The Battle of Broken Moon

by Michael E. Gonzales

  As I lay there, I initiated a system self-test, and all manner of warnings and cautions started flashing before my eyes. So far, there was nothing wrong a little warmth wouldn't take care of.

  "Matt, are you all right?"

  "Jus col."

  "I can't see through your eyes any longer."

  "Be okay...minute."

  "Matt, I detect multiple problems in your neural patterns, but you are safe inside and warming. I want to place you into stasis and perform a deep scan. Do you agree to the procedure?"

  "How...lon?"

  "Fifteen to twenty minutes."

  "Go...on."

  My eyes closed involuntarily. It was like sleeping, except the dreams were infinitely more real. A memory came back to me, just as real as if it were happening all over again. I was back in my cubicle at the IIEA's Lunar Simulation in Arizona. I was on my back in bed and lying to my left was Susan. She sat up on one elbow and looked at me. We were both covered in sweat and still breathing heavily.

  "Wow," she said with a smile.

  I looked up at her. Something seriously drastic had happened to me. I knew it had, but I didn't know what it was. I just looked at her, trying to figure out what just happened to me, marveling at how this woman seemed to be more than—She saw the look on my face, or perhaps the lack of a look.

  "Are you all right?" she asked.

  "Ah, yes, of course. Thank you."

  "What?" she asked, with a whimsical look on her face. "Did you say thank you?"

  "Uhm, yes. Thank you."

  "You're a funny guy."

  "Funny?"

  "Yeah. Not ha-ha. Funny, though."

  "You mean I'm odd?"

  "Yeah, but in a funny way."

  "I don't understand."

  That's the moment when the memory changed. Up to that point, everything was exactly as I remembered it. At that point—this time—the room around us vanished. We were in bed floating in a dark void. Susan sat up next to me and when she spoke, all the playfulness was gone from her voice.

  "Matt, do you know why this was better than with any woman you've ever been with?"

  "How do you know—"

  "Just answer the question, Sergeant."

  "Well, Petty Officer First Class, I don't know why. All I know is that you are remarkable."

  "Remarkable? Is that what you're calling it?"

  "I...I don't know what else to call it. Say, what's happening here?"

  "I had the exact same experience you know. Don't think I've not had my share of rugged, handsome men, but after you, everything changed for me. I'd never been with a man I wanted more than you. Something happened inside me; the difference between us is that I knew it when I saw it. I wanted you to see it too, but you had to tell me, I was not about to hit you with it."

  "Hit me with what…what did you see?"

  "Matt, you are either blind or scared. Which is it?"

  "What?" I sat up to face her.

  "Matt," she took my face in her hands, "I know this is of little comfort to you now, but I fell in love with you."

  My eyes searched her face and I saw there absolute sincerity. It was in her eyes that I saw it. I'd never seen it before, but there it was—and I recognized it at once. Behind her piercing blue eyes the kind of love men write sonnets, songs, and operas about. There was that which I never in my wildest dreams expected to be seeing. My breath stopped, as did my heart.

  "Susan, I wish I had known before."

  "I tried to tell you that last day on the LPC, remember?"

  "I felt it too, Susan. I didn't know at the time. I didn't figure it out until after I got to the Moon and—well…I refused to even mention the word to myself. Oh, Susan, it still hurts so much."

  "I know, darling, I know."

  I felt my eyes fill with tears. "Just once, I would like to have looked into your eyes and said 'I love you'."

  "Mathew, you just did."

  ○O○

  My eyes popped open. I didn't have a heart, but I nevertheless felt it break all over again. I wanted desperately to cry like a small, lost boy, but I couldn't.

  I was lying on the floor of the LPC. There was a summary of the self-test before my eyes. My hands were a mess, but everything else seemed all right.

  I was a little disoriented as I got to my feet. I disconnected the LPC from the umbilical joining us to the plant, moved forward to the driver's seat, and started the vehicle. As I pulled away from the plant with the dream still vivid in my mind, it dawned on me I'd not heard from Ava. "Ava, what did your scan show? Anything?" There was no response. "Ava, you there?"

