LunaDome: A Novel

by Olin, a. Paul

  He packed up everything, including the note to Zwitter he’d written on the resort stationery. Maybe it had value, too. It did to him and that was all that mattered at the moment.

  He ripped the page from the white pad and stuck it in his bag next to his other shit. The nugget was riding solo in an adequate size bag of its own, with of course, the fucking emblem pasted to the side.

  Crass put all his bags by the door. He took a long, hot shower in the spacey bathroom and got dressed quickly, feeling a slight rumble coming from the inside of his belly. Hunger was striking yet again.

  He slipped the French glasses over his face and started recording. This was the last day for any footage and he wanted to make sure all the bases were covered for later, after the work was done and everyone was safely back on Earth.

  Back on the home planet.

  2

  Crass ate breakfast in the café’s lounge, seated next to his traveling group of Space pals. After the stack of blueberry pancakes had disappeared and the Tang packets were drank up, Eva mentioned she wanted to visit Grifters before they left heading back home.

  It was a pretty good idea, and this gave him time to maybe find the postcard he’d dreamed about earlier.

  Eva led the way and disappeared in the Sea of Tranquil Cotton spreading across the floor in tireless, weighted racks like mannequin dummies. Crass walked to the bookcases on the far wall, and stared out the large bay window overlooking the dull valleys of regolith rolling over the surface in misshapen humps and valleys and sinking into wide craters.

  The red, white, and blue flag hung motionless under the bright Sun. There was no wind to knock it down here, no one to set it ablaze, and it hung there like the Mona Lisa—simply staring back at you while you secretly wondered how many stories she would tell if she could only open her mouth and say something.

  “Which one?” a voice asked from behind him.

  It startled him; he nearly hit his head on the glass turning around.

  It was Eva and she was holding a t-shirt in both hands. One read: I Went to the LunaDome and Flew, How About You? The other had a big blue Moon painted on it and read 100% Lunanite.

  “The left one,” he said. “It rhymes.”

  “I thought so, too,” she said. “Ok, ok. Time to check out now.” Eva threw the hair off her shoulders, and placed the unwanted shirt on a nearby rack as she walked off to the counter to purchase her things.

  Crass walked behind her and scanned the front aisle for postcards or something memorable, even though he had purchased the largest object (by mass anyways) in the entire store.

  “Hey, it’s the Shackleton Stranger himself,” the guy behind the counter said.

  Was it Michael?

  “Is Mrs. Shackleton keeping you warm?” he asked.

  Crass looked up and shrugged. “Naw, I had her for that,” he said, motioning to the brunette girl in front of him at the counter. “But she’ll be warm on the ride home. I bundled it up myself this morning.”

  “How much does that thing weigh again?” Crass asked. “I mean on Earth?”

  “Close to three hundred pounds. Two-ninety I think…does that sound right?” Michael asked, furrowing his eyes in his face.

  “I think so,” Crass answered, and he’d know soon enough, and besides, who the hell cared anyways? It was about to gain five-sixths of its mass back and be one heavy fucking souvenir.

  “Here is your bag, m’am,” a new employee said from behind the register.

  “Thanks.”

  Eva tucked a card in her purse and took the bags from the girl’s hand.

  “Do ya’ll have postcards?” Crass asked.

  “Hell yes we do! Look down there at the end of the counter. You see that black whirly rack that spins over there? That’s where you want to be.”

  Crass saw it, said thanks, and walked to the end of the countertop. He found one of those spin racks with a few dozen cards sticking off in tiny slots no bigger than cassette tapes. He was glancing over the titles and pictures when Eva walked up with her shopping bag saddled in a white-knuckle grip.

  Some of the postcard pictures had been taken in stunning 3D imagery from the various craters—Copernicus, Grimaldi, Tycho, and Plato. But the one that really caught his eye was a photograph taken not very far from where he was standing. It was a picture of the plaque left behind on the lunar module in 1969. It read:

  Here men from the planet Earth first set foot

  upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in

  peace for all mankind.

