Battle Luna

by Travis S. Taylor

  “So, David, you have done it?” The mayor looked excited, nervous, and tired all at the same time. David had seen some of the news boards in what little time he’d had to himself. The tax issues between the Earther companies and the Loonie ones were getting worse. Three mayors including Mayor Hamilton, and two governors of the thirteen lunar colonies had signed an accord proclaiming that those five colonies would not accept nor allow Earth company ships charging taxes on any export cargo to land at their ports whether they were bringing needed goods or not. It must have been weighing heavy on his shoulders.

  “Well, it wasn’t really me, Mr. Mayor.” David cleared his throat sheepishly. “Carla was the one who realized that there was something missing about the wall.”

  “That so, Dr. Pruitt?” Mayor Hamilton gave the post-doc mathematician a politician’s smile.

  “Well, I realized that we were missing something and then Sarah figured out that we needed to look at the wall in the infrared spectrum,” Carla replied. “But we weren’t expecting what we found.”

  “And that would be what exactly?” Hamilton asked.

  “Well, we realized that the people, the . . . eh, the whatevers that built this place, saw deeply into the infrared spectrum and so our human eyes just simply aren’t seeing all the artwork on the walls.”

  “Or the doorknob,” Jerry butted in. David almost laughed as Jerry added, “Um, we found the doorknob, Mr. Mayor.”

  David could see it on the mayor’s face that he wasn’t completely getting the gist of what they were telling him. Thinking about it, none of them truly did either until they put the infrared work goggles on. It was one thing to think about seeing through a completely different rainbow spectrum and a totally other thing to actually see it, experience it, and perceive what is meant by things in that range of lower energy level light.

  “Here sir, put these on.” Sarah handed the mayor a pair of goggles that looked just like the ones that they all had propped up on their foreheads. “See this button here? Hold it down once you get the goggles fit over your eyes and the spectrum will shift to the infrared.”

  David watched as Mayor Hamilton slid the goggles down and from his body language could tell that the mayor was just as flabbergasted as they had been the first time. Hell, David was pretty sure he reacted that way every single time he turned the goggles on. So, he slid his goggles down, pressed the button, and once again was put in awe as the room seemed to light up with icons and two-dimensional drawings of three-dimensional objects. By the door was an outlined circle glowing in the false orange color of the IR goggles. Within the circular placard were two handprints that looked like human hands but had much longer, much skinnier fingers with almost no palm area. One hand pointed upward while the other pointed downward.

  “It’s an elevator door,” Mayor Hamilton stated as he reached out and depressed the downward pointing hand. It lit up and then a shimmer in the doorway appeared. “Holy Hell!”

  “You think that’s crazy, Mr. Mayor? Slip your goggles up and look at the door,” Jerry told him.

  David did the same just to see the look on the mayor’s face.

  “There’s no opening?”

  “Oh, it is there, sir. But somehow or other only the visible light bounces off it and the infrared goes right on through. It’s a perfect way to camouflage a doorway that you wouldn’t want people who see in the visible to find,” David explained. “That suggests that they knew about humans and our eyesight range.”

  “Is it safe to go in?” Hamilton asked.

  “Oh yes. We found some very interesting things,” Sarah said nonchalantly. That surprised David because he didn’t feel there was anything nonchalant about the entire ordeal. “Mostly, it looks like the place was abandoned or vacated a long time ago.”

  “Vacated?” The mayor seemed disappointed. “Abandoned?”

  “Well, there is a piece of, um, equipment I guess you’d say that was either too big to move, or so cheap they didn’t care to leave it behind,” David added.

  “And what is it?”

  “No idea. We just found it yesterday.”

  “Show me.”

  “Tami, I think it’s time we start a bit of subterfuge with the Earthers. Somehow by now, and Benny will figure out what they know through his channels, Earthers must have got wind of us finding an alien gadget up here,” Alton said. He and Nate sat across a tall barroom table from Tamika. Nate owned a pub in almost every colony and each of them had a special room in the back only ever used for “business talks.”

