Music of the Spheres (2)
A Christmas in Selene City story!
Author’s Note: This is Part 2 of a 4-part story written as part of the Christmas in Selene City collaborative anthology. Do check out the other stories in the collection!
Previously, while investigating a geological anomaly discovered by Ph.D. student Victor, Livia Lamarr heard an exquisite and haunting sequence of music that drew her to one of Selene City’s airlocks. She was suited up and ready to exit into the lunar night when somebody appeared behind her at the airlock door…
30th December, 12:13 pm
The music had stopped.
At first, that’s all Livia was aware of. The music, and the ecstasy, had stopped. Then she felt arms slide beneath her field suit, and fingers fiddling with the manual catch on her helmet. She opened her eyes as the polycarbonate visor slid upward. Just inches away, now undistorted by reflection and refraction, dark brown eyes. In them, she could see herself, curved and gleaming on the airlock floor.
Her ears were ringing, a high-pitched empty input. The eyes pulled away a little, and she saw lips moving like worms. Dry, with a crustal plate of dead skin loose on the saddle of the fatter worm. Beyond the worms, dark stubble venturing from honey-coloured skin like razorfish at low tide. Livia could hear nothing but the ringing. She pointed to her ears and shook her head.
She started to get up, but he placed a hand on her chest to keep her on the floor. Livia brushed it off in a frantic push, then scrambled uncertainly to her feet. The ringing faded, leaving her empty as a shell without a shore. She allowed him to lead her back into the airlock lobby. Slowly, the movement of his mouth and the anxious look in his eyes translated into sound, slowly getting louder and sharper, like the pre-Revolution radio set her Nonno had shown her once.
“Livia! Are you OK?”
She unclipped her helmet and tried to understand what had happened. How she had been in her office, and then the music had come, and now she was field-suited in the north airlock with Matty Lim-Thomas, Senior Medical Officer, looking like he might be about to section her. The lobby looked unreal, as if it were missing a dimension. The row of helmets, shiny on their shelf, looked like cowrie shells collected by a child, the guard’s desk like a cardboard fort.
She moved her own lips, and sounds came out.
“I’m.. OK.”
“Sit over here. Let’s get you out of the suit.”
“I can manage.”
As she shakenly peeled her legs out of the suit, Livia saw a couple of Security personnel rush in. They were speaking to Matty and he was speaking back, but the words couldn’t penetrate the bones of her skull. Suddenly, the Security guys were in field suits and in the airlock and the door light switched to red as it cycled to the outside, and then with a rush the world righted itself, and Livia found herself hanging her field suit back on its rack and trying to figure out how to explain herself.
Matty turned to look at her, then leaned in and flashed a thin sharp light in each of her eyes, watching her pupils.
“How are you feeling?”
Livia cleared her throat in embarrassment. Heat twined up her neck and tendrilled onto her cheeks, the way it always did when she was around Matty. And now he had seen her in what must have looked like a psychotic break.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
Matty pursed his lips, eyes running over her dispassionately.
“Let’s get you to the clinic for a quick check.”
Livia attempted a faint laugh. “Is that your professional advice, doctor?”
“Yes, it is.” He didn’t laugh back, but gently placed a hand at her elbow. Livia didn’t know whether it was to support her, or grab her in case she ran for the airlock.
She took a deep breath. The air, as usual, was dry as a Beijing winter, and smelled faintly of pear drops.
“Matty… I don’t quite know what happened to me there.”
“Neither do we,” he replied drily. “But you’re not the only one.”
They walked through the faux snow-scene corridor towards the clinic. Livia could feel the soft warmth of Matty’s hand brushing her arm, and the instinct to shake it off fought with the desire to enjoy the closeness of his body. He didn’t know, of course. He was ten years younger; why would he even think about her?
She broke the silence. “I’m not the only one?”
Matty shook his head. “We’ve had reports of dozens of people hearing something strange, making for the outside. I guess the Security officer on that airlock was one of them.”
Livia’s steps slowed, and she felt a flash of fear.
“Did they all hear… music?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “Haven’t had time to examine properly.”
Their steps fell lightly on the floor, like snow. The corridor was busier than before and the level of hum and chatter seemed to have risen a couple of notches. Livia recognised Signe Odegaard rushing towards her lab, looking tense, nearly colliding with one of the Security guys, Matteo something-or-other, as he ran the other way.
