Moonday

by J F Clayton

  He looked at his watch, it was just before noon. He decided to wait until another hour before he’d pour himself a whisky and maybe get some lunch. He turned his attention back to Patrick and Dervla and smiled at how tall Patrick had grown. He was over 10 centimetres taller than his mother. Patrick had grown up. He seemed so much bigger and stronger than her.

  Peter’s eyes flicked to his captain’s hat that was on the desk to the side of the monitor, he picked it up and started playing with it. He held it in both hands and turned it over slowly feeling the warmth of the felt material brushing against his skin, then he let it go and watched it fall lopsided onto his desk. He glanced back at the monitor with Patrick and Dervla. Patrick had grown very tall, and he wondered if the lower gravity had made a difference. He knew that Beatriz had told him that it probably hadn’t made a difference, but how could they really be sure? He laughed briefly and quietly, he found the situation somehow funny but didn’t know why. Was he laughing at Patrick? He got an unpleasant feeling that he was prying and stopped watching them. He tried to appease his guilt by attempting to convince himself that he didn’t want to witness a private moment.

  He managed to look away from the monitor and felt pleased with himself. He slowly relaxed back into his chair and wondered about his morality. He smiled happily, but only for a moment. There was a little sick sinking feeling at the bottom of his stomach. He felt hypocritical because he knew he would watch them again, and his reasons for looking and what he was looking for didn’t follow any rules or have any transparency. Moon Base surveillance was controlled only by his whims. Should he look again, just for a second? Who was going to know?

  “Why won’t you tell me who my father is?” Patrick’s face turned red and his voice sounded both excited and pleading.

  Dervla looked at him concerned, “What’s happened? You haven’t known up until now, and it hasn’t hurt you. Why do you want to know now?”

  His body twitched, and he sounded stubborn and persistent when he said, “I want to know. I need to know.”

  She looked at him puzzled.

  He breathed deeply and tried again, “It’s not fair. I have a right to know who my father is.” He looked directly at her. His eyes seemed full of pain, “I’m not just you. I want to know where I come from and who I’m going to become.”

  Her face was hard, and she shook her head decisively. He wasn’t yet ready to know, “Wait until you are eighteen years old. Then I’ll tell you.”

  Patrick didn’t want to give up, and in a voice loaded with the unfairness of the situation, he said, “I’m almost sixteen years old. I’m grown up enough to know now.”

  Dervla replied without pausing, “When you are grown up and are eighteen, I’ll tell you then.” She sounded clear and unyielding. She knew that when he was eighteen he’d be able to have his own DNA tested without her permission, and then he’d find out what she, for the moment, wanted to keep secret. She just wanted to delay him knowing, just for a little while, it won’t matter when they were on Earth.

  Patrick was angry and desperate, “But we’ll be back in a few weeks. I want to know before then.”

  She turned to leave.

  He automatically reached out for her to stop her from going. He wasn’t finished. Patrick begged her, “Please tell me.”

  Dervla was visibly annoyed that he kept asking her. She frowned and told him, “You have to wait.”

  He took a little step closer to Dervla, frowned and said, “I don’t want to wait.”

  With both arms she pushed him away from her and said rather angrily, “You’re acting like a spoiled toddler.”

  That upset him. He raised his arms and pushed her back, “Tell me.”

  Dervla stumbled backwards, caught her foot against a protruding tree stump before she fell awkwardly backwards and hit her head against the fencing around the tree roots.

  Patrick froze. He was shocked and couldn’t understand what was happening. Then it was as if someone had turned on a switch in his head, and he bent over to see if she was okay. You could hear the rising panic in his voice, “Mother, mother.” His voice broke, and he sounded frightened and alone as he said, “Mother, wake up. Please.”

  Dervla didn’t move. As Patrick touched her to wake her, he noticed the blood leaking under the back of her head. He raised his head and cried for help. He slowed down his increasing panic and with a steadier voice he shouted as loudly as he could, “We need help. Dervla’s hurt.”

  He knelt beside her and held her hand. He shook her gently to try and wake her, but she didn’t wake up and she didn’t move. Tearfully he looked at her and begged with a small, anxious voice, “Please, can someone help us?”

  The distress call rang out in Peter’s office. He sat straight up and looked at the monitor. He was puzzled for a moment. Dervla was lying on the floor while Patrick seemed to be shaking her. He called Beatriz and told her to meet him in the little garden as soon as possible. There’s been an accident and Dervla has been injured. Beatriz was already aware, the remote sensors had reported a problem with Dervla’s life signs, and their representation on one of the monitors didn’t present a healthy result.

  Peter and Beatriz both ran separately to the scene. As they arrived, Patrick was crouching next to Dervla and crying softly. He looked up at them hopelessly his face full of pain. His voice was soft and higher than normal, “I don’t know what to do.” He swallowed, “I think she’s hurt.”

