Children of the Dark World

by Will Townsend

  “Dr. Takashi, are the satellites ready for deployment?”

  “Yes Commander, on your mark.”

  Takashi was technically the sensor chief for the ship, having degrees in planetary science, orbital mechanics, astrophysics and remote sensing. However, Farr knew every tidbit of information that Takashi fed him came from the two Earth Sciences technicians, Faye and Bellerino. That was fine with Farr, because he trusted the technicians training, having reviewed their records thoroughly.

  “Very well, all systems report,” Farr said over intership communications.

  “This is Kemmler, I have magnetics and propulsion.” Farr noticed that the form of the report was a little different than normal and he vaguely wondered why.

  “This is Ming, I have life support systems.” Farr eyed Ming curiously because he was wearing that Cheshire cat grin of his and didn’t make eye contact with him.

  “This is Takashi, I have sensors.”

  “This is Wells, I have helm.” Now that was odd, he thought, that Wells would report in such a format. He cast a quizzical glance in his direction. Wells kept his eyes studiously on his holodisplay.

  “This is Kim, I have crabs.” Everyone on the bridge snickered, apparently informed by Ming what the twentieth century slang meant.

  “This is life support say again Kim,” Ming managed to say between snorts of laughter.

  “This is Kim, I have crabs.”

  “Didn’t quite catch that, please say again Kim,” Ming managed to say without too much laughter bleeding through. By this time the bridge crew was in stitches.

  “This is Kim; I say again, I have crabs.” Each time Kim had naturally increased the volume of his voice so that he would be heard clearly. And, naturally, as Ming had intended, his voice was now reverberating throughout the ship.

  “All right people,” Farr said with just enough irritation in his voice to get their attention but not enough to rise to the level of a professional rebuke, “now that Mr. Kim has been fully indoctrinated why don’t we get down to the business that brought us here. Master Chief, I trust you will conduct training on proper reporting procedures at the proper time and in the proper place.” Farr finished, getting his message across. “Also, please make sure Mr. Kim knows that the proper name of the equipment is maintenance pod, not crab.”

  “Roger that skipper,” Wells said, turning away and smothering the smirk trying to escape.

  “And Mr. Ming,” Farr said slowly and with a withering look toward the life support station. Ming sat steadfastly staring at his holodisplay, refusing to meet Farr’s gaze, “I trust you will acquaint Kim with certain twentieth century Earth vernaculars at your earliest opportunity.”

  “Roger that Commander,” he said still staring at his display; his face was crimson red as he tried to stifle his laughter and his eyes were watering at the effort.

  “Good, now if we’ve gotten that out of our system, deploy the satellites,” Farr ordered.

  Farr knew that these little rituals had to be tolerated, but only so far. In the right proportion they bonded a crew together. His job was to make sure that it didn’t go beyond a certain point because some people didn’t seem to know the acceptable bounds. If something like this did get out of control it often had the opposite effect and resulted in the isolation of a crewmember. That was a detriment to morale and therefore a detriment to the mission. And that Farr wouldn’t tolerate, especially on a mission as open ended as this one. He trusted the Master Chief to keep a lid on it, and Wells always had before, but he’d be vigilant as well because it was his ship.

  “First satellite away,” Takashi relayed. It instantly appeared on the holographic display and started transmitting data back to the Resolution which was maintaining a six hundred kilometer orbit. That was as close as it was deemed prudent for her to orbit in lunar space. The plan was to deploy six satellites on the initial orbit of the Moon allowing the scientists on earth to gather data, but the ship was collecting her own data as she deployed the satellites with her sensors.

  “Commander we’ve got onboard readings for atmosphere, infrared and visual. There’s quite a bit more water on the Moon than there was prior to the Calamity and the atmosphere is significantly thicker.

  “The Moon has an atmosphere?” Arenson blurted out.

  “Yes, it has always had a tenuous atmosphere but now ..” Takashi started to explain as if he were talking to a student in his lecture hall.

  “Mr. Takashi, could you please finish your report. I’ll remind you once that you’re on duty.”

  The bridge became instantly more focused. The Commander was losing patience and the scientists took their cue from the military men and women on the bridge and a quick glance confirmed that they were all business now.

  “Yes sir, I’m sorry sir,” Takashi stammered. “The atmosphere appears to be equal to that found twenty five kilometers above the Earth’s surface, roughly that of Mars before the Calamity, still toxic and deadly, but far denser than it was before and fairly stable.”

  “I would say there’s been a good deal of sublimation of ice deposits. It looks like the Moon took a severe beating during the Calamity. There are numerous ice deposits in the shadowy areas of the craters and a significant amount of mixing with the lunar soil. Future colonists could build on that. The Moon, it appears, is going to be a much friendlier place to colonists from now on. No infrared readings from any source, which confirms Dr. Covington’s findings from earth based instruments. There are no indications of life. Normally there’d be methane venting and air flushing from the domes as the heat builds up but there are none of those readings on any of the domes.”

  “Do you have visuals of the four colonies that were located on this side?”

