Moonday

by J F Clayton

  Peter looked at Europa, “Please.”

  “Okay, I’ll run some computer simulations, then we’ll know where they’ll land, and I’ll point the telescope there when the time comes. But I can’t help it if there are clouds.” She wasn’t happy and was even beginning to feel a little guilty.

  Europa sounded frustrated and annoyed as she complained, “This year’s shortest perigee is on 14 December. It was foolish to travel now. December is only six months away. Why didn’t they wait?”

  “Filip explained to me that there are only thirty-three km between June perigee and December perigee. It doesn’t make much difference to the duration of the trip, does it?” There was a conciliatory tone in Paul’s voice.

  Europa replied annoyed, “I know.” Before she turned abruptly and left them without saying goodbye.

  The three remaining paid little attention to Europa as she left the entrance area in a huff. They were concentrating on the launch site. After a short while and without speaking to anyone in particular, Beatriz said, “I examined their bone and muscle strength. There weren’t any problems, they’d all prepared well and done the official returning exercise routines.”

  Peter seemed pensive and continued watching the launch site, “John was one of our replacement pilots. We’re losing a replacement pilot. If we ever need to fly home, we’d only have Steve as our pilot.” Peter snorted briefly of course Steve was trained as a pilot. He’d learnt everything he could. He’d been determined to get to the Moon.

  Peter turned to Paul and asked seriously, “Would you like to be trained as a replacement pilot?”

  “Really? That’d be great.” Paul’s enthusiasm showed clearly in his grin and shining wide-opened eyes.

  Peter could almost hear the eagerness dripping from his voice. Peter nodded, and his smile came from deep within him as he said, “Then let’s do it.” Peter knew that they didn’t need pilots for the escape pods, they were pre-programmed to fly to Earth but he thought it wouldn’t hurt if they had more pilots just in case Columbus sent a shuttle. He returned his attention to the window wall and the launch. He noticed odd bits of debris surrounded by Moon dust blowing in the exhaust. The escape pod’s ignition sequence had started. It occurred to him how quiet it was. It was quieter than the launches he had witnessed on Earth when he was a child. Peter’s eyes followed the ever-smaller escape pod. He could feel the balance of his emotions tipping towards worry as the hopefulness of the returners got further and further away.

  Paul was looking at the launch site, and pointed before saying, “Look, part of the launch stabilising equipment has fallen over. I’ll tell Liam. We can send the robots to see what’s going on.”

  Peter nodded and thought for a moment how fragile the Moon Base was. Liam had already told him that the Moon Base wouldn’t last forever and that they needed to keep up with the regular maintenance. Peter knew that they had enough spare parts in stock to last for years, and they even had some equipment for a larger base, for the Mars Base. Really the Moon Base was just a staging area. Peter asked with an empty voice, “Do we have everything in stock?”

  Paul smiled, “I don’t know, but I know that we have forty-year-old whisky.”

  Peter responded to Paul’s smile, “What kind of whisky?”

  Paul frowned and shrugged his shoulders. His voice had a higher pitch than normal, “I just know it’s forty years old.” He shook his head and looked a little lost as he continued, “I don’t know.”

  Peter laughed softly, “No problem. Go and get some and we’ll meet in my office in half an hour.”

  A smile radiated from Paul as he scurried off to the warehouse.

  Beatriz looked at Peter and said, “That’s good of you.”

  Peter nodded. She could see he was busy with his thoughts. She listened attentively as he said, “There is nothing else to do but wait.” He stopped and looked at her, “Perhaps, they’ll be able to send a report, or maybe they won’t.” They looked at each other knowing that they must be prepared for the worst. Peter wondered if Beatriz knew how to prepare because he knew he didn’t.

  Beatriz gave Peter a careful warm hug. He looked like he needed a hug. For a few comforting moments she listened to his rhythmic, calming breathing and she hoped hers had the same calming effect on Peter. Beatriz slowly freed herself from his strong arms and gently with the palm of her hand she felt his smoothly shaved cheek. He hadn’t been crying. She smiled caringly and told him in an encouraging tone, “Go back to work. Nothing will happen for two or three days.”

