Moonliner: No Stone Unturned (35 page)

Lennox puts on a headset and tunes into the cockpit control channel.  He does this on every flight at the time he expects the captain to ignite the main outboard thrusters.  The captain radios in a countdown at the end of a checklist before igniting them.  Lennox hates to be startled by massive rocket-engine thrust and likes to know exactly when it’s going to happen.

“Set azimuth heading to zero six-niner,” he hears the captain request.  Activate long range sensors.”

The sensors are a relatively new, laser technology which utilizes satellites to scan for objects that are, or will be, in the path of the spacecraft.  They are highly sensitive and the slightest micro-meteor or piece of space junk would instantly trip them.  Once the scans have cleared the craft, it’s time to hit the thrusters. 

              “Earthport control showing clear skies to the moon,” a different voice says over the radio, then squelch.

              “Moondock control showing a clear flight path,” another voice says a few seconds later.  Lennox grips his armrests.

“Igniting main outboard thrusters in five, four, three, two, one, and,” the captain says just before Lennox feels himself sink deep into his seat.  Not even a gyro seat can absorb the thrust when those engines are lit up.  The burn is only long enough to achieve an escape velocity and align the craft on a trajectory to the moon, then the engines are cut and it’s a long, dark, quiet ride into the void of empty space.  It’s much like being thrown to the moon, without gravity or air resistance to slow you down.

The craft has picked up some serious speed.  Weightless, it doesn’t really matter how you’re aligned with the earth and moon; it only changes your perspective.  The shuttle barrel rolls, putting the earth overhead, now flying beneath it with the moon dead ahead.  Lennox is lucky enough to have a seat in a dome-like section near the front of the craft, giving him an obstructed but beautiful forward view of the flight.  Earth looks so warm and sunny today, making it even harder for Lennox to leave it.

The spacecraft veers a little further from Earth on its calculated trajectory to the moon.

Moonliner
5:18

Nervously, Cedric stands in front of his mirror.  How could the hour have come so soon?  He has half a mind to call Lennox and call it all off, but knows he can’t and won’t.  It’s not that he doesn’t want to go through with it, or to see Nikki again; he wants nothing more.  He’s simply worried that she won’t want to see him.  Then he remembers, this isn’t about her taking him back.  No, this is about him never losing her.  He takes a deep breath and puts on his favorite shirt.

Time pushes him along.  He sits on the Skytrain with his sunglasses on, zoned out, trying to think of this as just another day.  He gets off at Park Station, walks along the platform, up the escalator, and into the park.  What better place to be when Lennox transmits the message?

He strolls his familiar path to his sacred bench beside Lost Lagoon, only to find another couple occupying it.  His heart sinks, taking this as a bad sign.  Moments later, however, the couple gets up and strolls away.  Cedric walks over to the bench and sits down. 

The trees are swaying; it’s a breezy day.  The park appears empty, except for an old man sitting on a bench across the footbridge that crosses the northern tip of the lake.  The sky has a dry, yellowish hue to it.  The park is dry too; all the grass is dead, which is typical this late in summer.

Cedric questions whether this is going to work at all, then again works his way through the plot in his mind only to again conclude that it should.  Should, however, is not certainty.  Any number of things could still go wrong.

A waning moon is still visible in the morning sky.  Cedric stares at it, now feeling more aligned with it.  Lennox should be there by now, he thinks, somewhere around that ball in the sky.

              “It should have worked by now,” Cedric says under his breath; “He should have sent the message by now.  It didn’t work.”  The suspense starts to consume him, causing time to slow from his perspective.  He leans forward on the bench, resting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands, now having real doubts that this will work.

Moonliner
5:19

Lennox’s shuttle docks with Moondock.  He feels the craft’s motion smoothly shift to match the space station’s rotation.  The vessel connects from its side via a pressurized tubeway, with the bottom of the craft facing outward from the center of the ring’s rotation, thus allowing shuttle passengers to rapidly regain their lost weight upon docking.  It’s an awkward sensation for newcomers, but one with which Lennox is very familiar.  He often describes the feeling as being caught.