  “Yes, I do,” Takashi replied going through the sensor sweeps. “It appears that all suffered dome damage during the bombardment of the Calamity, of one kind or another. The colonies on the near side were built above ground, because of the Earth view, I suppose. This is where the wealthy came to play. The two bases on the farside were built underground using the Moon holes discovered in the twenty first century. They would’ve been far more protected.”

  “Give me full magnification on the nearest dome.” Optical had obviously improved during the scientific revolutions of the twenty second and early twenty third century and the systems could now identify a person at almost four hundred kilometers with the aid of holographic recreation.

  “Coming up now Commander.”

  The image recreated above Farr’s tactical table was incredibly detailed and he found himself looking down on a dead civilization with a morbid fascination. The atmosphere had escaped in one dramatic rush and had probably killed the population within minutes if not seconds. As he isolated sections under the dome he could make out dead trees and plant life that had avoided the initial ejection from the dome. Toward the outer edges of the dome the landscape was bare. All of the structures the dome had contained and all of the landscaping adorning the outer walls of the dome had been siphoned toward the center with the escaping atmosphere, with the exception of only the most sturdy of structures. Farr could even see what appeared to be fallen statuary littering the landscape under the dome. There were quite a few actually and that didn’t correspond with any data recovered from Resolution’s earlier computer files.

  By the spirit Lansing and Lao! he thought suddenly as the answer dawned on him. The dome was now a vacuum, or as close to one as was now possible under the new lunar conditions. Not even bacteria had survived the venting of the atmosphere so there was no decay. He was looking at the frozen remnants of the former colonists.

  Some had undoubtedly been expelled from the dome and had finally ended up on the Moon’s surface again, but those who’d been at the very edges of the dome had not been ejected and would rest forever on the spot where they had come to rest until humanity returned to give them a fitting burial.

  He returned his tactical table to a long range view, shrinking the panorama of
bodies belonging to the erstwhile colonists from sight. But he knew his crew had seen them and he knew every mausoleum joke they’d heard on Earth was now running through their minds. Not a noise other than mechanical sounds was heard on the bridge.

  “We didn’t come here to bury or disturb the dead.” Farr said firmly, but compassionately, to the silent bridge. “That’s a job for those who follow us. We’re here on a mission to find the living. Nothing we just saw is other than what Dr. Covington warned us we’d find, so put it out of your minds and concentrate on the mission. Continue reporting Dr. Takashi.”

  Takashi continued rattling off facts and figures regarding the remodeled face of the Moon, smartly omitting any reference to the former colonies. They were all momentarily surprised when a light flared in the sky above the Moon.

  “The Moon’s atmosphere is now significantly denser so that will be a familiar sight in the future. There’s no telling how long the atmosphere will last. The Moon has no magnetic field and the solar wind is constantly stripping atoms from its upper atmosphere so it could be a thousand years or a million, because sublimation is still ongoing. You know,” Takashi said thinking, “if we built a huge super collider at each pole or better yet one orbiting each pole…” he trailed off and the thread was immediately picked up by Kemmler over the internal comms.

  “Yes, if we create a magnetic field it would save a good deal of the atmosphere but they would have to be quite large and…”

  “Gentlemen this sounds like an excellent topic for your nightly round tables, but right now we’re still conducting operations.” Farr said closing off further comments. If he didn’t he knew what would occur. Every scientist onboard would build off of what the previous one had said and pretty soon they would be redesigning a world.

  Farr actually enjoyed the nightly meetings around the meal table but, there was a time and place for everything, and they didn’t seem to realize that. Too many years, he suspected, working in academia or on projects where speed was not important. But when you’re orbiting an alien world at two thousand kilometers an hour it didn’t pay to get distracted from your primary purpose.

  “Set normal steaming conditions watch.” Farr called on the intership comms. He had put everyone into general quarters because of the insertion into lunar orbit. They were now safely in orbit and Farr wanted them to get back to their preparations for the farside transit which would start in about four hours, at which time he’d put them back on station.

  “Master Chief Wells, take the deck,” He ordered.

  “This is Master Chief Wells, I have the deck,” he said arising from the ship’s conning station and floating over to the handholds above tactical.

  “This is life support, all systems nominal,” Ming replied automatically in military format. The other stations reported more uncertainly.

  “This is Takashi, sensors are nominal. Sweeps ongoing,” he reported.

  “This is Faye,” the technician reported gliding into the helm station. “Helm set in standard orbit, velocity two thousand kilometers, apogee six hundred kilometers. All sensors are in active mode.”

  A voice came gingerly through the comms. “This is Kim. I have crabs?”

  Farr rolled his eyes. “Master Chief,” he barked.

  “I’ll take care of it right away sir.”

  Farr left shaking his head disgustedly. Ming held up his hand without looking back and the Master Chief gave him a high five while the others on the bridge snickered.

  CHAPTER 6

  Four hours later, with the crew once again on station, Farr resumed his place on the bridge. The farside was currently bathed in sunlight and temperatures on its surface should’ve been in excess of ninety degrees C, at least according to the old models, but all of the readings hovered around the forty-five degree C mark. Apparently the more robust atmosphere was acting as a buffering agent and keeping the temperature lower than expected.