“How did you find me?” asked Livia suddenly. “I thought I heard you practicing with the Singers. Before coffee.”
“We took a quick break. I went to pick up something from my quarters, and, well, saw you when I was passing the lobby door.”
She wanted to ask more about what was going on, but reasoned that he knew less than she did. Instead, she asked where he’d learned to sing.
“Couldn’t really avoid it,” he replied with an unexpected laugh. “Mum’s half-Welsh and half-Ghanaian. Been singing since I was a little ‘un.”
The switch to small talk seemed to reassure him. He took his hand away from her elbow and kept up a steady flow of inconsequential chatter the rest of the way to the clinic.
30th December, 3:02 pm
The clinic was in chaos. Livia’s stomach growled, reminding her she had missed lunch. There were still half-a-dozen patients perched on beds and chairs, waiting for the all-clear from HAIppocrates. The medical AI didn’t have a problem running multiple diagnoses in parallel, but the messy work, the sampling of blood and urine and saliva, the palpation of tissue and watchful perception of responses, could only be done by the small team of medical officers. Matty was stressed; Livia could tell by the way he ran his hand through his wavy black hair and muttered Korean curse words under his breath. Apparently one of the MOs, Edmond Halley, had vanished, leaving them a person short. Gone to look for his comet, she heard someone joke.
“Sorry for the delay,” said Matty as he approached her. “Wanted to get the kids and parents dealt with first, you know?”
Livia nodded, but felt a sourness in her belly as she glanced round the room and saw that all those remaining were either single, or didn’t have their partner with them at Selene.
“So,” Matty went on, glancing at his tablet, “that’s you. No lasting damage of any sort that we can see. But do keep an eye on things — obviously, HAIppocrates’ll be monitoring as well — and let us know if anything else happens.”
“Right,” said Livia, more stiffly than she felt. His nearness was causing a duststorm of emotions, a pulsing of pheromones that she thought she’d left behind years before. In the background of her mind, echoes of the music still earwormed, but faint enough for her to ignore when she tried. She decided there was no point mentioning that.
“I’m serious,” he said, leaning impercetibly closer. “You’re worried about anything, you can give me a call, anytime. Anytime, know what I mean?”
Livia nodded and got up. She suspected he didn’t really mean anything or anytime, no matter how kind his eyes looked.
“Oh, crap.” She had just registered the time. “I have to run.”
30th December, 3:44 pm
Livia stood in front of Maria Celeste’s office door and straightened her Christmas jumper. A minute early. She had barely had time to rush back to her quarters, change and tidy her hair before running across Selene City to the Central Admin block. Maria Celeste had arranged the jumpers, as usual. Livia hadn’t got around to looking at it properly before now, and she grimaced at the dancing LightWool snowmen shuffling around the body of the garment. One of them raised its top hat every time it reached the centre. Livia found the jumper a little tight, and wondered fleetingly whether Maria Celeste had done it on purpose, another passive-aggressive hint to pull yourself together and lose a few pounds, you’re not the first woman in the world whose husband left her and you won’t be the last.
She was startled by a sudden flicker in the snow-scene effect of the corridor, a dazzlement of black-and-white fractals taking its place. Then words: ¡¡ DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET. Floriano Cóndor Cruz, your friendly neighborhood Artist, is TESTING 😎 !! A few seconds later, the Alpine scene re-appeared. Livia rolled her eyes and turned back to the door.
They had arranged to meet to make the annual festive video for their parents and grandparents and aunties and uncles. It was less cute now that Maria Celeste’s girls were all off at college, but it was still one of the moments in the year where the two sisters could look as if they liked each other, go for a drink afterwards and for a little while, actually feel like family. Livia took one more glance at her dull reflection in the brass-effect nameplate. It was now a minute past the scheduled time. She took a deep breath, tapped on the door and walked in.
30th December, 3:46 pm
“… Chang’e psyops…”
“That’s ridiculous! If we’re really thinking psyops, we all know it’s going to be Muskovy!”
“Dmytro, are you serious?”
