Luna: Episode 10

Carlos confesses and a storm approaches

Aug 25, 2024

The entire family, including Carlos Montaño’s daughter Maya and her friend Sol accompanied Carlos to the Hall of Justice to support him as he testified before the “Truth and Reconciliation Tribunal” about what had happened that night nearly half a century ago back in 2053.

The judge clacked the hearing to order with his gavel and asked Luna's grandfather, “Are you familiar with Campo Libertad?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Were you present at Campo Libertad on the night in question?”

Carlos looked outside through the triple-paned window to see a booster rocket rumble into the sky from the distant space center with an unknown cargo. “Yes I was.”

“Can you tell the tribunal what your role was and a little about yourself at the time?”

“I was 18 years old. I was a member of the Tucson Militia. Company D. Under the command of Sergeant Triplehorn. Our unit was assigned to guard the perimeter of Campo Libertad.”

“Were you armed, Mr. Montaño?”

“We all carried defensive arms.”

“Can you tell us about Campo Libertad and the context of the times?”

“It was a chaotic time of great turmoil. The effects of climate change the upside down and inside out. The valley was such a desperate place I was conscripted at the age of 16. The second Civil War of the century had ended, and the effect of the great recession of 2042 had begun to recede.”

“For the record, Mr. Montaño, can you please tell the court about those two events from your perspective?”

“The world was thrown into economic turmoil when a wealthy tech entrepreneur who owned an asteroid mining operation, decided to mine asteroid M217, which had vast amounts of gold ore. He had the gold extracted and out of vanity he had the gold formed into hundreds of gigantic statues of himself and brought back to earth. It was madness. This despite the warnings from economists that this action would render the value of all the gold on earth valueless and cause a deep global economic depression. This was his goal. To use the economic turmoil as a foundation for his election to President of the World Council ushering in the 4th Reich, because he felt the quibbling democracies of the world were not sufficiently addressing the effects of climate change on the planet.”

“How did this impact you?”

“This resulted in the second global Civil War of 2044.

By then our population, thanks to two global viruses had shrunk from 8 billion to under 800 million humans. Took my first mother, Maria and my two brothers, Leon and Danielito.”

Carlos stopped talking, shook and wept loudly.

From behind, Mac, reeling from this revelation, handed him a tissue. Luna, wide-eyed turned to Cassius. “Did you know this?”

Cassius shook his head. “Holy Gods and Moons. We have uncles we never heard a thing about. And another woman before grandma. What else don’t we know?”

“In 2051 I was drafted at the young age of 16 to quote ‘preserve the new Pan-American federation’ and, specifically, Tucson, which was being overwhelmed by the Third Wave, the latest flood of climate refugees fleeing the 2nd Great Ocean Rise triggered by the collapse of another ice sheet in Antarctica. This one flooded and permanently submerged most of Texas, Louisiana, much of the south and all of Florida.”

“Let the record show this was the event that forced the relocation of Mission Control and Cape Kennedy to Tucson.”

“Recorded.”

“Since there is no record of Campo Libertad, we must rely upon the accounts of individuals such as yourself. Can you tell us about Campo Libertad?”

“For decades, Tucson had been a way station for millions of climate refugees from the equatorial regions of the globe heading north away from the decimation. To remain a sustainable community, we could not absorb any of the refugees. However, we were happy to guarantee their safe travel north.

Campo Libertad was designed to house, feed and care for the health of the huge numbers of refugees from Texas, Florida and the South.”

“The diary of Sergeant Triplehorn indicates on the night of June 7th the camp held 10,000 people. Is that a correct assessment?”

“No, sir. People were constantly moving through the camp and on their way the next day. On June 7 my squad and I estimated they were maybe 1200 people remaining.”

“Can you tell us what happened?”

“It had been a hot day. I remember it exactly. It was 123° that day. A haboob two days before had made the valley a miserable wretched place. Our supply lines had broken down again. Our grid was shut down. There was a food riot, which triggered a camp-wide protest.”

“Was this unusual?”

“Yes. Many of the younger refugees began throwing rocks at us. A group rushed the western fence, trampled the barbwire, and attacked members of my squad and began taking weapons from my fellow fallen officers and using them to fire on us. It was insane and hot as Hell. We called in for reinforcements.”

“Did you discharge your weapon Mr. Montaño?”

“I did, sir. We all began to return fire. I cannot tell you how many I killed. There were families among the rioters.”

“Had you received orders to fire?”

