The Blue Moon - Part 1 - Into the Forest

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

Chapter 1, Emmy Whitewood, from St. John's

Chapter 2, The Blue Moon - Comet H

Chapter 3, The Blue Light

Chapter 4, Detective Shankar

Chapter 5, The Shamrock Forest

THE BLUE MOON - PART 1 - INTO THE FOREST

by Nolan Bauerle

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Copyright © 2014. NOLAN BAUERLE

All rights reserved.

ISBN:
9781310638879

Prologue

THE RED PLANET stopped being red when environmental engineers filled the atmosphere with smoke from millions of fires. The resulting greenhouse effect warmed Mars. Its polar icecaps melted, creating three large oceans and one supercontinent. This supercontinent was blanketed with small worms genetically programmed for a simultaneous mass extinction, establishing fertility in the Martian soil. Plants and trees engineered to thrive in this new world soon covered the land. All this human created vegetation allowed for the air to be calibrated; Mars was able to support human life.
 

When this campaign ended, the Martian sky was blue, snow was white and leaves were green. People lived in cities and on farms, came in all sizes and colors, and ate ice-cream on warm Sunday afternoons. Tourism boomed between the two planets as fleets of firesail ships made the trip in under three days.

This terraformation process was repeated on asteroids in the Asteroid Belt. These asteroids became known as space-islands and were colonized using the same techniques as those used on Mars. The Solar System community grew and the flush times saw the Olympic Games, the Worlds’ Cup, the Stanley Cup, and the Worlds’ Series more full of heroes than ever before.

But this rushing era of colonization brought new problems for human populations. The thrust of human expansion ended with a change in the way all life was created. It happened everywhere at once, starting with uncertain observations and nervous whispers:

“Still no flowers ‘round here yet. Spring’s not comin’.”

“Nothing happening in the fields. Nothing. Not even a weed.”

“No, we can’t make an appointment for you. Dr. Cross is fully booked. Try another fertility clinic.”

It went on like this. People asked a lot of questions — politicians got involved — everyone in the Solar System was afraid — leading scientists in all fields abandoned their work to study the problem — and then the crushing news that shook every person to their core:

For some reason, life could no longer be created naturally. Females stopped getting pregnant. Plants no longer produced seeds that would grow. Eggs were unfertilized.
 

All at once, on Earth, Mars and the Space-Islands, the
miracle
part of the
miracle of life
had stopped.

This didn’t mean new life stopped being created. Life continued to be created, minus the miracle. Creating new life became a human responsibility. The beginnings of life were assisted through medicines and machines.
 

Geneticists became responsible for everything: the nanoscale 3D printing of digitally programmed DNA, the arrangement of that DNA into embryos, the steroid womb where the embryo's growth was turbo-charged in an effort to reach the plateau of life.

People had already been practicing industrial genetic engineering to grow lifeforms for the exact needs of different terraformed colonies. From then on, the techniques first used on Mars were used to grow all new life in manufacturing facilities.

Humans on Earth, Mars and in the Asteroid Belt, all the plants people needed, all the animals a farmer would raise — forests, marine life, everything — it was all created by human hands and minds.

Humanity was torn by its new responsibility to create all life. Countless political squabbles and religious schisms arose from this new reality. People believed humans had been playing God with their genetic manipulation and terraformation. Geneticists were blamed for cutting off the entire human race from creating life through simple contact between two of a species.

Billions of people in the universe were drawn to gods and religious movements of all sorts. None of these groups got along well and their relations deteriorated over the years. Some movements pleaded for God to show itself, some said good riddance and felt bitter for God’s abandonment.
 

Travel slowed, dialogue stopped, and a united civilization in the Solar System became a quaint idea. An estrangement set in and the Solar System community fell apart so that there was hardly any contact or communication at all.

___

It was in these circumstances that a particular blue comet blasted into our Solar System. Hardly anyone noticed as the comet shot past Jupiter, leaving a shimmering streak of blue light in its wake.

When the blue comet approached the Asteroid Belt, the Asteroid Defense Force on St. John's space-island picked it up on their scanners. From his seat in a control tower, one officer said, “It looks like this one’s headed straight for us.”

“Engage, intercept and deflect protocol,” his superior answered. No one panicked. They'd taken care of this sort of thing thousands of times before. The small space-island at the outer edge of the Asteroid Belt mustered its usual defenses, secure in their belief this comet would obey the universal laws of physics and be redirected by a gravity-well shot into its path.

A young gravity gun operator was lifted into space under a balloon, then flown in a firesail ship to his gravity gun. The gunner wore a spacesuit, and jumped from the firesail ship’s exit tube. He guided himself through a short distance in space as the firesail ship rounded and turned back to the space-island, leaving him along out in space.
 

The gravity gun had a small cockpit which sat about a large dish. The gunner grabbed onto the massive gun dish and space walked to the cockpit. He entered, took his seat and prepared his instruments.
 

As the comet blazed towards him, he fired the gravity well into its path.

The comet ignored the gravity-well along with the universal laws of physics. It obliterated the defensive shield in mere moments. The gravity gun, and crewman were lost as the comet continued on its path towards the long, dark space-island.
 

Only, before destroying St. John's, the comet stopped dead in its tracks. There the interloping moon remained idle, hanging in the night sky, glowing a dazzling blue.

