Moonday Read online

  Peter wasn’t really paying attention, but Liam seemed to be doing the same thing repeatedly. He looked up as Liam moaned briefly. Peter watched him as he looked over at Damian. Damian continued looking at his monitor. Peter was puzzled, hadn’t Damian heard him. Peter watched as Liam leaned over and pressed something on Damian’s keyboard. Then he heard that double beep retry tone and asked, “How is it going?”

  The tone of Liam’s voice was a little higher than normal, and his words were slower and deliberate as he replied, “The system’s been searching for a little longer than usual. It’s trying to find a connection from the near-Earth satellite to Columbus.”

  Peter wished that he could just hear the longer successful tone and glanced around the room.

  He heard Damian say, “Let’s run the diagnostics again.”

  For a moment Liam looked at him like he was an idiot, then he nodded and started the diagnostics.

  Peter started practising his speech again to distract himself and to relieve the boredom. He knew he couldn’t help and didn’t want to make the situation worse.

  The diagnostics finished, both Damian and Liam looked closely at the result. Damian shook his head surprised, but still seemed quite relaxed as he said, “Everything seems to be working on our side, but we just don’t have any feedback from Columbus.” He looked over to Liam, and his expression changed as he realised that Liam was worried.

  As soon as he finished practising his speech, Peter looked at the two of them, “Do we have a connection to Earth Base Columbus?”

  Liam opened his mouth to say something as Europa came hurrying in, “Have you looked at the Earth? There aren’t any lights.”

  Liam closed his mouth.

  Damian pulled himself together first and brought a live feed picture of the Earth on to the window wall. As they looked at the picture, almost as if they had planned it, their jaws fell open simultaneously in surprise. The part of the Earth in daylight seemed normal but the part in darkness, where you could always see the street lights, was dark.

  Peter was relieved as Europa cleared her throat to begin speaking. He was still shocked and hadn’t quite pulled himself together. The three of them turned to Europa listening attentively.

  Europa was standing almost in the middle of the communications area. She seemed more open, more vulnerable than normal. Her pain, which normally wasn’t visible, was evident on her face, “The Columbus scientists have been playing a prank on and off for weeks. When they’re done with the telescope, point it towards Earth. The first time I complained.” She paused and swallowed, “I don’t think the first time was intentional. But they obviously thought it was funny to annoy me because I had to reset the telescope regularly. When I saw the picture today, I thought they had done me a favour by bringing back the telescope where I’d left it.”

  Somewhat sceptical, Damian asked, “But I thought the telescope didn’t work while the shields were closed.”

  A little surprised, Europa looked at Damian and replied, “Yes, of course, you’re right. Last Thursday morning, I finished early and handed the telescope over to Columbus for a few hours before the closure.”

  Damian nodded, he accepted Europa’s explanation.

  Europa folded her arms, looked at him and said, “But it doesn’t change anything, the Earth remains dark.”

  His speech preparations forgotten, Peter seemed to wake up, “Try and connect again.” His voice sounded harsh. He couldn’t believe it. He needed more information to be able to assess the situation. He looked at Europa, “The telescope stays set up pointing towards Earth.”

  “It’s not a normal telescope. It’s designed to take long, slow exposures observing very distant objects. The Earth is too close.”

  Peter looked at her sternly.

  She capitulated, “Okay, it is possible, but in order to do that, I’ll have to recalibrate the telescope and that disturbs my work.” Europa didn’t want to jeopardise her research. She looked at Damian and Liam, surely, they’d soon be able to make contact again.

  “Just do it.” Peter sounded angry. He didn’t have any patience for excuses.

  As Europa left the room, Peter said, “We’ll meet in two hours in the meeting room.” Then he turned to Liam and Damian, “Some of the satellites that are in near-Earth orbit for observational purposes are controlled directly from Columbus. I know we don’t have direct access. But can you try to hack one of them?”

  Damian was impressed that Peter knew that and replied, “It’s not that simple, but we’ll try.” Damian looked at Liam, who shrugged, they both knew that hacking satellites was explicitly forbidden in their employment contracts, and neither of them wanted to lose their job. If they were successful, it could cost them their job. They decided to continue trying to re-establish the connection for now.

  Peter left with the words, “See you in the meeting room in two hours.”

  Peter went back to his office. He needed a moment alone. He wasn’t sure if they had an emergency procedure. He thought of Meichun and asked her if there was an emergency plan? There wasn’t one.

  Peter sat down and held his head in his hands. He let an overwhelming feeling of panic sweep over him. Everything had worked out fine last year. They must have done something wrong. Somehow made a mistake with the connection. The problem had to be on their side. Something was wrong on the Moon Base. He tried to think what it could be. He took off his captain’s hat and put it on his desk before he stroked his beard. He snorted with frustration and said very quietly, “We’re not coping with the gravity of the situation.” He felt the beginnings of tears welling up in his eyes. For the first time since the incident, he thought of his wife. How was she doing? He was worried and felt helpless, but he knew he couldn’t do anything. He put his captain’s hat back on, sat up straight and he pulled himself together. He was responsible for the entire Moon Base. He couldn’t let himself be distracted by his wife’s situation. He could think about it later, but not now.

  He felt the brim of his hat between his fingers and tried to be honest with himself. He knew the problem was probably on Earth, but what could be the cause of it. He tried to remember if there had been anything special on the news just before the Annual Closure. He couldn’t think of anything. Nothing had struck him as unusual. Maybe Meichun could work through the news with her Big Data module. Maybe she could find something for him.

  “Meichun, I need your help.” When he heard his voice, he wondered, am I asking the program Meichun, or am I praying to the real Meichun?

  He asked her to analyse the news for the few weeks before the Leonid closure, to see if there was anything unusual that could explain the situation.

  Before she started, Meichun warned him that the information needed updating. It was missing the last four days.

  He over exaggeratedly raised his eyebrows and shook his head gently. He stopped himself from exclaiming angrily, “Like I don’t know that.” He took a deep breath calmed himself and prayed that she would find something.

  It took Meichun less than two minutes to get the results. There were two topics that had gotten the most attention and they had the hashtags #Redo and #WaterPolitics. Hashtag #Redo referred to improved Re-Do Recycle machines and hashtag #Water policy was about a political summit on water sources. The second topic got the most lines in the Intellinet newspapers. Countries without a coastline were complaining about other countries polluting and endangering their water sources. They also complained about the costs of transporting water because they were getting higher and higher.

  He thanked Meichun and thought of the saying, “Big Data - no information.” Frustrated he took off his hat and placed it on his desk. He wondered if the Happynet could contribute something useful. He knew the information was unsourced and unreliable, and they only uploaded a fraction of it, but sometimes it was fun to look at the theories. He started watching a conspiracy video and didn’t realise how fast time was passing. Soon it was time for the meeting.

  With a nimble
finger movement, he saved his notes. He would need them at the crisis meeting. From Thursday to Sunday was only four days. He shook his head and stood up. They’d been separated from the outside world for four days, and there was no indication in the news of what could have happened. As he walked through the door, he paused for a moment, he had the feeling in the pit of his stomach that he had forgotten something. He shook his head to shake off the feeling before continuing.

  His captain’s hat was still on his desk.

  They met in the meeting room on the Moon floor next to the infirmary. When Peter arrived, everyone was already sitting in their seats waiting. They were whispering to each other frantically. As he stood at the end of the table, the noise level gradually dropped until the muttering became silent. Everyone was looking at him anxiously. He could see in their faces that they wanted an explanation.

  The picture of Earth was being projected on to the window wall opposite Peter. He looked at it briefly. Still no lights on the dark part of the Earth. He hadn’t really expected any, but he’d still hoped anyway. He looked at Damian.

  With a grave expression Damian shook his head, he mouthed, “No luck.”

  Liam, who was sitting next to Damian, looked for the umpteenth time at the mobile communication device lying on the table in front of him. The device remained quiet.

  Peter sat down and glanced at his notes before he spoke, “You already know why we’re having this meeting.” Peter’s voice sounded serious and appropriately sombre for bad news.

  Everyone sitting around the table nodded. Some were staring at the table while others looked directly at Peter. It didn’t matter where they were looking they all looked sad and a little lost.

  “We haven’t been able to restore contact with the Earth Base Columbus - and we’re not sure how long it will take to find a solution.” He looked at Damian and Liam as he said, “Damian and Liam are working on a solution to the problem.” He stopped and wondered how much he should say. They’re adults. Surely, they can handle the truth.

  “I’m sorry, but it seems the problem is with Earth Base Columbus.” Why had he apologised? It wasn’t his fault. “But I’m sure the problem is only temporary, and I’ll let you all know as soon as we are back in touch with Columbus.”

  He faltered and cleared his throat and reached for the brim of his captain’s hat. It was a habit that comforted him. He was surprised that the cap wasn’t there, and it confused him for a second. The hat didn’t make him Moon Major, he was the Moon Major and it didn’t matter whether he was wearing the captain’s hat or not, he was still the Moon Major. He straightened his back, held his head high and continued, “I know you’re all waiting for video mails from your families. It’s a special holiday season for the people at home too, and they’re waiting for our messages too. We just need to be a little patient. I am sure we will have communications up and running soon and -”

  Maria interrupted him, “Why did we have to close the shields anyway? We could have just left them open.” There was a faint wobble in her voice.

  Compassionately, Peter looked at Maria, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say to her.

  Europa answered the question literally, “The Leonids sometimes come as meteor storms, which could overload our automatic defence systems. That’s why we use the shields and a negative gravity field to support the defence system. It is unfortunate that the bulky shields block communication, so we lose contact.” Europa looked smug.

  In order to try and ease the depressed mood, Peter said, “Let’s not forget that we were on vacation, and surely Columbus will get back in touch soon. Does anyone have anything to report?”

  Paul and Filip looked at each other and laughed then Filip explained, “Paul drank his first whisky. We have a lot of bottles in the tourist stores, and most of the bottles are very old. Older than Paul, and some even older than me.” At the ripe old age of twenty-five, Filip felt very experienced and looked upon Paul as a child at the young age of nineteen, “There are even older whiskies are in the elite tourist store, and also some in Mars stores as well.” He smiled broadly and seemed proud of his knowledge.

