Selene
By J. L. Young

I had to get away from the others. Their incessant congratulatory locutions have driven me out the airlock. At least out here, to suffer is my choice. It’s almost Earthrise. One last chance to run my gloved fingers through the regolith before the long-range transport swoops my team up and takes us to orbit Titan for the next five years.

I was hoping for a layover on Earth before heading out, but alas, the technocracy has better ideas for me. I hadn’t felt the salty ocean on my feet in some time.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Selene knelt and pressed her helmet against mine. Her voice penetrated our Alcan-polycarbonate visors “I thought I’d find you out here.” She switched on my suit radio and settled in beside me. “You miss her?”

“What, Earth?” I asked. “Sometimes.”

“Right now?”

“I guess I do. Don’t you?”

“I do, greatly,” she replied. She placed her gloved hand on mine, “What if you stay. There’s more you can do here.”

“I can’t. I have responsibilities on Titan station. The new ship drive needs thorough testing before installation. I’m the only one qualified to do that. You can come with me.”

“My place is here.”

“We can still communicate,” I suggested.

“I know it may sound selfish of me, but it’s not the same.”

I tapped my glove on hers, “You’re right. It’s not.”

We sat outside and talked until the low-oxygen warning filled my helmet with a brilliant red light. I stood, assisted her out of the regolith-crete chair, and we danced to the airlock. With the cycle now complete, the inner door unlocked. We stowed our gear and connected the refill hoses. She flashed her brilliant white smile, kissed me, removed the Greek flag from her uniform, and said, “Come back to me.” She disappeared down the South corridor. I very much wanted to throw the regulation out the airlock and follow her, but all I could do was stand dumbfounded.

Morning came and so did my cup of steaming coffee. The normal group of scientists and engineering corps members filed into a line to get their meals. I waited to see if Selene would arrive. She never did. My time that morning slipped away. Lunch came and she never did. She wasn’t present for dinner either.

I woke earlier to take a walk down the southern corridor, I reached the end and it was sealed. Another habitat hadn’t been built and installed. I slipped my hand in my pocket. I could feel the intricate embroidery of her flag between my fingertips.

My last morning on the Moon had arrived. I lifted her patch from my favorite piece of furniture, a table my dad made. It was a blonde oak cocktail table with a drawer and smoked glass inserts. It had a large knot on the front. Dad said it added character.

I hoped to see her again at breakfast, but alas she didn’t show. A group I worked with were sitting together and so I joined them. I sat down and removed the lid from my tray. “I told Selene about my transfer.”

They looked at me utterly confused, “Who’s Selene?” Myka asked.

I choked on my coffee.

Myka Kastor, a propulsion analyst, furrowed her forehead. A thought flashed through her mind and she acted. She slipped a tablet from her bag. A few taps and she brought up the crew manifest. “Far be it for me to contradict you, Cassius. There isn’t anybody by that name on station, or representing Greece, for that matter. There’s a Doctor Eryx Puglia due to arrive on the next ship, today, in fact.”

With a calm demeanor, I fished the patch from my pocket and tossed it on the table. “How do you suppose I got that?”

“I don’t know. You could have brought it with you.”

“I could’ve, yes. But would I have a reason to?” I looked to a valued friend, Bernard “Ice” Coldridge, “Ice, in the past fifteen years we’ve known each other, have you ever known me to know any Greek people?”

“That’s seventeen years, Cass. Maybe that guy at the Greek restaurant on Ninth Avenue and Park, good gyros.”

“I don’t know what his nationality was, but I don’t think he’s Greek. Ask him the next time you’re Earthside.”

“Yeah, that isn’t happening anytime soon,” Ice said.

I rubbed my face. “Hey, guys. I feel wiped out, we pretty much have everything packed for Titan and already in the staging area, right?” Affirmations were the group consensus. “I think I’ll go take a nap. Myka wake me up in two hours.”

“You got it, boss,” she replied.

I rubbed the patch and felt the embroidery. Then I felt the powdery regolith between my toes. I turned, the station was in the distance. I was outside the parameter. There wasn’t a visor before me and yet I breathed. A hand took mine. She wore diaphanous linen and it blew in a strong wind, yet there was none felt. A whisper came across my cheek and found my ear. It was her voice, Selene’s “Cassius, we are forever.”