The Lunarian: Chapter 1

In which I find myself in a most unfortunate situation

It was a clear, bright day. The Sun and the stars shone, and the Milky Way blazed in brilliant glory. The Earth was in its gibbous phase, its beauty shrouded in swirling clouds. Instantly, I knew where I was. I was on the moon. I possessed nothing but my pressure suit and the charred remains of my landing vehicle lay hopelessly cracked and twisted in the distance. I wondered how I had survived.

A craggy mountain range untouched through the ages loomed before me. My immediate surroundings consisted of an endless dusty plain scattered with rocks. As I observed the mountains more closely, I saw that they comprised the walls of a crater. Suddenly, a bolt of blue light shot from behind the mountains. A boulder detached from the mountain, shot into the air, took a few lazy somersaults, and landed not ten feet from my pile of charred wreckage.

The bolt of blue fire was the first of a rapid volley. I hid behind what was left of my plexiglass window for cover. A blaster has many uses, and is as much a part of a Moon-man as his own fingers. It is a weapon for short and long distances, a signal tool to down unwary Terran satellites, and most importantly, the tool with which he cuts the basalt blocks to build his houses. It is powered by concentrated microwaves, and is in essence a very deadly handheld laser.

Another wave of blue bolts came, this time from the opposite direction. A line of rovers appeared on the horizon. The vehicles were of an unknown make; silver, six wheeled, and oblong cylinders with turrets at the top that shot the blue bolts. They fired, and the response came blazing over the mountain. The exchange continued for some time, with the rovers drawing ever nearer. A final blaze bathed the mountains in light, and the rovers stopped firing. They were coming, and there was nothing I could do, except surrender to the victors. I had only ten minutes of oxygen left.

I was a Terran Union analyst. On the Moon nothing was hated more than the TU Leadership and Mentoring Division. I learned early on in TULA training that such opposition was entirely unjustified. The Terran Union wanted only to bring Luna into the great glorious order that all on Earth enjoyed, and that the only remaining obstacles were some troublesome meddlers and privateers. This Terrans were meant to learn in school from infancy.

All the wagons stopped in their tracks, save the cephalos, which drove toward me at 12 o’clock, dead center.

My helmet radio crackled to life.

“Are you Tycho or Munchhausen?”