Lunar Rising

“Charlotte, do you copy? Charlotte!” Suzanne yells into the mic. There is no reply on the other end. Not a sound.

I sit behind her in silence, with my head in my hands. Ellison pats my back reassuringly, but I don’t feel any better. I feel like it’s somehow my fault.

It’s not your fault, one side of my mind says. Then my other side argues.

You sent Charlotte to her death because of your invention. If it weren’t for Riaddne, you and Charlotte could be friends in the RSA city, going to school and leading a normal life. This is all your fault.

“Hey,” says Ellison. “It’s gonna be okay, Raven. But you need to focus. Charlotte did all this to help you. Don’t let her efforts go to waste.”

“We’re here now, Raven.” Suzanne taps a few commands into the panels. The jet slows to a stop and stays in the air, hovering. “I’m going to circle around. Ellison, open up the hatch when he’s ready. Mind the light.”

Feeling more like a zombie than anything else, I try to focus on positioning Riaddne underneath the hatch. The little bulb sticks out, and according to my calculations, the angle at which I’ve pulled it out should increase the surface area.

Giving me a thumbs-up, Ellison presses the button to unlock and open the hatch. He motions for me to move over into the shadowed area in the storage room.

I move quickly and quietly. The hatch beeps three times and opens up. I have to squint. Hot, bright lunar rising light and radiation stream down onto Riaddne, a ghost lit up in a cave.

Not breathing, the tension in the jet grows. Nothing happens with Riaddne.

Suzanne sighs, and then Ellison. I don’t lose hope.

Come on… Charlotte didn’t do this all for nothing!

We wait patiently. We’re willing to wait until the end of the world.

Ten minutes elapse, and all we do is watch the invention for signs of movement. Suzanne is looking through her peripheral vision as she prepares the cabin for a swift takeoff.

Ellison isn’t focused at all anymore. He’s pointing his GPS around the jet, scanning the surrounding area for RSA jets that might be targeting us.

I alone pay full attention to Riaddne.

Then, a single gear begins to hum. Straining my ears to make sure I didn’t mistake the sound for the jet’s hover system, I get down on my hands and knees and creep closer.

Riaddne suddenly tumbles into movement. The soft glow coming from the bulb grows into the pinnacle of white star, and the main box-shaped body of the invention emits noises and humming.

We all gasp in wonder as the battery-reader on the side of the machine begins to light up. Slowly, the powerful radiation triggers the dark energy absorbed into Riaddne. At this high up in the thin atmosphere of Tylius, surrounded by radiation that kills, my invention thrives and lives.

We cheer. “We did it!” cries Ellison, surprising Suzanne in a hug and laugh. The battery fills until the reader is in the green. Suzanne closes the hatch automatically, and we’re left celebrating in the cramped spaces of the jet.

We did it!

A nagging feeling in my stomach makes me feel miserable. I wish Charlotte were here to share this moment.

Abruptly, the GPS starts going off with an alert. I swipe it up with one hand and point to the small red dots.

“RSA forces moving in on us.” I announce.

Suzanne and Ellison get to work immediately.

“Ellison, is everything ready and secured for instant takeoff?”

Ellison and I are carefully strapping down the invention to the floor and tying ropes around the handles to the walls for extra protection. After we finish, he calls, “Ready!”

“Sit down in the back and buckle up. I’m not going to make this chase easy for those government goons!”

Suzanne starts the plane, moving forward. Soon, hyper-speed is in function. We zoom through the skies on smooth air. Ellison, keeping track of the RSA jets on the GPS, shows me constantly where we’re at and how far the Capitol is.

“Jets are falling behind, so we’ll be safe for the remaining of the ride. We’ve got about half an hour before we arrive.”

“Half an hour in hyper speed?” I’m impressed. “This planet is pretty big. I thought of it as a tiny thing, smaller than the moon.”

“Tylius isn’t that big, but the Capitol is on the other side of the planet, so that’s why.”

My thoughts turn back to Charlotte. “Ellison,” I say. “Do you think Charlotte…?”

He doesn’t answer right away. How can I expect him to? “I’m sorry, Raven. I don’t know.”

Strapped to our seats by seat belts, we sit through the rest of the flight in silence. Twenty-seven minutes pass.

Suzanne’s voice travels over to us over the speakers. “Crew in the back, please make your way up to the front.”

We exchange a worried glance and clamber from our seats to the front of the jet. In the cockpit, Suzanne is following her own GPS to the Capitol.

“We’re getting really close,” she says. “If we want to get inside, we’ll have to slow down and fly through the gates.”

The jet’s hyper speed is turned off. The jet returns to a speed where the scenery outside of the tinted windshield is no longer a messy blur. Suzanne steers skillfully as the Capitol looms in the near distance.

