Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:48:17 +0200
From: Amy Redek <adultreading@gmail.com>
Subject: Lunar. Part One.

  This story is for persons of eighteen years or over.  All comments, good
or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.

  Part One

     This is a history of me, not of the moon though I will have to tell
you some of it for you to understand what it was like to be born, live and
eventually leave it. My name is Jon and I'm a metallurgist aboard the lunar
ship Adastra homeward bound. I doubt there'll be many who remember us
leaving but I'm sure we'll get a good welcome. They will want to know all
that happened on a long epic voyage which is why I thought I'd better start
writing this now.

     So I'll go back fifty five years, but on second thoughts, I'll back
even further than that to say, 2268. That is earth time of course for this
was the year that it had been decided that it was time to establish a
colony on the moon. The purpose was to use the moon as a jumping off place
for exploration of another solar system because of the overcrowding and
lack of resources to continue to feed the growing population that was
multiplying in leaps and bounds on earth itself.

     It was a multinational enterprise to put men on the moon with the
intent of establishing living accommodation for future settlers with the
further aim of space exploration. I've used an archaic word in our
vocabulary because we are one nation on the moon. We are neither English,
American, Chinese, Indian, Japanese or any other of the races on Earth. We
are Lunarians and proud of the fact. We have dispensed with caste, colour
and creed and live in harmony by doing so. It was only expediency that the
language we use is English with it being standard in the world of
communication.

     Technology at that time had increased enormously and they were quite
capable of getting many ships up into space to take up orbit around the
earth and build on that. Setting up a huge storage platform that became a
way station for supplies to those who would be working on the moon's
surface. That alone took twenty four years and it was another six before
they began to start on making any kind of settlement on the moon.

     They'd had thousands of workers at the space station building a ship
that was eventually set down on the moon. It wasn't quite a crash landing
but more of a settling down craft that only had one purpose, to be landed
and then be used as a home and base for those who were going to work, live
and die up on the moon.

     These people were the true settlers for the hardship at the beginning
was very harsh. One mistake meant death; not just for the one making the
error, but possibly for more of his co-workers. Oxygen was their biggest
problem until they could build a dome that was sealed for breathable air to
be pumped in for them to work without wearing their cumbersome suits.

     Of course there were mishaps in those early years. One pod exploded
and another ruptured killing at least thirty men. But they learnt from
these accidents and began building in pressure doors that with the
slightest drop they would slam shut. They still lost men through either a
not very sensitive door system or one that was too sensitive, crushing two
workers in its premature closing.

     In spite of this, there was always a supply of workers, for every year
they worked on the moon, not only was the pay good but their retirement age
was reduced by five years. So if a man began work on the moon at the age of
twenty and stayed alive for ten, he could go back to earth and not work for
the rest of his life. Though this was only in theory for most would only
work for three years before returning home.

     With nuclear energy common use by now what with the depleted oil
resources of earth, this was to be the main power source on the moon. Solar
energy was used to power the massive diggers to dig to a depth of nearly
half a mile for the first nuclear power house. This was in the middle of
the Mare Imbrium, well north of the massive crater called Copernicus.

     Above this would be built the city or town whatever you like to call
it, and it was given the name of Neptune. This would be the hub of six
villages for want of a better word having the names of Aral, Baltic, Coral,
Red, White and Yellow, all named after seas on earth. They would be
connected to the hub like spokes of a wheel, all heated and lit from
Neptune, going out through a short tunnel that opened out into massive
gardens at the end of which, were the living quarters. So at the end of
each spoke were five flats to accommodate ten adults and ten children
making a total of one hundred and twenty persons per city.

     Neptune City was a social disaster and almost led to internecine
warfare and it took two generations to stop this with the advent of other
cities being constructed. Race and religion were the basic fundamentals of
this and therefore it was decreed that the words Muslim, Hindu, Sikh,
Christian no longer existed and that they were all mankind. Colour and race
were actively encouraged to intermingle so that now, we are all of an
almost equal colour being neither white nor black but different shades of
brown.