“No, sir. It was chaos and we were young and frightened. I was young and frightened.”

Sitting behind their grandfather in the Courtroom Cassius and Luna huddled closer to each other, horrified and astonished. Luna whispered to Cassius, “He never spoke of this. Ever. Why?”

Cassius dropped his head and shrugged. Did he even know his grandfather?

Mac, Sol and Mars put their arms around Calypso and Maya as they patted their aged father on his fallen shoulders.

Carlos continued. “As hundreds poured across the fallen fence a small mob headed directly towards me, led by two rioters who were armed and firing on us. I shot without really aiming and I killed them. I saw their faces.”

The old man paused, took a deep breath, wiped his tears and continued. “And I saw them fall. I saw them. I saw that I had also shot a mother and two small children behind the two men. People kept rushing and I kept firing. In the darkness that night many children as well as adults were killed. After the shooting stopped and the bodies of the dead lay in mounds I found the two children I had killed and fell to my knees into dried pools of blood among the dead. In the hot light of morning, we buried the dead in a nearby arroyo… we covered them before the heat could cook them…we were ordered to dismantle the camp and bury it all.”

“How were you able to conceal this from the residents of our community?”

“There were at least 20 to 25 camps surrounding the city housing refugees at the time. We simply directed the flow of refugees to those camps and denied the rumors. The organizer of our particular militia worked for the county and destroyed the records. The people of Tucson have a centuries old history of ignoring those who die in the desert nearby, who are simply passing through.”

“Let the record show our forensics experts have estimated there are 1272 men, women and children at the site of the mass grave.”

The Tribunal was adjourned. The family walked out into the glare of the punishing morning sun in silence until Luna noticed a small crowd at the foot of the stairs shouting at them. “Can we go another way?”

“Ignore them,” said Kino MacKenzie as he lead his family down the steps and toward the light rail line. He recognized an acquaintance or two among the angry mob.

“They’re all murderers!”

“Shame!”

“No immunity for mass murderers!”

“Recycle that dog!”

“Criminals!”

Luna, concerned about Rin’s response to this aggression placed her hand on its small head. “Heel, Rin.” Then she and Cassius, walking on either side of their drained grandfather laced their arms through his. “We love you, grandpa.” In a raspy voice he said, “I love you, too. Forgive me. Can you all forgive me?”

At home Luna argued with her father. “Did you hear and see what we saw? We can’t live here anymore. I can’t live here anymore”

“Luna, I thought about this long, and hard, and as your father, I cannot give you a choice. You must remain here and complete your education and get through this.” Rin sensed Mac’s anger and assumed a defensive position in front of Luna, between her and her father. Luna shouted, “Do you have any clue how much the people here hate you because of all of your sustainability rules and regulations? You’re an eco-fascist!”

Cassius, long the family peacemaker, came into the room. “If it wasn’t for these rules and regulations we wouldn’t survive. We wouldn’t be here, Luna. Dad did the right things.”

“I do not want to be here anymore. I am done with this bullshit. I am hated here. I want to go north.”

“You are still a child. You are my child. I forbid you to do such thing until you have completed your education.” Rin growled a digital growl, “Er er er er er “, Luna shouted “Heel” at her robot, turned and stormed into her room and Rin followed. She slammed her door.

Outside in the midday heat thunder and warning sirens signaled a series of micro-bursts were on the way. Mind-pad news reported tornadoes had been sighted. Possible hail. A reporter reminded everyone on their Mind-pads, “Last week a woman had been killed by basketball-sized hail and another had drowned in a flash flood that overflowed the Santa Cruz River.”

Around the valley shutters rolled into place, gutters, drains and aqueducts opened, seals sealed nearby grids, airships were stabled, the bullet train was taken out of service and any residents foolish enough to be outside in the midday heat and rising humidity vanished into their 21^st century burrows and sealed their external hatches.

In her room Luna looked at the Mind-pad news displayed in front of her, “in her imagination”, as the saying went, and having had enough for today she tapped her temple and shut it down. As it vanished and her mind went vacant and uncommonly quiet she wondered about something she occasionally wondered about from time to time in those rare moments of seclusion when a strange phenomena called reflection crept in. What had become of her actual imagination?

As another chorus of thunder rolled across the roof of her home, the valley’s windmills sang in the rising wind and their “Earth Ship” home’s solar panels rattled, she pulled out a piece of paper and began drawing a new map to replace the old one her mother had found. The one her mother had discarded in pained disappointment. The one that had traced a route north.