From Eagle to Arabella   

                                   John Albert Robinson

Despite occasional entreaties from one group or another, there were no eagles within the concrete dome of Eagle park because the Moon Project authorities didn't see any need to be so literal. Besides, they argued, the most famous 'eagle' in history was sitting almost on top of it, like a mother bird surprised by the tardy arrival of an unusually large and promising egg. So there! they seemed to be saying.

Kamaria was aware of this minor controversy but wasn't thinking about it at the moment. She just knew that she always loved this time of day in the park dome. It was the perfect antidote to her recent worries. 

The day before she had stopped by Recruiting for her hoped-for next assignment. The director was a friend of her father's, not an unusual situation when the entire Lunar population was still under ten thousand souls, and Kamaria was hoping to chat her up about her chances.

Well! Kamaria thought. Could the director's assistant have been any ruder?

"You really need to go through proper channels, Ms. Taylor."

That tight little smile!

"She's a friend of the family. Could you let her know I'm here? Pretty please?"

The barest shake of the head. No.

"They were on the dome gang together, for heaven's sake. Could you please at least tell her I am here? Let her decide?"

I mean, really, I could have messaged the director but I was hoping to surprise her, just having gotten back and all.

"Perhaps you should make whatever informal arrangements you like outside the office. We really can't accept any informal contacts through this office during the recruitment period."

Kamaria had given up and carried her bruised ego outside. No sense getting into a shouting match in there. It would just embarrass Dad!

But she really wanted to give that assistant a piece of her mind. The nerve of him!

What was worse was that the director didn't answer her when Kamaria messaged her later. My goodness! I hope this whole thing doesn't prejudice my application.

As she jogged around the lake, she tried to put her problems out of her mind and let the homely sight of her favorite place in the whole System drain her tension away. It was mid-morning, the birds were singing (not an eagle among them), and the lights were angled just right to show off the eternal summer-like beauty of the park. She felt strong and light, as though she were floating on the wind.

It didn't bother her at all that the "horizon" was a cleverly constructed illusion never more than 50 meters out of reach. She simply enjoyed the view.

Her legs did bother her a bit, though, and she had trouble finding her stride. 

She had just returned from a two-year research tour on the Asteroid-class ship Sojourner and this was her first morning jog back at home in Tranquility City, nestled safely under its blanket of regolith, or lunar soil, at the bottom of a crater on the nearside of the Moon. 

On the surface nearby, the original Eagle, which had landed on the Moon over a hundred years before, thus transforming itself into Tranquility Base and making Kamaria's morning jog possible, was lovingly preserved in situ as the prime exhibit in the first Lunar historical museum. 

Kamaria's late assignment, the Sojourner, was a top-of-the-line Mark II ship in the Asteroid-class of Gatherer-ships. Sent out to practice the rapidly developing art of resource-gathering among the objects in the Asteroid Belt, Sojourner was the largest and most sophisticated ship yet launched. At 200 meters in length, with a crew complement of many hundreds, and covered with two meters of radiation shielding, Sojourner's missions were measured in years. Kamaria had felt lucky to be assigned to its maiden voyage and took pride in knowing that the bulk of the craft was fashioned from the flesh of Luna itself. It really was a piece of the Moon, she thought, cunningly broken off and hurled more deeply into the void.

Serving on her was also the first step in Kamaria's master plan and now, she thought, that master plan might be broken! Unless I can think of some way to fix it.

She came to a small rise and stopped for a moment. She rubbed her legs absentmindedly.

"You guys are too strong for the Moon. Gotta get you back out there. If only!"

Sojourner, like all the Mark II ships, had full rotational capabilities in its main living and working quarters. The spin was set to give half of Earth-normal gravity on the main deck and while this was happy news for the crew just up from Earth, for Moon residents it was a leaden-legged three times normal. 

Kamaria had groused about this along with all of the other Moon residents. 

"It's rank discrimination against my thighs." she joked. "My legs are gonna fall off after two days of running around to see the various departments and then where will I be?"