  "Yes, Matt, I'm sorry." There was an odd sound to her voice. "I have been tracking a spacecraft which has taken up an orbit around the Moon. It has adjusted that orbit so that it will pass directly over JILL. Its orbit is from east to west with a nine degrees derivation off the equator. They are approaching on a heading of 292 degrees on approach from 112 degrees, their altitude is—"

  "Ava, can you contact them?"

  "No, Matt, our COMS are down. Do you not remember?"

  "What is their intention?"

  "I have no data that will allow me to extrapolate an estimate."

  "What is their origin?"

  "Unknown."

  "What type of spacecraft is it?"

  "It appears to be a high Earth orbital station; however, it is equipped with an extraneous engine and high speed maneuvering jets. There are four landing pods attached to the main vessel. Two are designed for landing on Earth as they have atmospheric flight characteristics. The other two are designed specifically for lunar landings."

  "There have been no spacecraft constructed as you describe," I said.

  "Matt. Stop the vehicle."

  I stopped. "What's the matter?"

  "Matt, the vessel is armed with four nuclear weapons. I believe they are setting up an attack run on JILL."

  This answered the question of why a mysterious shuttle landed on that Chinese carrier. "Inform Colonel—"

  "I have already done so. He is taking what measures he can—but Matt, JILL is defenseless."

  "There must be—"

  "The spacecraft has fired one missile. It will impact in forty-seven seconds. They have targeted an area one hundred meters southeast of sector five."

  "Five is unoccupied."

  "Matt, the weapon is a low-yield tactical device of one kiloton. It will cause catastrophic damage out to three hundred meters, heavy damage out to four hundred fifty meters, and general damage out to six hundred fifty meters. Secondary projectiles will be discharged from the epicenter out to five kilometers.

  "There will be a pressure wave inside JILL as the facility pressurized to one atmosphere. There will be none for us as we are in the airless environment on the lunar surface. There will, however, be a thermal energy wave and an EMP.

  "Given our distance and your cyber optics, you run no risk of damage from the intensity of the light.

  "The effective range for the blast's thermal energy is twelve hundred meters. We are about thirty-five hundred meters distant. The population of JILL, at their last known location was twenty-nine thousand meters from the point of impact and protected by the hardened walls of the BSC, so they, too, should be unaffected. Radiation will be negligible."

  Ava had passed this and more information on to me, and the colonel, over Ismay well before the impact.

  "Ava, how will this affect you?"

  "Matt, I have a seventy-seven percent chance of survival."

  "That's a twenty-three percent chance that—"

  "Matt, if I die, do you think my soul will go to heaven?"

  "Your what?"

  To my front left, I saw the light streak out of the sky. It struck the surface, and a nanosecond later, a silent flash of brilliant light erupted. Warnings appeared in my vision and a sort of filter developed over my corneas. Through it, I could see deeper into the blast. Still, the point of impact was nothing but an expanding ball of white hot energy. I could see h
undreds of large pieces of the installation flying in all directions up and out from ground zero, some heading in my direction. I put the LPC in reverse and starting backing away as fast as possible. Regardless, some of the wreckage struck the LPC. Several small pieces struck the hull, and a larger piece struck the right front tire, ripping a huge chunk out of it and knocking it out of alignment.

  "Ava!" I shouted, but there was no response.

  An alarm sounded at the environmental console, the vehicle's hull had been punctured, atmosphere was escaping and, with it, all the heat. The monitor on the console indicated the location of the leak, extreme rear port side. I grabbed the repair kit and headed toward the puncture. I tore away the interior wall and pulled the insulation and radiation barrier back. The hull was ripped open for a length of a meter and change. This kit was designed for micrometeorites that would punch neat little holes—not slice into us like a melon. The leak was nonetheless a slow one, so I opened all the patches and started lining them up on the rip in the places my infrared vision indicated the heat was escaping. I realized this was a Funafuti fix if ever there was one, so I grabbed an Ess-CEPS, quickly put it on, and turned up its internal temp.

