Moonday

by J F Clayton

  Peter watched him handling the certificate carefully and thought he’s going to expect this next year. I’ve done it twice, and it’s now become a custom.

  Patrick looked around and asked, “Why didn’t Liam come?”

  Peter replied quickly, “He’s got a lot of work and can’t come today.”

  Somehow it sounded like a lie to the others, but nobody said anything. Paul distracted Patrick, “Who has the same birthday as the Moon?”

  Patrick laughed amused and lifting his chest in pride, “I have the same birthday as the Moon.”

  Paul agreed enthusiastically, “And today is Moonday.”

  Patrick was enjoying the attention and was proud of himself, “I saw moonflowers with Maria. I had to get up really early.”

  Steve turned to Maria, “You could easily have been two hours late for sunrise in the main garden.”

  Maria replied angrily, “I know, but I don’t want to confuse the plants. They’re used to their daily routine.”

  Steve mocked, “There are solar eclipses on Earth, and they don’t hurt the plants.”

  Maria countered, “Solar eclipses only last a few minutes and it never really goes completely dark, at most it resembles twilight.”

  This prompted Europa and she remembered her present, she announced to Patrick, “My present to you is a poster of our solar system, and I’ll explain about the celestial bodies in our solar system if you want.”

  Dervla put her hand on Europa’s arm and said, “He’s too young for the cosmos explanation. Wait a few years.”

  Europa nodded and accepted Dervla’s observation.

  Peter suggested, “How about eating cake before lunch.” Steve started cutting up the cake and Charlie passed the plates around. Everyone seemed happy to be there and eating cake.

  Peter looked the people around him and thought on such days it was fun to live in the Moon Base. And then he thought, “Today is Moonday.” Then laughed as he dropped some cake on his front.

  Moonday Eight

  Date: Thursday 2nd October 2149 – 09:03 CET

  Location: Alpha 12 – Moon Base

  Standing behind Patrick, Beatriz put her hands firmly on his shoulders trying to get him to sit still. She held him for a short while trying to calm him with her steady breathing. As soon as she let him go he started squirming in his chair.

  He couldn’t sit still. He was already bored of his birthday medical examination and wanted to go and find Paul. He looked imploringly at Beatriz. It was his eighth birthday and he was sure Paul knew about the presents, his presents.

  With a wave of her hand that indicated Patrick could go, Beatriz gave up on the medical examination. She’d finished the necessary tests and knew she could finish up without him.

  Patrick grinned broadly and jumped off the chair landing awkwardly before raising his arms and waving them madly over his head as he ran out of the infirmary looking for Paul.

  Beatriz watched him go and observed his movements with her trained medical eye as he ran through the doorway. His balance and running style were fine. She was pleased that the rheumatism medication was keeping the pain in his legs and hips under control. Then she remembered his smile, he had John’s smile. Beatriz smiled to herself and thought with each birthday he seemed to resemble John more and more, but she didn’t know for sure, who the father was. That remained Dervla’s secret. It puzzled Beatriz because she couldn’t believe that if John was the father how he could have returned to Earth before Patrick was born. She was curious but respected Dervla’s privacy. If Dervla wanted to tell she would.

  Beatriz turned to Dervla, “He’s in good health. The drugs are working well.”

  Dervla was looking at the monitor and reached out with her hand almost tapping the display, “Are we running enough tests. I’m worried because we don’t know all the effects of raising a child on the Moon.”

  Beatriz looked at her and tried to judge how serious she was before she nodded and agreed, “This is the first time and you’re right we don’t know what to look for, but we are monitoring his health and he seems to be developing perfectly normally.”

  Dervla didn’t appear to be fully concentrating on the conversation, “I’d like to know if we could make some improvements to our DNA to make life in space easier.”

  Beatriz waited a moment before she answered. She had the feeling that Dervla might reveal something about her research, when she did answer she spoke slowly and as neutrally as she could, “Theoretically to achieve a better chance of survival in space, it would be good if we could strengthen bones and make the muscle mass more resistant to wasting away.”