Chapter 1

Emmy Whitewood, from St. John’s

St. John’s Space-Island, exactly nineteen years later, to the day:

EMMY WHITEWOOD WAS curled up like a cat in her large, comfy, reading chair. Her head lay on a padded armrest while her bony knees were tucked into her chest. She held a paperback novel in her small, bright-white hands. Next to her chair, in a sprawling mess, lay stacks of books.
 

Fidgety by nature, Emmy moved in her seat to get more comfortable. Her lithe body was elegant and strong and moved with grace and agility, even when she was just shifting in a chair. She shivered and her bright skin flushed with goosebumps. An old family quilt was draped over the chair, so she pulled it around her and settled in to read.
 

She was supposed to be studying for finals. Her first year of college was going alright, even if she spent most of her time reading old stories about unquiet graves or fantastic monsters.

The light outside was dimming, making reading difficult. Emmy lifted her eyes from her book and looked out the large front window of her two-story cottage. She got up and moved towards the window, both to turn on the light, and to admire the landscape as she preferred it: under the glow of the Blue Moon. Her silver hair reflected the moonlight as she pressed her nose against the cold window.
 

The Blue Moon’s light fell softly, managing to make everything bathed in it seem warm and cheerful — as warm and cheerful as a thing could be at the dark and cold outer-edge of the Asteroid Belt. The moon reminded Emmy of her mother. Dr. Dorothy Whitewood had lived and worked in the Blue Moon most of Emmy's life, so it had become reflex to think of her when looking up at night. She bounced on her tiptoes at the thought that her mother would be visiting in just two more weeks.
 

Emmy's thoughts of her mother were interrupted when she heard a noise coming from outside. She spun around, but before she could see anything, the front door to her cottage swung open; Emmy held her breath.

The intruder turned on the porch light and Emmy exhaled while a huge smile spread across her face.

“Mom.” Emmy rushed to hug her mother.

“My love,” Dr. Whitewood said as she lunged into the hug with her only daughter. “Oh, I missed you so much.”
 

Emmy pulled away from the hug and said, "That's so funny. I was just thinking about you when you showed up.”

“You must have sensed I was coming.”

They embraced again, both of them with their eyes closed, smiling.

“You look so beautiful,” Dr. Whitewood said. “An adult. A woman.”
 

“I'm not officially an adult for two more weeks,” Emmy said as she stopped hugging her mother so she could make eye contact. “Which was when I was expecting you. I thought you were busy right up until my birthday?”

“You know I try to make it whenever I can. Plus, it’s kind of a holiday in the Blue Moon tonight. It’s the nineteenth anniversary of Comet
H
coming here. I gave everyone the night off. What’s the use of being the boss if you don’t use your power for fun every now and again? We have some tough work coming up, so I thought they could use the break.”

“Tough work coming up? What is it?”

Dr. Whitewood’s eyes darted. “Same old, same old. Just a bunch of mines and holes being dug throughout the interior cave.”

Emmy decided to give her mother a break from having to evade and lie about her important job. She changed the subject and said, “Does this mean you’re going to be too busy to come in two weeks? That’s fine, we can celebrate my birthday another time.”

Dr. Whitewood's smile drained from her face and a serious countenance took over. “About your birthday, my love.”

Emmy's silver eyebrows pushed up in surprise. She recognized the face her mother was wearing as the one that gives answers instead of avoiding them. Emmy knew to be apprehensive when her mother looked like this.

“What is it? You can't make it?”

“Well, it’s not exactly that. Let's go inside and sit down.”

They moved into the kitchen. Dr. Whitewood hung her coat on the back of her chair and put her backpack on the floor beside her.
 

Emmy noticed and asked, “You’re not spending the night?”
 

“I’m sorry my love. It’s a short visit. I need to leave when my ride to the spaceport gets back here.”

Emmy nodded and said, “It’s ok if you can’t make it for my birthday.” She sat down at the kitchen table. “Celebrating on the exact day doesn’t matter.”

“You're wrong about that. The exact day does matter. I won’t be here in two weeks. But, as far as your birthday is concerned, I will be here.” Dr. Whitewood paused before adding, “I am here.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve been keeping something from you. Something you need to know, and it’s time I told you.”

Emmy looked puzzled. “Tell me what?”

“Your birthday is not in two weeks. The day you think is your birthday is a lie.” Dr. Whitewood paused again.
 

Emmy remained stunned, but managed to ask, “How is that possible?”

“The date I told you was your birthday was really just the date I got the license to create you. It wasn’t the date you were really created on.”

“When was I created?”

“Two weeks earlier. Without any permission, no license.”

“What? I don't understand.”

“I broke into my own lab. I created you nineteen years ago, tonight. It’s your birthday tonight at midnight.”

“Tonight?”

Dr. Whitewood nodded. “I created you the night Comet
H
came, the night St. John’s got the Blue Moon.”

Emmy stared at the table. Dr. Whitewood remained silent as she allowed her daughter the chance to process the news.

“Why didn't you tell me any of this before?”

“The St. John's Constitution. All of our laws. The prohibition against unauthorized human creation is strict. The worst would’ve happened if anyone found out the truth. I wasn't interested in anyone knowing but myself. It was a secret I didn't think you needed to keep, especially as a child. But tonight, you're nineteen, an adult, a responsible adult. I think you're ready for the truth, ready to handle the burden.”

“And now you can trust me? What's different today?”