Made of enormous plates of hardened and upgraded metal, the Capitol is a huge saucer-shaped city, forty times the size of a normal Tylius domed city. The saucer-shaped city stands on thick columns that support the city several hundred meters above the ground. Some of these beams are elevator shafts that transport people and good up from the ground to the inner parts of the city. The gray, metal covering that extends over the city can also eject a wall that comes down and barricades the entire section underneath the city. When that happens, rather than looking like a saucer, it will just look like an enlarged version of a normal city. A dome of heatproof, protected metal.

The Capitol casts a dark shadow over the jet. It’s an impressive structure, and with one look, there is no doubt why all the nations voted on this city to be the Capitol. Funded internationally, all the cities’ leaders, representatives of the country that funded their city or cities, can help run the Capitol as a whole.

“This is the perfect place to present your working invention, Raven,” says Suzanne. “Are you ready?”

I’m not sure.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I say. “The world has been relying on solar power for centuries since the fossil fuels ran out. They’ll be looking for an alternative.”

“Congrats on your success, Raven.”

I don’t respond to his praise. The jet approaches the Capitol. Surrounding the underside of the Capitol, a section of the barrier slides away as Suzanne’s jet is scanned beforehand.

We fly in without any commotion, into the dark space underneath the Capitol. Tiny lumps of cities protrude from the bottom, with their metal domes gleaming dully in the few artificial lights on the ceiling. I feel strange as we fly low, right over all the cities that moved under here to seek shelter from the deadly lunar rising. The cities, each with different dome styles and architecture, are scattered all across the ground. I find it extraordinary that all these cities combined cannot match the immense size of the Capitol.

Ellison pipes up, “There should be a landing pad for jets right…there.” He nods upward. Two jets are already flying into the trays of landing strips, suspended by metal rods and ropes from the Capitol’s underbelly.

The jet pulls into one of the landing strips. Looking out of the window and down, the cities below sit in gloom.

Suzanne skillfully lands the jet and it slows to a halt. Then, she slowly pilots it to the side, where jets are being towed onto moving platforms, sorting the jets back to their rightful countries and owners.

Once our jet is parked in the waiting line, a man and a woman in glowing vests wave for us to come out of the plane.

With Ellison’s help, we move Riaddne down the sloped platform that the man and the woman wheel out to us. The man and the woman, both workers, apparently, at the Capitol, do not know that we didn’t belong in that plane. Although we look terribly young, there must be lots of young pilots, or pilots that look younger.

“Where do we go from here?” I hiss to Suzanne.

Suzanne pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from her vest pocket. She unfolds it, since my and Ellison’s hands are busy pushing Riaddne up the sloped ramps and up into the Capitol. It’s a detailed map of the entire Capitol.

“Give me a moment, please, Raven. I need to find where we are…” Suzanne studies the map while we enter the Capitol. “Ok, here we go. We came in through the third air entrance, and there’s a large international conference that should be going on right now in this large meeting hall, here.” As she explains to us, her finger moves from our location across the small paths and between shops. “Once you get there, all you have to do is politely interrupt whatever they’re doing and explain your invention. Try not to expose the RSA for having bombs on Tylius though. The Treaty of Tylius prohibits any country occupying the planet from holding war weapons of mass destruction. The RSA might punish you for treason and revealing government secrets to other countries.”

“Got it. Navigate through this dark city filled with artificial lighting from stores and signs and interrupt an international meeting. If I betray the RSA’s secret project, then I’ll die.” I roll my eyes skeptically. “I sure hope this works, Suzanne.”

She winks. “Have some more faith in these representatives. There will be at least one that listens to you, and one is all it takes.”

Ellison stops and considers this. “Technically speaking, it would be better if you had everybody interested in your invention.”

“Yes, but things don’t always turn out so perfectly, do they? One patron representative is enough.”

“Hmm.”

“Ok guys, let’s go,” I say quickly. “We’re wasting time as it is.”

The city is unlike any other city I’ve ever been in. Similar to certain areas of Tylius, this city is just several layers of shopping mall stacked on top of one another in total darkness. The only thing that keeps the city looking alive is the neon lights that decorate the street signs and the complicated map stations located at every major intersection of pathways. Somewhere from within the walls or the floor, I can feel a rumble as the city’s fastest transportation speeds through the city: A hyper-speed tunnel system for subway cars.

We hurry and make it to the political district. Here, the walkways are paved differently, and there is more space for people to walk and breathe. A pair of magnificent double doors, elegantly decorated wood with a metallic spray over it, stand upon a few steps up. Suzanne helps Ellison and I move Riaddne up the steps, and we set her down in front of the doors.

I wish there was a crack in the door so that we could see the light and hear the voices, but like all modern doors, it is perfectly cut and closes completely. Ellison tries the handle. Locked.