  Dervla nodded still deep in thought, “And the ability to fight the effects of cosmic radiation, perhaps with an improved immune system. This could prevent cell mutation and improve the body’s ability to heal itself.”

  Beatriz replied light-heartedly, “Unfortunately, we are not Superman.” She continued watching Dervla, who seemed lost in her thoughts.

  In a very soft tone Dervla said slowly, “I used artificial insemination for him, for Patrick.” Then she looked at Beatriz.

  Beatriz returned the look and nodded. She wanted to indicate that she had heard but didn’t know how to respond. Thoughts were racing through her head: Patrick did resemble John, it was possible that John didn’t know that he had a son when he chose to return to Earth. Her mouth opened a little and she stared at Dervla. She didn’t dare say anything.

  Dervla’s voice remained quiet and deep and she looked down at the floor as she said, “I didn’t want to miss the chance to have a child.” She looked Beatriz in the eyes, “I wanted to make it happen and thought it wouldn’t be possible without artificial insemination.”

  Beatriz kept her voice neutral and slowly asked, “Was it just one egg or were there others?”

  Dervla replied factually, “There were several.”

  Beatriz was curious, and struggled to keep her voice steady as she asked, “How did you decide which egg to use?”

  Dervla reacted calmly, “I have an electronic decision-maker that I used to decide which egg to implant. I froze the others.”

  “An electronic decision-maker.” Beatriz’s laugh hid her awkwardness and she felt obliged to explain, “I use a coin.”

  “Really?” Dervla’s voice was raised and she looked amazed and curious.

  “My great-grandmother gave me the coin, and I still use it when I can’t make a decision.” Beatriz smiled as she remembered the story her own great-grandmother had told her, “It’s over a hundred years old. It was made in 1977.” She put her hand in her pocket and held it in the palm of her hand as she showed it to Dervla while telling her, “It was made for the silver anniversary of the Queen of the United Kingdom and it’s a collector’s item.” Beatriz tossed the coin high into the air, and let it fall back on to the palm of her right hand, then she skilfully placed the coin on to the back of her left hand.

  Dervla was fascinated, “Can I hold it? I’ve never had a coin in my hand. I’ve only ever seen them in a museum.”

  With her eyes opened wide Dervla turned the coin over in her hands. She felt the hard, cool metal against her skin and she asked naively, “You didn’t ever use coins, did you?”

  Beatriz grinned and showed her wrinkles as she shook her head and laughingly denied the statement, “I’m not that old.” The lingering echo of her own words sounded like a lie and she suddenly felt old. She looked to see if she could see signs of aging on Dervla and thought they’d been here almost ten years, and none of them were getting any younger.

  Patrick had found Paul and Astro in the main warehouse. He was chasing Astro because Paul had hidden Patrick’s birthday card and a clue to the present inside his top box. Paul was watching them play and laughing at Patrick’s antics in trying to get Astro to stay still.

  “Sit. Heel.” Patrick shouted and willed Astro to obey.

  Astro went running off to hide among the storage corridors.

  It took a while before a
n out of breath Patrick finally managed to get the card. He’d thrown himself on top of Astro and pinned him down. Paul laughed as he heard the tiny wheels spinning frantically. He said, “Game over.” Astro stopped trying to escape and Patrick opened the top box and took out his birthday card. He closed the top box carefully and sat on Astro and opened the envelope. There was a card from Paul and an invitation. Patrick read the invitation slowly and then looked up at Paul and sounded worried as he said, “What time is it?”

  Paul voice sounded reassuring and almost as if he was laughing, “We have enough time. Don’t worry. We’ll get there.”

  “But it’s Europa!” Patrick looked and sounded a little scared.

  “Let’s go then.” Paul held his hand out for Patrick to get up and then they both started running.

