Dead Man on the Moon (3 page)

"What's your preferred input?" the customs official asked.

Noah extended his hand, showing his wristwatch. "Verbal."

"Customs official Regina Peters, registration number 34906A hereby grants Noah Skyler of the United States entry to Luna City with a student visa," she told it mechanically. "Run your watch over the scanner for confirmation and check your output."

Noah touched his watch to the square plate set into the official's waist-high desk, then reached up to his left temple and slid a small square of Plexiglas around so it covered his left eye like a square monocle. Text scrolled across it, confirming his visa. That done, put on his backpack and hoisted his duffel. Both still seemed unnaturally light. Noah left the monocle in place and found Ilene waiting for him just beyond the customs desks.

"Housing's about three kilometers away," she said. "We can take the train."

Noah gave her a tentative grin. "Actually, between the tether and the shuttle, I've spent ten hours sitting down or standing in line. Can we walk part of it? You can show me stuff along the way."

Ilene was amenable. They threaded their way through the crowd and out the port's doors into Luna City proper. Noah tightened his grip on his luggage as he looked around at his new home.

The main thoroughfare was underground, wide, and beautiful. Most of the rounded walls were covered in carefully tended, lush vegetation that thrived in Luna's micro-gravitic environment. This section had a semi-tropical feel to it. Jungle vines and shrubs flourished in a riot of colors. Birds and small animals chirped in the trees or rustled through the leaves. The air was warm and slightly humid but not uncomfortable, like a mild spring day.

"The University is this way," Ilene said, taking Noah's elbow. "Come on."

She led him down a series of pathways planted with climbable trees and camouflaging bushes. Every so often, the path opened into a beautiful grove redolent with the perfume of flowers. The multiple paths, Ilene explained,
allowed people to vary their routes and routines, and teams of students from the University's botany department changed the scenery at irregular intervals to further relieve monotony.

"If you get lost, just ask your onboard for directions," she said. "It happens all the time."

The path Ilene had chosen was wide and flat, but still quite crowded. People walked, jogged, and ran along it in the broad, loopy pace indigenous to the low gravity of Luna City. A few rode bicycles or zipped along on silent electric carts. Noah inhaled the clean air gratefully and moved briskly alongside Ilene, who was still holding his elbow. Her touch was light yet insistent, and a faint, sweet smell followed her.

After a few minutes, Noah stopped. The crowd had thinned a little. Ilene looked at him blankly.

"What's wrong?" she asked, removing her arm from his elbow.

"I want to try something," he said, glancing upward.

Ilene followed his gaze, then gave him a knowing nod. "Go ahead. Everyone does it when they first arrive."

Noah set his backpack and duffel bag on the ground and looked up at the ceiling. It was six or seven meters above his head. He crouched nearly to the floor . . . and
leaped.

The ground fell away, and the vine-covered ceiling zoomed toward him. Air rushed past his ears. His body felt weightless, like he was flying. Noah didn't even try to suppress a boyish whoop. He slowed just as he reached the ceiling. Red flowers sprinkled the vines up there, and he just managed to snatch one before drifting back down to the floor like a soap bubble. He landed lightly amid a scattering of applause from the people on the thoroughfare. Noah laughed and handed the flower to Ilene.

"There you are," he said. "For putting up with me."

She gave the blossom a deep sniff, then gracefully tucked it into her hair. Several people in the crowd made
"Awwww" noises, which she ignored. "Let's take the train the rest of the way," she said. Noah couldn't help but wonder if Ilene had ever taken public transportation back on earth. Daddy probably had a fleet of limos at her disposal.

The train platform was devoid of vegetation but decorated in mosaics created, Ilene said, from materials found on the Moon itself. This one showed a map of the solar system in bright colors. Several dozen people were already waiting for the train, all of them in their twenties. As Noah and Ilene waited, more and more people came down the stairs, and eventually the train arrived like a silver snake on silent magnetic runners. Noah and Ilene boarded with the crowd and were unable to find seats. They grabbed handholds instead as the train slid smoothly forward. His body pressed unavoidably against Ilene's. She felt soft. People stood or sat crammed around them, their eyes flicking back and forth as they read output from their onboards or listened to music.

"Is it rush hour or something?" Noah asked.

Ilene shook her head. "It's always this crowded. The University's accepting more students than ever, but housing isn't able to keep up. They can't build fast enough."

"Why do they keep accepting people if there isn't room to house them?"

"Money," Ilene said. "More students means more revenue. And Luna City has debts to pay."

Noah nodded. Luna City had been flirting with financial disaster since various governments withdrew funding from the original Lunar base that stood on this site. Now it was just a low-gravity, high-priced college town that supported itself the way every other college town did. It was all about location. Location, location . . . tuition.

After elbowing their way off the train, they climbed a wide staircase and emerged into an enormous open space. Noah stopped to stare. Spread out before him lay what looked like an enormous park. Green lawns carpeted the
ground beneath tall trees. Hedges and flower gardens wound along an actual stream. Two- and three-story buildings poked up like alphabet blocks dropped on a rug. Students, professors, and researchers thronged walkways between them or studied on the grass. An enormous geodesic dome arced overhead, showing a night sky broken into triangles.

"Welcome to Luna University," Ilene said.

"It's like being outside," Noah said, awed.

"Wait until you've been here a few months," Ilene said. "Come on—housing's over this way."

She led him toward one of the buildings, stopping along the way to point things out like a tour guide—the creek which kept the air humid, the trees which grew amazingly fast in low gravity, the plants which maximized oxygen replenishment.