Lennox grabs his belongings and decrafts though the tubeway.  Again, he’s on the controlled access, lower ring of the station.  There are a few people there to greet his flight, but they soon disappear down the ring’s central tube.  He sits alone by a viewing window, watching the station roll into the dark side of the moon.  As it does, the windows and interior lighting adjust automatically to mitigate the harsh shift in outside conditions.  Unless you’re looking directly out a window, you don’t even know you are moving out of the sun’s burning radiation and into the deadly, frigid darkness of outer space. 

Lennox pulls Cedric’s transmitter from a pocket in his shoulder bag. He looks at it for few minutes, then taps it twice to turn it on.  A blue button illuminates.  If this thing does what Cedric programed it to do, he thinks, then this is likely to be the most profound pushing of a button in human history.  He looks at the button somewhat timidly; a button that could blow a hole in the universe for all he knows; a button that could change the course of human events.  He taps the transmitter twice to turn it off.  

He walks down the central tube to his hotel and checks in.  Again, there is hardly anyone around.  It’s like he has the station to himself.  He is shown to his room by the hotel’s concierge.  Being a frequent guest, they like to keep his business.  Rates on Moondock, to say the least, are astronomical.

Once inside his room, Lennox flops down onto the bed, exhausted from his travels.  Aware of elapsing time and his obligation to Cedric, he again pulls the transmitter from his bag and taps the power on.  Again, a blue button on the device illuminates, sending another shot of adrenaline down Lennox’s spine.  This is much harder than he thought it would be.  He double taps the transmitter and it shuts it off again.

He steps into his washroom and splashes his face.  He gargles, then takes a long look in the mirror at himself.  After a few seconds, he nods, then returns to the bed, knowing what he has to do.

He picks up the transmitter and walks over to the small viewing window in his room.  He opens its mini-blind and watches the moon spin round and round.  He gets a short glimpse of Earth and thinks of Cedric sitting there in the light, waiting for the transmission.

He taps the transmitter again.  It turns on and once again the blue button lights up.  He lifts his thumb to press it, then hesitates for few seconds.  He takes deep breath and presses the button.  Cedric’s voice then carries through time, echoing these words:

“To my friends Beau and Kendra, thank you.  I’ve received your metal plate.  I am completely convinced that you are who you say you are, and that my transmissions have landed in the year 2014.  I’m astounded beyond words at the magnitude of this success and I owe an endless debt of gratitude to both of you.  I have instead, however, a favor to ask of you; the nearest and dearest person to me was tragically killed on a flight to moon just after sending your first message from lunar orbit for me.  I’d like you to warn her not to board that ill-fated flight, and this is how you can do that; she was in the
Vancouver Public Library
on the day that she got the assignment to go, looking through a book entitled,
To the
Moon
;
a look at mankind’s quest for the moon
, by Tim Nelson.   She looks at an ancient, Italian lunar map amidst several graphics near the center of the book.  The map’s author is unknown.  I need you to find that book and to write a message to her on that map, telling her not to board her flight to the moon.  Her name is Nikki and you can tell her that I warned you from the future through my laser experiments.  She’ll have to believe you.  I’m sorry to ask so much of you, however, in exchange for this and all that you have done for me, the Washington State Powerball prize of 120 million dollars on December 31, 2014 shows no winner.  The Powerball numbers are: 17-27-37-40-53 & Power Ball 35.  Please do nothing with this information that would alter my life in any way.  And if we never hear from each other again, it’s been a riveting adventure to say the least.  Best wishes, your friend from the year 2069, Cedric.”

Moonliner
5:20

Cedric looks up from the park bench.  The day is picturesque; the air is still and the sky so blue.  There’s nobody around at all, not a soul.  The only thing moving is a goose, eating what little grass it can find by the edge of the lagoon.

A Skybus drifts slowly and silently overhead, across the park toward the north shore.  Cedric watches it closely as it takes in a bird’s view of the park.  He can see people on its outer viewing deck, which is typically open only in summer.  It slowly fades out of view behind the treeline.  The moment couldn’t be more placid, nor could Cedric be any more relaxed.

              “Is anyone sitting here?” a familiar voice asks out of the blue.

Cedric turns to see Nikki standing behind him, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight with her hand.

              “I don’t think so,” he answers; “feel free.”

Nikki sits on the bench and looks out over the lagoon before speaking. 

              “Looks like we have the park to ourselves,” she tells him.

              “Aren’t you that DOT-5 reporter?” Cedric asks her.

              “No,” Nikki answers; “you must have me confused with someone else.”