Grey Moon, Red Mars, Green Earth - Chapter 1

Meera sat in the seat next to the porthole through which she could look outside the rocket. Everything was grey. The body of the rocket was grey, the back of the seat on which the entertainment display was mounted was grey, the body of the rocket was grey, and the Moon ahead was grey. She was also not entirely certain what she was going to do once she was on the Moon. She just knew she wanted to go there.

The blue of the Earth faded away and it turned dark as the rocket turned away from the Earth. The cabin lights just illuminated the area around her. She felt alone and scared. Had she made the right decision?

She had told her family only yesterday that she was going to the Moon. Her aunt and her family were visiting home for brunch when she had revealed her plans. She saw her mother was seething with anger. She gripped the spoon tightly. Her father seemed exasperated but did not seem to care. Her aunt and cousin called her a lunatic.

Her uncle’s calm voice said, “I think you should go.”

She had not expected her uncle to support her. He had been part of the first waves of settlement on the Moon. He had returned a year later with several health complaints.

“Have you gone mad just like my daughter? You have experienced the Moon first hand. You could not handle …”

Her mother turned to her and said, “You will not go to the Moon. That is final.”

“I have already booked the tickets.”

“I said you will not go. That’s final.”

“You’re the one responsible for sending all these people to the Moon and Mars. You’re the reason that humans are … “ Her father intervened to stop her mother. He did not say anything - he just raised his hand. The whole table fell silent. Her mother stormed out in anger. Her aunt and cousin followed her. Her mother rarely listened to her father. This was rare.

Her father continued eating brunch. Her uncle looked down at his food and then went after his wife and child. Her uncle bid goodbye to her father, looked at Meera and said that he would drop her at the spaceport on the next day.

This was her first visit to the Moon. The flight to the Moon carried more goods than people. The website on which she booked the ticket asked her to confirm her destination (twice!) to make sure that she was not booking incorrectly. There were possibly three other people on the flight - possibly, a family.

A person flying from Earth to the Moon was so rare that there was no public transportation to the spaceport. They drove in silence.

“Take care, beta,” was all that the uncle offered when he dropped her at the entrance to the spaceport. The spaceport wore a deserted look. There was a yawning security guard, a receptionist who was busy listening to songs on the computer using headphones, and the family who were in the flight with her.

She was wearing a grey hoodie and grey trousers. Inside she wore a t-shirt. She passed the receptionist and was given a basic healthscan. She was offered a tablet if she wanted to sleep all the way to the Moon.

An hour later, she was being pushed into her seat as the launch vehicle moved through the upper realms of the Earth’s atmosphere.

She must have fallen asleep because she felt someone poke her shoulders. It was the woman from the family. She smiled. The woman did not respond. She just left.

She stood up and wore the suit that was beneath her seat. She walked out and was immediately hit by the higher temperature outside. She also felt lighter. She walked across a short aerobridge that took her to a high speed elevator that took her to the bottom level. The family were already in the train that would take them to the lunar colony. The train dropped them at the Immigration point.

She could see the Chandra lunar colony in the background. She could only see part of a dome emerge from below the lunar surface.

“No luggage,” the lady who sat at the counter asked. She seemed bored. Meera just shook her head to indicate no.

The lady at the counter wore the grey customs uniform. Her hair was neatly clipped in place. She was not wearing any make-up or jewellery. She looked at Meera, asked her to remove her spacesuit, took a picture and let her pass. It was efficiently done. The whole process was done in three minutes.

Meera got a ping on her cell phone. It was a basic welcome message. A copy of the message would have gone to her father, whom she had listed as an emergency contact. Welcome to the Moon. It suggested that she install an app. She did not install the app and ignored the rest of the message.

Meera walked to the train station that went around the lunar colony. The train would next pass the spaceport station in one hour. The station seemed to have artificial gravity. The train station was deserted. There was only signboards to indicate when the next train would arrive and the position of the compartments.

She connected to a network and logged into Discord. She informed her friends there that she was on the Moon. Ravi sent her instructions on how to get to the hostel. Take the train three stations down from the spaceport - Sarabhai Nagar. When she exits the station, she has to get into the fourth door that will have an elevator. She has to take it to the twelfth level down. They would be waiting in the lobby.

Ravi was her friend whom she had learnt to sketch with. She was in awe of his observation skills and his sketching skills. She took out her stylus and tab and began to sketch the train station. Everything was dark, the lighting was minimal. She could see cameras everywhere. A few turned and seemed to be looking at her in particular.

The train pulled into the station just as she finished. The train was mostly empty. The family got into a compartment towards the end. She got into a compartment in the front. The train zoomed smoothly out of the station. The inside of the train seemed eerily silent. Even the family in the back did not seem to be talking to each other. She had only heard the husband instructing his wife about which luggage she should carry.

A few moments later, a display board told her that Sarabhai Station was next. She got up to exit the train. The train was still empty.

