“We’re not blowing up our entire arsenal,” Verdeschi said.
“Seriously?” Jon said. “We do this or we all die.”
“Who proposed this? The Reptilians? They’ve been waiting for a moment to over run our territories,” Verdeschi said. “Commander, if we show any weakness, if the Reptilians don’t move on us, the Tall Whites will. And right behind them, the Grays.”
Jon turned to Loxy, because of what she was saying. Everyone in the room took notice that he was tuning out of their conversation and into something else. They were partly interest because they had heard gossip that Jon wasn’t quite right, and they were looking for evidence to support that. He frowned, closed his eyes.
“What did you just experience?” Koenig asked.
Jon tuned back in. “The thing about weapons in dreams and movie plots, if you have them, you have to use them.”
“We are not in fantasy land,” Verdeschi said. “This is reality.”
“Yeah, I keep hitting up against that hard fact. And is here another social fact. You can’t have weapons and never use them. There is too much psychological dissonance. Bring in a Jedi, and there is going to be a lightsaber duel. That, too, is reality. The Universe is providing us a way to disarm in a productive way, I say we take it,” Jon said. Loxy put her hand on his, and he felt comforted.
“It’s not going to make a difference,” Verdeschi said.
“Well, that’s a different argument,” Jon said. “Bergman?”
Bergman had been doing the math in his head ever since the idea was proposed. “It is theoretically possible to decrease our present orbital velocity using a variety of tech, specifically the Andromedan force fields to control and funnel the simultaneous release of all the warheads.
The problem is, the decrease velocity will not buy us enough time to have sufficient charge to make the next jump, and, because of the decreased speed, we will likely fall directly into the star.”
Jon turned to Loxy. “Are you insane?”
“Fight, Flight, or Love,” Loxy reminded him. “We’re not fighting this, we can’t run from it, so it’s time to embrace it. Go in to get out,” Loxy said.
Jon sighed, looked to Bergman. “Execute this procedure on the other side. Accelerate us into the parabola,” Jon said.
“Are you fucking insane?” Verdeschi asked.
Bergman was doing the math, and his virtual simulation on the glass was confirming what he was speculating, too a greater degree of perfection. “That might work.”
“The amount of radiation alone will kill everything on the surface,” Russell said; she had access to Bergman’s data and was correlating the trajectory with medical outcomes. So was Maya, so was Alpa, so was everyone in the room that could do the math.
“This is the only present course of action that guarantees the survival of lunar
inhabitants,” Alpha said.
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“Wee would have to temporarily abandon alpha for the Undergrounds,” Bergman said.
“Once we come around the far side of the star and are heading back out, it will take about 12
hours for the station to have cooled off to be habitable again. The facility can withstand the heat and radiation.”
“You’re forgetting something,” Maya said. She drew everyone’s attention. “The optimal detonation point has the thinnest lunar surface.”
“That could be problematic,” Bergman agreed.
“Why?” Jon asked.
Loxy and Bergman said it together, so he got it in stereo and was distracted by it. “It’s the equivalent of popping a balloon.” Even though the surface of the moon has cooled, the inner was still hot and there was internal pressure wanting to escape.
“Has anyone considered maybe it’s time to abandon the moon?” Audrey asked. She was in the meeting, in the back ground, standing room only. She hadn’t been the only one thinking it but no one had wanted to speak it.
“We’re not prepared for that contingency,” Koenig said.
“All I am saying is, we don’t all have to die. Some of us could leave,” Audrey said.
“Does the Titanic have enough life rafts?” Jon asked.
“Interesting analogy, and no, we don’t,” Koenig said. “Audrey, I hear you, and maybe we need to be prepared for that, but we don’t know anything about this system or if there is anywhere safe to go, and if you want, I can put you in charge of who should get priority evac orders should a safe harbor become available, but until then, we’re in this together.”
“You know the Others will bail the first chance they get,” Verdeschi said.
“No, they’re going to follow our lead,” Jon said.
“What do you mean?” Koenig asked.
“The human population has been designated the primary interface with the Universe,”
Jon said.
“You agreed to that?” Verdeschi asked.
“I am confused,” Jon said. “I thought you wanted to be in charge?”
“We’re going to have to pick this up later. If we’re going to accelerate the moon, we need to move now,” Maya said.
