Moondust

by Gemma Fowler

  Aggie pushed for her meds again. She needed to be numbed for this. It was too strange when Mir was being nice. It made hating her harder.

  ‘Well, it looks as if I’ve been promoted to the United Leader’s PR team in Tokyo. I think, after everything –’ Mir paused, making sure Aggie knew that ‘everything’ meant what had happened in the Tech corridor – ‘the commander feels I have achieved all I can on the surface.’

  Mir was putting a brave face on it, but she sounded as if she might actually cry. Aggie suddenly felt terrible. If it wasn’t for Mir dragging her out of the way, her hospital stay would be a lot longer. Rix really was that crazy.

  ‘I’m leaving on the next shuttle, actually.’ The Earth Relations girl’s voice was cracking. ‘I’m now a proud member of the United Government.’ She didn’t sound proud.

  Aggie glared at the Ether and whacked the meds again.

  ‘Mir, I don’t know what to . . . I’m sorry . . .’

  ‘It’s you I’m sorry for,’ Mir said with genuine concern, her eyes flicking to the Ether then back to Aggie. She placed a hand on the bed, leaning forwards. Her green eyes reminded Aggie of an owl. ‘You know something, don’t you?’ she whispered. ‘Something else? I don’t know why he would act like that. You’re the Angel, for Earth’s sake. He wouldn’t risk hurting you, but maybe if you knew something—’

  The door to her pod slid open, a chatter of voices clamoured for a second and then stopped. The door shut again, leaving only the shuffle of footsteps on the floor. Not surface boots, though, lighter.

  Mir jumped out of the chair.

  The smell of citrus and spice drifted into the room. Aggie knew that smell.

  ‘Adam!’ Aggie cried, as her godfather shuffled into the room.

  ‘Aggie, little one!’ Adam Faulkner wrapped her in a hug so tight it made the monitors bleep. Suddenly the dark thoughts in her head disappeared like smoke. Adam was here, on the surface. He’d come all the way to the Moon to see her.

  He was wearing a long, beige coat with the silk, robe-like suit that was popular with the UG ministers beneath. Civilian clothes. It looked strange in the context of the base. Overalls were compulsory – if there was a leak, a drop in pressure, anyone unprotected would be done for – but Aggie guessed that no one was going to tell Adam Faulkner what to do.

  When her godfather finally released her, he pulled something from out of the folds in his coat.

  The smell hit her first, a smell she’d missed so much, fresh and earthy and perfumed.

  ‘Flowers!’ Aggie exclaimed, looking at the bright yellow and violet bouquet in his hand. ‘Real flowers!’

  ‘Yellow and violet, for who you were, and who you are.’ Her godfather smiled. ‘All the way from Tokyo.’ He passed them to Aggie. She buried her face in them and took such a deep breath she snorted.

  ‘They’re beautiful, thank you,’ she said, clutching them to her chest. She couldn’t get enough of the smell. Warm and peppery and bright all at once.

  ‘They’re still in the soil, so with any luck they’ll survive up here for a little while.’

  Adam Faulkner turned towards Mir, who stood as if she were carved out of moon rock, with a look on her face as if she’d seen a ghost. Her mouth bobbed open and closed like a fish. Aggie smiled, the Mir robot had finally malfunctioned.

  ‘Adam, this is Mir, from Earth Relations. She organized the party.’

  Mir looked about to faint.

  ‘Nice to meet you, Mir.’ Aggie’s godfather beamed. ‘And congratulations. It really was a wonderful party.’

  He held out his hand.

  Mir didn’t move.

  ‘Er, Mir?’ Aggie said.

  The girl jumped. ‘Oh! Yes, right. So, wonderful . . . an honour . . .’ She scuttled out of the room.

  Faulkner raised his eyebrows.

  ‘She’s a big fan,’ Aggie said, sniffing the flowers again.

  Faulkner nodded, ‘Ah.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘It’s my pleasure, little one. You gave me quite a fright. I’ve been trying to get a shuttle for two days. Had to bump off a whole shuttle-load of inmates just to get here now.’

  Aggie shook her head. ‘You shouldn’t have.’

  Her godfather bent over her. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. My Aggie, in the hospital wing? After everything we’ve put you through in the last couple of weeks? I don’t want you to feel you’re all on your own.’

  Aggie smiled sadly. ‘I appreciate it Adam, I really do. You’re busy.’

