The Moon’s Orbit
by Greg Fitzgerald
The pain is intense. As I sit in my
hospital bed recording the most terrible thing I have ever done, the
pain grows worse. I’m not sure how it was done, but someone infected me
with a virus specifically tailored to my DNA. At least it is likely
that no one else can catch it. That provides me some comfort in my
suffering. Unfortunately, morphine and heroin are no longer effective.
It was a cruel thing to do to me, but I know I am guilty of much worse.
The evidence is before me, as I look out the window and see the obscene
Moon, bloated to three times its previous size, and I feel the almost
constant tremors that the rock the hospital. My story begins in a house
not far from the hospital.
I was 24, just having completed a Masters in Information Technology. I was going to a party inSouth Yarra with my flatmate, Dylan. I remember now, as we got out of the car, looking up and seeing the Moon, and how beautiful it was. We had arrived late and the party was in full swing. The music was hard-core techno, which didn’t appeal to me. There wasn’t much talent to be honest. But then a group of people stood aside and I saw him. He smiled at me and I melted. I think back now and wonder how such a beautiful man could have brought me such misery and guilt. But I was a fool. A naïve, impressionable fool who had no understanding of the way the world works.
He came over to me and introduced himself. ‘Scott Haslan, pleased to meet you.’
Likewise,’ I said. ‘I’m Michael Bainbridge.’ We shook hands; his grip was strong and reassuring. I’ll never forget his beautiful, blond hair.
‘This party is so boring. Let’s get out of here.’
‘Sure, that’d be great.’
We drove down to the beach. The full Moon was reflected in the sea. For a while we just sat watching the silvery ocean. Then his arm went around me and then we were kissing passionately. We couldn’t wait to get each other naked. There was no one else around. Scott got a blanket from the car and we went down to the beach, where we made love for over an hour. We were all sticky and messy, so we ran to the water hand in hand and dived. The cold spring water was a shock, but the combined warmth of our bodies dispelled the chill. We kissed for a long time. Then we dried off and Scott drove me back to his place.
‘But what can we do?’ I asked.
‘Come to one of our meetings and find out.’
I was 24, just having completed a Masters in Information Technology. I was going to a party inSouth Yarra with my flatmate, Dylan. I remember now, as we got out of the car, looking up and seeing the Moon, and how beautiful it was. We had arrived late and the party was in full swing. The music was hard-core techno, which didn’t appeal to me. There wasn’t much talent to be honest. But then a group of people stood aside and I saw him. He smiled at me and I melted. I think back now and wonder how such a beautiful man could have brought me such misery and guilt. But I was a fool. A naïve, impressionable fool who had no understanding of the way the world works.
He came over to me and introduced himself. ‘Scott Haslan, pleased to meet you.’
Likewise,’ I said. ‘I’m Michael Bainbridge.’ We shook hands; his grip was strong and reassuring. I’ll never forget his beautiful, blond hair.
‘This party is so boring. Let’s get out of here.’
‘Sure, that’d be great.’
We drove down to the beach. The full Moon was reflected in the sea. For a while we just sat watching the silvery ocean. Then his arm went around me and then we were kissing passionately. We couldn’t wait to get each other naked. There was no one else around. Scott got a blanket from the car and we went down to the beach, where we made love for over an hour. We were all sticky and messy, so we ran to the water hand in hand and dived. The cold spring water was a shock, but the combined warmth of our bodies dispelled the chill. We kissed for a long time. Then we dried off and Scott drove me back to his place.
We had much in common and Scott soon learned that I had politically
left leanings. We were both angry with the way various conservative
governments, including our own, were laying waste to our planet. But
Scott informed me the same thing was happening on the Moon. Toxic waste
was being transported there for storage. He had a friend in NASA who
knew all about it. I worshipped Scott and he had a great deal of power
over me.
‘But what can we do?’ I asked.
‘Come to one of our meetings and find out.’
****
The Group Against Environmental Rape met
in an old abandoned warehouse in North Fitzroy. The night was hot and
stuffy, and most of the thirty members present were dressed in very
little, aged between 15 and 42. Scott introduced me to everyone. The
leader of the group was a female Goth named Angela.
‘Welcome to our group, Michael,’ she said. ‘I hope tonight will give you an idea of what we are about, and we can get to know you.’
‘Thanks Angela,’ I replied. ‘I’m very interested in what you’re doing here.’
A young, gawky man, called Jason, stood up and began his presentation, entitled The Moon Used as a Waste Dump. ‘Members of the group and visitor, tonight’s presentation will explain how the Moon is being used to store toxic chemical, biological and nuclear waste.’ There followed a lengthy description with many slides of the types of waste, and I found myself drifting in the hot air. I was jolted awake when I heard Jason say, ‘We intend to put a stop to it.’ I was intensely interested, as I felt very strongly about the issue of waste storage.