  Peter took her hand, squeezed it lightly and thanked her. They didn’t know who smiled first, and it wasn’t important to them either. Then Beatriz turned around and left.

  Peter stood there alone, looking at the empty launch site. He wondered what was going to happen to the escape pod. He was worried for them, maybe there was nothing to go back to. He suppressed his negative thoughts and concentrated on the launch site. It was taking longer than on Earth for the fine Moon dust to fall back to the ground. Peter watched the dust settling patiently, and as it occurred to him that it was time to go and join Paul, he stroked his cleanly shaven chin, and thought maybe he should grow a beard. If they made it, he might need to do a first report. He smiled hopefully and skilfully suppressed his doubts.

  First wait

  Date: Monday 12th June 2141 – 09:07 CET

  Location: Alpha 12 – Moon Base

  Meichun was attempting small talk with Peter, who was only half-heartedly listening. She was chatting about the weather on the Moon and whether they had weather on the Moon as there was no atmosphere, but they did have solar winds. Every now and then he’d say an encouraging word. He wasn’t quite sure why an AI Program would want to learn small talk.

  Relaxed and leaning back, he was sitting comfortably in his chair, staring at the ordinary white ceiling. His coffee cup was within reach and he was wondering if he should have another sip before the coffee got too cold. He glanced at the coffee and saw that his captain’s hat was next to the coffee cup. He had already brushed and cleaned it this morning. It was reassuring and relaxing when he cleaned it himself, but that didn’t stop him from letting the Sauberbots clean it once a month.

  Absentmindedly, Peter touched his chin and felt his eight-day beard, which had already been growing four days too long and reminded himself that today he should really bring everyone together and officially discuss the lack of contact from Damian and his team. He slipped down in his chair and held his face in his hands as he sighed and thought it was his duty to lead the Moon Base. He sat up a little. He should take action, but he was enjoying the excuse of waiting. When he announced that the waiting was over, there would be nothing left to hope for. He felt deflated and knew he needed to stop himself before the depressed mood took over his thoughts. He thought of Steve and wondered if he had already started pilot training with Paul. They had a lot of computer simulations to start practicing with. He grinned. Maybe he should try it himself.

  He stroked his chin and felt his beard, ignoring Meichun he closed his eyes and imagined himself cleanly shaved. Maybe he should shave before the meeting. He moved his centre of gravity and the chair tilted forward. He pulled himself up and reached for his coffee cup. His eyes opened wider. The hot liquid was wobbling. He stared at the surface of the coffee. The small waves became stronger and faster. One word popped into his mind, “MOONQUAKE!” The lights in the room switched over to the emergency lighting. He grabbed his captain’s hat and automatically put it on before hiding under the table.

  It was cramped under there and he was squashed up awkwardly. It took him a few seconds before he realised what he had done. He shook his head at his behaviour as he realised that his kindergarten earthquake training had taken over. He could feel the Moon Base still shaking and he wondered, was it necessary to hide under the table during a moonquake. The Moon Base was secure. He felt a little embarrassed that he’d forgotten his Moononaut training and looked at the clock on the wall. He hadn’t looke
d at what time it began. He didn’t know how many minutes or seconds had passed. He guessed that it hadn’t been that long.

  It was now four minutes since he looked at the clock and the Moon Base was still quaking. He reassured himself that, he wasn’t in a hurry and decided to stay under the desk. After five minutes he started to get the feeling that it was lasting too long and could feel beads of sweat forming on his forehead. His breathing got quicker. He’d only experienced earthquakes that lasted up to around two and a half minutes. This was going on too long. He focused on his breathing. He didn’t want to lose control and panic. He slowed down his breathing and stopped gasping for air and tried to regain control of his body, but the sinking feeling in his stomach remained.

  At six minutes, he could taste the sinking feeling in his stomach and he wondered did he have quake sickness, was it just him shaking, was he imagining it? He heard something fall over on his desk and it jolted him out of his growing panic. It wasn’t just him. It was still quaking. He concentrated on his breathing and tried to calm down.