  He went to the counter and paid for the postcard with the little bit of cash he had on him. They left out and went to mail station for a quick drop-off. He addressed it to his folks in Palm Beach, and dropped it in the mail chute for delivery.

  They walked back to the room. It was getting close to time for them to suit up and head back towards home, towards the Blue Planet.

  Crass was pretty sure he was going to miss it here. And he felt inclined to believe that if the others of his crew could talk right now, they’d say the same.

  3

  On A-Block, at room number Twelve, Crass opened the door to grab his bags. He set them outside, and used the bathroom again. Just in case. That sleeve thing on the ship was awful cold, like a frozen sock, he thought while musing at the toilet on the Moon.

  He flushed it, grabbed the bags, and left to meet Eva on her block. She was already walking down the corridor towards the suit room with her bags in her hands. They swung at her sides.

  “You’re wearing those on the way back?” she asked.

  “I’ve got to,” Crass said, pushing the lenses up on his nose. “Jean told me to make sure the flight back home was recorded on the nanodrive. He wants to see what Outer Space looks like, too.”

  “Ok then. Let’s get over there quick,” she said and scurried across the polished tile floor. “It’s almost ten o’clock now.”

  Three of the FloorBots zoomed by. They made it to the door as it retreated into the wall snugly.

  Mickey and Skye were already in their space suits. The LunaDome employees were doing the last of their work strapping them in, and began helping Crass and Eva up to the raised platform. Their suits were locked into place there. They slipped off the balance shoes, and hopped in the rigid inside of the space shell.

  Their fellow crewmembers (already dressed and prepared) watched them with mild curiosity, like a child with no money watches the neighborhood ice cream van. Their heads looked gigantic in the face-bubbles and soon he heard Mickey’s voice pulsing through the headset inside the space helmet.

  “Hey sunshine, you’ze a-lookin fine up dere in dat suit of yo’se.”

  “Shut up Mickey,” Eva said calmly.

  He shifted in his suit. “Excuse me missus, I wa’sa talking to Crass.”

  “Oh my God.” Eva exclaimed. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Where’s the captain at?” Crass asked.

  “He’s already waiting in the lunar module.” Mickey said.

  The employees released them and they walked down the hallway leading to the airlock. Mickey, then Skye, then Eva, with Crass in the back of the line.

  Once through the airlock and out the main hatch to the lunar surface, the ship taking them home wasn’t a far walk, and they bounced easily over to the black tarmac and climbed the ladder, then proceeded to climb in the cabin and find their seats.

  Crass was buckling in his seat when he looked up and realized it was only a five man crew and not eight, as it was on the way over with the teenagers…

  Yes, the teenagers. Where the hell were the teenagers?

  “Where are those kids at?” Crass asked to anyone listening. “The ones we rode over here with?”

  “They’re staying up here for a while,” Captain Don said.

  He sealed the hatch and buckled down in his seat at the controls of the computer. “I talked to the one we saw with the espressos the other day. Remember him?”

  “Yeah, yeah of course I
do. Shaggy haired guy right?”

  “That’s the one,” the Captain replied. “He said his other two friends were going to work the titanium mines pulling fourteen day shifts at a time, and then they get to go back to Earth for a little R’n’R. I’ll probably be doing a few of the flights myself.”

  “Anyways, the kid’s name is Parker Sollie, and he’s this really smart architect fresh out of college. He’s talked to one of the bank’s loan officers and has secured financing for a venue spot. For Miley Cyrus and Wiz Khalifa fans, about the only people crazy enough to come up here and actually see one of their concerts.”

  “I’d come back to see either one of them,” Mickey said.

  Captain Don flipped down the computer screen and touched a few buttons, talking to the LunaDome base over the radio headset as he did it.