The hubbub around the conference table died as the occupants of the General Director’s office realised someone had walked in. Livia stood frozen for a second, recognising the seven members of Selene City’s Executive Council. Maria Celeste got to her feet, pincering her sister with a glare from across the table.
“Sorry,” whispered Livia, backing her way out of the room. Around her midriff, the dancing snowman waved its top hat at the Executive Council. Livia closed the door behind her and half-walked, half-ran towards her own office, her cheeks burning. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a theremin wailed.
30th December, 4:30 pm
Livia licked her index finger and used it to mop up the crumbs of one of the mince pies she had grabbed from the cafeteria, then put the plate down on her desk. A message from Victor was blinking on one screen. She ignored him. Nothing seemed quite as important now as working out what the music had been.
Psyops. She wondered whether the Executive Committee was really considering that. Dmytro Grossman had seemed serious. On the other hand, everyone knew about his issues with Muskovy, and it was hard to imagine the rationale any of the other lunar cities might have for tampering with Selene, let alone the technical difficulties of achieving such a feat. Livia shook her head. She had heard — could still almost hear, thought the echoes were fading — music specific to her. Music almost but not exactly like the dance from her wedding reception, and her grandfather’s records, and that show she had liked; like, in the way that the flower is like the bud, or the fully fledged eagle is like the naked handful of skin and bones in the nest. Surely no psyops maneouvre would have been able to target individuals so intimately, so specifically. She wondered what music the others had heard, and whether anyone had yet thought to ask them, in the flurry of checking physical and mental status.
She considered the people she’d seen waiting in the clinic before getting the all-clear. It had seemed a broad cross-section of the Selene City population. Twenty-something of them, all told. No fatalities. One case of hypoxia, in one of the three who’d actually made it outside and been retrieved by Security, and one bad case of frostbite; HAIppocrates was confident the man’s fingers would regrow with treatment. Livia spun slowly on her chair and tried to picture the people she’d seen. No-one very senior, from what she remembered. Surely a psyops attack, even if the technical capability were there, would have targeted more important people. She narrowed her eyes. Could it have been a psychological study? Hadn’t that psychology RA, Laura something, been “helping” in the clinic? She shook her head again. Something like that would have had to get approval from Grossman’s office, and he wouldn’t then be sitting in an emergency meeting of the Executive Council talking about psyops.
Livia eyed the second of the mince pies she had bought. There must be a simpler explanation. Something in the water, something in the air. Someone should probably talk to all those affected and find out what the link was. It would be mundane, like a gas leak, or a cook accidentally putting something weird in the mince pies, or one of those wretched rats from Neuroscience escaping and tracking some hallucinogenic rodent disease around the city.
She suddenly felt unutterably weary. Someone else could deal with it. Maria Celeste probably already had it figured out. Livia bit into the second mince pie and clicked open Victor’s message.
30th December, 4:52 pm
Frowning, Livia asked Galileo to replay the message. Victor was clearly excited, his words running together, his accent becoming more pronounced.
“Galileo, please repeat Victor’s analysis and confirm findings.”
“On it, Dr. Lamarr.”
Livia set aside the half-eaten mince pie and began to run through Victor’s findings herself. It looked impossible. A near-perfect (within the limits of resolution of the instruments) ovoid. A long ovoid, like a dinosaur egg. And not a solid mineral mass as they’d first thought. It seemed to have a high-density layer, but within that, extremely low density. Density consistent with air, or vacuum. A hollow shell.
All the old salts’ yarns she’d ever heard about alien artefacts and hidden craft buried beneath the lunar surface started flickering through her mind, all the Golden Age B-movies and silly sci-fi tales.
The AI’s bass voice broke into her thoughts. “Mr. Cheong’s analysis is, to the best of my knowledge, accurate. However, further RAKE analysis is recommended, as well a physical inspection and cross-check of the instrumentation.”
Livia didn’t respond. It had just occurred to her that the anomaly, whatever it was, was somewhere beneath the Mare Serenitatis almost due north of Selene City.
North. The music had come from the north.
Read on…
Don’t forget to read the other stories in the anthology — click below to get the back story and the full collection by 5 wonderful authors!
Cover image photo credit: NASA/JSC.
The beauty of this project is seeing how the writers use the setting. It's great. Your Livia is an intriguing character. Let's see what happens next :-)