The Girl They Sold to the Moon (13 page)

A pinprick of light flickered on the horizon of the Moon's surface, prompting Tilly to look that way. “What was that?” asked Tilly. “A firefly or something?” Then she thought about how ridiculous that statement was.
There's no insects on the Moon
.

Fia looked in that direction and pointed. “There's goes a flash. Ooh, another one! Wait…what are those?”

Suddenly dozens of small pinpricks erupted over the gray lunar hills to the south. “It looks like a fireworks display,” said Tilly.

The Ferris wheel moved again, slowly rotating. Tilly felt a series of thumps vibrate up through the seat, followed by a wobble. A flash out in the great mare sea produced an explosion of bright, blinding light. The Ferris wheel began to pick up speed, now fully loaded with passengers. Out upon the Moon's surface, the light show continued, increasing in intensity.

Tilly craned her neck and rose out of her seat. “My God, is something hitting us?” More thumps came. The Ferris wheel swayed, giving off a noise of grating gears and slipping belts. Some of the largest dome lights swung on the support wires. One of the lights blacked out with an electric snap and puff of smoke.

Fia grabbed Tilly's wrist and said, “This is
not
good.”

An emergency screech alarm filled the dome air, reverberating back and forth between the walls with a haunting echo. Carnival attendees looked up, some bracing their legs against the shock waves, while others had been brought to their knees or had flattened themselves out. Several people ran toward the exits. Two more ominous noises murdered the air: A Klaxon siren and a whoop-whoop horn. Both blared at full volume. More carnival attendees scrambled. Further out, shop owners and patrons made a desperate scramble down the streets, many of them jumping in their vehicles and speeding away. Tilly looked down at her friend's ride car, which swung wildly.

“What's happening?” Dorothy cried out in panic, fighting against her safety bar.

Sue Lin shoved Dorothy down in her seat. “Don't move!” she yelled above the sirens and horns. “It's a harbor emergency, and it looks like a meteor shower. They'll take care of us.”

Tilly looked down at the operator's post and wondered who was going to get them down. It was abandoned. Meanwhile, the wheel continued to rotate with a quick pace. A few of the other rides continued to operate. Some of the carnival employees made efforts to offload passengers. Still, the halfhearted attempts left many strapped in their ride cars, screaming for help.

The meteoroid shower continued to rain down upon the Harbor area, producing bright impact flashes, sending up plumes of volcanic rock and sand. Concussion waves rattled the huge dome panels, guide wires snapped, huge lamps burst from shorts. Strikes that hit the dome sent out sounds resembling huge bells tolling, mixed with the crackling of thunder.

“Rats deserting a ship,” gasped Fia. “They're running for their lives.”

“You rotten cowards,” Sue Lin yelled down. “Get your asses back here and stop this machine!”

Tilly fought with the safety bar, managing to unlatch it. Judging the speed of the wheel and distance to the ground, she figured she could make a jump for it. Her timing would have to be perfect.

Fia threw an arm across her chest, restraining her. “You're not thinking of jumping. You'll break your neck.”

“Somebody has to shut this thing down. I'm in the best shape. I can land and roll. Trust me.”

Fia did not argue.

Tilly readied herself for the leap as the ride car approached the bottom. She hesitated, pulled back, allowing one more rotation. As she neared the bottom again, she scooted to the edge of the seat and pushed off. She hit the ground and somersaulted. When she got to the control panel she found a speed lever, an auto cutoff and an off and on switch. She slowed the ride, bringing the first occupants to a halt over the elevated platform, allowing them to disembark. She unloaded the rest of the occupants, including Sue Lin and Dorothy. Looking around they could see that the carnival grounds were nearly empty. However, the spin-whirl and the roller coaster rides were still in motion. Tilly saw people frantically waving from both rides.

“I'll take the roller coaster,” said Sue Lin. “Tilly, you shut that spinning one off. We'll meet up at the ticket entrance.”

The women ran in opposite directions. Tilly found the operator's station to the spin-whirl and shut it down. She and Dorothy helped some of the youngest riders from their bucket seats, while four miners leaped out of their ride cars a short distance to the ground. Several people thanked them, but wasted no time in vacating the property. One of the miners hung back for a moment, hollering at Tilly and Fia above the noise. “You two best get to an air chamber. The complex has been compromised.” He trotted away with the other Prairie Dogs. They climbed in an abandoned electric cart and sped away.