  Europa smiled at them kindly as they ran through the door of the large meeting room. They both stopped out of breath and they greeted Europa politely. She was waiting patiently for them but couldn’t resist looking at the clock just to see how many minutes they were late. She looked at them and ordered, “Sit down and pay close attention. Today’s topic is moons of our solar system.”

  Patrick glanced at the chairs set in a neat row and at the desk. He could tell Europa had prepared for the class. He couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his face as he said, “I thought there was no school on my birthday.” His voice and his shoulders fell at the end of the sentence.

  Europa announced, “It’s not school. It’s better than school. I’ve put together a special lesson for you and Paul. It is going to be fun.” She looked at them sternly.

  Paul shuddered involuntarily, sat up straight and started paying attention. Patrick looked at Paul and then at Europa, his internal struggle clearly playing out on his face. He wanted to do something exciting, run around, play catch, anything but sit in a classroom learn. He was torn but it would be rude to refuse Europa’s present. He looked at Paul’s behaviour and with a hanging head, and sagging shoulders he sat down again reluctantly next to Paul.

  As soon as Patrick sat down his shoulders slumped.

  Paul looked at him and smiled broadly before gently nudging him a few times as he assured him, “It’ll be fun. Relax.” With the index finger of his left hand, Paul tapped on the piece of paper resting on the upside-down photo laying on the table between him and Patrick. Paul picked up the bit of paper and handed it to Europa, “We’re particularly interested in these moons. It’s a copy of the list I gave you earlier.”

  Europa glanced at the list of twelve moons and frowned. There wasn’t any connection between them, the only fact of significance was that most of them had an almost perfectly round orbit. She was a little puzzled but for some unknown reason, they were important to Paul. She ignored the list in front of Paul and resumed the class.

  Europa brought up the first slide of her presentation and cleared her throat before beginning, “The four giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune each have large moons. The larger ones are comparable in size to our own Moon. We don’t yet know exactly how these moons formed around their planet, but we do have a lot of theories.”

  Europa noticed Paul shaking his head.

  She skipped to the next slide of the gas giants, “All of the giant planets in our solar system have many smaller moons that are irregularly shaped.” Europa showed a picture of some of her favourite moons.

  Paul interrupted Europa and asked, “Why are some moons not round?”

  Europa seemed a little taken aback but replied respectfully, “If the mass of a moon is too small, then there will not be enough gravity to pull it into a sphere.” She looked at Paul questioningly.

  He smiled and nodded.

  “Some of these irregular small moons are in very close orbit to their planets and are probably debris from larger moons destroyed by collisions or internal tides. There are other irregular moons that orbit much further away from their planet and it is assumed that these were former comets or asteroids that came too close to the planet and got caught in its gravity.”

  Patrick looked at the picture of the irregular moons on the slide. He didn’t fully understand everything Europa said, and it didn’t bother him, but he did want to know, “Can a moon have a moon?”

  Europa smiled at Patrick. She knew it, he was interested in moons. Her voice sounded both understanding and excited as she explained, “Theoretically yes, but we don’t have any in our solar system, however we do know that asteroids can have moons. Asteroid 243 Ida has a moon called Dactyl.” She nodded at Patrick thanking him for his question and then smiled to herself before continuing, “The moons in our solar system are very different from each other. One of Jupiter’s moons, Io, has over a hundred active volcanoes on its surface that are all full of sulphur.”

  As she mentioned Io, Paul turned the photo over and tapped on it. Patrick leaned forward to see what he was doing. Paul pointed to a picture of a young Steve. It was a copy of their first team photo. Europa was curious and looked to see what he was doing. Paul gave the list of moons and a pen to Patrick and told him, “Write Steve next to Io.”

  Europa didn’t like the interruption, “What are you doing? Isn’t my class interesting enough?”