  At eight minutes he’d got used to the shaking and started to feel a little silly. He lowered his eyes and looked at the ground. He would have liked to believe that if there was an emergency, that he would behave like a superhero, but here he was sitting under the table with a suspected case of quake sickness. At least he was wearing his captain’s hat. He felt ashamed of himself, but at the same time he did wonder whether quake sickness was a real illness.

  Peter felt suddenly dizzy. Then he realised that the moonquake was over. He glanced over at the clock. Nine minutes. He looked to his left and right before he crawled out from under the table. He held onto his chair as he pulled himself up and stretched his back and arms. He glanced around the room. Everything seemed to be intact. Except his wife’s picture had fallen over. He lifted it up and put it gently back in place. Otherwise there seemed to be no damage in his office. He felt relieved as the normal lights came back on.

  As he sat down in his chair he considered the situation, they had often experienced moonquakes in the Moon Base, but never one as strong as this. Most of the time he hadn’t even noticed anything was happening. The previous moonquakes, and there’d already been eight major ones within the last twenty months, often took place on or around the Moon’s day-night cycle. He pondered for a moment, he thought they weren’t due for the next change from day to night. He frowned. He wasn’t sure. The other moonquakes had been smaller. He’d only noticed two of them, and then hardly at all, he’d been impressed by how efficiently the damping behaviour of the Moon Base had worked. It worked so well that he’d slept through the other six. He hadn’t even thought about them until today. He knew that the Moon Base had been built to withstand strong moonquakes. But this quake was stronger, bigger and had lasted a lot longer than the previous moonquakes and it made him feel uneasy.

  He turned to look at Meichun, he knew it wasn’t necessary, but it just felt politer, “How are you?”

  “Shaken, rattled and now rolling.” Meichun sounded happy.

  Peter frowned. It annoyed him that she sounded happy. He saw no reason why she should sound so positive. Still stood up, Peter called Liam, “That was a moonquake, wasn’t it? Is there any damage? Can you run the Moon Base diagnostic?” He barely paused enough to breathe, “Paul and Charlie should do a visual inspection before we send the drones to perform a more detailed structural inspection.”

  Liam waited briefly until he was sure that Peter had babbled everything he wanted before emphasising, “There’s no reason to panic. The quake was at a shallow depth of about 22 kilometres below the surface, and only a few kilometres from the Moon Base. The seismometers show exactly what happened.”

  Peter remained silent, and let Liam convince him that everything was okay. He felt the stable, reassuring tones in Liam’s voice calming him.

  “The Moon Base was designed to withstand even stronger quakes. We shouldn’t feel anything at all when it is lower than five on the Richter scale. Although, if the quake exceeds a certain energy, the emergency systems switch on automatically and start trying to dissipate the energy. Then we feel the base moving a little. Today’s event only lasted about ten minutes. However, we feel the effects for a few minutes afterwards as well.” Liam looked at the seismometers, “Actually, the Moon is still quaking. The damping system of the Moon Base can contain the lower energy levels.” He smiled at Peter. “So, we can’t feel it anymore.”

  “The emergency lights came on.”

  Liam kept his voice level. He could still remember his first big moonquake, “I’ve experienced such incidents several times over the last six years.” Liam looked at Peter who was still pale and continued explaining, “The lights dim, and the emergency lights come on because the Moon Base is trying to save energy. It needs it to dissipate the quake energy through its damping mechanism. You haven’t experienced anything like this yet because it doesn’t happen often. It’s just a safety system.”

  The colour slowly returned to Peter’s face.

  Liam continued, “There are a lot of moonquakes. We don’t notice most of them because they’re too small and our Moon Base is very stable.”

  Peter managed a weak smile, “We’ll get together in twenty minutes, and thank you for understanding. I think I’m still a little shocked.”

  Liam nodded glad that the conversation was over.

  Peter sent a message to everyone at the Moon Base. “In twenty minutes in the meeting room. Please.”