  “Tranquility base. This is the Peregrine I lunar Lander preparing for liftoff and rendezvous with the command module in lunar orbit, over.”

  A distant and strange voice came back through the speakers in the helmet.

  “You’re good for liftoff, Captain. We’ll see you the next go round. Have a nice voyage.”

  Captain Don touched another button on the screen and the computer started counting down.

  6…5…4…3…2…1…

  “And here we go,” the Captain nearly screamed as the module lifted (shot) higher and higher (rising) into the palest of black skies. The thrust of the rockets vibrated their seats and sent turbulent chills through their bones and under their feet.

  4

  The Captain docked with the command module waiting on us in lunar orbit, and then we were zipping through Space at thousands of miles per hour as the big elegant moon grew smaller behind us. Up ahead and bright in the rocket ship’s windshield, was a floating blue and green sphere of light—Earth.

  “I miss it,” Skye said in the headset.

  “What?” Mickey asked incredulously, floating around the cabin now.

  “The resort,” she said, and looked at him as if he should have read her mind.

  “Do you know what Benjamin Franklin said?” the Captain asked, speaking up now that we were flying safely back through Space’s black corridor. “Fish and visitors stink after three days.”

  “I’ve heard that somewhere before,” Eva said.

  She floated by the starboard side window and gazed out over the Earth. Pondering it, it looked like.

  “That advice is old as Methuselah,” Captain Don said. “My grandma used to say it all the time.”

  The rocket capsule slung-shot closer to Earth, closer to the landing at Innsmouth Island, where we’d taken off at. Sunlight peeled over a large section of the Blue Planet, and hid away the rest in a black blanket mingling with outer space.

  Crass floated over to Mickey and shared a moment alone in faint whispers while they had their helmets off. This came an hour or two before their landing.

  “I fixed that little thing with Eva.” Crass said quietly. “She’s happier than a pig in shit right now. We might sell some of the golden nugget when we get back on shore, maybe go take a cruise or something and see the big wide world.”

  “Thanks buddy.” Mickey said, and grabbed him, shaking his hand firmly. Then he sighed

  “Skye wants to go to L.A.”

  “Cali?” Crass asked with a raised brow. “Are you going, too?”

  “Maybe I will, dude.” Mickey said. He gazed out of the window. “I’ve just never been, so I don’t really know what the hell to expect out there.”

  “I’d imagine it’s the same as Florida, except with more earthquakes, and more movie stars running around.” Crass said. “And you just went to the Moon, and are now coming back in a rocket ship, so what’s stopping you?”

  Mickey thought on it for a moment. “The house down in San Marino I guess, and the chopper.”

  “Sell them without a moment’s hesitation. Be done with it. Sayonara to the suckers and the leeches. Go live in a tent on a campground somewhere. Enjoy the joie de vivre. And live, live, live, my friend.”

  “What about Skye?” he asked.

  Crass looked around for a moment and then back at Mickey.

  “What about her?”

  “She’ll probably find some younger or wealthier guy out there,” Mickey whispered loudly. “It’s fucking Hollywood, man.”

  Crass looked him dead square in the eyes. “You want to hear what my mother told me one time?” he asked, not waiting for an answer.

  “She said there were plenty of fish in the sea, but that the real treasure always sank to the bottom. The pearls, the gold, the silver, and the Spanish galleons we can’t touch on the ocean floors. She said anyone who built the right machines and were able to reach down to those depths would have everything they ever wanted, everything they ever dreamed of.”

  “Is she single?” Mickey asked with a golden grin.

  “Afraid not, Romeo. Don’t worry about it though. Everything always works out in the end, and if it doesn’t, call me up and we’ll go fuckin back to the Moon and forget all about it. Pearls cling to the bottom, Mick. Remember that, ok? I’ve gotta go buckle up, it looks like we’re getting close.”

  “Thanks again, Crass. For everything, I owe you man.”

  “No you don’t. I wouldn’t have made it to Innsmouth without you and the whirlybird.”

