Dark Side of the Moon

by P. C. Rasmussen

  "You're not, Vinnie. We'll face this together. We'll watch each other's backs. That's the best way, don't you think?" Kyle gave him an encouraging smile, then sat up and eyed the rest of this motley crew being shipped to their doom. Kyle had one talent he was particularly proud of. He was able to evaluate people correctly at first glance. A quick look around at the others told him who might be approachable and who wouldn't. He just wouldn't be able to approach anyone until they were in LPC. The guards would not appreciate any plotting and planning.

  "Get ready for liftoff," one of the guards called, and then settled down on his designated seat to strap himself in.

  "Yeah, we'll do just fine, Vinnie," Kyle said and he was pretty sure about that.

  ***

  The arrival

  With a flight time of nearly twenty-four hours, Kyle was a bit beat by the time the shuttle settled down on the landing pad on the Moon. He had spent some of the time watching space, but there really was very little to see out there. And the lunar surface wasn't all that exciting either; nothing but dust; and vacuum, of course. The rail-bound shuttle that would take them to LPC was ready and waiting for them when they were ushered out of the lunar shuttle and into the arrival area.

  Kyle surveyed what he was allowed to see while they made their way from the landing bay to the shuttle bay and from what he could tell, there was minimal staff on hand here. The only time a prisoner would ever be able to stage a coup was on arrival. He knew the routine, had read or heard about it somewhere. He knew about the rail-bound shuttle that would take them to the arrival dome and he knew that said shuttle returned to the landing bay open and airless. So, unless someone had come up with a way to breathe on the way back, there was no way the prisoners could ever escape that way.

  After the guards removed the cuffs, one of them waved the prisoners toward. "Get a move on," he called and ushered them straight into the shuttle that would seal their fate.

  There were no instructions, no speeches, nothing. Once they were all inside the shuttle, the doors closed and a display told them to sit down and strap in, which most of them did.

  The shuttle took off slowly and then increased its speed. Kyle assumed this happened once it was outside the landing bay. He gave the solid walls of the shuttle an annoyed look. It would have been nice if there had been windows in this bucket, but he assumed that it was a precaution to prevent hysterical prisoners from bashing one in and thereby killing all of them.

  Glancing around at the other prisoners, he noted that none of them seemed to be even close to being hysterical. Most of them actually looked like pretty aggressive guys and there wasn't a woman among them.

  "What are you looking for?" Vinnie asked. The big guy had settled down next to him again and Kyle knew that this man would be friend in need. Vinnie was the type of man who needed someone else around to tell him what to do. In Kyle's opinion, there were only two types of men; leaders and followers. Vinnie was a follower.

  "Just trying to figure out if we can trust any of these guys," he said and settled back down.

  In spite of the warning they had received about strapping themselves in, the ride was very smooth. Yet none of the prisoners had left their seats.

  "And?" Vinnie asked and briefly scanned the front of the cabin over the backs of the seats. Even seated he was still tall enough to do that. "You see any?"

  Kyle frowned. "Maybe. Let's just see what happens once we arrive," he said.

  Vinnie nodded and remained silent for the rest of the ride.

  ***

  Dome 1

  The arrival in LPC turned out to be a rather quiet affair. Kyle was among the first to disembark the shuttle and there was nobody there to meet them. There wasn't a soul around in the arrival area and that made Kyle a little cautious. He would have expected some sort of show of force for the newcomers. Normal behavior among convicts seemed to be that there was a head honcho who wanted to dominate all the others. There would be factions of prisoners who did not want to live under that rule and the different factions would fight each other; or so Kyle had heard. Whether it was like that in real life ... well, he had nothing to base that assumption on. He had never been to jail before. But both literature and visual media indicated that this was the norm.

  "What, no welcome wagon?" one of the other prisoners groused, thereby letting Kyle know that he wasn't the only one wondering about it.