"The dome itself is pretty new," Ilene said. "They had only just completed it when I first arrived. Before that, everything was encased in smaller domes or dug underground. A lot of the town still is. You're seeing the showpiece."

Inside the building, they found a line snaking down the corridor just outside the housing department. Noah recognized several of his fellow passengers. He and Ilene exchanged sighs and joined the line.

"So what are your jobs?" Ilene asked.

"I'm not completely sure yet," Noah said. "I know I'll be a deputy under the Chief of Security—obvious, since I'm technically a cop. The other—"

"What do you mean 'technically'? Aren't you a real policeman?"

"I carried a badge and a gun, but I didn't chase down bad guys or shout, 'Halt in the name of the law.' My main job was working crime scenes. You know—gathering evidence, running it through the lab, that sort of thing." He smiled. "I'm the one who gets to say things like, The fibers on the suspect's shoes matches the fibers in the victim's carpet.' "

"And you don't do that anymore?"

"I'm on extended leave," Noah explained. "Technically I'm still a police officer, but I won't have any jurisdiction here until the Chief of Security deputizes me."

Noah noticed the people ahead and behind him edging away. He gave an internal sigh. Earth or Luna, it didn't matter—tell people you were a cop, and they got nervous. Like he was going to whip out a pair of handcuffs and haul someone away for jaywalking or having bad breath. If that were the case, the woman behind them would have been incarcerated long ago—the pungent scent of garlic and onions hovered around her in a dreadful miasma.

The line moved forward a few steps. "What's your secondary job going to be?" Ilene said.

"That's what I'm not so sure about," Noah admitted. "I sent a list of my skills, but never heard back about it. Probably means I'll be washing dishes in the cafeteria."

"Someone has to do it," Ilene said.

"Someone like you?" Noah asked.

"No," she said, adjusting the bright flower in her hair. "I shovel fish poop."

"Uh huh."

"No really—I do. The ponds at the fish farms are filtered, and someone has to clean out the shit."

"Geez. Who did you piss off?"

She laughed. "It's what I got for having an idle youth— no other skills. My primary job is working the chem labs, of course, and I'm teaching a couple undergrad classes. They keep us busy around here. Less time to be bored."

They finally got to the front of the line. It occurred to Noah that his feet should probably start feeling tired after all this standing and walking, but they felt fine. Another benefit of low gravity. There were actually quite a few advantages to life in low gravity once the bone density loss had been eliminated. A bored-looking older woman perched on a tall chair behind a tall counter. A holographic computer display flickered next to her, showing text that
looked backward from Noah's perspective. "Can I help you?" the woman muttered.

"I'm Noah Skyler," he said. "This is Ilene Hatt. We met only an hour ago and we're already living together."

"Congratulations," the woman said. "The justice of the peace is up the hall. Next!"

"We're not
supposed
to be living together," Noah said. "Someone got the data wrong."

The woman tapped a key. "Say your name for the computer."

Noah did. The text—black on a yellow background— blinked and changed. "Says here you're a female."

"I can prove he's not," Ilene said wickedly, glancing at his fly."

"Some other time," the woman said without looking up.

She tapped hidden keys. "Fixed," she said. "Wave your input over the scanner for your new housing assignment. Next!"

Noah and Ilene both obeyed, and a moment later they were back in the park. Noah suddenly felt very tired.

"I'm wiped," he said. "What time is it, anyway?"

A digital readout flashed across his monocle just as Ilene said, "Luna City's on Greenwich Mean Time, so locally it's about two-thirty."

"We boarded the tether shuttle at nine last night for me," Noah said. "So that means it's actually screwed-up-o'clock. I can never sleep on shuttles."

"Don't go to bed now," Ilene warned. "You'll adjust faster. Eat foods with lots of protein and avoid simple carbohydrates."

"I know, I know." Noah rubbed his eyes. They felt sandy. "Right now I just want to find my new place and try to settle in."

"Me, too. Maybe I'll see you around?"

Noah looked at her. Were there hints in those brown eyes? Noah was suddenly too tired to play games.

"I liked meeting you, Ilene, and I'd like to see you again," he said. "I'm not rich, and I don't know one end of a toast
point from the other, but maybe we can do something together once the shuttle lag wears off and the rocks drop out of my head. If you're interested."

A moment of silence fell over them. Ilene stared at Noah for a long moment, and his face flushed a little in embarrassment. Well, he had blown it. Again. No biggie—he hadn't known her for more than an hour anyway. So why did he always get flustered in these situations? He could be so damned stupid sometimes. Then a warm smile spread over Ilene's face.

"Now why don't more guys take the sweet, straightforward route?" she said, and leaned forward to peck him on the cheek in a way he liked very much. "I will call you, Noah. Welcome to Luna City."

And she left.

Noah stared after her for a second, then half grinned and shouldered his too-light bags.

Noah's street was underground and made him think of J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbiton. The corridor was lined with round doors set into the walls. The residents had planted trees and flowers and planter gardens on minuscule front porches, and windows framed by ivy looked out onto these "yards." The plants had happily spread everywhere in their new environment. The ivy in particular was lusher and greener than anything Noah had seen before. Far overhead, the corridor ceiling was painted sky blue, and an artificial sun shuttled slowly back and forth, never actually setting, but lengthening shadows and randomly altering the temperature a few degrees up or down. More birds sang in the trees, and a cat vanished into the bushes at Noah's approach.