  Peter sat down again and took a few deep breaths. On autopilot, he made a few notes and sent them to the meeting room. He looked around, did he have everything? He reached up and touched his hat. Well, at least he had his captain’s hat on. He got up to leave and paused. He wanted to stop by Liam’s before he went to the meeting. He looked around again, had he forgotten something? As he left, heading towards the communications area he didn’t notice his still warm coffee sitting on the desk.

  Liam showed Peter the Moon Base seismometers. It was reassuring to look at the scientific measurements. Peter knew it didn’t change the facts, but it felt better, as if he had more control of the situation and he was able to smile again. He asked Liam if he wanted to walk to the meeting with him. Liam nodded with a small amused smile.

  Peter entered the meeting room and announced to the assembled group, “That was an adventure. First, I’d like to determine the damage assessment.” Nobody was listening to him. They were standing around Paul and laughing. Frowning, Peter looked over at what they were looking at, what on Earth was that? It looked like a toolbox with wheels.

  Peter cleared his throat. Maria smiled, turned briefly to Peter and ignored him as she pointed at the toolbox and said, “Look at him. Isn’t he cute?”

  The light, carefree atmosphere in the room stood in contrast to his state of mind, and he felt the tension melting away. His curiosity was piqued, “Okay, what is it?”

  Paul smiled broadly, stood up straight and said, “A gift from Filip.” Grinning, Paul looked at the others, and explained for the tenth time, “It’s a toolbox with wheels and it behaves like a dog.”

  Peter shook his head.

  Paul’s voice sounded cheerful and he gobbled his words as he continued with his explanation, “I had no idea that Filip had left a present for me. I didn’t find it until yesterday. There was a riddle that I had to solve before I could find it.” He straightened his back proudly, “He wrote, if I solved it I would get a present.”

  Paul was finding it almost impossible to contain his excitement. He wanted to show them his new toy. He ordered his toolbox, “Stay.” Then Paul walked quickly away from the toolbox. The toolbox stayed where it was. Paul giggled, “Isn’t it fantastic.”

  Steve mocked, “What’s so special about that. A toolbox doesn’t move. That’s normal.”

  Paul went red. Steve’s comment wasn’t fair at all. He was insulting Filip’s present. Paul glared at Steve then he ordered the toolbox, “Heel.” The toolbox turned on its tiny
wheels and slowly rolled to Paul’s heel. Paul looked at Steve and gloated briefly, before he held out his hand and said to the toolbox, “Stay.” Then he walked to the other end of the room and said excitedly, “Come here.” The small wheels of the toolbox clinked as it moved towards Paul. When it got there Paul, with a broad smile, patted it and said, “Good dog.” The toolbox’s wheels squeaked as it turned quickly, and Peter thought, it sounds as if it’s having fun.

  Maria clapped her hands, laughed and enthusiastically said, “He needs a name.”

  “Okay, sit down, please.” Peter tried to sound serious.

  Still boisterous and joking, they all obeyed reluctantly, except Paul, who remained standing to attention.

  Peter shook his head slightly from side to side and smiled as he answered Paul’s pleading look, “Yes, he can stay.”

  Paul jiggled a little from pure excitement and smiled broadly as he ordered the toolbox to come directly next to his seat. As discreetly as possible, Paul leaned slightly to the side and patted the toolbox gently.

  Peter noticed Paul’s movement and guessed what he was doing. It made it very difficult for him to be serious as he tried to call the meeting to order and said, “The moonquake was an adventure.” He briefly looked at them to see how they were doing before he continued, “This was our first moonquake above 5.5 on the Richter scale and I’d like to determine if there was any damage.”

  Peter nodded in Liam’s direction for him to take over, “I’ve experienced several quakes over the last six years. There wasn’t anything unusual this time.” He glanced over to Peter, “The Moon Base is built to regulate itself. Mostly you never notice the quakes, because the system works efficiently but occasionally with high energy levels it needs to shake a little to disperse the energy. I will still send the robots to be extra thorough during the normal weekly structural inspection.”

  Liam looked over to Charlie, who smiled and looked at Maria, “At first, I was a little worried during the moonquake.” He smiled at Maria again, “But I knew the Moon Base was very stable and we were safe. I haven’t noticed any damage from the preliminary checks.”