Lunar Dreams
A project so far fetched that even those who had thought of it were thinking how preposterous it seemed to be, but they started on the project without a moments delay. The five countries considered to represent the world were the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Spain. Each had sent to the moon at different points 1,000 robots to build Waste Stations in preparation for human inhabitants. The world was coming to an end because of the wars had inflicted so much damage and so many casualties each and every day. The axis of the five countries had to do something to protect the rest of civilisation from being completely wiped out.
Clarence was getting really fed up wearing the space suit. The only relief he had was when visiting a Waste Station. It was a comfort zone, taking a break from placing an invisible layer over the moon to a height of five miles. The year was 3390, and he had been assigned to building the outer layer of synthetic film surrounding the moon. Along with others about 2,000 workers were chosen to be the first with their families to live on the moon.
Because of the fall-out of nuclear blasts, the atmosphere was deadly if any individual didn’t take the necessary precautions of donning their specially made masks and if they happened to wander into a forbidden area they could either die of toxic fumes or in most cases delayed actions of violence would erupt in their lives which they could not understand. It was so bad that individuals would just get up one morning, buy a gun and shoot everyone they met. They called it a deadly virus. They could go to bed as normal citizens and over night become killers – it was airborne.
The Isle of Wight was now a huge prison where all the killers were housed. Hanging had been brought back as the prison was full to capacity and as each numbered prisoner came to the fore, they were hanged. They couldn’t let them go.
Clarence Chancey was the Supervisor of the group of workers that had been sent to work on the moon project. There were a few fatalities and many were injured, but they had finished before time.
Clarence began to breathe the first fresh air that had been filtered into the giant balloon. This project had taken almost a year and the crew of 2,000 workers had built the film in exactly nine years. The work had cost almost a trillion, trillion pounds.
Clarence gave the thumbs up and the rest of the workers removed their space suits. They had sited television monitors around the circumference of the moon so contact with the other side could be made without entailing long journeys by air carts. As there was no gravitation, the workers had to be careful they didn’t fall off the moon or be hit by passing debris.
The synthetic film had been a discovery around the year 3,000. Although paper thin it was capable of being able to stop all objects puncturing the film and pieces of metal and other objects bounced away.
By the year 3,000 all serious diseases had been solved and people were much healthier and lived to be as much as 250 years old. With the population being swelled by this factor, preparation to find another planet to live on was essential.
Each country had disbanded their Governments as they found them too expensive to keep, although the British people were allowed to keep their monarchy because of long standing tradition and it was one of the Princes who had been chosen to help build the moon’s defences.
Planet Earth had no green countryside as every square inch had been built on. Wildlife had been wiped out completely. There were more roads than there were vehicles, because of lack of fuel resources.
The Bank of England was one of the first targets to go, followed by Fort Knox. Money was no object but the Earth’s crust was deteriorating all because of fracking the depths to find oil and gas or some alternative fuel. Holes began to appear all over the planet and people and vehicles were swallowed up and never seen again.
The first of five million houses were being built and it seemed that the lessons on Planet Earth were being ignored and it was feared that the same catastrophe would happen on the moon.
There were no children, just adults. A committee had been formed and it was announced that it wouldn’t be fair for children to be born into a world with no hope of survival.
* * *
Clarence looked up and saw the Sun. It looked as if it was bearing down on him and he began to look frightened and turned his face away. He winced as the pain shot from his left ear across his face to his right shoulder. The people around him were strangely dressed and someone bent over him and placed a pillow under his head. They moved away and he saw poles pointing into the air; they seemed to go up and up. Through the pain in his head he was thinking that another project was in hand to build a platform high under the moon’s filmy protection and then another idea struck him. Perhaps they were going to build different layers so the moon’s surface would be the ground level. He couldn’t quite fathom it all out as five miles up was the height of the film. That would mean they would have to build many layers which would take many, many years to complete and it would be too late to save those left on Mother Earth. He thought of his family perishing under the heat of the sun and the maniacs out of control walking round the thoroughfares looking for someone to kill. He started to cry and yelled out his wife’s name, ‘SHERENE!’
Someone knelt beside him and held his hand. He looked and saw it was a lady, but not his Sherene. She patted the back of his hand offering words of comfort. ‘Lie still, help is on the way. You fell from a great height.’ Clarence tried to raise his head, but the pain was too bad. The lady pressed both her hands on his shoulders and pushed him gently back.
Two men arrived and examined Clarence and one placed a harness on his head and neck. He couldn’t move. The other man gave him an injection and the pain in his head went as if by magic. He felt himself being lifted. Just a few steps and he saw that he was being placed in a vehicle of some sort and he remembered his great grandfather relating stories of old about what the early vehicles were like and Clarence felt sure that this was one of those. He heard the wail of a siren and he felt certain that it was a vehicle that they, whoever they were, were using from a Museum.
The vehicle stopped and he heard a rush of people. They gathered round the trolley which seemed to have extended upwards and he was rushed at great speed along corridors with bright shining lights at different intervals and through another door where the light was so bright that Clarence tried to raise an arm to protect himself from what he thought was the Sun bearing down on him.
His last thoughts were, did I fall five miles and still be alive and then remembered the moon had no gravitation pull, so why was he in so much discomfort.
* * *
Clarence stirred from his slumber. He had slept a whole day and night. He blinked as he took in the scene. All these people rushing about dressed in funny looking clothes, the women looked funnier with strange looking head gear and the men in white overcoats with a Water Diviner slung around their necks. One of these water diviner creatures came up to Clarence and said ‘You’re lucky to be alive!’ The funny man with the white overcoat issued a garble message to the woman with a strange looking hat and departed. The woman gave him some tablets and then an injection. Clarence fell asleep.
It was the next day when Clarence eventually came out of his woolly dreams and there beside him in chairs were Sherene and his two children. His wife got up and kissed him. He seemed to be brighter and fully aware of where he was and thoughts of being on the moon dispelled when the doctor mentioned that Clarence had fallen off the scaffolding around the property where he was preparing the wood for painting. Using a blowlamp caused fumes to make Clarence suffer a black out and unable to steady himself. He had placed a hand on a moveable piece of wood and fell two storeys and sustained a brain and shoulder injury. Sherene had a worried look on her face but the doctor assured her he would be okay after a few weeks.
The firm that Clarence works for is called “Planet Earth Construction, Moon & Son.”