The train had remained in the lava tube throughout the journey. She did not get a chance to see the surface. She went to the elevator bank and entered the elevator with a four marked on it. A few minutes later she walked out on the twelfth level. Ravi, Shruti, and Janaki were waiting for her. They hugged her and took her to their room. No words were spoken. She expected a cacophony of welcomes and how are yous. Janaki had always been very expressive. She was surprised to see her only smile at the sight of her.

They showed her a bed and left her to settle in. That was all there was - a bed. The room was a shared one between Shruti and Janaki. The bed had a bank of doors at the bottom which had a few lunar suits of her size. She was certain Shruti had selected it for her. There was a common bathroom at one end of the room. Another bed was empty. There was a charging station and a few light switches. The bed was a pod. It was air conditioned. She took a lunar suit - which was a pressurized single suit. There was an option to wear a jacket on the top. She took bath and changed into the single suit. There were messages on Discord.

“Don’t leave your phone out even if you’re going to the bathroom. Don’t talk except on Discord. Run the security scan as often as possible each time you pick up and use your phone.” Ravi was back to his protective self. He had protected her from bullies in school and taken her into a world of drawing and sketching.

She ran the security scan software as soon as she read the message. She found 32 spam software and 4 surveillance software installed. The security software removed these. She knew she would be a person of interest. It was not everyday that a person from Earth visited the Moon.

Ravi had left when she walked in for dinner. They ate in silence. Janaki pointed at the closed circuit camera and then at Meera’s phone with her eyes.

Meera saw a notification on Discord. She ran the security software again. 29 spam software and 6 surveillance software. The security software removed these again. Then she opened Discord.

Ravi had sent her a message. “Don’t talk anywhere other than on Discord. Don’t show interest in others in your room. Just eat and then get into bed.”

Janaki’s message followed: “We are so excited to see you. There is surveillance even in the room. Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself. You just coming here is a lot of attention.”

She could not believe there was surveillance in the rooms where they were staying. Meera had heard of the surveillance situation on the Moon. But, this seemed extreme. But, she followed the instructions. She didn’t want to get Shruti and Janaki in trouble. That was also possibly why Ravi had left as well.

She got a message asking her to register herself as a visiting person on the Moon, share how long she planned to stay, where she would stay and when she would be returning to Earth. She ignored the message and finished her dinner.

She walked into the bedroom. She set the alarm for 5 am, shut the pod, and went to sleep. On Earth, she would have read. Now, she just put her phone to charge and went to sleep. Her body was telling her she was exhausted. She fell asleep as soon as her head felt the pillow.

A swarm of robots were still working on building things. She could see them through her bedroom window. It was not often that she thought about her parents or spoke to them. She saw her mother as an evil scientist who had split humanity across two planets and the Moon. She saw her father as a silent spectator in her family. He never spoke at home - he only followed what her mother said.

The day she came to know about the deportation of her friends she had confronted her mother at home.

“How can you send my friends to the Moon?”

“We have to save Earth. There have been too many climate catastrophes and wars…”

“Then why don’t we leave too?”

“I am the Chief Scientist working on the project to restore the environmental balance on Earth. Without my work, people will never be able to return to Earth. Till we can restore …”

“I hate you …” Meera had stormed out of the room. She had stormed out just like her mother had yesterday.

It had taken five years to evacuate humans from Earth. The initial plan was to move all of them to the Moon. But, there was just not enough place on the Moon. There were also many health complaints and deaths, just like her uncles. They had then decided to move humans to Mars. Mars had a couple of human-occupied labs but nothing more. A swarm of robots were sent to Mars to build housing and industry on the surface but only after work on the lunar colonies were completed.

She had not had the chance to say goodbye to her three friends - Ravi, Janaki, and Shruti. She did not know if they resented her then. A few years later they had connected again. Ravi had reached out to her with an invitation to connect on a Discord server.

Her friends told her about the stricter laws on the Moon. There was surveillance intended to stop humans from returning to Earth. But, the use of this surveillance grew and slowly people did not openly speak out about the real conditions on the Moon. Her friends told her that many such people that the administrators thought were problematic were deported to Mars. There was a lack of information about what happened to these people. Discord connections did not exist on Mars.

Janaki spoke of two administrators - Stewart and Ramgopal who were saying that the situation on Earth had now returned to normal and that people could return to Earth. Meera told Janaki that she had overheard her mother say the same thing. She told her friends on Discord the same day.

She confronted her mother at lunch.

“Can’t my friends return home now? I heard you talk on the phone and say that the atmospheric parameters are within safe range.”

“It’s not that easy,” she said in a way that would end the conversation.

Meera did not understand why Stewart and Ramgopal had to fight for the right of humans to return to Earth. When she asked, Ravi changed the topic.

She had not really understood the reactions from her family or her friends. Was this a warm welcome or a silent plea for her to return to Earth? The alarm rang. She woke up.