Angela spoke up. ‘That is where you come in, Michael.’
‘What...what do you mean, Angela?’
‘We need a IT expert, to sabotage the computer system that controls the various waste storage facilities on the Moon.’
‘I…I’d have to think about this, this is a big thing.’
‘Michael,’ Angela demanded. ‘Are you serious or not about preventing environmental rape?’
‘Yes, Angela, I am serious,’ I said with some heat. ‘But I’m not sure you’ve all thought this through.’
‘We have thought it through,’ Scott said. ‘I can get us on to the Moon through my NASA contact. And we have a copy of the plans for the computer system controlling the waste. We’re counting on you, Michael.’ He put his arm around me and kissed me deeply on the mouth. And like the lovesick fool I was, I gave in.
Three months later we arrived at Lunar Capital Base. The glassed walkways revealed the pockmarked lunar landscape, and the Sun shining in the black starry sky. Low on the horizon could be seen the blue-white crescent Earth. The four of us were excited to be on the Moon, and had already forgotten the cramped and uncomfortable 3-day journey. But Scott, a born leader, quickly returned to business.
‘Now listen, the banquet for the opening of the new nuclear waste facility is tonight. Many of the security people will be in attendance and I have the pass to get into the control room. Then its all up to you, Mikie boy.’
‘Yeah, can’t wait,’ I said. I was now enjoying how much the others were depending on me, and I was angry about the new waste facility.
We listened to a boring speech by the director of NukeSafe Inc.
‘Now guys,’ Angela whispered. They started edging towards the door. Security guards looked at them disinterestedly, assuming that the kids were bored with the droning speech, and had gone off to explore the Moon. We walked along a long corridor with windows showing the various waste facilities. The security pass got us through to the outer door of the control room, which left the encrypted inner door.
‘Go for it, Michael,’ Jason said excitedly.’ We were all running on adrenalin.
‘Don’t rush me,’ I replied, inserting the disk. It contained a Trojan that unlocked the door. No alarm sounded, we hadn’t been detected yet. The control was full of the latest computer hardware. I pulled out the plans.
‘I hope this works.’ I inserted my other disk and typed in the stolen commands and passwords to gain access to the system. ‘We’re in.’
‘Download the virus, Michael,’ Angela demanded. ‘Their failsafe’s may be activating already.’
‘Angela, if I don’t do this right, they will for sure.’
‘All right, all right, just get on with it.’
I started downloading the virus, which the system accepted and then began shutting down.
We all whooped with joy. But then an alarm started flashing red.
‘We’ve been discovered,’ Michael groaned.
‘No wait, it’s something else.’ On the screen a message appeared. COOLANT SHUTTING DOWN IN NUCLEAR WASTE FACILITIES. ‘Oh, God, this isn’t good.’
‘What’s happening?’ Jason cried. ‘What have you done?’
‘Shut up, let me think.’ I tried various but the virus continued to attack the software governing the coolant systems. Nothing I did made any difference. ‘We’ve to get out of here, I think the nuclear waste facilities could explode.’
We hurried out into the corridor. At that moment there was an enormous bang. Angela pointed at the window, which showed an enormous orange fireball shooting up from a nuclear waste facility, quickly dissipating in the airless vacuum. The shockwave hit the corridor where the four conspirators gaped in horror. It was then that the window cracked. I saw it first. ‘Run!’ And I started running, followed by Scott. I heard Angela scream and turned. The window gave way and shattered, the glass shards pulled out into the vacuum. Angela was sucked towards the opening and shot through it. Jason tried to hang on to a bulkhead, but his fingers were torn from it and he shared his friend’s fate. Scott and I were pulled towards the broken window, but a door slid down between us and death. For the time being we were safe.
Security guards came running towards us as more massive explosions shook the building. They grabbed us and took off away from the sealed, ruined corridor. More cracks appeared into windows, but doors kept sealing off the corridor. Everyone was heading for the spaceport. Scott and I were in shock and kept silent. We heard over the radio that more personnel and dinner guests had been killed. People were running from everywhere, in confusion and panic. We made it into the spaceport and got into the spaceship.
There was another explosion, more massive than all the others. The pilot took off immediately, not bothering with any take-off checks. As we exited the huge space doors, we saw the three mushroom clouds over the nuclear waste facilities. Then was a fourth fireball, the largest of all. A huge piece of debris struck one of the other ships and it exploded. The Moon’s surface and fell away as we began our journey back to Earth. But we couldn’t see it as our eyes filled with tears.
Scott and I were imprisoned in Washington, D.C. We confessed to what we had done and were jailed for five years.
We were kept in separate prisons. I had just come off work detail; it was six months after the disaster. The news was on and what it said filled me with dread.
‘Astronomers are now in complete agreement – the Moon’s orbit has altered. It has begun a slow inward spiral towards an inevitable collision with the Earth. Nothing can be done to stop it.’
