The Blue Moon - Part 1 - Into the Forest Read Free Page B

returned onto the porch. There was only a bit of starlight in the sky, and nothing else.  
    The Blue Moon had vanished.

Chapter 2
    The Blue Moon — Comet H  

    THE DARKNESS SURROUNDING Emmy felt heavy, as if it had real weight. Without the moonlight, she was stranded on her small, second story balcony. Even if she had light to help her move around, she couldn’t have — she was certain her mother disappeared along with the Blue Moon, and this fear paralyzed her.
    All she could do was stare into the void of space surrounding her, searching for any sign of the Blue Moon. But, she had to stop doing this. Staring into this void gave her the feeling of vertigo. The darkness was suffocating. She blindly felt her way back to her chair, sat down and buried her face in her hands, both to shield herself from the outside, and to fool herself into thinking she had control over the darkness. She choked back tears as she tried to calm herself.
    Eyes covered, Emmy forgot the darkness and focused on her mother. Her thoughts gathered around the curious way she’d said goodbye. Emmy fixated on why she'd found it so strange. It struck her that the goodbye seemed rehearsed.  
    She wiped the tears that had gathered in her pale eyes. She began to believe her mother was aware the Blue Moon was going to disappear and that she knew what she was getting into. As if in defiance of the darkness, Emmy whispered, “She knew she was leaving. She must have a plan to come back. She wouldn’t have said she hoped to see me soon.”
    Saying it aloud, Emmy couldn’t help but think how bizarre her night had been. The thought crossed her mind that she might be asleep, dreaming. For a moment, she looked forward to waking up and laughing off the troubles.  
    This play stopped when the St. John's sky unexpectedly changed again.
    The Rock Sun ignited. Like the rock suns of all space-island colonies in the Asteroid Belt, the St. John’s Rock Sun was made from a nanoengineered rock built the size of a mountain. This rock had such high melting and boiling points that it could withstand large nuclear explosions in a thin, super-porous, aerogel state. Since it could sustain multiple nuclear blasts, the middle of the rock was loaded with thousands of atomic bombs every day. It was blown up and burned in the sky above St. John's for a few hours, depending on how many nuclear explosives it was packed with.  
    It was only 4am, a full three hours earlier than the Rock Sun was scheduled to ignite. The brightness assured Emmy she wasn’t sleeping. The ignition was real and in a few moments, Emmy felt the heat from the Rock Sun reach the surface of the space-island.
    Emmy needed to squint and protect her eyes during the ignition, as it was far too unpleasant to look at. Shielding her eyes with her forearm, Emmy considered what to do. The early lighting of the Rock Sun meant the missing Blue Moon was real. The St. John’s Council had to have ordered the Rock Sun lit, probably so everyone could get to work on energy collection, which would soon be in deficit without the night light of the Blue Moon.
    Emmy thought about what to do next. She knew there was no one from her mother’s work she could contact — she’d never met a single coworker. The Council kept a few desk clerks for customer service, but the lines to communicate were always long. They would be around the block with the moon gone and the Rock Sun igniting early. Communicating with them was a waste of time anyway. They rarely gave straight answers. They responded by pro forma letter, delivered by mail several weeks after the initial inquiry.  
    The ADF was more of a military outfit and kept no customer service or communication department. They were shut-off from contact and remained in their walled and heavily fortified spaceport on the shores of the lake in the middle of St. John’s.  
    The only place Emmy knew she could get information was the black market. The black market was located in the city,