  “Good idea, Alton.” Nate sipped at one of his local brews and looked to be in deep thought. “I could start some rumors through the pub circuit. We’d just need to know what rumors to start.”

  “And I could have an update briefing sent to all the colony security services,” Tami agreed. “I think we start by implying that we’ve moved whatever it is we leak that was found.”

  “Where did we move it to?” Alton thought out loud. “It would have to be a complicit colony.”

  “Shawna at Luna Thirteen?” Nate suggested. “She’s always been on the Free Luna side of things.”

  “Too much and too small as of now. The place needs to be big enough and far enough away that if the Ueys go there we’ll have time to react here.” Alton tapped at his personal data engine tattoo and the three-dimensional projector kicked on. He spun some icons about until a map of the Moon with dots for the colonies appeared before them. “Let’s see just where should we send this thing.”

  “Luna City is plenty big enough,” Tami suggested. “Politically, though, I think they’re still on the fence because of all the Earther tourist money.”

  “I don’t know, Tami, what I’m hearing through the grapevine is that the business owners are getting tired of the cargo import to export ration being too far out of whack. And now with this new tariff,” Nate looked over to Alton and shrugged. “You see this beer? It is damned near perfect. The color is a beautiful gold, fragrance is strong but not pungent, and the taste is just on the edge of ale to bitter. It should be making me millions in sales back to Earth, but the import fees on some of the ingredients plus the export fees on getting it back to Earth makes it profit on the margins. Depending on port fees, some quarters gain, some lose. Guess where I make it?”

  “Luna City?” Tami asked.

  “Luna City,” Nate confirmed. “I’ve had several discussions with the Town Council about it and the governor is starting to listen. It’s just the damned hotel cartels make so much damned money and are keeping the lobby up.”

  “Luna City isn’t right yet.” Alton held up a hand. “Not there.”

  “My younger brother runs a diamond mine down at Luna Eight,” Tami said. “You have good relations with the mayor there.”

  “Luna Eight, the miners buy a lot of the pilsners down there.” Nate held up his schooner. “I funded a lot of the mayor’s campaign.”

  “Luna Eight.” Alton held up his glass. The three tapped schooners gently and drank on it. “So who’s gonna slip up and leak the info to Benny? He’s terrible at poker. He has to think it’s the truth.”

  “What are they gonna do with it, Benny?” the assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Lunar Commerce asked quietly over the beer mug before taking a long swig and in response making a screwed-up face from the taste. Benny almost laughed. Luna Pale Ales took some getting used to.

  “The Loonies like their ales very pale and very hoppy. Makes the ones coming from India back in the day pale in comparison.” Benny laughed at his own pun and noted how his brother-in-law had failed to catch it. “They have to be that way, though. The super hoppiness and high alcohol content keeps the beer good for very long periods of time. We either constantly produce it or make a big batch and store it. Some think it’s cheaper to do the latter. I just know that I’ve made a serious amount of loot selling LPAs back to you Earthers.”

  “The artifact, Benny?”

  “Oh, yeah, well, I dunno. What are they gonna do
with it? Hell, James, I’m not even sure they know exactly what it does yet. Alton really wouldn’t even like the fact that I’m telling you about it right now.”

  “Well, the Loonies can’t keep it for themselves you know.” James-Phillipe Sergeant took a second taste of the pungent lunar beverage. “Do they not serve wine here?”

  “Certainly, but mostly only the tourists and nonlocals drink that stuff in here. You want to stand out? I’ll order you a nice chardonnay from California.”

  “I see. Skip it.” The assistant to the undersecretary forced himself to sip at the mug.

  “I’m not sure how the Earth governments are going to keep the lunar governments from keeping it to themselves.” Benny smiled. “Finders keepers and all that.”

