched mining bed. Daisy’s great spiked discs and looming cranes were covered in tiny specks of light that twinkled from every surface, illuminating the circle of dust cleared for a dance floor.

  As they got closer, Aggie could see the party area. Tables had been set up around the rebuilt stage, each piled with food in colourful packets. The stage itself glowed with huge vid screens, each displaying a spinning Lunar Inc. logo. Aggie imagined herself standing there, a little speck of dust on a sea of black. Drowning in front of the crowds.

  ‘Agatha.’

  Aggie jumped off the scrambler and was greeted by Rix, beaming in his glowing dress overall.

  ‘How’d you like what I’ve done with the place?’ He held his hands aloft, making a gaggle of assistants scatter. LIXR, the fragrant drink of choice of all the Lunar Inc. directors, sloshed around in the crystal glass he held. By the look of Rix, it wasn’t the first one he’d had that evening. Compared to the last time they’d met, in the dusty shuttle, he was a different man. A good thing – Aggie never wanted to meet that man again.

  ‘Great,’ Aggie managed.

  ‘How’re the lines? All up here?’ Rix prodded his temple.

  ‘I think so.’ There wasn’t much to learn, and despite Aggie’s track record, she was actually quite good at learning speeches. She’d had the practice, after all.

  ‘Y’know, it’s just astounding what a bit of sparkle and some free food can do, hey?’ Rix continued, smiling into his drink.

  The room around them was silent. Aggie suddenly understood that every single member of personnel in the tent now knew who she was. She refused to look directly at their familiar awestruck faces. She knew she had to get used to it, but still, she felt like an exhibit in a zoo.

  ‘Well, now you’re here,’ Rix said, waving a hand and beckoning Mir to come over. ‘We have a little surprise for you.’

  ‘Another surprise?’ Aggie said, with a glance to Mir. She was done with Rix’s surprises.

  She followed Rix and Mir to the far side of the staging area, where a bunch of tech heads were working on a tangle of power leads with the help of Celeste.

  ‘Hey Agatha,’ the computer said as she walked past.

  Aggie didn’t respond.

  ‘Good luck.’

  Aggie stopped. That was a strange thing for the computer to say.

  ‘Angel, get over here!’ Rix shouted. ‘We don’t have long.’

  Aggie walked to where Rix and Mir were standing, either side of a small table. A glowing white bag was in the centre. A kit bag.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Open it.’ Mir said with false enthusiasm, pointing with a perfectly manicured finger.

  Aggie took a step forwards. ‘It’s not a dress, is it?’

  ‘Not on a Lunar Base,’ Rix snorted drunkenly.

  ‘Good.’

  She reached out and pulled the zipper slowly. Bit by bit, the white plastic fell away, revealing something that was way worse than a dress.

  ‘No.’ Aggie stepped back as if the thing was on fire. ‘I’m not wearing that.’

  Mir stepped forwards and heaved the violet overall fully out of its case. The thing glittered under the lights. It was beyond disgusting.

  ‘I’ll look like a giant lump of lumite!’

  ‘I think it’s lovely,’ Mir said with a fake smile. ‘Really symbolic.’

  ‘It’s an Angel costume. It looks cheap.’ Aggie growled, mainly at Mir and her stupid opinions.

  ‘Taste is subjective, I suppose. We don’t all have it.’ Mir said, her pretty face twisting.

  ‘Like your taste in men, Mir?’ Aggie asked innocently. She wanted Mir to know she knew about her and Seb.

  Mir opened her mouth then closed it again.

  ‘My Infospectrum is yellow.’ Aggie said, turning back to Rix.

  ‘Well, now it’s violet,’ he said, his eyes shining. ‘You have your very own rating. How about that?’

  ‘I can’t wear it.’

  ‘No one will be able to miss you in this, Aggie. No more running away from us,’ Mir said sweetly.

  Aggie looked back at Rix. ‘I’ll be a target. I’ll be followed around everywhere!’ She was desperate.

  ‘That’s the idea, isn’t it?’

  Aggie was panicking now. She wanted to punch Mir in her pretty, Seb-stealing, lying, Earth Relations face. She wanted to push Rix into the abyss above the unfinished dome. She wanted to crawl into a ball on the dusty ground and sob. She wanted anything other than to be the Angel again. That violet overall represented everything her new life would be and she hated it.

  Aggie crossed her arms, trying to remain strong for once. Outside, the rumble of the crowd intensified.

  ‘I’m not . . .’

  ‘You’ll wear it,’ Rix growled, stepping so close his eyes were level with hers. His whole body language had changed. He was tense, like a coiled spring. ‘You’ll do as you’re told,’ he whispered, carefully forming each word. ‘You’ll wear the fragging overall, you’ll do the speech and you’ll perform for the Forecasts. And you’ll look like you’re having the time of your life.’

  Aggie took a step away. ‘No . . .’ she said weakly, but stopped when she felt Rix’s grip on her arm.

  ‘You’ll wear the overall,’ he repeated slowly. He was so close now Aggie could smell the alcohol on his breath. ‘You’ll do the speech, and you’ll smile for the cameras.’

  Aggie opene
d her mouth to protest, but Rix’s grip was so strong it was starting to make her arm go numb.

  Outside, the crowd started to chant ‘OUT OF DARKNESS WE SHINE,’ the Lunar Inc. motto. A sour taste surged in the back of her throat, but she felt strengthened by the noise.

  ‘OK. OK.’ She stepped back from Rix, rubbing her arm. ‘I’ll do it.’

  Rix threw back the last dregs of his LIXR and grinned at Aggie. ‘Good girl.’

  The sparkly, violet Angel costume was tighter than Aggie’s old Analysis one. She pulled at the thick fabric uncomfortably as Rix led her up the steps to the stage. The crowd was deafening now, clapping and stamping and whooping and hollering as the anthem of the United Earth, ‘Into the Light’, blasted from the stage at full volume. Aggie could feel the floor shaking beneath her feet, reminding her of the last time she’d walked on to the stage. She thought of Danny, and wondered if he was watching too, wherever he was. She doubted it, somehow.

  The anthem finished and the crowd hushed.

  ‘Citizens of the United Earth,’ Celeste’s voice boomed, ‘welcome to this special Lunar Forecast, live from G Face.’

  A roar.

  Rix let go of Aggie’s arm and bounded forwards through the curtains onto the stage. Aggie stayed behind, watching Rix as she waited for her cue.

  ‘Please, please.’ The commander beamed.

  He waited until the crowd had calmed down.

  ‘Please. Thank you so much Lunar Inc.-ers! As always, it is a great thing to have you all here on this most exciting of occasions.’ He spread out his arms, indicating the glittering mine around them, ‘We are expanding!’

  A great cheer made the stage rumble beneath their feet.

  ‘Oh, yeah. Feels good, doesn’t it? More lumite, more power for the homes of Earth, for our families. That is something to feel good about, I guess.’

  Another huge roar.

  ‘But, my good, good people. In all this celebration and ceremony, we must not forget that today is also shadowed by sadness.’

  The crowd hushed. Rix paced the stage, his head now hung as if in deep thought.

  ‘Y’know, it’s not an easy time. Not for any of us. We must not forget, of course, but we must not let ourselves be beaten either.’ He paused and looked up, as if holding back tears. But from where Aggie was standing, she could see that his eyes were dry.