“Let’s make this happen, folks,” Koenig said. “Benes, contact the Others and declare our intentions so they can prepare to protect their populations. Yasko, I want you on point coordinating our teams with the Andromedans.”
Everyone got up to go to work but Jon.
“Commander?” Jon asked. Koenig and Russell both paused to look at Jon. “Is there
anything I can do to assist?”
“Hang on,” Koenig said, and departed.
Russell try to flash a smiled at him, but even she couldn’t sell it.
“Does he ever smile?” Jon asked.
“Sometimes,” Russell said, and she, too, went to work.
निनमित
92
Just like in real life, when it comes to resolutions and results, there is a delay in application. In this instance, everyone on the moon knew what needed to be done and they had the resources to make it happen. The stage was set, agents in play, but there was a window when the button had to be pushed, and they were ready to go prior to optimum operation time. The moon rotates, even if you didn’t know from the perspective of Earth, and so, waiting for optimum was necessary.
The Greys employed tech giving the moon the equivalent of an Earth magnetosphere, which would help decrease the solar radiation hitting the surface as they approached the star.
Interestingly, the tail end of all the ions funneling around the moon would coincide with the blast tail when the detonations occurred. There were people living in that area that had to be evacuated, and the last shuttle was out well before anyone started to sweat the clock.
People were still sweating the clock. The clock continued to tick down. Simulations showed the trajectory around the star and the path the moon would take on the other side. They would pass several other planetary bodies, all of which were aglow with their own boiling magma surfaces. This place was new, still wet with its birth, the womb being swept away by the stellar wind, but still presently visible in the expanding bubble, more and more objects becoming visible as it departed.
Koenig addressed the ‘people,’ meaning everyone on the moon, before the event.
“Citizens of the moon. As you know, I hate public addresses, but just in case there was any doubt, it was always my personal pleasure serving with you all. This is not a farewell speech. We are going to do this, we are going to do this together, and we’re going to come out of the other side of this stronger because we are working together. God speed.”
The craters were off limits, as people were taken deeper into the surface. Jon had not realized how big some of these caverns were. There were whole valleys with cattle and horses and free flying birds. He overheard a child asking the mom whey they couldn’t go to the beach.
He would later discover they had an ocean with fish and a beach. There was a habitat for every species on Earth, even those that were no longer on Earth. Jon was with civilians in a tunnel. He was surrounded by people, but he felt alone. Most everyone was busy, either directly with family, focusing on family, or focusing on mission objectives. He purposely leaned against a cave wall, simply observing trying to stay out of the way. He was too embarrassed that he was hungry to ask if there was food. The orchards were in another cavern, or he would have helped himself. Audrey was suddenly beside him, taking his hand, and drawing him to a secluded area, where again, she initiated engagement. They were entangled when the moon began to accelerate.
Audrey was literally pinned to the floor with her own weight and his weight on top of her.
From an outside perspective, which was filmed by probes that had been launched, there was a magnificent view of the moon approaching a golden star, freshly borne. It was such a marvelous spectacle, from a thematic perspective, that it was likely comparable to Star Trek meets 2001 a Space Odyssey. Cameras proceeded the moon, followed the moon, and caught it from the sides as they sped away from their home of origin, the moon. Force fields contained the blast against the surface. An opening at the center of the shield, allow energies to escape. The thrust coming off the moon was too brilliant to watch without filters, and blast radius was probably the equivalent surface size to the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex.
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The moon did not pop like a balloon, or crack like egg, but a volcanic eruption followed the energies out, as if it were being sucked and channeled through a whirlwind. The moon was emptying itself as it journeyed around the star. It left a substantial tail that would freeze, bend away, and break off, pointing away from the star. Some of it came back to the moon, raining down on the present dark side, like a molten rain of naturally refined metals that sorted itself over eons of internal cooling. They continued to pour out lunar guts even as they came around the star, turning into the tail. The further away from the sun, the quicker the lunar contents crystalized. Much of the material rushed into space, which would leave a scraggly body of small asteroids, some would fall into orbits around the forming planets. One descent size piece would become a moon in its own right. The Andromedans used their shields to subdue the volcano, holding it in place long enough for the Lunar surface to scab over. They would later learn that the Andromedans piloting the shield ships had exceeded their radiation exposure and would be dead within fourteen hours. One had chosen not to even return to base, taking his craft out to explore the new system. He would push his survey notes through the Oneness back to the moon, for later sorting and cataloging. Their names would go a wall that would be constructed commemorating the Firsts. His ship would later rest on the fragment of earth’s moon, orbiting a gas giant with rainbow rings due to anodized titanium. The moon passed through this ring, and the surface was peppered with raindrop size titanium tear drops.