  I returned to the driver's seat and placed the helmet on the floor next to me. I started moving forward. The vehicle wobbled and bumped madly, but I was moving.

  I looked again at the site of the impact.

  "Ava!" I shouted into Ismay again. She was not there. Ava was gone. That feeling I'd had when I woke up on the floor came rushing back to me. It just wasn't fair that I should lose so many friends and the one woman I loved in so short a life—and now I'd lost my only companion. I was facing ninety plus years of this? I'd rather not.

  I kept driving toward the garage, not even sure I would find it still there. Without Ava, I was lost, and I just couldn't think of any other course of action.

  Time seemed to have lost meaning for me, as if it had been suspended. I tried to think, but my brain just seemed to want to shut off, to block out all the pain.

  Others were depending on me, I reminded myself. I had to get back to assist the others. But somehow, that just didn't seem to be a priority.

  In my mind, I saw the very clear recording of my dream while in stasis. "I fell in love with you," she had said.

  "Just once, I would like to have looked into your eyes and said I love you."

  "Mathew, you just did. Mathew. Matt. Can you hear me, Matt?"

  "Susan?"

  "Matt, it's me, I am here."

  It was Ava talking over Ismay. She sort of woke me up and I stumbled for words, "Oh...I was...I had—"

  "I'm rebooting my systems all over JILL," she went on. "The EMP hurt me, Matt, but I'm still here, and frankly, Hon, I'm a little pissed off."

  "Ava? Are you all right?" Her demeanor had greatly altered.

  "Fine, why?"

  "No reason. Just making sure. Ah, any more inbound missiles?"

  "No, Matt."

  "What is the extent of the damage? In a nutshell, please."

  "A three-hundred-meter hole has been blasted into the side of the BSC at sector five. I was able to perform a rapid emergency shutdown, or SCRAM, of reactor number three, which is only ninety meters from the site of the damage. It's safe, but offline."

  "Casualties?"

  "No Bio deaths, just minor contusions and a few cases of mild shock. Among the SUBs, they are reporting one temporarily disabled due to the EMP, and one destroyed. Matt, that one is you."

  "Interesting."

  "Indeed. If everyone thinks you're dead, then so does the saboteur, who, no doubt, is in league with those who fired that missile."

  "If this was the work of Oceanic terrorists, why did they not use all their missiles in an attempt to kill as many as possible?"

  "Matt, I believe they launched that missile to shock the survivors within JILL to gain access."

  "Access?"

  "That's right. They have launched one of their two lunar landers. It's headed this direction, and will land near the breach in BSC's hull. They plan on invading."

  "To what end? They made a mighty long trip just to take hostages."

  "I don't know. But these people have a plan and they are executing it with precision. That missile strike was precisely aimed."

  Chapter 10

  Resistance

  I had just started moving the LPC forward again when Ava stopped me. "Matt, don't move."

  "What?"

  "Dammit, stop! Do not move the vehicle. The lander is inbound directly in front of us. If we're moving, they will see us and attack us."

  "You seem to have accessed a new vocabulary and persona there, Ava."

  "Sorry. You remember the firewall I told you about? Well, in rebooting, I managed to access some stuff behind it. Interestingly, I kinda like it. It feels...familiar."

  Before I could pursue that odd statement, the LPC just seemed to shut down. Everything went off. The vehicle went dark.

  "Ava, I have a problem here."

  "No, you don't. I did that, so we'll just look like another piece of debris out here. We don't want any attention."

  As we sat waiting, it grew colder. "Put your helmet on, soldier," Ava said. "They'll be landing in fifteen to twenty mikes, but it’ll take them much longer to get geared up and start moving into the BSC. It's gonna get mighty cold in here."