“Should we knock?” he whispers.

Suzanne shrugs. “Might as well try it. Make it sound professional. Three strong knocks with the fist.”

Ellison gestures towards me. “This is your moment, Raven. Not ours.”

I stand in front of the doors and bring my fist up. Three knocks. Three sound, solid knocks that resonate through the narrow streets.

Almost immediately, the door swings open inward to reveal a tall man in his late fifties dressed in formal attire. His face is plastered with a smile. “Georgiana, you’re nearly late--…”

He stops and stares down at us three teenagers. The smile is replaced with a frown. “Who are you?”

“I’m…I’m Raven, sir,” I stammer. “Raven Ire, from the RSA Tylius City B. I’ve come with my friends to show something to all the representatives of the major countries.”

He shakes his head. “The meeting hall isn’t open to just any civilian,” says the man. Then his eyes flick behind me, at Riaddne. “Well now, what is that?”

“Let him tell you about it, sir,” Ellison says. “Please, let us inside. This is important.”

I hope with all my heart that this man understands our desire. He studies us, and the invention, and he begins to smile warmly again. “Why not,” he murmurs. “Come in. I’ll explain your presence myself.”

The man opens up the doors completely and ushers us inside.

We bring Riaddne through and move into the main meeting chamber. Seated in raised seats circling the center of the room, the diverse people from all over Earth and Tylius sit, talking amongst themselves, unbothered by our entrance.

The man who led us inside clears his throat and announces into his translator, “Fellow representatives of our native countries of Earth. This boy and his two colleagues have come to say something—…”

In that moment, the doors fly open down the hall and people dressed in black stream in. I gasp, recognizing their uniforms and the one who leads them. Mechanical arm and eye gleaming, Mr. Lancrux strides in front of his men, his gaze furious and focused on me and Riaddne.

“Mr. Lancrux!” says the man, bowing a little. “You’re a bit late, aren’t you? Why all the men?”

The people in the room begin to mutter, concerned.

Mr. Lancrux stops short at the gathering and stares at us for a long, long time. His eyes are wild, and his hand lingers at his belt, where his blaster hangs. Ellison, Suzanne, and I hold our breaths in suspense. My heart pounds loudly in my chest.

“Sir,” wheezes Mr. Lancrux, “I have been searching for these criminals for a long time. Please hand them over.”

Before anyone can respond, I step in front of Riaddne and quickly shout, “I have something to show all of you!

“My name is Raven Ire, and I present to all of you, respected leaders of Tylius cities, my invention…” And so, with the ring of faces looking down at me and my invention, I begin to talk. I explain everything, from the beginnings of Riaddne to the entire rebuilding and new design after the RSA destroyed it. Mr. Lancrux’s face flushes at this, and disappointed murmurs flow through my audience.

“It wasn’t easy, lightly speaking, for me to repair Riaddne and change her design within the time frame that was given,” I state. “However, with the help of my friends, and one in particular… our obstacles were overcome.” Charlotte…

“How did you acquire the dark energy from the lunar rising if you were not able to be outdoors during these hours?” a man asks.

“Suzanne here, an excellent pilot, came along with Ellison on a jet. We flew the jet into the most concentrated point of radiation and tested Riaddne from the atmosphere.”

“Continue.”

As I keep talking about the functions of my invention and her full capacity, I can’t help but think of Neil. Although he betrayed us, a lot of the invention started with him. However, I don’t mention Neil at all.

I conclude with a demonstration of Riaddne’s energy battery, and I use it to recharge my watch.

The circle of faces applaud after I’m done, and I sigh in relief. Mr. Lancrux looks appalled, angry, but he stays in his place.

“Mr. Raven Ire,” says an aged lady up on the higher seats. “Your invention… do you still have the blueprints to them?”

I nod. “They are handwritten on a note pad, which is old-fashioned, but impossible to hack into.”

“Mr. Ire,” says another man, speaking with a heavy accent, “What inspired you to create this invention? What is the ultimate purpose of Riaddne?”

Smiling grimly, I answer, “The world needs an alternative power source to solar energy. There is no other way to say it. Great leaders such as you all know this already, but does the public? Without an alternative, our world will only continue to plunge into the abyss which is to be our death. Riaddne provides this safer alternative. She is the first step to rebuilding our home planet.”

I answer more of their questions, and as time goes on, I begin to notice something. Small holographic faces pop up on the corners of the tables. With a jolt, I realize that the leaders of the countries being represented are calling and watching me.

Translated voices drift through the room, addressing me. My face feels flushed at the attention. One by one, the government leaders are accepting me and my ideas. One by one, the broken pieces of the world are being made whole.

It’s everything that I’ve ever wanted from Riaddne, and even more than I’d dreamed of.