  “No way that will go over with the UNE. The tension over the taxes on the import cargo is bad enough. If Mayor Hamilton tries to keep this for himself there will be Hell to pay,” James-Phillipe replied.

  “Now just hold on, James, what kinda Hell are we talkin’ about?” Benny never liked the idea of physical actions if there was a way to steer a situation toward making money. “There’s bound to be a way we can all make hay here.”

  “Between you and me and this godawful liquid, the secretary general has had enough of the colonies and he has the backing of the driving interests of the Security Council.” James leaned back and sat the mug down as if he couldn’t take it any longer or as though it were a chess piece and he was declaring checkmate—or submitting.

  “Does that include the United States?”

  “It most certainly does.”

  “Well, that changes things, don’t it?” Benny rubbed at his chin briefly in thought but wasn’t sure what his best play would be. He knew that Mayor Hamilton wasn’t going to give up the “thing,” especially if the Earthers wanted it so badly. There was a play, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it yet. The big issue was where he wanted to be standing if the UNE backed by the Big Three of the Security Council showed up and looking for a fight.

  “Benjamin, my friend.” James-Phillipe opened his hands wide, cocked his head sideways slightly, gesturing with a come-here motion of his fingertips. It was clear that James wanted Benny to trust him. “We’ve known each other some time now, brother-in-law. You and my sister do not need to get caught up in the things that are to come. Have you considered an exit strategy from this place? My sister would like to see grass and sky again someday. Can you tell me the exact location of this thing, Benjamin?”

  “You ask a question I’m not sure I know the answer to.” Benny put on his best poker face, picked up his mug and chugged the rest of the lunar pale ale down. He also thought about moving back to Earth. He wasn’t sure that was physiologically possible any longer. He’d been on the Moon for a decade or more and at that point without serious fitness efforts it would be difficult to go back to a six-times-larger gravity field. His wife on the other hand had treated every day they’d lived there like a visit, she had worked out and prepared for a return home religiously. Benny was torn by the situation. He had maintained political loyalty to Alton for years. But James was family. It wouldn’t hurt to tell him what he knew for now. “James-Phillipe, all I know is that the mayor had it moved down to Luna Eight to keep it away from the port squabble going on here at Aldrinville.”

  “I’m telling you, Alton, the Earthers are planning something. My guys in the cargo union are telling me that they’ve been given extra leave hours with directions that they had to use them within the next four weeks. There is more going on here than we know.” Alton Hamilton listened to his friend Nathaniel Ray go on and on about the impending doom, but Nate had always been like that. He mostly based his fortune-telling on the waxing and waning of his alcohol sales. In the end, he was actually a pretty good prognosticator.

  “Nate, just what kind of something could the Earthers be planning?” Alton shrugged. “It takes two days for any transport to get from the Earth to the Moon and we’d know they were coming. Besides, we don’t have any army up here anyway.”

  “That’s my point, Al,” Nathaniel replied. “We are a soft target.”

  “Well, shit, I never thought of it like that.”

  “One good incursion force and they could be down there and grab that thing before we could do jack about it.” Nate always oversold his concerns, but this time Alton thought his friend might be right. “If only that damned alien elevator had a security code on it.”

  “Could you put one on it?” Nate asked.

  “I don’t know. Why not?”

  Nate only shrugged.

  “We need a security plan, militia, police, something . . .” Alton stopped mid-sentence and tapped a button on his desk monitor. “Tamika, get in here to my office as soon as you can.”

  “It’s something the mayor wants,” the construction team foreman was telling Jerry as David approached the “elevator.” But the construction work had it blocked off a good ten meters. Metal walls were going up with lunar concrete being mixed and poured into monolithic upright forms.

  “What is going on, Jerry?” David asked.

  “Security barrier is being constructed and we’ll all be given access codes and biometric identity badges,” Jerry explained. “Apparently, the mayor ordered it. So, I guess we get a couple days off.”

  “Huh, reckon why he decided on that?”