  The moment all of them had disembarked, the shuttle doors closed and the roof opened for the trip back. Kyle glanced back at the dusty and worn-looking transport and frowned lightly, but was interrupted from further scrutiny by a hissing noise somewhere.

  "You have one minute to vacate the area before depressurization!" a disembodied computer voice instructed.

  This caused an instant exodus toward a pair of double doors that had opened ahead of them. All of them pushed into the space behind the doors, the last one barely managing to squeeze in before the double doors closed, sealing them off from the arrival area inside what Kyle could only assume was an airlock.

  "You have arrived at Lunar Prison Colony," the computer voice droned. "From this moment on, you are on your own. There are no guards inside. The other prisoners will show you around and instruct you in the usage of the six domes. Do not attempt to return to this area. Any tampering with locks, doors and airlocks will result in immediate depressurization."

  And that was it. There were no further instructions, only a set of double doors ahead of them which opened to admit them into the first dome. And still there was no one around to meet them. For a long moment, none of them moved. Then someone took a tentative step forward, a tall gangly guy who looked nervous enough for the lot of them, and that made the others move as well.

  The moment all of them had cleared the airlock, the doors shut behind them and Kyle knew that any chance there might have been of going back that way was gone. Not that there really had been any chance. Without suits or access to the shuttle controls, remaining behind would have been a death sentence.

  ***

  The new home

  The first dome was not exactly what he had imagined. The airlock opened up into the spherical area and the view was only hampered slightly by what looked like an overcrowded campsite. Somehow, Kyle had envisioned some kind of order, but there really was none. The prisoners lived in tents and lean-tos and despite the mammoth size of the dome's ground area, it looked cramped and overcrowded. The ground beneath their feet was obviously the lunar surface. The floor consisted of uneven rock. And it was cold. He could feel the chill of the ground seeping up through the tough rubber soles of his boots.

  The closest dome wall was behind them where they had entered. The glass wall rose in a soft curve toward the heavens and the windows were so dirty it was next to impossible to look out. Here and there, someone had rubbed clean spots on the glass and what little there was to be seen outside was desolate and dead. The air in the dome was heavy, but there was still airflow. A very mild breeze brushed through the area at regular intervals from somewhere off toward the other side of the dome.

  "Do you think this is it?"

  Kyle almost jerked, having all but forgotten Vinnie, who stood next to him and eyed the area with both suspicion and fear. "It what?" he asked, not entirely sure what the big guy meant.

  "Do you think all the domes are like this? Looks like a fucking camp-out, doesn't it?" Vinnie elaborated while studying the tents and lean-tos closest to them.

  "I don't have a clue, Vin, my man," Kyle admitted and gave the big guy a halfhearted smirk. He wasn't a man who worried too much about the future. The past gave him nightmares, but the future was open country and nothing was set in stone. But this place; it worried him. He could feel the small hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. There was something in the air, something that indicated that this was far from all, that there was something dark and dangerous hiding beneath the surface here. If someone had bothered to ask him, he would have thought the
re'd be a crazy dictator type of guy who ran the show in this dump.

  "As long as there are no aliens, I think I can handle it," Vinnie said thoughtfully and then gave him a guilty glance. "Not that I believe in that sort of thing, of course."

  Kyle grinned. "Nah, of course you don't, Vin," he agreed and punched the big guy on the arm. "Let's take a look around and find a place to crash; looks like this is a first come first serve kind of dive."

  Vinnie arched an eyebrow and absentmindedly rubbed his arm, then followed Kyle when he started into the throng of people and tents.

  Dome 1 seemed to be the gathering place for the weak-willed, Kyle guessed after they had woven their way through the area back and forth a few times. The majority of the people here looked dispirited and despondent and about half of them were women of various ages. Most were dirty, some looked sick, and not many spoke to others. Some gave him annoyed, scared or angry glances.

  "Do you think this is a good place to stay?" Vinnie asked, his tone doubtful.

