Luna

Episode 7: Blood in the earth

That night at school Luna was accused of night dreaming by her history teacher. “Luna, focus.”

“I’m sorry.” She shook off her dreamy reverie and returned to the history of the water wars of 2046.

Luna had not recalled being a young girl on a trip with her mom and dad in years. Before Cassius was born. They had traveled north and stopped at a motor inn with a charging station. She remembers she was at a drained swimming pool with her mom, laying in the sun. Unthinkable down south in the west where they were from. Where you burn if you linger. And the world outside is too hot to touch. Hot enough to cause 3rd degree burns down to the bones.

She had never been able to lay in the sunlight. Ever. And she has not done it since.

Her brown grandfather would say, “ Poor things. You’re all as pale as albino cave fish.”

She laid on her back on the motor inn’s sun bleached rusted chaise lounge and closed her eyelids and watched the squiggly eye bugs dance inside her backlit pink lids. So this is what the sun feels like up here in the north lands. She rolled onto her belly and savored the sunlight massaging her pale back and shoulders.

Across town Maya loaned Solomon Tang her three wheeled three-seater so he could take Mars with him south of the city to the site of the proposed nuclear fusion reactor.

The small three wheeler rattled and shook as it zipped over the rutted roads taking them south. Mars was quiet on the ride down. Sol said, "What gives?”

“The relentless nature of the madness. Picacho was a one man diversion. Terrorist blew himself, his innocent hostage and the water tanker to Hell soon as he saw the swarm of nano bots. What a waste. About the same time as the space base attack took place miles away. Probably coordinated.”

“Like you say no one escapes the heat.”

“Or the madness.” Mars pointed straight ahead to the “KEEP OUT’ tapes

illuminated bu their headlights. “Here’s the site. See the fence and the tape?”

“Where’s the mass grave?”

“Park up ahead. It’s less than half a mile.” It was dark out there under the stars. The multiple rotating headlights on Sol’s ride revealed nothing in the distance but darkness and what appeared to be a shack. They stopped and greeted the android inside.

“Hello, I’m Solomon Tang. I’ll be managing the construction of the fusion reactor just north of here. This is my friend detective Mars Montaño.”

“I’m Atkins-529 and this is my team excavating this site under the direction of the life zones coroners office. You showed up just as the humans were taking a work break. We turned off the lights. I’ll turn them back on so you can see this.”

The android’s voice on speaker echoed across the barren desert. “Lights, please.” Section by section the bone white killing fields lit up in front of them.

The sight of a small shoe at the edge of the river of thousands of rags left Sol speechless.

Mars asked the droid,“What have you learned so far?”

“Site dates to 2053. Same year we have reason to believe there was an uprising at a refugee camp nearby. With poor to non-existent documentation. It is remarkable that mass murder on this scale could be scrubbed from our history.”

“How many?”

“1200 to 1500.”

“There’s no documentation of a camp at that site. Or of any uprisings here in police or military records. Only reason we know any of this is because of Jose. Hey, Jose, come over here, please. Tell these gentlemen what you told us.”

Out of the darkness emerged a human worker. “I heard it all from my grandpa on his deathbed. Said he was conscripted by the local Tucson militia when he was a kid to help maintain order at a sprawling refugee camp called Campo Libertad. Old man’s long dead now.”

Jose held out his arms to embrace the scale of this place. “Now that I’m out here, I can see that this place matches his descriptions of what he saw. He was telling us the truth. I thought it was just the senile ramblings of an old man who’d been through Hell. Check it out.” Jose projected his Mind-pad contents up in front of everyone’s imagination. “My nana recorded his last words.” Up above them, projected among the stars was Jose's white-haired grandfather, struggling to say each word, laying in bed, with his eyes closed. “Close to the old missile silo…a camp was slapped together.. at an abandoned strip mall… with cooling for some… but not enough for all…not enough water…food…they were throwing rocks at us… somebody got spooked…shots… the barbwire gave way… they just kept coming.”

Mars and Sol looked at each other. Sol did the math. “2053. That’s less than half a century ago. That would have been the time of the second sea rise. Long after the millions of Central American and Mexican refugees poured north. These would have been Texans and Floridians flooding in from our coasts.”

Mars said, “There have to be people who know what went on here still alive living among us.”

Jose said, ”Our elders.”

When the sun came up Calypso and Mac were ready to sleep. Calypso yelled at her father down the hall, “Hey, dad. Luna‘s light is still on. I think she’s having trouble sleeping. Will you check in on her?”

“Seguro, mija.”

“Luna. You got school tonight. You need your sleep. What’s up?”

“I miss Ren. And I let my so-called best friend use me. And I nearly got my mom killed. And my friends at school have stopped talking to me. They think I was somehow involved in the attack on the base and the gossip is all over Mind-World and now everybody hates me. I can’t stay here. I cannot stay here.”

“You can’t leave here. You’re just a kid. And no matter where you go there you are.”

“Is that some ancient tribal bullshit wisdom?”

“How about one of grandpa’s stories. It’ll bore you to sleep. Ever wondered why it only rains in late July and early August here?”

“I suppose there’s some bizarre dumb explanation involving ravens and spells and tricksters.”

“There was a time when it used to rain year-round. Until one day when a great flood killed many of our people. The great chief of our tribe was so angry he cursed all of the gods. Hummingbird, the messenger, told the god of wind and the god of thunder what the chief said. They were so insulted they stomped off to the other side of the world and refused to come back. Like you do when you slam your door.”

“Nice way to personalize your fable, grandpa.”

“Shush. There was no water for the crops. For the corn, the squash, and the chief saw that his people were starving so he asked Hummingbird, the messenger, to tell the gods he was very, very sorry for cursing them. Hummingbird, delivered their response, to the Chief. “Wind and thunder said they can never forgive you for your sacrilege. But, for the sake of your people, we will return to bless you with rain once every year, only at the end of summer. For just a few days.”

The Chief was happy to hear this.

“And for your ugly words we will take your tongue. And when the rains came the old chief was stuck mute. What did you think of my story?”

“Luna? Luna, are you pretending to be asleep?”

He leaned over her bed and whispered in her ear, “Friends come and go. Family is forever. And your family’s been here for- “

“10,000 years. I know. Good night, grandpa.”