Steph Bennion - Hollow Moon

“I suppose if there’s no money, there’s no crime,” Endymion reasoned.

“There is still a bit of crime,” Ravana admitted. “Ostara was investigating a robbery at the biology laboratories before she started looking into the kidnap of the Raja. On the whole though it seems to work well. Everyone has to contribute a bit of their time to help where needed. I do three days a week in the fields. I’m training to be an engineer.”

Philyra raised a surprised eyebrow. “You work for nothing?”

“What use is money here?” asked Ravana, puzzled. “Where would I spend it?”

“On Ascension, you have to work to buy food and clothes and stuff,” Endymion told her. “If I didn’t get paid I wouldn’t want to work for nothing. I’d rather do nothing!”

“You don’t do anything at work anyway,” Bellona pointed out.

“What would happen if you couldn’t find a job?” Ravana asked Endymion, smiling mischievously. “Would you be left hungry and naked?”

“There’s enough jobs for everyone,” Endymion said, ignoring Bellona’s giggle. “More jobs than people, in fact.”

“But that’s forcing people to work or starve. That doesn’t seem right to me.”

Philyra looked puzzled. “What happens here if you can’t be bothered to do your bit?”

“People in the hollow moon are used to helping each other out,” Ravana replied. “Very few refuse to work, but if they did all that would happen is they would no longer have any friends. But they would not go cold or hungry.”

Endymion shook his head in amazement. “Working for nothing is crazy.”

“It’s not for nothing!” Ravana protested. “Father says the hollow moon is everyone’s responsibility as we all need it to survive. If someone couldn’t work for whatever reason, they would be looked after. Anyway, I like being able to try lots of different jobs here. I think it helps you find the one you’re good at and like doing best.”

She could see it had never occurred to a fascinated Bellona that a community could live and work together in this way. Her brother on the other hand looked unimpressed by the concept of a world without money. Ravana was getting bored of the subject.

“Would you like to visit other places?” Bellona asked. “Maybe go back to Yuanshi?”

“I’ve been to places!” retorted Ravana. “Father and I go to Lan-Tlanto at least once a month. I’ve also been to Lowell City on Mars and to Camelot spaceport on Avalon.”

“You’ve been to Avalon?” Philyra looked jealous. “To the holovid studios?”

“We’re meant to be going to Daode this week,” added Bellona. Ravana recalled Miss Clymene’s conversation with her father about chartering the Platypus and saw Bellona looked awkward, as if she felt she was being used. “We’re supposed to be taking part in the school band competition at the peace conference. Perhaps you could come with us?”

“I do play the cornet,” Ravana admitted. “It’s like a squashed trumpet.”

“Another brass player!” exclaimed Endymion. “Trombone, me.”

“I play clarinet,” said Bellona. “Philyra plays the flute.”

Ravana considered this. “Is it just the three of you?”

Philyra nodded sullenly.

“You would make four,” Bellona suggested hopefully.

“Maybe,” mused Ravana, not convinced. While the idea of an adventure to the Epsilon Eridani system was appealing, less so was the prospect of going in the company of strangers. “Would Zotz be able to come as well?” she asked. “He’s my friend.”

“Is he the one who keeps tripping over his shoe laces?” asked Bellona.

Ravana smiled. “His father’s just as bad. Professor Wak is one of the leading experts on extra-dimensional string theory but can’t tie a knot to save his life.”

“Can he play an instrument?” asked Philyra.

“Who? The professor?”

“No,” retorted Philyra, irritably. “Your friend Zotz.”

“Of course!” said Ravana. She knew full well that Zotz had never shown even the slightest interest in music. She lowered her gaze and started to stroke her cat in a none-to-subtle attempt to mask her fraud.

“Marvellous!” Endymion grinned. “Let’s go and ask Miss Clymene.”

“Whoopee,” muttered Philyra. “All we need now is a spaceship.”

By the time Ravana, Endymion, Bellona and Philyra returned to the maintenance shed, Quirinus and Zotz had arrived, having walked the short distance from the monorail station at Petit Havre. At Wak’s insistence, Ostara had contacted Fenris at the palace and arranged a meeting with the Maharani. So it was that Ravana found herself back at the palace, again with her cat in her arms but this time also with her father, Wak, Ostara and Miss Clymene for company.

They were led to a sumptuous glass conservatory that looked out upon a small leafy courtyard isolated from the rest of the palace grounds. The palace servants, silent as ever, were somewhat perturbed at the sight of so many people disturbing the peace of the Maharani’s sanctum and quickly decided that Zotz, Endymion, Bellona and Philyra were better left to amuse themselves beside the fish pond in the courtyard outside. Quirinus brought with him the device Endymion had found in the kidnappers’ tunnel. He was just lowering it onto the table, fully expecting that they would be kept waiting, when Maharani Uma swept into the conservatory, a sullen Fenris close behind.

“Well, well,” sneered Fenris upon seeing Ravana. He had just returned from carrying Surya’s cyberclone down to its coffin-shaped maintenance unit in the basement and was in a foul mood. “If it isn’t Ravana and her amazing vomiting cat.”

“Ignore him, my dear,” the Maharani said sweetly, addressing Ravana. “He sometimes forgets his manners. I have been meaning to thank you for the help you’ve given Fenris and err… your security officer,” she said, with a glance towards the nervously-fidgeting Ostara, having seemingly forgotten her name. “I know you are all doing your best to find my son.”

There was an edge to the Maharani’s tone that suggested their best was not good enough. It was a subtlety lost on Professor Wak as he drew her attention to the metal box Quirinus had placed on the table.

“We have established how the kidnappers gained access to the Dandridge Cole ,” he informed her. “They left behind this device, which offers a clue to their identity.”

“A clue?” asked Ostara, the Maharani’s snub forgotten.

“Your investigator appears to need enlightenment,” muttered Fenris.

“As indeed do I,” remarked the Maharani, slightly put out by the wild gesturing of Wak’s flattened hand. “What is it you have found?”

“A personnel scanner, as issued to Que Qiao authorities on Daode and Yuanshi,” Quirinus remarked. “These devices can pick up the minute signals given out by cranium implants. They’re used to track criminals, political activists and the like.”

“What implants?” asked Miss Clymene, confused.

“Microchips in the brain,” Wak told her. “The ultimate interface between human and machine! They’re popular with tech-heads across all five systems, but it is only the Que Qiao administration in Epsilon Eridani that insists every child is implanted with one as soon as they are old enough.”

Ravana shivered. “Yuck. Implants in the brain? That’s horrible.”

“Maharani, I take it the Raja has such a device?” asked Wak.

The Maharani nodded. “My son was fitted with an implant as per the usual practice on Yuanshi. I was born on Earth and so do not have one myself; and for various reasons nor does Fenris or anyone else in my household here.”

“This equipment then was obviously used to target your son,” Wak told her.