Because of the unexpected change in lunar mass, the trajectories were off. The moon was in a direct collision course with the Jovian sized planet. It was bigger than Jupiter, but still had failed to blossom into a star. When the temperature permitted, and they couldn’t risk waiting longer, they sent a human up in a suit to deploy the Lunar teleporter. The person selected knew it was a death sentence. He marveled at the gas giant that was swirling with radiant gas clouds. He raised the trigger guard. He marveled at the rainbow rain, and the sound it made against the glass, not quite like rain; it reminded him of a rain stick, only it had to be much louder to be filtering through his helmet. He said out loud, ‘Thank you, God, for my life.” His name would go on the wall: James Adam Gonner.
He pressed the button. The moon went dark.
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Jon woke to Audrey adjusting her clothes. She knelt down to check on him.
“You okay?” Audrey asked.
“Yeah,” Jon said.
“Okay, I got to go. Wait about five minutes, then come out,” Audrey said.
“Wait,” Jon said. Audrey lingered, but she acted as if it were a hardship. “What is this?”
“Please don’t make this difficult,” Audrey said. “I like you and all, but the age disparity, and the circumstances don’t lean towards a productive, long term relationship.”
“So, this is just about sex,” Jon said.
“No,” Audrey said. “It’s about really good sex. You’re like the hero in that movie, the one with Sandra Bullock driving the bus…”
“Speed?”
“Yeah,” Audrey said.
“I am like Keanu Reeves?” Jon asked.
“Yeah, you’re the hero and you’re going places, and the energy you bring to the table after a rescue is irresistible, and super fun, but, I don’t know what the but is, yet, but if you keep playing with me, I’ll figure it out,” Audrey said. “It’s further complicated by the fact I think I am in love with Loxy.”
“Oh,” Jon said.
Audrey patted his leg and kissed him. Then departed what was essentially a supply locker built into the wall.
Loxy was suddenly by his side. “You okay?”
“Why does everyone keep asking me if I am okay?” Jon snapped.
“Because we care?” Loxy said.
He frowned. “I am sorry,” Jon said.
“You like her, I get it,” Loxy said. “Seriously, I get it. She’s fun. I tapped that when you traveled.”
“Oh?” Jon asked. He was sorting that and getting aroused. “Next rime, may I watch?”
“Sure,” Loxy said.
Jon returned to the puzzle, though, an inner conflict he had struggled with all his life.
“What am I doing wrong?” Jon asked.
“Oh, Jon,” Loxy said, side hugging him. “You’re not doing anything wrong. Droya keeps going over this with you. You keep missing it in the same way that Bergman can’t see the validity of parapsychological research, even though anomalous research has stricter control protocols than the average science. This equation is complicated. Part of the problem is your attraction radar directs you towards incompatible personalities because you have inherent need to repair members of your family of origin. Everyone has this to a degree, but yours is accentuated due to the extreme origin dysfunction. Your libido set point is higher because of the trauma, again from origin, but it is also a gift to help you overcome your tendency to isolate from others.
What others might call heightened promiscuity is actually another gift, one of an openness to love, to bring light and healing to all the relationships you engage in. You, Jon, are a Shaman.
You live on the outskirts of society; people come to you who need lessons or healing. Every 95
relationship you have engaged in is an exercise in alchemy. Every time you engage someone, you learn something, the other learns something. You as a dynamic couple improve, and you as individuals improve. All evolution is co-evolution. Relationships fail when one or both of the partners are focused on keeping the other or themselves the same. Relationships fail when one or both partners are too focused on a preferred future. Relationships fail when both cling to the other when they know they need to reach out to extended relationships. Relationships thrive when they embrace and celebrate who they are in the now, that is true at the couple level and the individual level, and who they are with other people. With every combination of people, there is a different energy, in the individual and in the coupling. All fiction is an exercise in alchemy.