  A few of the others joined in the laughter it helped Peter to relax and he felt the mood in the room lighten.

  Before the laughter had fully died down Beatriz asked, “Do we know what happened?” She looked surprised as if she hadn’t meant to ask.

  Peter remained calm and answered, “Meichun has analysed the news of the last few weeks looking for clues. She has come up with two suggestions. The most popular topics are improved Re-Do Recycle machines and a political summit on water resources.” His voice sounded flat.

  With a little more energy, he managed to say, “Of course, Meichun is missing the information from the last four days just like we are.” Thoughtfully, he added, “I guess we’ll have to ask her the right question if we want a sensible answer.”

  He looked around to see if anyone wanted to say anything. They avoided looking at him and no one said anything, so he carried on, “I don’t know if it’s worth it for all of us to go looking for a cause.” He said it even though he knew that they would. They needed the Happynet to distract them, to take comfort from the tiny shots of dopamine induced by the stealth marketing techniques. He wanted to do that as well, to sink into the Happynet and forget everything for a while. The price was just a waste of time, not a hangover or long-term consequences when you didn’t overdo it. But he was a little worried about the uncontrolled freedom of speech that existed in the Happynet, and he didn’t want anyone believing any of those crazy conspiracy theories.

  “The information in the Intellinet is out of date. We are missing the last four days. It is highly unlikely that we will find anything.” Europa informed Peter factually.

  Peter smiled at Europa and nodded in agreement, of course she was going to get her information from the Intellinet. Then trying to be more upbeat he asked, “Okay, any more questions?”

  Maria cleared her throat, everyone looked at her as she whispered slowly, “Is everyone dead?”

  Despite the low volume of her question, everyone heard clearly what she asked. All eyes turned immediately to Peter.

  The first thought that popped into his head was, “my wife is dead.” He leaned forward in his seat and covered his mouth with his hands. Unconsciously he held his breath. He felt his head shaking gently in his hands, his heart, his body were denying the statement. That wasn’t possible. He breathed out loudly. He’d know, he was sure he’d know if his wife was dead. He managed to sound reasonable as he replied, “No, certainly not. I assume everyone is still alive, but we’ve just lost communications. Let’s not jump to conclusions.”

  Paul, who wanted to help, suggested, “Maybe there was a war and they destroyed the whole world within four days.”

  With a sceptical expression, Liam looked at him and said condescendingly, “We would still be able to see the flames of destruction.”

  With morbid curiosity Steve asked, “Even with a nuclear war? If they were all bombed out and everything was complete evaporated?”

  Liam replied a little disconcerted by Steve’s vision, “Nevertheless, we would see them, with a nuclear war there would still be fire and flames.”

  Maria added in a small voice, “In an extreme weather event, there might not be any flames. Storms don’t cause many fires, and we haven’t yet been able to bring global warming under control.”

  Speculating on the topic was helping no one, Peter took control of the meeting again, “Back to the agenda. Do we have everything we need for the next few days?” Again, he was confronted with silence. Peter looked at them and thought, we need to keep busy. We need to try and not think about the situation. They need something to do, “The solar systems are due for their regular maintenance and could also do with a clean.”

  Peter looked at Charlie and smiled, “Maybe there’s just not enough power, so the signal isn’t strong enough, and after we clean them everything will be fine.” Peter kn
ew it didn’t make any sense and that it was just a crazy idea, but he didn’t regret saying it.

  Against Peter’s expectation, Liam reacted with understanding, “Good idea, brainstorming is a great method for finding new ideas. It’s conceivable that the signal strength wouldn’t be enough if the current flow from the solar panels is too low. But then if the solar panels get dirty, from a solar storm or something, and don’t produce enough electricity, the nuclear fusion reactor kicks in automatically to keep the electricity flow constant.” He looked at Peter, “We have enough fuel in stock to last for a few hundred years.”

  Charlie felt left out and added, “The solar systems have a ninety percent exposure to the Sun. Even when we are in a lunar night, they are still in the sunshine.”

  John turned to Peter and asked, “Is there anything we can do to restore contact?”

  Peter looked at John and felt sorry for him. He guessed he was thinking of his family, “Damian and Liam are trying to re-establish contact, but Columbus has full control over their satellites. So, we don’t have any access. This scenario wasn’t foreseen, and we don’t have a contingency plan. We’re in the process of creating one.” Peter smiled at his weak attempt at humour.

  Damian sat bolt upright, looked at his son and said, “We want to go home.” Filip nodded. He agreed with his father. Damian continued, “We want to terminate our employment contract and fly home.”

  Surprised, Peter replied, “Cancellation of a contract is only possible in special circumstances and they need to be agreed with Earth Base Columbus.”

  “What options do we have?” asked Damian, his voice sounded deep, controlled and hard.

  Peter tried his best conciliatory tone and said, “Not everyone wants to go back, and we need three people per escape pod before we can launch, otherwise we wouldn’t have enough escape pods for everyone.” He pondered briefly, “And we’ll have to wait for an optimal flight day.”