  Paul looked at her and answered apologetically, “I’m sorry, we just want to make a list of nicknames. I’m hoping that we can find a moon nickname for everyone. We won’t interrupt, when we find something suitable, we’ll quietly write it down.” He pulled the most innocent face he could.

  Europa breathed in deeply through her nostrils with her hands on her hips. Then she turned and pointed the next slide a yellow picture of Io, “Io is Jupiter’s third largest moon, and it is a little larger than our Moon. Its peculiarity is extreme volcanism. Like the Moon, it has a bound rotation.”

  As Paul asked his voice sounded amused, “What’s bound rotation?”

  “When a moon is strongly influenced by the gravity of its planet, it rotates with the same side facing its planet.” She answered succinctly and then she explained slower, “The orbit of Io is in a 1:2 orbital resonance to Europa.” She showed Paul and Patrick a short video of the orbital resonance of the moons around Jupiter. The video showed the three moons, Io, Europa and Ganymede. She explained as the video played, “For one orbit of Ganymede, there are exactly two orbits of Europa and exactly four orbits of Io.” She looked at them demanding interest. Then she continued, “The gravity of each of these moons has attracted each other and over millions of years they have slowly come to their perfect orbital resonance.” She paused and smiled as she showed a picture of Europa.

  Paul nodded, that was actually interesting. He pointed to Europa in the photo and said to Patrick, “Write Europa.”

  Europa wanted to know, “Where are you writing my name?”

  Paul said placatingly, “Don’t worry, you are getting the nickname Europa.” He smiled nervously, “Otherwise it would be confusing.”

  Europa ignored him, “Europa is a young and icy moon. It has an ocean, that contains chemical energy and a weak magnetic field. Those are indications that there could be life.” She paused and showed the next slide, “Callisto is another Jupiter moon and it is the second largest after Ganymede.” Europa glared at them, “My sister’s name is Callisto and she’s not in your photo.”

  Both Paul and Patrick looked guiltily at the table.

  Europa ignored their reaction and continued, “There are three moons in our Solar System that have enough liquid to give the possibility of the emergence of life a chance.” She showed a picture of the three moons, “They are Europa, which we already seen and two moons of Saturn Enceladus and Titan.”

  Paul tapped on the picture. Patrick smiled and picked up the pen and guessed Paul meant his mother, but he paused before writing.

  “Enceladus, a Saturn moon, has an almost perfectly circular orbit and regularly sprays ammonia into space, showing that it is probably geologically active. The ammonia spray creates a thin atmosphere.”

  Patrick aske
d uncertainly, “Why my mother?”

  Paul reassured him, “Because there is a very high chance of life there and it’s a nice moon.”

  Patrick relaxed and smiled as he wrote Mother on the list.

  Europa was in full flow and wanted to clarify, “The volcanic activity on this icy moon provides evidence of liquid water and this means that Enceladus is considered to be one of the possible places in the solar system with favourable conditions for the formation of life.”

  Paul nodded encouragingly to Europa indicating that he was listening as he looked at her and he gave her an exaggerated smile.

  Europa moved on to the next picture, “Titan is an icy moon and the second largest moon in the solar system after Ganymede. It is the only moon with a dense gas shell and it has lakes and seas of liquid methane.”

  Paul tapped himself on the photo. Europa waited patiently.

  Patrick looked at him questioningly.

  Paul smiled and said, “Because I’m so tall.”

  The next picture came into view of a small irregular moon. Europa looked at the picture for a few moments before saying, “Prometheus has a very low orbital eccentricity. The orbit is almost exactly on the equator of Saturn.” She looked at Paul and explained, “This means that the orbital distance to Saturn hardly varies.” Europa’s voice became flat and emotionless, “The orbit is circular and not elliptical like our Moon.”

  Paul tapped Liam on the photo and whispered, “He’s good with technology.”

  Europa waited for the game to finish before adding, “Prometheus is also known as the so-called shepherd moon because its gravity helps to hold the rings of Saturn together.”