Fab­u­lae Lunae Vignette – Y+1
A rein­tro­duc­tion
Lunar noir hard sci­ence fic­tion: Jus­tice is per­son­al, and back­up is three days away.
The Moun­tain was a man who came back after six weeks south and found the cab­in still grey. Dri­ve to Hous­ton was an astro­naut who still had to make the road. This one is a year lat­er. Y+1. They have not lift­ed the blast zone yet. A man who will not leave is on Night Watch Live AM with Sam Dean, pour­ing cof­fee, and the first caller from Texas is already some­one Con­rad Sta­tion will know.

The Piece

Nick is inside the zone. He claims to be the clos­est to the erup­tion who sur­vived. To give the audi­ence an idea: a stretch of road between West Yel­low­stone and Big Sky, a ski resort on it, and he is about thir­ty miles north and west of that. Gov­ern­ment sci­en­tists have said any­one with­in three hun­dred miles needs to leave. It is not safe. He has been up there for years. He is not aban­don­ing the house. The truck still needs fix­ing. He can­not walk out. Besides, he says, it has always been dan­ger­ous in this coun­try. Peo­ple for­get they rein­tro­duced the wolves.

The ground is still burn­ing in places. He thinks it is the root of the trees. Ash from the explo­sion and the fires after it makes the coun­try look like win­ter all the time. Yes­ter­day there was beau­ti­ful sun­shine. It almost looked like a day for ski­ing. It was ash, not snow. He has an enclosed porch. He uses it to keep the dust out of the house. Good luck has come his way.

Coot­er is the caller. From Texas. Ya doin’ all right? His ques­tion is not about the ash. He heard there was a UFO near the park just before it blew up . Did Nick see any­thing? Nick clears his throat. There had been a lot of sight­ings around the park region over the years. Per­son­al­ly, he has seen noth­ing. Coot­er starts in — they were prepar­ing for the vol­cano — and the line drops. Sam will try to get him back after the commercial.

Dur­ing the break, Nick sets the phone to speak­er and goes to the fire­place. He finds the hol­low-sound­ing stone, works it out of the wall, and fish­es until he has the keys.

Back on air, Sam asks about the dust. He has heard claims it is slow­ly hurt­ing every­one. Nick does not hedge. It is killing every­one. You breathe this stuff in. It com­bines with the mois­ture in your lungs. It forms con­crete. We are all slow­ly suf­fo­cat­ing as our lungs fill up with cement. Sam has heard of a Brazil­ian med­i­cine that can treat it. Nick says it is too late for him. His breath­ing has been get­ting hard­er and harder.

He is pulling on his coat while he says the rest. He is head­ing for the near­est post office. It will take most of the day to make that dri­ve. He will send Sam a key. A friend of his will ask for it some­day. Sam will know who it is. Sam feels sur­prised. What is all this about? You will under­stand when you get it.

Why It Matters

This is before Con­rad Sta­tion. Before Gor­donville. Before a deputy has a week­ly list. It is still the weath­er the sta­tion counts on. Y+0 was the erup­tion. Y+1 is the year the ash has not lift­ed, and a man inside the three-hun­dred-mile line is already treat­ing his porch like an air­lock. Keep the dust out of the house. Fix the truck before you can leave. Do not walk out. The lat­er habi­tats will have bet­ter seals and worse back­up. The prac­tice starts here, with a fire­place and a hol­low stone.

The lungs are the oth­er inher­i­tance. Con­crete in the chest is the Earth ver­sion of the prob­lem Doc Keller will still watch dosage num­bers for. The Brazil­ian med­i­cine Sam has heard of is the seed of the ARS drug the sta­tion gen­er­a­tion took for years. Nick says it is too late for him. On the Moon the dust is not ash, and the com­par­i­son is already in the room a year after the sky went grey. Gen will hear demen­tia and think of Atlanta. The vignette does not need Atlanta. It has a man whose breath is get­ting hard­er while he pours anoth­er cup.

Coot­er is the thread a read­er can hold with­out a con­spir­a­cy. From Texas, on a call-in show, ask­ing about a UFO and a prepa­ra­tion for the vol­cano, then cut off. Years lat­er he is Jim Ross in Doc’s door­way, the man who knows Nin­ja Cranston with­out a brief­ing, the man Nils still thinks is crazy because he believes in space aliens and lives on the Moon, any­way. The line drop is the unpaid part. Nick has seen noth­ing. Coot­er had a sen­tence ready. The books do not give it back.

The key is the oth­er unpaid item. Not a rev­e­la­tion. A use. Nick will not aban­don the house, and he will still dri­ve most of a day through ash that looks like snow to put a key in the mail for a friend who has not asked yet. Con­rad runs on the same stub­born­ness. Peo­ple stay when the sci­en­tists have already told them to leave. They keep a porch, a hatch, a cel­lar, a file. Back­up is far­ther away than a post office. The friend remains unnamed. Sam will know. That is as much as Y+1 is will­ing to stand on.
Who is the key for and does Coot­er ever get the rest of that sen­tence out?

Fur­ther Reading

Y+1 — the com­plete vignette
Time­line of Events
Fab­u­lae Lunae Vignette — The Mountain
Fab­u­lae Lunae Vignette — Dri­ve to Houston
Char­ac­ter Spot­light — Jim Ross (Coot­er)
Lunar Sig­nals — Yellowstone
The Luna­dyne Inci­dent and Oth­er Stories
Thun­der Moon Tussle
Mask of the Joy­ful Moon

The Joy­ful Moon is still watching…
and the ash is still not snow.
— Torn MacAlester
Still rid­ing the trails with Nils, Gen, and the whole Fab­u­lae Lunae crew
🚀🌕