I was bashed that night by several inmates and two guards, and was taken to the prison hospital suffering three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a fractured cheekbone. I woke to a terrible pain in my chest and worse suffering to come.
The doctor, a gentle Hispanic man, informed me of the terrible news. Scott had also been bashed and had died. I was in too much pain to weep; in my mind I felt only emptiness. Once I had recovered from my injuries I was allowed to return home, and served only two more years in prison in Melbourne. I managed to find work writing anti-virus software.
At first change was imperceptible. The Moon’s inward spiral was very gradual, but as it accelerated high and low tides got more extreme. Then there was increase in earthquakes and volcanic activity, even in geologically inactive Australia. Many coastal regions were inundated. Five years later 20 million people were dead. Continental plates began to buckle and rupture. The death toll increased exponentially.
My mother often came over to cook for me, knowing that I often wouldn’t bother. Dad had been killed in an earthquake. But she didn’t blame me; she saw it as a terrible accident. It was two years ago, eight after the disaster.
‘Michael I’ve got something to tell you,’ she said. ‘I’ve won a place in the Mars ballot. I’m leaving next week.’ The Martian colony had been expanded, but many saw it as futile. When the collision occurred it could cause Earth to collide with Mars, or at least pass close enough to devastate the fourth planet. Ten huge interstellar spaceships had already left the Solar System, each carrying 10,000 people, cryogenically frozen. Some argued it would enable humanity to move to the next level of its evolution, but I didn’t buy that. All I felt was all-consuming guilt.
‘I’ll miss you,’ was all that I could find to say. I saw her off at the airport, of course, on her flight to Fort Lauderdale, knowing I would never see her again.
So now I am finished, but somehow the Moon seems even larger than when I started writing, two hours ago. Another tremor shakes the hospital like a rattle. The pain of the virus has now reached an excruciating crescendo. I press save on the computer, and then nod to the nurse, who wordlessly approaches with an overdose of anaesthetic. I smile to myself. I can’t go to Hell, because I am already there.
‘Welcome to our group, Michael,’ she said. ‘I hope tonight will give you an idea of what we are about, and we can get to know you.’
‘Thanks Angela,’ I replied. ‘I’m very interested in what you’re doing here.’
A young, gawky man, called Jason, stood up and began his presentation, entitled The Moon Used as a Waste Dump. ‘Members of the group and visitor, tonight’s presentation will explain how the Moon is being used to store toxic chemical, biological and nuclear waste.’ There followed a lengthy description with many slides of the types of waste, and I found myself drifting in the hot air. I was jolted awake when I heard Jason say, ‘We intend to put a stop to it.’ I was intensely interested, as I felt very strongly about the issue of waste storage.
Angela spoke up. ‘That is where you come in, Michael.’
‘What...what do you mean, Angela?’
‘We need a IT expert, to sabotage the computer system that controls the various waste storage facilities on the Moon.’
‘I…I’d have to think about this, this is a big thing.’
‘Michael,’ Angela demanded. ‘Are you serious or not about preventing environmental rape?’
‘Yes, Angela, I am serious,’ I said with some heat. ‘But I’m not sure you’ve all thought this through.’
‘We have thought it through,’ Scott said. ‘I can get us on to the Moon through my NASA contact. And we have a copy of the plans for the computer system controlling the waste. We’re counting on you, Michael.’ He put his arm around me and kissed me deeply on the mouth. And like the lovesick fool I was, I gave in.
Three months later we arrived at Lunar Capital Base. The glassed walkways revealed the pockmarked lunar landscape, and the Sun shining in the black starry sky. Low on the horizon could be seen the blue-white crescent Earth. The four of us were excited to be on the Moon, and had already forgotten the cramped and uncomfortable 3-day journey. But Scott, a born leader, quickly returned to business.
‘Now listen, the banquet for the opening of the new nuclear waste facility is tonight. Many of the security people will be in attendance and I have the pass to get into the control room. Then its all up to you, Mikie boy.’
‘Yeah, can’t wait,’ I said. I was now enjoying how much the others were depending on me, and I was angry about the new waste facility.
We listened to a boring speech by the director of NukeSafe Inc.
‘Now guys,’ Angela whispered. They started edging towards the door. Security guards looked at them disinterestedly, assuming that the kids were bored with the droning speech, and had gone off to explore the Moon. We walked along a long corridor with windows showing the various waste facilities. The security pass got us through to the outer door of the control room, which left the encrypted inner door.
‘Go for it, Michael,’ Jason said excitedly.’ We were all running on adrenalin.
‘Don’t rush me,’ I replied, inserting the disk. It contained a Trojan that unlocked the door. No alarm sounded, we hadn’t been detected yet. The control was full of the latest computer hardware. I pulled out the plans.
