We all climbed into the inflatable to talk about it. Once inside, we took off our bubble suits, and Mickey equalized the oxygen in all our tanks, something he'd been wanting to do ever since I burned off thirty minutes of breathing to stop myself on the zip line.
We pushed back the hoods of our ponchos, took off our goggles, and sipped at our water bottles. I took the monkey off my head and set it aside. We nibbled at our inedible MREs, we inhaled deeply–the air in the inflatable was stale, but it was fresher than the air in the bubble suits–we used our toilet bags, and we talked about calling for rescue.
We all knew the arguments. What we were doing was dangerous. Stupid. Foolhardy. Probably unnecessary. I was posthypoxic and hallucinating. Douglas's back was starting to hurt–even though Stinky weighed less on Luna, he still had the same mass.So even though it mostly felt like he wasn't heavy, the truth was that there was some stuff called inertia and momentum that made carrying the little monster almost as tiring as if we were still on Earth. Mickey's feelings were unreadable. He looked as if he had a lot of different things all going on at the same time. And Stinky was alternating between constipation and diarrhea, catatonia and hyperactivity–so at least one of us was normal.
It was a question of endurance. The reflector was our halfway point. Actually, it was more than halfway. It was nearly two‑thirds of the way. But Alexei and Mickey had figured that in terms of sheer physical exhaustion, the last third of the Lunar hike would take us as long as the first two‑thirds. As much fun as it was to go bouncing across the silvery gloom, it was very tiring too. My legs were beginning to hurt. My calves ached.
And I was scared again.
I wasn't afraid of Luna anymore. But I respected her now. I had a better sense of her dangers–and I was paying intention.
I was terrified by all the stuff I didn'tknow–especially all the stuff I didn't know that I didn't know. Alexei's empty bubble suit scared the hello out of me. What could have happened that only his empty suit would be left behind? Did something suck him right out of the plastic?
I shuddered. And shivered. And wrapped my silver poncho tight around me.
Above us, the reflector sparkled with stray bits of light–a thousand different colors, the beams of distant spaceships, other worlds and moons, asteroids, the Earth, the orbital beanstalk, L4 and L5, orbiting satellites–all their questioning fingers of light touched and bounced away, back to their origins, each one carrying a single part of the answer to the question Where am I?
You're there–7.68 godzillion angstroms away from here.And we're here–7.68 godzillion angstroms away from there.Sitting under the stars and watching the flickering radiance of your thousand lonely queries. But none of you are more alone than us–sitting here all alone in the dark.
How far would all those beams travel on their journeys here and back? How long would it take them? Just the blink of an eye–a few seconds to Earth, a few minutes to the asteroid belt. What were they all saying?
They didn't even know we were here. It was a strange feeling to see so much evidence of human life and still be so far away from it all.
We could rejoin it in a moment. All we had to do was tune our transmitters to the public bands, turn up the power, and call for help. I was ready to concede I didn't know as much as I pretended. I'd made my point, I could quit now. I'd still gotten farther than Dad ever would have. And I knew Douglas wouldn't take much convincing if he thought that Stinky or I were in danger. Mickey … I didn't know what he thought, but he looked tired and irritable and unhappy. Whatever exhilaration we had felt about being on the moon, that was gone, swamped by our exhaustion and our fear. We'd had too many close calls. The wunderstormwas over.
Mickey unhooked his transmitter from his belt. "Do we have to talk about this?" he asked. "Or are we all in agreement this time?" He looked to Douglas. Douglas shook his head. He looked to me–
That's when something outside the inflatable moved–and I screamed and leapt backward so hard I bumped into the wall and went bouncing sideways, scaring the hell out of Stinky and Douglas and Mickey, and they went bouncing every which way too–
It was a gangly black spidery thing, with a grotesque bug‑eyed face, and grasping claws. It came right up to the edge of the bubble and pressed its face and hands against the plastic, peering in at us like some kind of vacuum‑breathing insect. Even Stinky was shrieking–Douglas grabbed him in a restraining hug and turned him away so he couldn't see–
And then I saw the lettering above the eyes КРИСЛОВ–I couldn't read the word, the letters were all funny‑looking and backwards–until I recognized them as Russian. And then Mickey was shouting, "It's Alexei! It's Alexei! Everybody shut up! Stop screaming! It's only Alexei! It's Alexei!"
By then, I'd already stopped screaming, and Alexei was already pulling himself into the inflatable, one section of the entrance tube at a time. He was careful to close and check each zipper behind him before he opened the next. He still looked scary–like a big skinny faceless thing.
Finally, he popped in through the last zipper and carefully sealed it behind himself. He pulled off the rubbery hood of his scuba suit and finally his breather tube and goggles. He was laughing so hard I wanted to punch him in the gut. How dare he scare us like that?
"Is big fright, da?Is Rock Father come to eat poor crazy terries. Scream and scream again. You are much frightened. I laugh so hard I almost choke on my air hose. You did not expect poor Alexei, did you? Is only turnabout to play fair. Alexei did not expect to find you here either. Did you not hear my messages? No, I think you did not. My transmitter failed. I could hear you, but you could not hear me. Very inconvenient, da?So you did not hear me say you should wait, I go for help. No need for rescue. I could run to Prospector's Station and signal Mr. Beagle and be back with help and air in two hours–"
"Mr. Beagle–?"
"Later. You will meet him later. But I cannot call him now. I hear you in distance–you are looking for me. Calling, da?I realize you have come down from mountain somehow. So I turn around and come back for you before you get lost."
"But your bubble suit–?" I asked.
"I could not leave it behind, Charles Dingillian, could I? I would never find it again. So I left it at reflector as signal for you that I was still alive."
"Oh," Mickey said. There was an edge to his voice. "Is that what that was?"
Alexei slapped his chest in mock‑frustration. "Ah, you do not understand Self‑Contained Universal Breathing Apparatus, do you? Body suit is so firm‑fitting it makes airtight seal all around. Strong enough to hold body safe and tight against vacuum. Hood seals tight around goggles and earphones and breather tube. Is not as practical as bubble suit for long distances. No way to pee or poop. No way to drink or eat. Cannot even talk very well. But for emergencies or for short distances, is much easier. Is basic worksuit for Loonies."
"We're not Loonies," Douglas said.
"Maybe someday you will be," Alexei responded, very matter‑of‑factly. "Earth is falling apart. Luna will have to provide resources to rebuild. Luna will become seat of economic power and political authority for double‑planet system of Earth‑Luna. Is only logical. We have high ground of discipline and resources. Nobody gets to Luna by accident. We are a society of hard workers. Earth cannot compete with that. It makes sense that Lunatics should govern, da?"