  Adam Faulkner settled into a chair. ‘Well, what happened?’ He looked at her, his sparkling grey eyes scrutinizing her.

  Aggie suddenly felt exposed. What should she say? Should she protect the commander? Her godfather had openly hated the man since he’d ousted him, so maybe . . .

  ‘Rix buzzered me,’ she said quickly, then looked away.

  ‘What in all the seven states?’

  ‘I’m OK, though,’ she added, feeling the atmosphere in the room change suddenly. Her godfather’s knuckles were white on the arms of the chair.

  ‘He won’t be, when I’ve had my way.’ Adam’s eyes were lost in another place. ‘I’ve always said the man is unpredictable. Unreliable. An accident waiting to happen!’

  Aggie pulled back, it was as if her godfather wasn’t with her completely.

  ‘Adam?’ she said nervously.

  He shook his head at the sound of her voice. When he looked back at her his face was soft with concern. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m angry. I shouldn’t let it get the better of me.’

  He stroked the petals on the flowers thoughtfully.

  ‘Rix is reckless, he doesn’t think.’ He shook his head again, his eyes glassy. ‘Confidence in the company, Aggie. That is what is most important. Without confidence, in our image, in our product, we have nothing.’

  ‘Rix has said it’s exhaustion, Adam,’ Aggie replied, glancing over at her godfather worriedly. ‘No one will know.’

  Adam Faulkner smiled. ‘And I’m sure they won’t, but with a missing Angel and the missing quotas and the quakes getting worse . . .’ His voice drifted away again. ‘The Moon has quakes,’ he muttered. ‘That is, indeed, what we always said.’

  Aggie inched further forward on the bed.

  ‘Are you OK? Adam?’

  Adam Faulkner turned back to her and smiled. ‘Yes! Of course! Enough about the company. It’s not even mine any more. Let Rix and his people sort it out.’

  ‘Actually, Adam,’ Aggie said slowly, ‘there’s something . . .’

  Aggie had always confided in her godfather before. Maybe he could help her, answer some of the questions and put her mind at rest. She glanced at the Ether nervously.

  ‘But lumite runs through my veins,’ her godfather continued, his old, grey eyes unfocused. ‘How can I just watch it all fall apart? How can I sit down there in the forum while Rix brings my family’s legacy to its knees?’

  ‘Adam, I found something. Something weird, on the . . .’

  Adam frowned, his eyes bright once again. ‘What is it little one?’

  The Ether swirled urgently. ‘Agatha, your heart rate is increasing out of the healthy range.’

  ‘No Celeste. Adam, I—’

  ‘I would recommend that you relax. Maybe some guided breathing—’

  ‘Aggie, please. You’re scaring me.’ Adam pressed a cool hand to her forehead. Aggie pushed it off.

  ‘Adam,’ she said desperately, sweating and wincing in the pain of sitting up. Was Celeste trying to stop her talking? The meds were making her cloudy.

  ‘I think Celeste is—’

  ‘Heart rate is in critical spectrum.’

  ‘Calm down, Aggie, just tell me slowly,’ Adam said, glancing worriedly at the Ether.

  ‘Hey Adam, a medic team has been called.’

  ‘No!’ Aggie shouted back, feeling the room spin wildly around her. The implant in her arm was vibrating. ‘You have to listen, Adam . . .’

  ‘What?
Aggie, please, what is it?’ Her godfather’s voice was high and panicky. Aggie had never seen him look so worried before. ‘What are you trying to say?’

  ‘A medical team is on its way, Adam,’ Celeste said quietly from the wall. ‘Please, there is no need to panic.’

  ‘Celeste, leave her. That’s an order!’ Aggie’s godfather shouted, but it was too late. The implant in her arm lit up.

  ‘Patient override activated. Administering medication.’

  Aggie felt the world tilt away from her. Celeste’s voice was suddenly distant, sounding underwater.

  ‘Patient stabilized.’ Celeste said coldly.

  ‘No!’ Aggie gurgled.

  Whatever Celeste had tried to tell her, she didn’t want anyone else to know.

  Day-Cycle 14

  Aggie stared at the Ether on the wall opposite her hospital bed and tried to stop the room from spinning.

  The room was dark. The corridor outside quiet from the night shift.

  A shiver coursed over her skin.

  ‘Celeste,’ she said quietly, feeling the lump of the implant in her forearm. ‘I ask the questions, you answer them, OK?’