Fiction, literature, is pure math, and people can read it and see the formula and see the resolution.
Fiction in movies takes the math through a virtual simulation, and if you look at the chemistry that the stars bring to that fiction, you can understand why there are so many onscreen romances turned reality, and also understand why they don’t last. Cast directors are playing alchemy with themselves vicariously through the actors and actresses they bring together.”
“Why don’t Hollywood romances last?” Jon asked.
“Because they are not the characters they portray,” Loxy explained. “It doesn’t matter if it is reality Television or flat out scripted fiction, people play for the camera, using whatever energy they are channeling that drives that plot, coupled with all the underlying motivators.
When the cameras go off, eventually they have to return to their primary personality interface with the world, and when they do, conflicts begin to rise. Every person in front of a camera is not themselves by definition. You can’t be. Agents are always changed by the observer; this is true whether it is a particle, a photon, or a people. Schrodinger’s cat is undetermined until observed.
You, by definition, can never be undetermined because you are always viewing yourself, but the formula changes when you see yourself through the perceived eyes of others.”
Jon sat quietly for a moment, staring at the door as if he could see through it, following Audrey with his eyes, but he wasn’t sure if he was fictionalizing what he was seeing, or if he was seeing her for her in her world. He was following Audrey in his mind, he was also listening to what Loxy was saying, and sorting it and finding it too much to process so he surrendered it to the unconscious for help. “I can’t be a shaman,” Jon said directly.
“Oh?” Loxy asked.
“By definition, Shamans must be raised within a social context,” Jon pointed out. “One cannot self-appoint.”
“So, how did the first shaman come about?” Loxy asked.
“Um,” Jon stammered.
“Jon, you made me to help you interface a world you were already accessing. Fuck, Jon, you channeled Isis for god’s sake!” Loxy said. “You travel to different worlds. You’re attending a university on the astral plane, how can you not be a shaman?”
“Maybe when I graduate from Safe Haven,” Jon mused.
“That would meet your social context requirement,” Loxy said.
The door opened and two kids tumbled in, so engaged in kissing and tearing at each other’s clothes that they didn’t notice Jon right away. The door closed and her back went up against the door, one leg coming up to hug her partner in crime. Her head tiled as she 96
surrendered her neck to his bite. Her smile was fantastic. Her eyes opened, her smiled turned to concern, and then she screamed. Her male companion turned. Jon tried to smile.
“Fuck,” she said.
“I told you we’d get caught,” he said.
Jon stood up. “If you will let me pass, I am done with the room,” he said.
“You’re not going to tell on us, are you?” he asked.
“Umm, how old are you?” Jon asked.
“I’m seventeen,” she said.
“Tomorrow, she’s seventeen,” her friend corrected.
“Close enough,” she said.
“Um, sixteen going on seventeen, could be the making of a song,” Jon said.
“What?” the kids asked.
Loxy shook her head. “It was funny,” Jon told her.
“I don’t get it,” the girl said.
“Watch more musicals,” Jon said, pretend angry. “What’s the age of consent on the moon?”
“Fourteen,” they both said.
“Seriously?” Jon asked.
“Jon,” Loxy said. “Not all cultures are as sexually restrictive as yours. The longer a society prolongs adulthood, the longer it takes people to mature. Your culture has forty something year olds living with their parents.”
“Some of that is circumstantial,” Jon said. “Mass unemployment due to advances in robotics and AI.”
“Are you on a phone call?” he said.
“Um, yeah,” Jon said. “Would you let me pass?”
“You’re not going to tell on us, are you?” they both asked.
“Let me guess, Montague and Capulet?” Jon asked.
Loxy laughed. The kids didn’t understand.
“Seriously, read more fiction,” Jon said. “I don’t know your names, so it makes it hard to report. Don’t know why you’re worried about me reporting, though, given the age of consent if fourteen.”
“I am thirteen,” the boy said, not boasting, but as if his conscious was forcing to admit his guilt. The lack of discernment was either due to his age, or a revelation that he really wanted an out but didn’t know how to resist his companion. Seriously, women have more power than they think.
“Are you purposely trying to sabotage us?” she asked him.
