An Android Awoke (on Moon!) Chapter One

Episode One – Initial Momentum

In chapter zero/prologue: Our android hero awakes before being decommissioned on the Moon.

In this chapter: Our moon-born heroine reaches Mars from Earth with her food supply ship.

Earth in 420 ACE is a utopia. No one has to hunt, scavenge, or fight another being for food, clothing, or shelter. Everyone is free to pursue the life they see fit. Accidental deaths apart (almost exclusively due to the departed being the victim of a natural disaster), old age is the only killer. Share and care, a phrase coined by a genius science fictioner and thereafter copyrighted in the real world by a major hyper corporation is the ubiquitous motto of humankind. 

Moon, the only natural satellite of Earth, has been permanently inhabited for three centuries now. There are smaller interstellar bodies in orbit around Earth, but the debate about them being “moons” or not goes on, more often than not, Quite Interestingly. They are infinitesimal.

Moon hosts a million-odd humans. They are nearly self-sufficient. People go to and fro between Earth and Moon as a matter of routine. Most moon-bound trips are for pleasure, but most of the Earth-bound ones are for business. Food and material production is the bread and butter, so to speak, of most people on the Moon. Creativity and culture are also highly regarded, because these two life pursuits yield great value. Technological advancers are a big chunk of Moon people. They are the critical driving force behind the establishment of Cradle, the first settlement on Mars, which began taking shape and growing almost sustainably about a century or so ago.

Apart from natural old age and natural disasters, the only natural way to die is in space – where there is no one to hear you scream, except the people who are on comms with you at that point. But those T&P (thoughts & prayers, carrying forward a neologism from 0 ACE) incidents apart, the rate of decline or death is down considerably. Death in space is becoming increasingly rare. Learning from experience is the one thing that can avoid death, but every exploration and every new facet that humankind explores will be fraught with it – only in different ratios & proportions.

It is an immutable fact that the death rate can never actually be zero – and understandably so.

There is always a risk factor associated with venturing into new territory, and in this case the territory is spacetime. There is going to be no let up in pursuing the achievement of expanding humankind beyond Earth, beyond the asteroid belt, into the outer solar system, and beyond, into our galactic neighborhood. This future is what all humans envision – this is the way.

Selina was born on Moon in 400 ACE. More specifically, she was born on the fifteenth of the eighth. Her mother was Earth-born, while her father was a Mooninite – a term of endearment that Moon’s aboriginals had adopted from an animated show that was part of cultural lore. Her home was Bohr City, the second permanent settlement on Moon, and the heart of Mooninite culture and tech. From her childhood, she had experienced spaceflight to and from Earth, and by the time she was fourteen, she had begun pilot training in earnest. At seventeen, she took her first interplanetary trip – even though their ship launched from Moon, the Earth-Moon system was considered united as one for all intents & purposes, as far as travel to Mars was concerned.

The spaceport of Cradle was where all inhabited ships landed. Her first experience of Mars was less than optimal. The higher gravity and ever-present atmosphere took a few days to get used to, even when aided by her exoskeleton, which had primarily been designed for Moon-Earth differences. Despite the modifications the Moon advancers had made, the Earth-Mars exos had an edge over the Moon-Mars exos – mainly because they had been conceived from scratch as helping Earthers live on Mars. Selina was in the first batch of Mooninites to visit Mars long-term.

Upon her return to Moon, she joined the advancers team that focused on enhancing the viability of the Moon-Earth-Mars (MEM) trifecta. The team spent three years developing and testing a multi-mode exo that would adapt to the gravity and environments on all three celestial bodies.

Finally, today, the twenty-first of the fourth, Selina piloted her craft to the primary landing pad of Cradle, drawing cheers from the ground crew – they knew her cargo was Earth food. They began unloading the precious delicious cargo and she made her way through the multiple airlocks and screening areas, getting waved through and emerging into the central spaceport. Saying hi to some of the people she knew from previous visits, she asked them about Kafa.

Next chapter: Selina & Kafa visit an old friend in the newly-constructed bio conservatory in the base. Something’s off about the way he, the lead botanist on Mars, answers their questions…