  On the table, the flowers her godfather had brought her had already begun to wilt. The atmosphere pumped into the base didn’t agree with flowers, even if they were in soil. It seemed fitting, somehow.

  The Ether on the wall surged, ‘OK Agatha.’

  Aggie glanced through the hexagonal window in the door. The corridor was still deserted.

  ‘The Rock-Aliens. That was you, wasn’t it?’

  Silence.

  ‘Seb did see something on the Far Side, didn’t he?’

  The computer swirled silently. Aggie’s heart felt it was going to burst out of her. This was a bad idea—

  ‘Yes, Agatha.’

  Aggie rocked back on her heels. She couldn’t believe it. She pushed her hand through her damp, sweaty hair and took a breath. She was doing this, she was really doing this.

  ‘You crashed the buggi on purpose, so I would see that man, dy—’ She couldn’t bring herself to say the word. She took a shaky breath. ‘Before the Clean-Up’s moved him.’

  ‘Yes, Agatha.’

  ‘The spacesuit. You put that there for me to find. Everything. It’s all been you.’

  ‘Yes.’

  Aggie shook her head and blinked away tears. She had to ask her next question, but she almost dared not utter the words.

  ‘Celeste,’ she said slowly. ‘Something bad is happening on the Far Side, isn’t it? That’s what you need me to see.’

  Silence. Then:

  ‘You have to see.’

  Aggie felt like she was in free fall. She dragged her sleeve across her eyes and steadied herself against the wall.

  ‘I want to see. Show me.’

  ‘OK Agatha.’

  There was a knock on the door. Aggie jumped.

  ‘Morning, comrade,’ Astrid winked, doing a mock-salute in the doorway. Aggie checked the corridor and ushered the intern inside.

  ‘Do you have it?’ Aggie whispered, glancing nervously at the Ether.

  Astrid just smiled.

  The intern had not stopped smiling since the party. When she found out that Aggie, her mentor, was in fact the Angel of Adrianne, all Astrid’s dreams had come true. She was the hot ticket at the Adrianne Society, or the Young Miners or the ERMs or whatever other society she’d been going to. And now, the enthusiasm that Aggie had once seen as a threat was something Aggie was relying on. Astrid would do anything for the Angel of Adrianne, Aggie hoped.

  ‘Astrid, do you have it?’ Aggie repeated. This exchange needed to be quick, and with the fewest possible questions.

  Astrid’s smile dropped a little and she shuffled on the spot.

  ‘Astrid,’ Aggie demanded, worried about time. ‘Give it to me.’

  ‘Well, there was one tiny little thing . . .’

  ‘Astrid!’

  Astrid nodded nervously and unclipped the bag from her back.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Aggie said, whipping off the papery hospital overall and throwing it on the floor, ‘I can’t explain now, but you won’t get in trouble. Well, not the kind of trouble you mean.’

  Astrid looked mortified. ‘Oh! It’s not that, Aggie, just, I checked inside and—’

  Aggie didn’t have time for this. ‘Look, don’t worry, just make yourself at home. There’s Spacefood on the bed . . .’

  Aggie took out the boots and grabbed the legs of the suit. The thing was big and bulky and creepy – like putting on someone else’s skin – but it was a better disguise than her shining, sparkling Angel costume. Plus, Celeste had meant for her to have it. That had to mean something.

  Astrid was wringing her hands, staring at the suit. ‘But, I was saying, I checked inside, and . . .’

  Aggie zipped up the new suit and gagged. ‘What is that?’

  ‘. . . I think someone threw up in it.’ Astrid grimaced. ‘Or died in it.’

  Aggie clutched the side of the bed and gagged again. Astrid shot towards her and started to fuss.

  ‘It’ll be OK, just don’t use the helmet – or the visor, and try not to use the water vents – you won’t be using any of those, will you?’

  ‘I’ll be OK.’

  Astrid shifted uneasily. ‘But where are you going?’

  Aggie took a deep breath and tried to attach the helmet again, but the watery puppy dog eyes Astrid was giving her were beyond distracting. ‘Look,’ she sighed, as she tried to breathe out of her mouth. Astrid could be pretty cosmic when she wanted to be. ‘If you see anything unusual happen, just get to a shuttle, OK?’

  Astrid frowned. ‘I’m a qualified ERM, Aggie, if anything ever happened—’

  ‘Astrid.’

  Astrid’s face had gone all creased. ‘OK,’ she lied.

