Chapter 9 – The second face
Janus, that is what they used to call me.
One face you show to the world, and another you keep hidden. How many lives would it take to finally understand the nature of my second face? My face-ade only appreas in the daylight—and the other only appears when shadow falls.
Beans was pondering the nature of faces when his feet slammed on the moon's surface, sending a moonquake vibrating straight to the core of the planet. He took off his badass glasses slowly and turned his head sharply left, letting his hair blow in the moon-breeze and hoping that someone was filming him—he knew he must look like such an actor/model with that 10/10 landing and subsequent sunglasses removal. Like he needed a spacesuit.
Beans turned his gaze toward the sun—no, not that sun. The other sun. The one that the humans hadn't discovered yet. Beans laughed to himself. Oh, human ignorance. He vowed to laugh about this again later, when he had more free time.
See, there was a second sun behind the moon, with an identical orbit to the moon, so nobody on earth can see it because the moon is always blocking it. This sun was a much smaller sun than that sun, but therein lies the exciting part. Since this sun's energy was identical to the energy of the sun, but in a much more compact space, it had a higher energy-density ratio, which means it is like a superior energy source. If only one could have the power to extract it… ?
Beans looked up from his physics textbook and nodded assuredly. This made complete sense and followed all of the limit theorems of Einstiems special relativistic laws of quantum space synamics. Good thing he knew all about space.
Beans suddenly realized that he couldn't breathe. You see, he is still built like a human, and dies like a human. Beans died of space-lung right then and there and fell to the ground.
His eyes reopened, but he couldn't move. He died again.
Beans awaked for a moment, and then died again. And again. And again.
He had a split second to think each time he came back to life.
What is happening to me?
I can't survive long enough on this planet to get up.
He had to think physics thoughts in the short bursts of his lives.
Maybe I could…(death)…use my powerful lungs…(death)…breathe a breath…(death)…slingshot that breath around the moon, and into the photon field around the mini-sun…(death)…which any space-expert knowns turns carbon dioxcide into oxygen (o2)…(death)…and then breath this oxygen…(death)…and reapeat.
Beans had decided. And he used one life to fill is breath, and another to shoot his breath out into the stars. His breath was so powerful that when it slingshotted around as oxygen, it created an entire atmosphere around the moon. Beans got to his feet and looked toward the clouds.
There were now clouds on the moon, because it had an atmosphere. And with clouds come water and life. But that would all come later. Beans had work to do.
He looked upon his work and smiled.
I AM a god, thought Beans.
So hurry up with my damn croissants.
He shot into space. Beans OUT.