     It took nearly two hundred years for the settlements to begin to live
harmoniously and in that space of time, there were now over two hundred
such city pods scattered about over the Mare Ibrium.

     Tobacco and narcotic substances had not been allowed on the moon and
everybody became vegetarians because livestock couldn't be supported. The
oxygen made through the technology given us, was only just enough to
support the humans and the growing of vegetables and fruit trees. That is
why in between each spoke of the city's wheel, there were gardens. A loose
term really for they were more fields of about ten acres each. These, like
everywhere else, were sectioned off in case of an air leak, and covered
with specially made glass to protect not only us but the plants themselves
from the ultra violet rays of the sun. Not only that, but insulated us from
the excessive cold when it was our night. Not having an atmosphere, the
moon was subjected to terrific heat during our daylight hours and intense
freezing conditions during our dark periods.

     Everybody carried a two minute oxygen pack and nowhere in the complex
were you that far away from an emergency oxygen point. If there were to be
a major rupture of the covering, especially at night, then you had no hope.

     But let us move up to more modern times to the city that I came from
which, being the furthest north, was given the name North City. Then some
wit from the past named the six villages after that mythical man Santa
Claus' reindeer, me belonging to Vixen.

     The hub of the city, the very centre was a recreational area, planted
with trees and benches, within which was the access down to the
reactor. Now six avenues went out from here, the spokes, to the villages at
the end. Now on all six corners were the buildings that fed, educated and
looked after us as a community. Between North and North East Avenues were
the children's crèche and behind that, the accommodation for visiting
people from wherever. Going clockwise, the next building before East Avenue
was the cinema at the front and behind it the workshops, where I finished
up learning the practical side of metallurgy.

     Carrying on was the clinic and behind was the hospital and also what
I've always known as the Happy Rooms. I'll come back to that later. Between
South and South West was the library which I must say was very well
stocked. Behind that was the advanced school, for those just finishing off
their education but more on the lines of what their final vocation was to
be.

     The next set of buildings held the forum hall which was more like a
lecture hall with the rising tiers of seats looking down to the
podium. Here debates were held as well as being the centre of our local
representatives who had offices below the seating area. I will discuss each
building in turn later for all I'm doing now is giving you the geography of
the city's hub. Behind the forum hall was the intermediate school.

     The last block between North West Avenue and North held the enormous
Café le North, behind which was the vast kitchens.

     It's difficult to know exactly where to begin so let's start with the
social strata. Everybody over the age of eighteen is allowed to vote every
four years to elect the Mayor and his two assistants. It must be a two
thirds majority to be carried and sometimes it has gone on for three or
four votes before the final selection has been made. The major laws are
simple and laid down so all they have to do is settle minor disputes and
attend a meeting at Neptune twice a year to get information on the latest
technology from earth which would be applicable or may be of help to
us. Their other function is, along with the senior doctor, is to make the
selections of those of marriageable age for the subsequent pairings.

     We don't have marriages as such on the moon. They are matings for
every woman is expected to bear two, and only two children in her lifetime,
one boy and one girl. Nature has been overcome in the random stakes of the
sex of a child and can now be predetermined by the correct usage of the
hormone treatment available now.

     It is not a question of a boy and girl falling in love though they can
argue the case later and quite often they can win. The meeting of mates as
it's called is twice yearly and the committee of three plus the doctor,
suggest which two persons should mate.

     The female is given a choice of three men she would live with for the
purpose of procreation and likewise the men are given the names of three
women. To refuse all three, the woman was liable to find herself cast out
to another city village and the same applied to the men.  But this was
purely for the fact that the persons involved very seldom knew who their
father was and so it was done on this selection basis so that sister and
brother didn't mate.

     Most times this worked. Both of twenty years of age would be coupled
to live in one of the villages for the purpose of having a child to
continue the life of the city. The woman would be given the hormone
injections to ensure that the first child was either a boy or a girl and
then later, to have one of the opposite sex.

     Now it was never a marriage in the old sense of the word though they
lived together till the second child was born. It was then their choice if
they wanted to continue to live together or part. In my case, my parents
parted after my sister was born. Some couples stayed together for the rest
of their lives, some didn't.