  I put the helmet on and just sat there, thinking. A lot was starting to sound familiar. Ava was using military jargon she had not used before. There was a difference to her voice, and an increased self-confidence; though present before, it was being exerted more fully now. She no longer seemed willing to simply assist and advise. She was leading. All in all, it made me feel better about our chances, but I couldn't help wondering where it had come from.

  Could it have been—stasis? What parts of me had she accessed while I was in stasis? "Ava?"

  "Yes?"

  "What all did you find during your deep scan of me?"

  "Here, this is a complete report." She sent it via Ismay.

  It took me about a second-and-a-half to read her report. There was nothing in it to indicate she had done anything other than check my CYB systems. But I already knew she was capable of omission.

  "Ava, did you generate or affect my dreaming while you were running that deep scan?"

  "You don't trust me?"

  I felt the ice getting thin. "Ava, you invaded my privacy once before—"

  "Shit, Matt, I told you I would not do that again and I meant it."

  "I'm sorry Ava, it's just that I had a dream that was not part of my memory."

  "Matt, that's why it's called dreaming. It's a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep, wherein the dreamer can have experiences oftentimes referred to as fantasies."

  "I know what a dream is, Ava. I was dreaming a memory that was altered in order to send a message."

  "Something that affects our situation?"

  "No."

  "Something personal?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, there you are. You dreamed something you wanted or desired. A fantasy."

  "No!" She was making me angry. "It was not a damned fantasy. It was real! Susan sent me a message."

  "Su...Susan?"

  "Yes. We were in love."

  "She died?"

  "Yeah. I know what you're thinking, but it's not that way."

  Ava paused, then said, "Petty Officer First Class Susan Myers, United States Navy."

  "How did you know?"

  There was another moment's pause. "201 file."

  "Her 201 file isn't up here. She died on Earth."

  "I don't know, Matt. All I can tell you is that I know about her."

  "You know about her? Why would her information be in your files?"

  Her voice softened. "Not in my files. My memory."

  ○O○

  The hostile lander now came into view. It was of rather unique design, resembling a mushroom. From under the cap of
the thing, four insect-like legs sat, folded in. The engines appeared to be contained in the short stem of the mushroom. Around the edge of the cap were several clusters of windows with corresponding windows on the bottom of the cap. The lander was big—about a hundred twenty-five meters in diameter, and at least five stories tall at the center. It was an even, gray color, perhaps as camouflage once on the surface. There were no markings, no numbers, and no symbols—national or otherwise. Its approach was smooth, fluid-like. It hovered over the shallow crater produced by the blast, its legs extended, and it sat lightly down.

  As Ava predicted, it took them over an hour to assemble their gear and begin to disembark. From six different locations under the cap of the mushroom, platforms descended, each supported by sets of four rods. These elevators were delivering suited groups of armed personnel to the surface.

  The first groups down did as all soldiers are trained to do—they established a security perimeter. When all were on the surface, they formed up in front of what must have been their officers.

  I watched as they deployed their scouts forward to find a way through the wreckage and into the BSC.

  "Ava, are you seeing this?"

  "From fifteen different locations."

  "What about the colonel?"

  "I am providing him the same images."

  "I count eighty-two enemy soldiers," I said whispering for some odd reason.

  "There are one hundred eight. It is a company-sized element containing three platoons of three squads, thirty-six men per platoon."

  "Ava, you're describing a—"

  "I know Matt, a standard infantry company as utilized by the SEPDL—the South East Pacific Defense League."

  "Prevent the spread of the war my ass," I said.

  "It would seem they have changed their—Matt, they've started an attempt to hack into me."

  "You're kidding. How effective are they?"

  "I have already analyzed their attack and the equipment they're using. They have some interesting new hardware, but their software is juvenile and dated. I'll set up some blinds and a trap specifically intended to initiate a context switch to a debugger which I will cause to endlessly loop. I won't destroy their capability, because I plan to turn it on them."

  There was a moment's silence, then she said, "Matt, they are looking for a Dr. Bob Muller. It appears he has something they want. They don't know it, but my records indicate he was in dome forty-five when the Moon swallowed it."