MOON
RAIL
Remembered Earth Universe
Volume 14
Lunar Series
Book 6
D.W. PATTERSON
Copyright © 2025 D.W. Patterson
All rights reserved.
First D Printing – April, 2025
Future Chron Publishing
Cover – Copyright © 2025 D.W. Patterson
Cover Image – Photo 305932784 | Lunar Colony © Dmitry2016911 | Dreamstime(dot)com
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events and people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
For Sarah
“This is the greatest event in all the history of the human race, up to this time. This is-today is New Year's Day of the Year One.”
― Robert Heinlein to Walter Cronkite on the Moon landing.
To The Reader
In this story (and most of my stories), if I use a date, I know I am using the antiquated dating system, A.D. I blame this on the book Daybreak – 2250 A.D. by Andre Norton, which I read some time in elementary school (and of which I recently bought an old paperback copy). So, I was imprinted early with that dating system and think it sounds cooler than C.E. No social, political or any other kind of statement is meant.
Science and technology are important to me and I enjoy developing them as I develop a series. However, a problem arises if I have to reintroduce the science and technology in each story as the series progresses. For a reader that has been reading all along the reintroduction must be tedious and somewhat boring. For a reader entering later in the series (and I do like for the stories to stand alone) the lack of explanation could be off putting. So, as a compromise I have included the previous science and technology explanations in a Glossary at the end of this story, it also contains other facts about the series. Probably not a perfect solution, but the only one I could come up with at the time.
Chapter 1
2048 A.D.
Graham Timothy was an expert on Earth but on the Moon he wasn't so sure.
The company had sent him to help build a railroad. When he first heard about the assignment he wasn't even sure there were towns on the Moon. He hadn't kept up with Moon happenings because he thought he would be working on Earth, but no luck, and no jobs when he graduated school with a civil engineering degree. So, someone had told him about a building project on the Moon and that they were looking for civil engineers. He asked what they were building and was told, a railroad. Graham's first response was, why?
That was six months ago and now after training on Earth and acclimating to Moon gravity in Earth orbit he was on the Moon. It wasn't exactly what he expected. For one thing there were now ten settlements with two more planned. The East Solar Farm was online, providing much of the power for the rail link whose first segment would be built between the two settlements Fontenelle and Tima. These were the two oldest and largest settlements in the far north lunar sea of Mare Frigoris. The West Solar Farm, which would provide power when the east was in the two week lunar night, was also almost finished.
Graham knew all this from his training but the two-thousand miles between the East and West solar farms was a staggering distance to think would eventually be linked by a railroad. Still, that was why he was there and why he was flying down to the Fontenelle settlement aboard a lunar personnel lander (LPL) from the space station that the company leased room aboard.
It seemed very much as if there were no man-made settlements on the Moon as seen from the station or the descending LPL. It wasn't until Graham could see the surface fast approaching that he noticed on the monitor in the seat in front of him a circular area surrounded by a high wall. He recognized at once that it was the landing area and the wall was a blast shield to prevent the LPL's rockets from blasting the surrounding surface with debris. Just before landing he also noticed what looked like some sheds and mounds of regolith.
Graham was wearing a pressure suit with breathing apparatus as a safety precaution. It was well fitting and not difficult to move in but did suppress the normal chit-chat he might have had with the attractive woman sitting next to him. The best he could do was stand in the aisle and allow her to go ahead of him as they deboarded. She seemed appreciative.
The passengers left the LPL through it's belly and as Graham moved out from under the transport he could see towering cliffs in the distance. He knew that was the rim wall of Fontenelle crater, thirty-eight kilometers in diameter and one point eight kilometers deep. Behind that wall permanently protected from the sun at this latitude was ice water and the reason for the settlement's location.
Graham noticed the hard surface of blocks that he was walking on, it was basalt. This was another reason the settlement was located in Mare Frigoris instead of in the highlands, basalt was plentiful in the Mare and basalt could be processed into almost anything for building.
They walked into a subway like entrance and down two flights of stairs to a waiting area with airlocks. Processing through each airlock two at a time, Graham found himself in a similar room on the other side. Once gathered again, the group was led through doors into a long, large corridor. The settlement guides took them to their rooms. Graham's guide explained some about the settlement before leaving him.
Graham's apartment was small, two rooms with a small bathroom off the bedroom. Briefly looking around, Graham had the time to unpack, eat a small meal in the kitchenette and get some sleep. He had to get up early to be at the company's office.