  Beatriz touched his shoulder gently and said with compassion, “Let me look.”

  Patrick kept quiet and he didn’t move. So, Peter put his hand on Patrick’s shoulder and gently pulled him back so that Beatriz could get to Dervla.

  Beatriz searched eagerly for signs of life. Peter saw the barely noticeable shaking of her head and understood how worried she was.

  Beatriz said to Peter, “We need the robots.”

  Peter brought his eyebrows together and looked at her questioningly.

  Beatriz replied, “We’ll take her to the infirmary.”

  Peter nodded and then looked at Patrick, “Go and find Paul. He’s in the warehouse.”

  Patrick hesitated. He didn’t know what to do with himself. His head was hanging. He knew something bad had happened and it had something to do with him.

  “Go”, ordered Peter.

  Patrick nodded and left reluctantly.

  After he left, Maria came by and asked if she could help, “I heard something. It took me a while to find where you were.” She looked at Dervla, “We have to take her to the infirmary.”

  “The Sauberbots are bringing a hospital transport here. They’ll do the work and we’ll take Dervla to the infirmary.” Peter explained.

  Without looking at her, Beatriz gently and clearly ordered Maria, “Go back to work. We can take care of everything from here.”

  Paul was in the main store room trying to complete an inventory, he wanted to do it before they returned. He heard Patrick coming, and as soon as he saw him, he knew something was wrong. Paul looked at him for a moment before he suggested, “Let’s go for a walk with Astro. We can go around and see if we can find something exciting in the warehouse.” He tried to cheer Patrick up, but he didn’t know what to do. Then he remembered it was almost lunchtime.

  Paul smiled and cheerfully asked, “Are you hungry?”

  Looking down at his feet, Patrick shook his head and said, “No.”

  Paul hadn’t expected a refusal to food. Patrick’s reaction was unusual. Paul knew that something was very wrong, that something must have happened. He asked compassionately if Patrick wanted to talk about it.

  Patrick immediately began to say, “I pushed Dervla and she tripped.” With tearful eyes he looked at Paul, “She hit her head against a little garden wall.”

  Paul nodded in silence.

  Patrick swallowed and continued, “Beatriz and Peter took her to the infirmary.” He hung his head and whispered, “I didn’t know I’d hit her so hard.” His shoulders fell, he had bigger
tears in his eyes as he said in a small voice, “I think I’ve hurt her badly.”

  Paul hugged him tight and let Patrick cry against his shoulder.

  Peter was looking down at Dervla, who was lying on the bed in the infirmary. She looked very pale and wasn’t moving. He looked at Beatriz, “Are you sure you can’t do anything for her.”

  Beatriz didn’t lift her head. She couldn’t look at him, her voice sounded clinical and distant, “She’s dead.” She raised her head and looked him in the eyes, “There’s nothing I can do.”

  Almost as if it were necessary, Peter protested. He didn’t sound as if he was convinced of his own words, “But we have all this modern technology and she just bumped her head.”

  Beatriz replied with resolve, “Peter, I’m sorry. It’s over.”

  Peter shook his head in disbelief, “I can’t believe it.” Then he added, “What shall we tell Patrick?” He was shocked and didn’t know what to do, how to feel, how to react. There had to be something they could do, “Let’s look at the security camera footage and see what happened.”

  Peter used his privileged access codes to retrieve the security material from the garden and display it in the infirmary. Silent, they started watching the wide-angle view of the events in the small garden. Peter chewed on his lip as he noticed how the autumn colours were beginning to appear in the leaves. Peter zoomed in on the them standing under the tree. They watched for a few minutes without speaking, until Peter asked, “Should I turn on the sound? Or is that enough with just the picture.”

  Beatriz replied, “No sound. We can turn it on if we need to.”

  Peter looked at her still unconvinced.

  Beatriz closed her eyes, swallowed before she said quietly, “Let’s just watch.”

  They watched the scene and looked at each other as they recognised the apparent quarrel. The significant angry look on Dervla’s face as she pushed Patrick away couldn’t be overlooked. The position of the camera had automatically adjusted during the conversation, and they could see Patrick’s face as he reacted. They saw how angry he was as he pushed her back, how she tripped and fell. They watched as he bent down to see if he could do anything and they saw him full of panic looking around for help. They watched him scream silently, saw him helplessly asking for assistance. Then they noticed the blood seeping from under her head, and they could see his body shaking as he started crying. They stopped watching when they saw themselves appear.

  Paul kept his voice steady when he asked, “What were you arguing about?”

  Patrick sniffed, “I wanted to know who my father was.”

  Paul nodded, but was puzzled and he wanted to know, “But why, I thought you didn’t care.”

  Patrick wiped his nose with the back of his hand, his voice was firm, “Yes, I didn’t.” His tone got higher as he continued, “But I got a message from Steve this morning saying that I really should know before we return to Earth.”

  Paul’s face froze, and he shook his head as realised that Steve had sent a time-delayed message to stir things up.

  Patrick didn’t understand why Paul looked so angry.

  Beatriz looked at Peter’s downcast face and wondered how he felt. She felt tired and he looked it and also visibly shocked. She said to break the tense silence, “He doesn’t know how strong he is.” She stressed, “He hasn’t got used to his body.” She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, saying in an attempt to convince them both, “He’s grown so fast.”

  Peter’s head moved erratically from side to side. His voice was weak and sounded uncertain, “I’m sure he didn’t want to kill her.” He cleared his throat. The strength returned to his voice as he said, “I don’t even believe he wanted to hurt her.”

  Beatriz nodded in agreement, adding in a small voice, “I wonder how he feels now.”

  Peter looked sad as he shook his head, “I can’t imagine.” Peter was annoyed with himself. He was the Moon Major. He should know what to do, but he was just standing there undecided. He was trying to get control of himself. His mind focused on the practicalities, what needed to be done. He heard his father’s advice repeating in his head, “Take care of the necessities and let the emotions come later.”

  Peter ordered the Sauberbots to clean up the blood. Then he turned to Beatriz and asked, “What do we do with the body?”

  Beatriz answered without emotion, “We’ve got a disposal station in the infirmary. It’s a kind of organic material Re-Do machine.” She looked at Peter and sounded a little concerned as she added, “It’ll make fertiliser out of her.” She shrugged her shoulders and continued, “I think that’s all right, isn’t it?”

  Peter looked at Beatriz and grasped that she was looking for permission. He thought everyone does that nowadays and that she was very old-fashioned. Then he smiled as he realised that there could still be a chance of finding life on Enceladus. He suppressed it and said, “Maria will be pleased for the plants.”

  Beatriz nodded in agreement.

  He looked down at the body briefly before he looked up at Beatriz and his face was full of sadness as he said, “We have to tell the others.”

  Beatriz reacted quietly, “There’s only Liam who doesn’t know.”

  Peter nodded, and said, “Yes, of course. There are fewer of us here, and now there’s one less.”

  Beatriz took a blanket and respectfully covered the body as she stated, “We can take care of her later.” She sighed and sounded reluctant as she said, “I am going to talk to Maria.”

  Peter nodded. He wanted to be alone and was glad he could return to his office. On the way he passed Liam. He knew he had to stop and explain that there’d been a terrible accident and that Dervla was dead.

  Liam was obviously shocked.

  Peter, who felt numb inside, perceived Liam’s feelings but had nothing left to be able to offer him comfort.

  Liam saw Peter stressed expression and offered, “Can I do anything?”

  Peter shook his head slightly and kept his voice as normal as possible, “No, at the moment it’s okay.” He smiled and added, “We’ll meet later.” He turned to go, then he remembered, “Actually, yes. Could you prepare to say a few words? We’ll have a little funeral ceremony later, maybe even tomorrow. So, we can say goodbye to Dervla.”

  Liam nodded and explained that he’d prepare something.

  Peter’s eyes expressed both his gratitude and his need to be alone.

  Not long later Peter was sitting quietly in his office when Beatriz came to see him, she sat down in the visitor’s chair and explained in a soft voice, “Maria wasn’t surprised at all. She didn’t think Dervla looked very well.” She relaxed in the chair and leaned back and imitated Peter’s position before saying something positive, “She suggested planting a tree for her.”

  Peter raised his head slightly and turned it slowly until they were looking at each other, both of them looked sad, and they both knew that they had a lot to process. They sat there in silence for a while before Peter said in a dampened tone, “I only spoke to her this morning. Everything seemed fine.” He looked at his captain’s hat on the table and added, “We have to ask Patrick what they were talking about.”

  Beatriz nodded, and she looked away from Peter.

  Peter’s voice sounded normal again as he asked, “Meichun, is there a protocol when someone dies in the Moon Base?”

  Meichun reacted immediately, “The protocol states that a complete autopsy must be performed, and the body should be disposed of as soon as possible to stop the spread of disease on the base. After a few days there should be a small ceremony to say goodbye to the deceased colleague.”

  Beatriz and Peter looked at each other and nodded. The plan sounded good.

  Meichun waited about thirty seconds before explaining, “If the person was murdered, then the murderer should be locked up in the base prison.”

  Peter and Beatriz stared at Meichun before searching each other’s face for the doubt they felt themselves.

  Beatriz
spoke first, “Most of the time I think it makes sense if we consider the protocol as a guideline and not as a fixed rule.”

  Peter sounded determined as he said, “I’m not going to lock him up. He’s spent his whole life here at the Moon Base. If we take away the little freedom that he has, it would be unfair.”

  Beatriz clarified, “He’s not a murderer. It was an accident.”

  Peter agreed readily.

  They both fell silent, both absorbed in their concerns.