Aerospace I : The Lunar Cycle

Aerospace I - Lunar Heart

Aerospace I : The Lunar Cycle

Lunar Heart

Gordon Best

This story tells Julia's personal journey. It was to be the first story but I wanted a more uplifting first part. She is truly the heart of all the stories.

Chapter 1 : A Dark Journey

You might say that I was on a voyage to rid myself of this man. I have thought of little else since we met here in Candle Lake. Anthony and Doris were here in the lobby, when we arrived. My father was taking us to the Moon, to be re-united with our mother. Four young girls. I was 13 and I found the man I wanted. Even though he was with Doris, but he would soon be alone with me.

But none of that really worked out and now I really did not know who I was. People say that I am tall and beautiful, like a model. I am called Julia McLean. But I have never seen models, that I admire. They never seem to do interesting things like the people at home.

I set out to explore my Earth or at least the Canadian part. I had 10 thousand fresh books on my pad and the time to read them. I rented a car and traveled south. I stopped in Saskatoon and entered the summer literature program. I have a good memory for most of the books I read. The teachers interpreted one way and I saw everything as a Moon child. Still it was good to meet young people my own age and go out and talk the evening away in the coffee houses. But Moon coffee is better. And people on the Moon seem to have a clearer purpose.

That late August, as the program came to a close, I took a slow walk across the university bridge. I looked down at the steady South Saskatchewan River. I had survived three months alone. Living in a boarding house at night. I had prospered, but I was no closer to filling that emptiness within me.

But something was speaking in my ear. Not my physical ear, it was more a message to my mind. Standing, looking over the city, from that bridge. I knew something important was happening here, in this place, in this country. Something that was going to change me and something that was changing others. I felt confused but less alone. I had a goal, with an end to it.

The following week, I completed my exams and then traveled west. Asquith, Bigger. You don't see flatness on the Moon and this was extreme flatness. Hundreds and hundreds of kilometres of flatness, prairie flatness. People here are not bothered by it. The clouds the sky are their scenery.

Unity, Macklin, Provost. You are never the same after such a trip.

I am following Anthony's journey, after he left me and the Moon. Like him, I stopped in Red Deer and bought some hiking equipment and started walking into the foothills. This was more like what I was used to. My load was somewhat heavier than a moon spacesuit and tank. I was making only 18km a day and setting camp early because I was exhausted.

I used travel food. I caught fish in the river, kept an eye open for bears and read my novel each day. But now it was books from the Bible, chapters from the Qur'an, books about the Buddha. Soon it was European philosophy. I was getting very serious. Being away from people, made me search harder to find out who I was.

I am no one's mate. I am an individual without much purpose yet. I was in the foothills, forests of the north. One evening as the Sun was setting I saw a vision. A green man floating against the evergreens. He just looked straight at me.

How can I help someone else, when I could not help myself? I take no drugs. Drink no alcohol. It just made no sense to damage a mind still developing.

Mother phoned. She did not say much. I know she worries about me. I cannot tell her much. Just said I was fine and not to worry.

My sisters ask what I am doing and when I am coming home. They had the latest news about Anthony. He was always doing special projects for the colony. I did not tell them much, as I felt unchanged by the walk west. I told no one about my new man.