“You two clearly have things to discuss, without me,” Jon said.
“Hang on,” she said. “Every time things start getting hot, something goes wrong to interrupt us.”
“I am really uncomfortable being here,” Jon said.
“You’re hitting up against a cultural bias,” Loxy informed him.
“No, I really love you and want to be with you,” he said.
“So, what’s the problem?” she asked.
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“May I pass, please?” Jon asked.
“Wait,” she snapped. “We need a witness.”
“Why?” Jon asked.
“I don’t want to be accused of rape,” she said.
Jon bit his lip even as the boy was stammering. “I’m scared, it’s my first time.”
“So, you have jerked off before, right?” the girl asked.
“What the fuck does that mean,” Jon asked.
Both kids looked to him, kind of shocked.
“No, seriously, just because a boy has spent his life jerking off to a Farah Faucet poster doesn’t mean he is ready to have sex with a live partner,” Jon said.
“Farah who?” the boy asked.
“OMG, seriously?!” Jon asked. “What do they teach you on the moon? No, don’t answer that. Look, you, whatever your name is, and don’t tell me, for god’s sake, fuck, what is this?
Okay, your boyfriend here hasn’t had sex. His fear isn’t that his equipment doesn’t work, his fear is being inadequate, which is ultimately a fear of rejection. Seriously, if women really understood men’s fear of rejection is greater than any relationship fear that women could imagine much less experience, the world would change. And, seriously, every single time a woman fakes it, it increases the fear in men and it increases promiscuity because men are driven to find statistical evidence that they are actually worthy when subliminally they know someone was just being nice to them. So, there is this balance in this dance you two are about to engage in. You both need to be brutally honest in your expectations, your feelings, and your experience, but you can’t be so honest that it blocks what happens, or blocks it from happening again. You’re both going to screw this up. It’s inevitable. That’s just life. But, if you really care about each other, you will suffer through your own feelings of doubts and inadequacies and try again, teach each other what works for you, until you both become a master in each other. When it comes to sex, first times usually suck, and you will wonder ‘really, that’s all,’ only you will be compelled to keep doing it, and one day you will have learned what you need and your relationships will improve and you will look back at this moment either being embarrassed at how little you actually knew when you thought you knew it all or, you will be tremendously loving and compassionate, remembering each other in fondness.”
Both of them had tears coming out of their eyes. Jon looked at Loxy. Loxy shrugged.
They both turned their attention to the kids.
“What’s wrong?” Jon asked.
“That was like the best sex speech ever? Can you teach sex ed?” the boy asked.
“We’re not going to be together forever?” the girl asked.
“Let me out of this room now,” Jon said.
They stepped away from the door. Jon exited the room, but before closing the door he told them: “Talk more. You two are not ready.” He pulled the door shut.
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Jon received a request to return to the science hub. He was a little disoriented and asked for help from a civilian couple who took him to a tram and gave him directions. He missed the stop and had to get out and go back. He found what he assumed was the lift up and took it up, riding with several techs. He still hadn’t figured out what their color schemes meant, but it clearly didn’t mirror the color scheme of Star trek. The tech had stopped their conversation when he entered and he felt a creeping paranoia that he was the subject. The lift stopped and Audrey was there wanting in. Their eyes met and there was hesitation.
“Going down?” Jon asked, playfully.
“No,” Audrey said, blushing.
“Oh, good, we’re going the same way then,” Jon said, inviting her in.
Audrey got in. “You doing alright?” one of the techs asked her.
“Yes, thank you,” Audrey said.
“Did anyone die during the last jump?” the other tech asked.
“No. The worst was that a couple of people with epilepsy got triggered into episodes,”
Audrey said. Her tone was professional, straight to the point, and then she returned her attention to the door. She got out two floors later.
The doors closed; they proceeded up.
“Well, that was uncomfortable,” one of the techs said. He had orange on his sleeve, where the other had blue.
“So, Jon,” the one in blue asked. “Was there any stubble on that field?”
Both techs laughed.
Jon turned to face them, smiling. “Do you suppose she has never heard that joke before?”
They seem unsure where it was going. Their smiles began to fade.
“Seriously,” Jon said. “How many times can a person hear a joke in their life time before it ceases to be funny?”