‘I hope this works.’ I inserted my other disk and typed in the stolen commands and passwords to gain access to the system. ‘We’re in.’
‘Download the virus, Michael,’ Angela demanded. ‘Their failsafe’s may be activating already.’
‘Angela, if I don’t do this right, they will for sure.’
‘All right, all right, just get on with it.’
I started downloading the virus, which the system accepted and then began shutting down.
We all whooped with joy. But then an alarm started flashing red.
‘We’ve been discovered,’ Michael groaned.
‘No wait, it’s something else.’ On the screen a message appeared. COOLANT SHUTTING DOWN IN NUCLEAR WASTE FACILITIES. ‘Oh, God, this isn’t good.’
‘What’s happening?’ Jason cried. ‘What have you done?’
‘Shut up, let me think.’ I tried various but the virus continued to attack the software governing the coolant systems. Nothing I did made any difference. ‘We’ve to get out of here, I think the nuclear waste facilities could explode.’
We hurried out into the corridor. At that moment there was an enormous bang. Angela pointed at the window, which showed an enormous orange fireball shooting up from a nuclear waste facility, quickly dissipating in the airless vacuum. The shockwave hit the corridor where the four conspirators gaped in horror. It was then that the window cracked. I saw it first. ‘Run!’ And I started running, followed by Scott. I heard Angela scream and turned. The window gave way and shattered, the glass shards pulled out into the vacuum. Angela was sucked towards the opening and shot through it. Jason tried to hang on to a bulkhead, but his fingers were torn from it and he shared his friend’s fate. Scott and I were pulled towards the broken window, but a door slid down between us and death. For the time being we were safe.
Security guards came running towards us as more massive explosions shook the building. They grabbed us and took off away from the sealed, ruined corridor. More cracks appeared into windows, but doors kept sealing off the corridor. Everyone was heading for the spaceport. Scott and I were in shock and kept silent. We heard over the radio that more personnel and dinner guests had been killed. People were running from everywhere, in confusion and panic. We made it into the spaceport and got into the spaceship.
There was another explosion, more massive than all the others. The pilot took off immediately, not bothering with any take-off checks. As we exited the huge space doors, we saw the three mushroom clouds over the nuclear waste facilities. Then was a fourth fireball, the largest of all. A huge piece of debris struck one of the other ships and it exploded. The Moon’s surface and fell away as we began our journey back to Earth. But we couldn’t see it as our eyes filled with tears.
Scott and I were imprisoned in Washington, D.C. We confessed to what we had done and were jailed for five years.
****
We were kept in separate prisons. I had just come off work detail; it was six months after the disaster. The news was on and what it said filled me with dread.
‘Astronomers are now in complete agreement – the Moon’s orbit has altered. It has begun a slow inward spiral towards an inevitable collision with the Earth. Nothing can be done to stop it.’
I was bashed that night by several inmates and two guards, and was taken to the prison hospital suffering three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a fractured cheekbone. I woke to a terrible pain in my chest and worse suffering to come.
The doctor, a gentle Hispanic man, informed me of the terrible news. Scott had also been bashed and had died. I was in too much pain to weep; in my mind I felt only emptiness. Once I had recovered from my injuries I was allowed to return home, and served only two more years in prison in Melbourne. I managed to find work writing anti-virus software.
At first change was imperceptible. The Moon’s inward spiral was very gradual, but as it accelerated high and low tides got more extreme. Then there was increase in earthquakes and volcanic activity, even in geologically inactive Australia. Many coastal regions were inundated. Five years later 20 million people were dead. Continental plates began to buckle and rupture. The death toll increased exponentially.
My mother often came over to cook for me, knowing that I often wouldn’t bother. Dad had been killed in an earthquake. But she didn’t blame me; she saw it as a terrible accident. It was two years ago, eight after the disaster.
‘Michael I’ve got something to tell you,’ she said. ‘I’ve won a place in the Mars ballot. I’m leaving next week.’ The Martian colony had been expanded, but many saw it as futile. When the collision occurred it could cause Earth to collide with Mars, or at least pass close enough to devastate the fourth planet. Ten huge interstellar spaceships had already left the Solar System, each carrying 10,000 people, cryogenically frozen. Some argued it would enable humanity to move to the next level of its evolution, but I didn’t buy that. All I felt was all-consuming guilt.
‘I’ll miss you,’ was all that I could find to say. I saw her off at the airport, of course, on her flight to Fort Lauderdale, knowing I would never see her again.
So now I am finished, but somehow the Moon seems even larger than when I started writing, two hours ago. Another tremor shakes the hospital like a rattle. The pain of the virus has now reached an excruciating crescendo. I press save on the computer, and then nod to the nurse, who wordlessly approaches with an overdose of anaesthetic. I smile to myself. I can’t go to Hell, because I am already there.