“That was real nice of them,” said Fia, her face flushed with anger.

Tilly gave the carnival grounds a quick glance for any more stranded riders and then grabbed Fia's hand. They ran toward the ticket entrance, weaving between the concessions stands. They met up with Sue Lin and Dorothy at the entrance, who had arrived there a few seconds before them. They went into a quick huddle.

“No chambers in the main dome,” said Sue Lin, acting as spokesperson. “We have to make it to a spoke corridor. Each spoke has three main pressure doors. We have to get in between two doors in a sealed section. That's the safest place to be until integrity is restored. Except for the outer ring, but we might not make it that far.”

Tilly didn't want to know why they might not make it that far but trusted the woman's judgment. Out of all of them, Sue Lin knew the Tranquility Harbor complex better than anyone.

Fia spotted an empty electric cart. They piled in, Sue Lin taking the wheel. Tilly pulled the canopy down, shutting off the outside racket. The instructor floored the pedal. She dodged several vehicles, left where the owners had abandoned them. Packages lay on the streets. Advertising signs blinked, summoning customers who were no longer there. Food ordered just minutes ago, sat burning on grilles. A scooter lay on its side in the street, its wheels spinning.

“They sure didn't waste any time getting out of here,” said Dorothy. “I saw some people get trampled. There could be people taking cover under structures.”

Sue Lin whipped the wheel, skirting the edge of the park. “Anybody who has lived here for a while knows what a meteoroid strike can do to the complex. We had drills two years ago but they stopped them since nobody took them seriously. It's only happened once when a fist-sized bolide came down through the outside ring canopy. It killed four, blowing a section out. It got sealed off pretty quick.”

“Where do you think we've been hit, Sue Lin?” asked Fia.

“No telling. If you start gasping for air, you'll know it was somewhere in the central dome. It takes a while for a total decompression, especially if it's small. Lots of fail-safes.”

As they spoke, Tilly looked up through the bubble top of the cart. She clutched her shaking hands, having never experienced anything like this in her life. It looked like hellfire raining down on the Moon, flaming objects coming from every compass direction. Every five seconds or so a bright, blinding flash would light up the outside of the dome, looking like a nuclear explosion. Overhead fixtures rattled and swayed. A huge section of conduit had broken away from one of the titanium girders, to hang halfway down the height of the dome. Shudders reverberated up through the cart tires, making it hard for Sue Lin to control the vehicle.

Halfway to the outer perimeter, they caught up with their first people on foot. The group consisted of stragglers, people who had made the mad dash for the exits, but who had now run out of energy. Some of them sat along the small avenue, fatigued and no longer able to continue. When they saw Tilly's approaching cart they waved their arms in frantic gestures. A few let loose with plaintiff screams and desperate pleas for rescue. Sue Lin slowed, but did not stop.

“Now what do we do?” asked Dorothy. “These people were left behind.”

Tilly thought along the same lines. Filled to capacity, they had no room in the cart to take on extra passengers. The carts could only carry seated passengers on the inside. The outside bubble-like frame had no space for riders. It seemed a pity to leave them. There were over two dozen people on the small avenue, and now they had spotted Tilly's cart. As if guided by one desperate brain, they limped and trotted toward them.

Sue Lin stepped on it, driving around and between them. One of them made a desperate lunge, hitting the hood and rolling off onto the street. “Sorry,” said Sue Lin. “If we stop we'll get mobbed.”

“We can't just leave them here,” said Dorothy. “What if they suffocate?”

“
We can't leave them here
?” said Sue Lin. “Is that what you just said? After what happened to us?”

“Sue Lin has a point,” said Fia. “They'd tear us apart. We have to make it to safety just like they do. Besides, there's nothing we can do about it. Blame United Western Mining for not having the proper evacuation procedures.”

No one said anything. Call it an act of God, or just one of the many disasters space could throw at them, no one was prepared for a full emergency resulting from a meteor shower on a moon base. If anything, the engineers who had designed the base were responsible for any and all safety features. Not to mention, a warning system that would have alerted them ahead of the shower was sorely lacking.

