Mason Steinitz sat at his desk, swirling a glass of water in one hand. Though he had been on Luna for two years, serving as commander of Metzger Base, he was still mesmerized by the way water behaved in the low gravity of the moon, 1/6th that of Earth. He paused swirling to take a sip. He was drinking much more water than usual these days. It provided temporary relief from the emptiness in his stomach. He flipped through the security report on the desk in front of him, looking for indicators of trouble within the base.
The base security force consisted of two guys. Both were big and heavily muscled. They had tattoos on their arms and they walked with that confident swagger that comes from having trained extensively in how to handle themselves in physical altercations with others. But they were two. Worse, he had noticed one of them nodding slightly during the meeting as the troublemakers walked out. Consequently, he had decided not to take any immediate action regarding the dissenters. This was not a military base, and they had a right to express their opinions. Instead, he resolved to go ahead with the rationing plan. If there was trouble later, he would have reason to act. Until then, he would tolerate shows of dissent in the hope that such venting would keep the pressure from building.
In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to expand the security force. He had first thought to send out a general request for volunteers but had realized this could open the door for more rebels within the security force. Also on his desk, next to the security report, was a stack of personnel files. He turned his attention to those, looking for people he could trust. The first file he picked up was for Brendan Byrne.
The first two days of rationing went smoothly. Nobody was happy, but there was no trouble. In fact, it almost seemed like some of the earlier camaraderie had returned. People waited patiently in line for their portions. Keiron noticed more people smiling back at him than before the meeting. He thought maybe witnessing the selfishness of a few had reminded people of the importance of caring for each other.
On the third day, hand drawn posters appeared in the hallway leading to the commissary. They held slogans like
Give us our fair share
and
Contributing members of this community deserve to eat.
The base commander had these torn down, but not before everyone had seen them while getting their morning portions. Keiron couldn’t understand what point they were trying to make. Everyone was getting the same share, how was that not fair? He wondered if Ro had been involved in making the signs. While he hated their message, he couldn’t stop imagining her leaning over the cardboard with a marker, ponytail swishing back and forth as she wrote.
The next day, there were more signs:
The crisis is a conspiracy
and
Food is a human right.
These were put up before the dinner line formed, and again, most people saw them before the security team tore them down. Keiron was even more confused by these. He knew that a conspiracy was a secret plan by a group of people to do something bad, usually for their own benefit. He couldn’t see how that applied to this situation. Nobody was happy with rationing, but weren’t they all doing it for the benefit of everybody? That didn’t seem like a conspiracy. And sharing what there was seemed like the best way to ensure nobody’s right to eat was curtailed more than anybody else’s.
The next day, more signs appeared:
Lions not sheep
and
You can’t silence the truth
and
We will take what we need.
These were placed all over the base, making it hard for the security team to tear them down before most people saw at least some of them. The first two made no sense to Keiron at all. But that last one… that one troubled him. That seemed like a threat.
It troubled him enough that he decided to break his streak of not writing to Cas about the things happening in the base.
Cas,
Things are getting weird here. Some of the adults don’t believe that there is really a crisis on Earth. Or they think that it’s not as serious as we are being told. Or they think that it is serious but the base administration is corrupted. Or they think… well, what they think seems to change everyday.
Mom says some people can’t accept hardship and sacrifice and have to make up things to compensate. She says she saw this as a little girl during the pandemic and that it can be dangerous, as people are able to fool themselves into doing things that only make everything worse for themselves and others.
The base commander must feel the same way, as he has asked for volunteers to join the security force. Dad and Mom both volunteered. The commander only accepted Dad. He said he can’t take both parents from a child. Hearing that scared me, because it sounds like he is preparing for some real trouble.
KeironHe tried to imagine how she might respond, but he couldn’t. This was all just too weird.