Red Mars, Grey Moon, Green Earth: Chapter 1

[This is my entry for NaNoWriMo 2024 and No Break Novembers.] 

The Moon, 2098

The surface of the Moon was desolate. One observation deck pierced through the surface on the rim of the crater. It seemed empty.

She hid behind a rock so no one on the observation deck could see her. Her daemon confirmed what she saw. There was no one on the observation deck. A few moments later, she saw a signal from behind another rock on the crater rim. 

An explosion rocked the observation deck. All her instincts told her to run away from the observation deck. She had to fight that impulse and run towards the observation deck. She could see a drone-level view of the surroundings. Her daemon had linked to the sensor on the top of the observation deck. She could see 10-15 people moving toward the explosion. 

They had to get to the explosion site before the security personnel came out. Her drone view tilted as the observation deck was destroyed and fell to the ground. It exposed an instrument deck below that she remembered from the plans they had discussed last night. 

There were no security personnel. 

They all reached the observation deck almost simultaneously. Her lunasuit protected her from the heat of the explosion. She saw the ladder leading down to the instrumentation deck. She saw more figures along the destroyed edge of the outpost. Each was seeing the other physically for the first time. She jumped and slid along the ladder. They did not have time to climb down and her lunasuit could bear the physical wear and tear. 

When she reached the bottom of the ladder, she went to the nearest hatch and began to turn the handwheel on the hatch counter-clockwise as hard as she could. 

“Stand aside,” he said.

She heard the order from the waist-high boy standing beside her and her daemon at the same time. He pulled out a pocket contraption and placed it against a lock on the side of the hatch. It made a few clicking sounds and they could hear the electronic locks turn to open the hatch. The hatches opened inward.

Air would gush out as soon as the cracks in the door appeared. They waited for the air in the pressure chambers to escape into the lunar surface and then rushed into the pressure chambers. There are four pressure chambers against the four walls of the instrumentation deck. She shielded the boy the best she could when they started rushing into the pressure chambers. The doors would begin to close soon. 

Her daemon confirmed that everyone was inside. He did not have one. He was too young to have his daemon! Her daemon confirmed that he was inside. It was as protective of him as she was.  The doors began to close. 

She looked at her lunasuit. There were a few scratches and deep cuts. Nothing she could not fix. Her daemon did an internal health check and thought she was shaken but okay. She looked at the boy’s lunasuit. It was the latest model. There was not a blemish on it. It was as if it had never been on the lunar surface. 

When the doors of the lunar base opened, a man wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and an oxygen mask walked in. He looked around the room. He motioned for them to remove the lunasuits.

“I am Captain Rajeev Nair of the Indian Space Force.”

He motioned everyone to move to one side of the pressure chambers. He looked at the damage the explosion had caused.  He saw the fifteen people who had entered this pressure chamber including the boy. 

“Why don’t you people just knock?”

He ordered two people to look for identification - documents or tattoos. She showed her neck where the identification was tattooed. They were fast and efficient. They were done in ten minutes. They had all got out of their lunasuits.  

They were taken to the medical examination deck. Captain Rajeev left the room. The robotic crew moved to look at and fix the damage to the instrumentation and observation decks. 

The doctor checked her pulse, weight, height, and oxygen saturation, and drew blood to create her medical history. He looked at her neck and noted down her identification number. He called for the next person and repeated the procedure. 

She had shielded her daemon as had all the people who had come there. They had submitted requests to relocate to the Moon. Her queue number was greater than one million. She expected the waiting time would be an Earth year. She could not wait that long. She hitched an illegal ride to the Moon. She had reached twenty days back. Her daemon had found the crew with which she had broken into this lunar base. She was advised to keep her daemon shielded until her entry to the base was confirmed. 

She expected backlash. There was none. The doctors were professional and attended only to the task they were given. There was silence all around. She expected the soldiers to beat them. She expected anger from Captain Rajeev for destroying their base. He seemed calm and stoic. Were their daemons harder at work than their human companions? 

She saw Captain Rajeev return to the medical examination room and satisfy himself that the people were not too badly injured. His eyes rested on her. He looked at the tattoo on her neck. He tried to focus harder on the tattoo. 

“Indian?” he asked.

“Yes. Meera.”

“Malayali aano?” 

She nodded.  

“Follow me.”

Meera walked a step behind Rajeev. She was trying her best to keep up with him. She also held the hand of the boy who had opened the hatch of the pressure chambers. Rajeev walked into a pressure chamber. He waited for a while before the door opened to a room. All three walked into the room.

“They destroyed the outpost and the instrumentation deck below it. We will have to replace it. This is Meera. She is a Malayali. The boy is the one who opened the electronic hatches.” 

There was silence. Rajeev’s superior looked at Meera and then at the boy. His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out where the boy was from. 

“Where is the boy from?”

“I am also a Malayali. I am Chintu. My mother calls me that. I don’t know my real name.”

Chintu switched between Malayalam and English when he spoke. Rajeev’s superior knew that this meant the boy knew multiple languages. He was not a native Malayalam speaker. Probably his father or mother was a Malayali. Rajeev’s superior looked at Meera.

“Why did you people destroy the outpost? You may have knocked?”

“I don’t know. I only followed instructions that came on my lunafone.”

“You tell me what I need to know, I can let you live. I may even send you to any lunar base of your choice.” 

Rajeev’s superior waited for Meera to answer. She remained silent. He shifted his attention to Chintu.

“Gafoor at the UAE base got the explosives. Ali from the Chinese base destroyed your outpost and instrumentation deck. He also gave me the electronic equipment to open the hatches.”

Meera looked at Chintu with horror. He had revealed all the information that the intruders had learned.

“That is all we were told.”

"I think they fed the intruders false information so that we will retaliate. I don’t think Gafoor and Ali are their real names.”

Meera and Chintu both kept quiet. Rajeev looked at them. Rajeev’s superior asked Chintu to hand over the electronic equipment. Chintu did this promptly. Again, Meera was amazed at how fast Chintu complied with Rajeev’s superior’s requests. 

Rajeev looked at the equipment. He examined it carefully and then handed it to his superior. The superior threw the equipment to a side. 

“The equipment is Chinese.”

“There is no strict control on the movement of goods on the Moon. Anyone could have got it anywhere.”

Rajeev’s superior agreed with him. He asked Meera and Chintu to wait outside the room in the pressure chamber. A few moments Rajeev walked out of the room. He gestured for them to follow him. 

They walked out. They took the staircase two levels below. 

“Do you want different rooms?”

Meera nodded yes. Chintu nodded no. Rajeev led them to different rooms. 

“These are isolation rooms. People from the surface are kept here for three days. If the medical team finds nothing in their lab reports, I will get you out earlier.”