     Homosexuality or lesbianism was not frowned upon for at least it
satisfied the participants and obviated the necessity of birth control
which was paramount considering the accommodation availability. This leads
me on to the aspect of sex in our society which is quite open. A man and a
woman mate at the age of twenty for the purpose of begetting children but
everybody knows that both sexes feel their oats well before this time,
hence the Happy Rooms.

     Nearly everybody from the age of thirteen begins to have sexual
desires and it is here in the Happy Rooms that they are introduced and
taught about sex. Of course it is the boys who are the first to present
themselves after their thirteenth birthday to learn about what to do with
what they have between their legs, and there is never a shortage of women
to help them in this.

     It is not a place of prostitution and never has been for now over
three hundred years there has never been any accusation of rape.  Women
feel the need as much as men and so they are quite free to go to the Happy
Rooms and have sex whenever they want. When it is known that a young cherry
boy is of age, there are many who would like the honour of being his first
and become his teacher.

     It is a place to go when you had the urge and there was always a few
women and sometimes a man or two willing to have sex. It was where I spent
many hours of my early manhood years. All the women were on birth control
injections and it had been known for a mother and son to meet up in
there. Whether a father and son met up I don't know.

     But to get back to the mother and father, it was their choice after
two children whether they stayed together or not and quite often I would
get home and find that I had a new man living in our flat. I never did
bother to find out who my actual father was for such was our life that no
one cared, it was only the council as we called them, knew from their
records as to whom I could mate with when I was of the right age so that it
wasn't my sister.

     So a child, once it was weaned, finished up in the crèche whilst
the mother worked at her job. This crèche was more of an infant's school
for they began straight away to teach us to read and write.

    Then it was into the intermediate school and it was here that your
future was decided. The main themes were medicine, technology, physics,
astronomy, electronics, horticulture and metallurgy. Needless to say I came
out bottom and finished up working with metals, which incidentally saved my
life in later years.

     After this it was the advanced school for some, though for me, it was
the workshop. Here, the oxyacetylene torch had been replaced many years ago
by the laser torch. This didn't need oxygen but it was a very dangerous
tool to work with. In an atmosphere, you could see the beam but outside on
the moon's surface, light does not show in a vacuum, just the actually
point of burning. More than one past pupil had lost a couple of fingers
because of this lack of beam.

     I learned to cut, weld and deal with all metals both inside and
outside and could cut a fine straight line of only a hundredth of a
millimetre width with the laser torch. That was why I was selected for the
position I now hold to which we will come to later.

     Mind you, I couldn't have been that stupid when you consider the jobs
that were on offer in the city. Each village held ten adults so that made
sixty in all and most of us did a turn at the various jobs in the hub. Here
is a breakdown of the workforce. Twelve gardeners, two per ten acres. Two
worked in the library, four in the kitchens and four in the café and one
in the cinema. These were the lowest of positions really. Then came the
crèche employing three before the children were passed onto the
intermediate school where there were four teachers. We had two people who
worked on maintenance, a rather in the middle of the road kind of
occupation.

     Next came the machinery section and workshops which took care of
another ten people before we went on to the advance school that had four
teachers. The crème de la crème were the four who ran the clinic and
medical school as well as took care of the hospital. These latter did not
rotate as did the manual workers which the ten others filled about every
three months so that everybody had an equal amount of time off.

     Each home had its own kitchen and television recorder to eat and relax
or you could go down to the city and eat and drink in the café. Even go
to the cinema or spend an hour in the Happy Rooms if you wanted to. Every
garden contributed to the café kitchen and everybody could eat there if
they wished. We didn't have money for everything was free. We worked, lived
and shared everything.

     I must just point out about drink for it was what is known as a home
brew, but with a difference. It could get you into a high but not make you
drunk for after four pints, it would make you feel ill and that put paid to
drunkenness. So without a penny in your pocket, you could go and eat and
drink, go to the cinema and then go and get your end away in the Happy
Rooms. Where else on earth could you get this? The only difference at home
was that you didn't have the drink.

                                                                   *