Tilly's heart fell into her stomach when they reached the scene of the first exit spoke. A huge blue pressure door spanned the opening, presumably closed and locked, since a crowd of people were pushed up against it and hammering on its surface. Several children clung to their parents, their faces filled with anguish and tears. Many of the adults cried unashamedly. At least twenty miners stood in the crowd, and most of them were cursing into their Omnicomps. Several carts raced by on the perimeter road, as well as some one-passenger scooters. All of them were looking for an open pressure door.

Sue Lin made a right turn onto the perimeter road. Tilly assumed she wanted to check the next spoke. Sue Lin confirmed her intentions a moment later. “They can't all be sealed off,” said Sue Lin. “We've got to try the others.”

The next pressure door was sealed off, and the next one after it. More people were stranded. Tilly guessed some master command had inadvertently closed all the main vault pressure hatches. A fair amount of people might have escaped, but from the looks of it, a huge populace remained, blocked off and unable to enter the vaults.

Sue Lin slapped the dash panel out of frustration. “Are they out of their minds and trying to kill us?” She drove down the perimeter road at an almost reckless speed. She pulled up in front of a modular building that looked like a double-wide trailer. The sign on the building read
Miner's Mutual
. A bank. Sue Lin ordered everyone out, telling them that there would be a flood of people converging at the bank location very shortly. Sue Lin led the way inside and pushed through a swing door, gaining access to the teller's station. She ducked down behind a counter and pulled a lever. She entered a backroom and hurried to the room corner, calling for the others to follow. Tilly could see a large circular pressure hatch on the floor, its cover leaning in the open position. Sue Lin pulled a small key chain from her pocket and removed a mini-light. She handed it to Tilly.

“Down the ladder,” said Sue Lin. “Follow the corridor. It'll lead to a serious of pressure vaults. Close each one behind you as you go, but don't lock them. The corridor takes a dogleg turn and leads to an underground emergency shelter. Stay there and wait for help.”

“Aren't you going with us?” asked Tilly.

“No. Somebody has to tell these people where they can find safe evacuation. I know of about a dozen hidden passageways that were in the original blueprints. I'll be able to get some to safety. Now hurry. The air is thinning.”

Tilly didn't want to stand there and argue with Sue Lin. Her instructor had it in her mind to rescue the people left behind—a noble gesture. But at what cost? Losing her life in the attempt? The air did feel thin, and drawing breath seemed more difficult. The atmosphere in the dome had changed, which meant the structure had been penetrated in at least one location.

Tilly took the lead down the ladder. When she hit bottom, she directed the light upwards for the others so they could find their footing. She estimated the lower passage to be 30 feet underground. With everyone down, she shone the light around the base of the ladder. The corridor looked like a roughly hewn tunnel excavated through the lunar rock. The walls and floor were covered with thick plastic cement. She found a control panel on the wall marked with writing. EMERGENCY UTILITY COORIDOR 009. Under that it read, CAN BE USED FOR ALTERNATIVE FUNDS TRANSFER. Tilly pulled an unmarked lever. Nothing happened. Pushing a button produced a buzz. Then a bank of overhead lights flicked on, with an orange halogen glow. The lights disappeared in the distance down the U-shaped shaft. Tilly took the lead at a fast walking pace, pocketing the mini light.

“It must be an emergency generator or something,” said Fia. “It's a shame these entrances weren't plainly marked.”

“Maybe they were built just for the elite class,” said Dorothy. “They didn't mention them in the orientation seminar.”

Just then, the shaft trembled with a prolonged seizure. They braced and held on to each other. An eerie sound followed, like that of a huge ringing bell that had a deep, base resonance.
Those were heavy, solid impacts
. Tilly knew that the Moon was being strafed and rung to its core. She'd never heard of it happening in the past.

They came to their first pressure door after another ten minutes. Lever-operated from both sides, the huge metal hatch stood ten feet tall. It took two of them to throw the lever, and all of them to swing it open. They shut it after them and continued on. Tilly picked up the pace. The corridor angled left then straightened out, the dogleg turn that Sue Lin had mentioned. They found the second pressure door moments later. They had to work hard to free up the lever mechanism, but finally opened the door. They closed it but left it unlocked.