"And you Loonies outnumber us Earthlings by two to one anyway. It's cultural domination, that's what it is." Her new friend on board, Sam, weighed in. Throwing his arms wide he declared, "I hereby apologize for all of us!" 

Kamaria stuck out her tongue.

The rest of the Earthlings just smiled, flexed their muscles and talked about feeling like supermen.

Kamaria knew it was a fair compromise, though. It was far easier for Moon folks to adjust upward to half a 'g' than it would be for Earthlings to adjust downward to Moon normal. One-sixth g was just too low for efficient movement, unless you were born to it. 

Contrariwise, even a born Loonie was a genetic Earthling and that made coming up to a half-g a simple matter of a pre-departure training regimen followed by a few weeks of onboard adjustment with plenty of protein intake. Anyway, they all managed.

Besides, a Moon person could always take a break by simply moving closer to the ship's axis where the 'gravity' was lower. Indeed, this is where the Moon folks' private rooms were invariably located. At least they could sleep comfortably.

But the situation was good for humor.

Not for jogging back on the Moon, though. After returning home, Kamaria felt stronger, true, but her timing was off. Her newly powerful legs pushed her a little too high, her more swiftly moving feet grabbed for the ground a little too soon. She found herself stumbling now and then on a course she knew intimately well. Annoying. 

She finished her run and decided to cool down by walking one lap around the lake. The lake was roughly hour-glass in shape, with one 'bulb' smaller than the other. A Chinese-style 'Moon' bridge carried the path over the neck. She paused at the top of the highly arched bridge and looked toward the larger of the lake's sections. It was just under the center of the dome and there was a pylon connecting the dome foundations deep under the lake with the apex ten stories overhead.

This central pylon wasn't designed to hold the shell of the dome up, it was intended to hold the shell down against the tremendous pressure of atmosphere within. On Earth, the atmosphere inside would be balanced by the atmosphere outside and gravity would make the dome material six times heavier than on the Moon. The pylon might be a thick column that would help support this terrible weight.

But there was no air on the Moon, the shell of high tension concrete was thinner and lighter, and the pylon helped keep it from popping like an over-inflated balloon.

The dome was also covered with a deep layer of regolith, utterly necessary against the raking of the GCR or galactic cosmic rays. Tons of this lunar soil on the outside balanced tons of internal atmospheric pressure, but in a system built in the fond hope of lasting for generations, "suspenders and belt" was the order of the day. Hence the pylon.

The pylon, its double concavity rising gracefully from the waters, served other purposes as well, containing an elevator shaft, decorative lights, and high-powered sprinklers. At some 25 meters tall it offered a panoramic view of the 100 meter-wide domed park and was a popular tourist attraction that helped keep the Moon Project in the black. It was especially popular when the sprinklers were turned on. Kamaria thought of it then as an upside down fountain.

She squinted and looked at the elevator car, nearing the top of the pylon. While she was running among the trees surrounding the lake, she hadn't noticed the tourists boarding from the telescoping pier at lakeside, but now they were high in the sky. They waved to her and she waved back. Geese were scuttling among the water-lilies at the pylon's base, snapping up any remaining bits of treats thrown earlier by the tourists.

Kamaria blinked her right eye firmly to turn on the computer screen that covered her cornea like a contact lens and saw that, sure enough, there was a tour in progress with the sprinklers scheduled to come on right about....

Now. A cascade of silver descended from around the pylon and fell into the lake in jeweled arcs. A soft breeze blew spray toward the Moon bridge and Kamaria felt it fresh on her face. She could hear the shouts of appreciation from the load of tourists in the elevator car, now perched near the ceiling, and smiled: It was a dramatic view. She had enjoyed it many times herself. She turned and headed for the exit.

Good run, she told herself. Now if I can just find a way to get my master plan back on track!

To be continued.

Other stories in the 'Moonlight' trilogy:

Other stories: