Two Moons are not Better than One
Part I
Prologue
Regina Kesslann was in excruciating pain…and for good reason. She was watching the moon split into two right before her eyes, and yet she was the only one seeing it. She tried to tell everybody, but no one could understand her. Even to herself her voice sounded like screams.
The astral phenomenon of a hyperspatial maelstrom began to tug on one moon more than the other. And like two objects orbiting in separates parts of a whirlpool, reality happened faster for one moon than the other. Regina watched as she left the other Regina behind. And the other moon too. And the other Alpha. And the other Alphans.
Two moons should not be separate. They should be together in parallel…but not touching. Her brain split apart when she understood that.
1.5 years ago (Earth II time)
Another Regina ran across the open field to where the last intact Eagle stood warming up. She ran past Helena who was saying good-bye in the arms of a space suited John Koening. Regina ran inside and up into the cockpit and embraced her husband.
"I just want to tell you to hurry back," she said.
"We will." Alan Carter said in as comforting manner as he could manage. "But we have to get going. Kano is predicting another maelstrom in 24 hours. We gotta get these supplies…in case."
She parted from him after a kiss.
Helena and Regina watched from a safer distance as Eagle One blasted off to get some supplies from the moon…a destination they would never reach. Both women walked back arm-in-arm to their little farming settlement off of the Santa Maria coast…one of Paul and Sandra's two little boys who had accompanied them out to see the launch followed behind at first then ran ahead. Neither woman was aware that, by that night, the erratically timed hyperspatial phenomenon would come again, early, and they would soon be considered widows.
Present Time (on Earth II)
Regina Carter spun about feverishly on her wicker bed, under the geodesically constructed half-ball shelter that served as her living/storage hut. She sweated and fumed and raged in half a fury.
"The other moon is coming!" she shouted. She cried. She sat up. Helena tried to hold her down. "Alan's there! John is there!"
"My John?" Helena asked, now intrigued. "Our John and Alan are coming?"
"Nooooo!" Regina moaned. "Not ours. Theirs! They're coming. And when they get here…they're going to kill us! Ohhhhhhhh!"
Regina grabbed her head in agony. Helena shook her.
"Alan and John are dead, Regina," Helena said sternly. "They've been gone more than a year now. We HAVE to move on."
Paul, robed and bearded, looked on with sympathy. He knelt down and pulled Helena away from the sobbing woman.
"Go easy," Paul said. "You know she has never been quite right since…since we lost Alan and the Commander…"
"…yes, I know, Paul. I know EXACTLY what it is like." Helena interrupted. "but, she hasn't stopped mourning since. And, the maelstrom last night now seems to have made her worse. They usually make her edgy the next day…but today she's predicting 'doom'."
Sandra now knelt at Regina's side and tried to soothe the delirious woman. Sandra looked up cautiously at Tanya Aleksandr who had just arrived with some water to cool Regina down with.
"Maybe," Sandra suggested timdly. "Maybe Kano could interface again…and see if computer can detect any changes…or give us predictions on what might be occurring out there…to make Regina so crazy."
Paul's former assistant controller almost seemed to take no notice of the suggestion. She pulled back the sleeves of her long brown robe and squeezed out some water from a cloth. She blotted the Regina's sweaty forehead…to which the febrile woman gasped, "Thank you…thank you…thank you…"
Tanya, true to her Russian heritage, spoke quite directly on the subject:
"I don't want to lose David," she stared at Helena coldly and then more sympathetically at Regina. "We've lost too many husbands already. This will be the second time in two days. Isn't that pushing his brain too far? It's not fair…"
"If it were me, if John were here again, I wouldn't risk him for anything either…" Helena admitted. "But we DO need to know what is going on…and if David isn't any worse the wear for it…"
"…I know," said Tanya almost desperately. "But…but…it's different now."
Under a geodesic dome that housed many plants…underneath that, underground was the rows and rows of electronic stacks that was what was left of what they could bring to Earth of the XL-5 computer that used to run things on Moon Base Alpha. Now, when it communicated with the satellites that still orbited the moon it served as weather forecaster and phenomena predictor. The separate Alphan Santa Maria settlements relied on these predictions, for they lived on an Earth that could throw unpredictable radiation and atmospheric conditions at them sporadically.
Under the glass dome Kano settled back onto a reclining medical examination chair as Helena massged an electrode right at the base of his skull. Kano was the successful application of an experiment to see if the human brain could interface directly with an artificial intelligence…aka Computer. Kano and Computer used to need an actual physical connection, but as Computer's AI evolved so had Kano's hypthalmus and now a wireless link and reasonable proximity was all that was needed.
Helena monitored his brainwave function vigilantly. She had to. She had promised Tanya she would. Kano's eyes were wide open but he was seeing something else. He could see what computer thought.
"My God! There really is more than one moon," he said in almost mesmerizing fashion. "And it's going to take orbit soon…"
Kano gave a spasm.
"Computa? Computa? !" Kano's brow furrowed as he became visibly agitated. His native Jamaican accent came out. "No…dat's crazy. How do we stop dem, then? 'old yourself togedda now. C'mon… C'mon."
Tanya looked to Helena for cues. Helena shook her head. Kano's EEG reading was only slightly outside of normal. His pulse and bp were a little elevated as one would expect with an upset person.
Tanya wasn't taking any chances. She was going to bring him out of it.
"David, honey? Break! Break!" She let the contact of her fingertips to his temples redirect his virtual connection back to the real world. "Come back to me. Log off. Log off… It's okay."
Kano sat up now and could see everyone around him. He smiled, but squeezed in the top of his head. Tanya forced him to look into her eyes.
"Are you allright?" she asked.
"Yeah…that hurt a little, but I think I got the gist of what Computer was saying."
"What is it?" Paul prompted.
"Well…Computer is a little…how do I say this…at an elevated crisis management level, because it has been detecting, since the maelstrom last night, that there are two moons."
Kano held up two fingers. Everybody gave a little murmur.
"So there is OUR moon," Kano continued. "That belongs with OUR Earth..up there right now. This other moon is from another Earth…from another time. You get it?"
"No," everybody agreed almost in unison.
"Well…Computer says that just as the maelstrom delivered us right back here at our Earth 5 years ago, last night's maelstrom deposited THAT moon here...right into a trajectory around the WRONG Earth…get it?" This time Kano did not wait for everybody to catch up. "So that Moon of course has a Moon Base Alpha on it too. With a Computer. Another Computer and another group of Alphans just like us…in parallel with us. And, what Computer says is that we cannot live together. The closer they get too us the closer we get to calamity."
Paul, Sandra, Helena and Tanya were all silent now.
"Computer suggests that this is what is happening to Regina. She is somehow telepathically tuned into her other self…and as that other self approaches…she is sort of suffering information overload."
"Fascinating, huh?" Kano concluded. He settled back into the reclined seat.
"David, what are you doing?" Tanya asked.
"You brought me out too soon," he explained. "I gotta calm Computer down…and find out what Computer wants us to do."
"No…" Tanya pulled on his shoulders and made him sit back up. "Not now. That's enough. We can decide for ourselves what to do."
"But Computer needs…" Kano
"I need you," she said firmly.
"Helena has my brain. I'll be allright, Tanya." Kano gave her a winning smile as he caressed her cheek.
"David…my only one" Tanya leaned into him and whispered in a conspiratorial fashion even though everyone was crowded around close enough to hear every word she said. "Now…I think I am going to have your baby ."
Sandra squealed and came from Paul's side to try and hug both of them.
"Ohhhhhhh!" Kano's eyes bulged. "Now?"
"No, silly. Nine months from now!" Sandra joked. "Oh, congratulations. I am so glad. Johnny and Anton will have someone to play with. Our community will grow!"
Paul who had begun to smile, unnoticed by the others, began to stroke his beard with increased frustration. Without preamble he clasped his hands together and lifted his eyes upwards…religious humility, but seriousness was in his eyes.
"Heavenly father, thank you for this blessed news, but now forgive us, for we have to stop this other moon…"
end Part I