  “We are coming up on lunar bases five and six, Commander,” Takashi reported.

  “Very well, ladies and gentlemen,” Farr said addressing the crew internally. “We will be doing at least one flyby before we decide on the exact course of action we’ll be taking. Let’s try to answer all of the questions on this orbit if possible, so work fast but please do your work thoroughly. I would rather make another orbit or two than attempt landing with erroneous information.”

  The former Cybelean Princess had sported a landing craft for its work in the belt, but that had been replaced along with most of the other systems. The Resolution now carried a more robust craft that could easily handle the lunar gravity, whereas the old pod could not. She was also not a pod but a full-fledged spacecraft thirty meters long with onboard computer systems, external propellant tanks and life support that would allow a crew of six to survive for two weeks, if necessary. That wouldn’t be an issue here as her only lunar job was to make a straight beeline from the ship to whatever access area was deemed suitable and to come straight back up when the task was done.

  Lunar bases five and six had been constructed as underground facilities. In the early twenty first century scientists had discovered that some of the features that they had originally thought were craters were, in reality, holes leading into underground caverns and tunnels. Further exploration had determined that the holes were actually sections of a massive cave system that had collapsed, probably from meteorite strikes. The natural insulation of the cave system and the ease of covering the opening with transparent material had convinced the corporations to build these two colonies. Farr had examined the schematics of the colonies’ systems and thought them quite sound in theory. The corps had covered the opening, pumped breathable air into them and been able to do the construction without large expenditures of capital. The openings were covered with a transparent graphene/acrylic composite that allowed the sun’s rays through but was, at the same time, incredibly strong.

  These bases had never been meant for the rich and famous. Other work such as mining and ice extraction was accomplished at these sites. The domed cities were meant to be an offworld paradise for the elite. I guess it hadn’t really worked out that way, Farr had thought, after seeing the devastation on the nearside of the Moon. The majority of people in these bases would’ve been workers and some scientists and, possibly, a few corporate executives to oversee the operations.

  The areas under the transparent ceilings that covered the open portion of the complex were used as the colony’s growing area, because making a colony self-supporting was money in the bank for the corporations. It was inordinately expensive to haul the basics like food and water off Earth. Solar collectors under the transparent ceilings gathered and scattered the incoming light so that the actual area that could be used for growing stretched for probably half a kilometer down each tunnel. Farr had studied the plans thoroughly and was amazed to find that some of the tunnels were sixty meters high. However where the manmade tunnels branched off they were rarely more than seven meters high and they were only that high to allow the passage of certain machinery.

  “Sir,” Takashi said slowly, “it appears that the Lunar Base Six transparent roof collapsed, probably from a meteor impact.” The faces on the bridge tightened at this and shoulders slumped as disappointment fought its way to the surface. “But there is something odd about the area around the destroyed facility. There is definitely artificial heat being generated under the ground and I believe that I am detecting a methane-venting in that general area as well.”

  Eyes lifted at that. If the entire base had been destroyed then there would be no venting and if it hadn’t and there were no humans and no plants, then there would be no methane to vent either. The only conclusion this led to is that something was alive down there and producing methane.

  “How about Lunar Base Five?” Farr said, trying to keep the eagerness out of his voice.

  “Just coming up now… transparent ceiling is… intact,” Takashi said grinning. “Infrared shows temperature approximately twenty four C.
Methane venting must’ve just occurred within the last few days because the reading is high. Visual coming up now.” The distance was still several hundred kilometers and at a difficult angle because of the flatness of the surface but Farr distinctly saw trees looking at the raw image, green trees, not mummified reminders as he had seen at the other sites. And they must’ve been sixty-five meters tall to be so easily distinguishable at this range. The holograph above the tactical table confirmed it more readily as it faithfully recreated every color and nuance from the raw visual. There must be humans living down there he thought. Then he checked his enthusiasm and hopes at the door and became more pragmatic. All too often a person saw what they wanted to see, ignoring the facts right in front of them if they didn’t support the hoped for result. He wasn’t going to make that mistake.

  “All stations, captain, what are the possibilities that the machinery has kept this running without humans?”

  Surprisingly, it was Wells who chimed in first.

  “Captain I’ve reviewed the schematics of this place more than anyone except maybe you. I’ve gone down through the equipment specs of the machinery they had on site. They had decent equipment for the time, but the reactors they were using were not the top of the line. They required extensive maintenance every year simply to keep running. Bots could do it I suppose, but they’d need materials and there were no autonomous mining bots at this site. The same with the life support systems. These colonies were supposed to manufacture parts and replacements on site. Someone must be mining the material to keep it going.”

  “I don’t know how to read the signs of life the good doctors are throwing out, but in my mind, there’s no way this place would still be going strong after a century without humans at least providing materials, not in my opinion.”

  “I have to concur,” said Ming. “I’m not as familiar with all of the systems like the Master Chief, but I am familiar with some of them and he’s right. Also, the amount of methane I see venting wouldn’t be consistent with just a garden. There would have to be a few, make that quite a few biological units to make these readings possible.”