  “Still, thanks.” Mickey said smiling.

  “You’re welcome, handsome.” Crass said, and climbed in his seat.

  Captain Don said: “Fifteen minutes guys and gals. This flight is almost over, thank God. I’m ready to go home and get my rod wet. I mean the line…fishing line. Anyways, get your asses buckled in. We’re about to break through the Earth’s atmosphere in under twelve minutes now.”

  The lunar module was jettisoned off into Space as the command module fired its last engine, and turned us into a fiery speeding bullet engulfed in flames and quickly losing altitude.

  We shot down through tall clusters of puffy white clouds, further and further down towards the Atlantic Ocean. The parachutes deployed (three of them) at some point, and slowed down the spacecraft as the computer took over the guidance system, and fired the rocket thrusters in the legs, bringing the capsule down with the precision of a helicopter landing.

  Within a few minutes, the onboard computer landed us safely on the third heliport on top of the Innsmouth mansion.

  “Earth to Peregrine I. You alive in there, Don?” asked a voice that echoed in the cabin’s shiny interior.

  The crew was already unbuckling and taking their helmets off, mighty glad to be home. Captain Don threw open the hatch and bright afternoon sunlight basked through the cabin and over their tired faces.

  He pulled the wireless microphone off the Velcro and spoke in the receiver.

  “Everyone’s breathing, it appears. We’ll be down there shortly.”

  They all filed out of the spacecraft and stretched their legs on the helipad. The wind whipped over the blue surf and sent a salty breeze across Crass’s face. He loved every minute of it.

  He glanced at his crewmembers: Eva, Skye, Mickey, and Captain Don. He was happy to have made the trip with him, but even happier to be home, and on Earth.

  Captain Don started down the stairs as a group of employee’s from LunAucity XCursions walked by, headed for the spacecraft to unload all the bags and equipment.

  A few seconds later, Eva got one of them to snap a picture of us in front of the Peregrine I rocket capsule that appeared only slightly charred around the edges. From what Crass could remember of it, everyone had smiled, even him.

  And then later, they’d picked up their bags and traveled towards home. It wasn’t a set place, but wherever they happened to lay their heads at tonight.

  They were home, and that knowledge felt good.

  Everything was copacetic.

  And simply divine.

  XV: Epilogue

  Ex-Terrestrials

  Sunlight bled through the round window of the cabin as Crass
stirred awake in a small room next to a brunette. Rolls of her hair were bunched up on the pillows in soft rivulets.

  He’d bought their tickets through an online travel agency, and they left out of port from Ft. Lauderdale. Crass would have gotten Mickey to fly them down from Daytona in the chopper, but he’d been on hiatus in California with Skye, supposedly helping out with some of her state-of-the-art restoration techniques.

  Crass had called him before they left out.

  “Skye has got me learning some of the techniques of the Renaissance painters. How they mixed paints, what they used to mix it with, where they got the colors from, every little fact and detail. It feels likes I’m in Art class again, but I’m digging it, I guess. Are you and Eva still hanging out, staying friends and all that?”

  Well, now he had to think.

  “Yeah. She’s fashionable.”

  “What?” Mickey laughed. “She’s a knockout shit-for-brains, but how long will she keep you entertained is what I’m wondering.”

  “Who knows, Mickey, I like her though. She’s educated, got a degree, makes money independently, and like me, has watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory more times than she can remember.”

  “What’s your count at now?” he asked. “We must’ve watched that movie every fucking day I can remember back at the dorms.”

  “So far, I’ve watched it two hundred and ninety-seven times. That’s all the times I actually bothered to make a tally mark on the DVD case.”

  “Damn, you’re obsessed.” Mickey said. “Only a madman would sit through those evil Oompha-Loomphas more than once.”

  “You’re probably right. I just love the story and so does Eva, so we know there is at least two of our kind in the world.”