  Kyle glanced up at him and couldn't help a smirk. "This is the place people go when they can't stand up for themselves, Vin. You can stand up for yourself, can't you?" he countered. "Don't worry, buddy. We'll find better lodgings than a tent or a lean-to."

  Vinnie looked relieved at that and nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure we will," he agreed.

  As Kyle had already assumed on the flight to the Moon, it was very evident that Vinnie was a guy who was strong by proxy. If he had someone around to tell him what to do or how to respond, then he could probably do anything. Alone he was more likely to exhibit fear and reluctance to get into a fight. The crime that had landed him here was - in his own words - because of a girl. Kyle had no doubt that Vinnie would never have gotten into that bar brawl in the first place if it hadn't been for the illustrious Leigh. That was Kyle's luck and Vinnie's misfortune for ending up here.

  "Next stop, dome 2," Kyle muttered under his breath and wondered how bad it would get. He was in no way fooled into believing that the rest of the colony was as docile as this. This place was the end of the line for the scum of the Earth. It would surprise the hell out of him if this was the worst they could expect. Actually, now that he thought about it, he was pretty damned sure this was the best of it.

  "How do we get to the next dome?" Vinnie asked while glancing around.

  "No clue," Kyle admitted and focused on an older man sitting on a crate near the dome's wall. "Maybe he can tell us," he added and strode over to the man. "Hi."

  The old man looked up at him, a perpetual look of distrust etched into his grubby wrinkled features. "What do you want?" he growled.

  "I was wondering if you could tell us how to get to the next dome," Kyle said. "We're kinda new here."

  The old-timer muttered something under his breath, and then looked up at Kyle again with amazingly sharp eyes. "You want a piece of advice, newbie?" he asked. "Stay here. It ain't much, but it's fairly safe. There ain't nothin' but trouble in them other domes. Nothin' but trouble."

  Kyle eyed him for a moment, and then shrugged lightly. "I'm sure we can find someone else to ask," he said to Vinnie, who was watching the old man with a slight frown furrowing his brow.

  Kyle looked around for someone who might be able to help them, but before he could decide, someone grabbed his arm harshly. A bit surprised and more than a little apprehensive, he glanced down at the dirty hand now locked around his upper arm, then shifted his attention to the woman it belonged to. "You want some advice that might actually help you?" she asked.

  "Don't listen to her. She ain't nothin' but trouble. Nothin' but trouble," the old-timer growled.

  "Shut up, Lister. Nobody gives a flying fuck about your kind of advice," the woman snapped at him, and then focused on Kyle. The way she looked at him made him wonder if she was all there. There was a certain gleam of madness in those eyes. "He's right about the other domes, but if you wanna go, there are access tunnels between. There are things you should know, things that might keep you sane and alive, though."

  "I'm all ears," Kyle assured her. "My name's ..."

  She cut him off by waving a hand in his face, making him take a tentative step back to avoid getting smacked. "I don't care about your name," she snapped. "I'll tell you what you need to know and then you'll be on your way. In a day or two you'll either have found a place to settle down or you're dead. Either way, it makes no difference to me. I'm not leaving this dome. There's safety in number is all I'm saying. And here you've got the numbers."

  Kyle arched an eyebrow at her. "Okay, fine. Tell me what I need to know then," he said.

  ***

  The woman - her name was Maya - had been sent to LPC years ago. She had been around to some of the other domes and said they got progressively worse. The only place that was fairly okay out there was the greenhouse dome. It contained plants of all sorts, and a team of self-proclaimed homicidal gardeners tended to it. There was always someone among newcomers who was interested in working in the greenhouse and anyone with a love for plants was welcome there. Food was distributed from there, although it was fairly scarce most of the time. There were food synthesizers in every dome and even though the synthetic food wasn't top of the line, it contained everything they needed to survive. Anything beside that was a luxury. When the plants thrived, everybody did. When the plants didn't thrive, everybody suffered. The plants were a part of the eco system of the domes and helped keep the air breathable.