  Aggie checked the suit’s systems. The smell was making her even more light-headed than her meds, but she had no choice.

  ‘Right, let’s do this,’ Aggie said to herself, gagging again. ‘Quickly.’

  Astrid nodded and sat down on the hospital bed.

  Aggie suddenly felt bad. ‘Thank you, Astrid.’

  ‘Anything for our Angel.’

  Astrid saluted her and Aggie disappeared into the dark corridor.

  Aggie was panting by the time she got to the shuttle platform. The dark corridors were empty. She braced herself on the door for a second and, when the world stopped spinning, stepped inside.

  She found the nearest seat and sat down with a thud. Aggie cursed – she didn’t want the noise to attract anyone’s attention. She looked around, checking the doors and windows, but the shuttle was almost empty. A pink-overalled physical trainer snored in one corner, a young, one-stripe geologist tapped away at her comms unit in the far carriage. Luckily, no one was interested in what was going on around them at this time in the morning.

  Aggie breathed a sigh of relief. So far, so good.

  ‘WELCOME TO THIS MIKKLESEN SHUTTLE SERVICE TO THE WHOLE EARTH COMPLEX, VIA PRISON SECTORS A TO D.’ Celeste’s automated voice echoed through the empty cabin. Aggie looked up at the Ether that spun beside the screen displaying the shuttle’s stops. She was now breathing so heavily that the physical trainer had woken up. He was staring at Aggie now as if he were still dreaming. But Aggie didn’t care. She was watching the screen – something strange was happening. A glitch in the far corner.

  ‘NEXT STOP IS WHOLE EARTH LOOP, PLEASE ALIGHT HERE FOR THE WHOLE EARTH COMPLEX, RECREATION AREAS A TO C AND THE C FACE SCRAMBLER BAYS.’

  ‘What?’ Aggie looked up at the shining red Eye in the ceiling. It looked straight back. And then Aggie knew. She’d taken this shuttle a million times before, and Celeste’s announcement never included the scrambler bays. Why would it? No one from Civilian needed a scrambler unless they were . . .

  The shuttle doors opened.

  Aggie hesitated.

  The shuttle hovered at the platform for longer than it should. The pink-clad physical traine
r opened his mouth, ‘Are you the—’

  Aggie ran out of the shuttle. The Angel overall would have stood out, yeah, but this massive old thing? She needed to be sneaky, and that wasn’t easy when you were wearing a wardrobe.

  ‘Hey Agatha, it’s a left at the intersection,’ Celeste’s voice suddenly boomed from an Ether on the other side of the corridor.

  Aggie ducked behind a Spacefood vendor. ‘Shhh!’ Anyone could hear the computer, Celeste was practically shouting.

  ‘Agatha,’ the computer continued at the same volume. ‘Do you know how little sound the human ear registers?’

  Aggie shook her head, scanning the darkness for signs of the passenger who had recognized her.

  ‘It has a very narrow range, only up to twenty thousand Hertz. Incredibly inefficient, compared to—’

  ‘Where next?’ Aggie hissed.

  ‘A left turn, Agatha.’

  Panting, she waddled through the corridors, with the computer guiding her. When Celeste said stop. Aggie stopped. When the computer said run, she ran as fast as the wardrobe would allow. She turned left and right without even thinking, putting her trust in the machine she’d always disliked. It was for answers, she told herself as she ducked from some unseen group of personnel – she just needed answers.

  Around her, the base was beginning to wake up. In this part of the Prison Sector, that meant guards. But Celeste was an excellent pilot and soon Aggie found herself entering the huge hangar that housed the C Face scramblers undetected.

  As she approached, the Ether panel on the scrambler closest to her lit up.

  ‘Authorization for scrambler seventeen,’ Celeste said brightly. ‘The emergency airlock is located to your right, Agatha.’

  Aggie glanced around the hangar nervously, then jumped onto the scrambler and drove it into the airlock.

  As the clear Plexiglas walls closed around her, Aggie watched the great, grey desert of the surface roll out before her. From here, on the edge of C Face, there were no buildings to be seen, just a flat expanse of rock and dust trailing off to the black horizon.

  ‘Hey Agatha,’ Celeste’s voice echoed. ‘Plotting route to Borderlands. One moment . . .’

  Aggie nodded and glanced behind her, expecting to see black-overalled guards on the other side of the plastic. But there was nothing.