  Carla and Sarah had decided not to take the few days off while the construction crew was building the security barrier and door system for the mayor. Instead, they’d decided to go for a drive. As it had turned out, it was a long drive—a very long drive.

  “Let’s stop here and put out another geophone,” Sarah radioed to Carla. She was white-knuckling the open top buggy as they spun along the edge of a small crater west of Aldrinville. The basaltic-looking rocks mixed in with the lunar soil was a unique visual mix of shiny black and silver flashes in the sunlight. As the buggy came to a rolling stop some of the regolith dust hung in the air in a slowly developing arc. The sunlight glittered through it and split into rainbows at various angles.

  “That’s pretty,” Carla marveled at the diffracted light as she worked her fingers. “Some drive.”

  “Well, we needed to do it,” Sarah agreed with a nod of her suit helmet. “I’ll place this one. You set the coordinates for it in the computer.”

  “I got it.” Carla reached over to the back stowage and slid the tablet out of its cubby. With the tactile fingertips of her suit’s gloves she started working through the menu of the software to log in their current lunar coordinates as the location for geophone number seventeen. “I wouldn’t have thought we’d have to come out this far.”

  “Tell me if you get the signal,” Sarah told her. “Yeah, what are we, a hundred and fifty kilometers now?”

  “Hey, Luna, how far are we from Aldrinville West Dome?” Carla asked.

  “You are currently two hundred and thirty-one point three kilometers from Aldrinville West Dome,” the tablet responded.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes, I am always serious, Carla,” the tablet added.

  “I got it, Sarah. It just popped up.” Carla tapped at a few pull-down menus and then sat the table back in the cubby. “This has to be enough of them.”

  “Can you see the thumper?” Sarah asked.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I already put the computer back. We’ve been out a good while. Wanna head back?”

  “Sure. I suspect David will flip when he realizes what we’ve discovered.” Sarah climbed into the passenger seat and strapped in. “Some brilliant insight of yours there.”

  “I don’t know about brilliant, but somebody had to ask the question.” Carla stepped on the accelerator slowly and turned the buggy pointed eastward.

  “What question is that?”

  “Where exactly the alien stuff is?” she answered. “We’ve just taken for granted that it’s right under the elevator door.”

  “Yeah, I always had,” Sarah agreed.

  “Well
, now we can measure it exactly.”

  David scratched his head with his left hand as he extended the computer tablet with his right. His right arm was just about getting too short for him to continue reading the screen without help, especially in the dim visible lighting of the Artifact Room. A couple months prior his only worries were if there’d be somebody at the coffee shop to shoot the shit with while he wasted away his retirement.

  Had they not found the dang alien printer whatsit and had he not been an expert at linguistics maybe, just maybe he might have made it through the first interplanetary war unscathed. In fact, David was pretty sure that he might not have ever even been involved had he not just happened to be in the right place at the right time, or perhaps it was the wrong place at the right time, or even perhaps the right place at the wrong time. It made his head ache trying to figure it out, but whichever the case it was, he felt as if he were pretty much screwed.

  David had spent more than three months now studying the artifact, object, thing,whatever. He was never happy with what to call it. He wasn’t much of an engineer, but he had tinkered with cars and motorcycles and an occasional busted blender earlier in his life, so he wasn’t mechanically inept, either. Besides, he had scientists, engineers, technicians, and even excavation crews to fall back on even though most of them were lunar mining or construction oriented; in some fashion or other they were all learned. As it had turned out, once they had uncovered the full set of marks David truly was the most suited for deciphering the instructions, if that’s what they were, that were written all over the device.

  The Object was tall; it was at least four meters high. It was about a meter and a half on one of its horizontal dimensions and a good seven meters in the other dimension. In visible light it looked dull and almost like an odd-shaped mechanical device constructed of smooth bluish-black obsidian-like materials. But with the infrared goggles on it was vibrant and had all sorts of writings, drawings, depression- or membrane-type controls, and other mechanisms that would be completely missed by the naked human eye.