  "Although what we really have to go on for is beyond me," Maya confessed and took a sip of the odd tea-like brew she had concocted over a small fire outside her tent. "Maybe we should just open the damned airlocks and be done with it."

  "That's not a very nice way to look at it," Vinnie chastised lightly, which earned him a somewhat sour look from the middle-aged woman.

  "What do you know?" she snapped. "It's not like we'll ever leave here again. LPC is escape-proof."

  "That's what they said about Alcatraz," Kyle said with a slight smile on his lips. "And look how that turned out."

  "Fuck Alcatraz. We're not on Earth. The only way out of here is through an airlock and right into the arms of Death," Maya spat. "You newbies are always so full of crap."

  Kyle couldn't help a smirk from spreading over his lips, but he wisely kept his mouth shut about the thoughts rumbling through his head and instead put a soothing hand on her arm. "You were saying?" he prompted her.

  Maya gave him a narrowed look, then sighed and poured herself another mug full of her brew. "As I was saying, I've been around to nearly all the domes. I even worked in the greenhouse for a spell, but I don't exactly have green thumbs and Mike - he's one of the homicidal gardeners - threw me out. Just as well. Never much cared for all that greenery anyway." She shook her head, took a deep swallow from the mug and grimaced. "Fuck, I miss coffee," she muttered and gave the mug a baleful look. "Only domes I haven't been to are the last two. And believe you me, you do not want to go there unless you're a fucked-in-the-head psycho. Anyone with more than one marble left in their noggin will steer clear of the dark domes." She fell silent and stared into the campfire.

  "The dark domes?" Kyle asked after a moment, feeling the need to prompt her to go on.

  "Yeah. It's said that the lights are out in those domes and that the repair crew can't get them back on. Not that they're trying very hard. Earth wants to forget we exist. That they bother to send supplies at all is a fucking miracle," Maya said and shook her head lightly.

  "So ... all the psychos are in the dark domes then?" Kyle prompted her, hoping to get a little more information than that.

  "That's what they say," she agreed. "Some of the others don't call them psychos, though." She gave him a look as if he was supposed to know what that meant.

  Vinnie, who was perched carefully on a plastic box, leaned forward a little. "What do they call them?" he asked curiously.

  Maya met his eyes dead on. "Demons," she said and smirked, disclosing discolored teeth. "
I don't believe in demons. But I do believe in humans acting like demons. And from what I hear ... the psychos are more than just fucked in the head. They get meat over there 'cause they eat people."

  Vinnie pulled back sharply and almost managed to upend himself onto the ground. Kyle lashed out and grabbed his arm, steadying him. "Cannibals?" he asked, directing this at Maya. "Well, I guess we'll just steer clear of the dark domes then. Anything else we should watch out for?"

  She sent a look off into the distance for a second and then pursed her lips. "You're not female, so I won't bother warning you against the rapers," she said. "Though ... looking as good as you do, you may wanna watch yourself anyway. Some of the rapers don't give a fuck if it's female or male. As long as it's got a hole and a pulse, they'll fuck it."

  That bit of news was something Kyle hadn't really considered before and it made him a little uncomfortable. He'd had his share of male come-ons over the years, but with a society that frowned on forced sex to such a degree that it would land you in LPC without a trial ... well, rape wasn't something that happened a lot any more. And Kyle had never feared it would happen to him. "And ... uh ... where do these ... rapers hang out?" he asked.

  Obviously Maya could read his expression if that somewhat gleeful smirk was anything to go by. "Oh, they're all over the place. Not here so much, but it does happen that they grab someone and take'em off to be raped. In dome 3 they're pretty adamant about keeping them out. If they're caught, they'll get spaced. Dome 4 isn't too hung up about meddling in the affairs of others. They'll turn a blind eye to what's going on. Domes 5 and 6 are the dark domes. Even the rapers don't go there. They'll end up getting raped themselves while they get eaten alive," she said. She obviously took pleasure in upsetting her audience.