Lunarisation I - Part III

10th March

Southeast Development, Dunstan

After playing lunar volleyball with Jaime and her friends, the two of us walked home together. As it happened, we both live in the Southeast Development, or quadrant, of Dunstan. Even though I'll probably be even more exhausted, I got talked into playing volleyball again tomorrow. Jaime is just too hard to say no to.

We spent another couple of hours at the bar before we started heading home. Luckily, I'll have the day after tomorrow off, as tomorrow is the last day of my training course. Due to the extra hours of the training course, new employees are given a day off before they're put on the regular shift. I suppose I should be glad for that. Jaime walks beside me. I don't know if it's because of her height, or the look on her face, but she's very innocent looking.

"Thank you for today," I say to her.

"Don't worry about it," Jaime replies in her usual tone. I don't know how she can keep that up without becoming exhausted. She must be about as tired as me by now, but she still has that cheerful tone in her voice, and that beautiful look on her face.

"I really mean it. I've felt really uneasy over the last few days, but I feel much better now, thanks to you."

Jaime looks at me and blinks, "seriously, you're embarrassing me. I said don't worry about it."

"Thank you."

"Stop it already."

We walk on for a bit in silence, alongside each other. It feels as if it should be dark. It's always dark on Earth in situations like this, when your walking home from the bar feeling sick, but on the moon the lights never dim. As we're staggering home, other people in business suits and excavator uniforms, walk in the opposite direction. I should be asleep by now. I really am going to regret this tomorrow.

As we walk, Jaime's phone vibrates from her pocket. She picks it up, struggling thanks to the alcohol. After she brings up the message, her eyes go wide. She then stares at it intently for a while. She looks at it for a long time, her eyes scanning side to side, up and down. At some point, her mouth falls open.

"Something wrong?" I ask.

"Have you heard of the Justice Association?" Jaime asks me.

"That was... a movie?"

"No, of course not," Jaime replies, "well maybe, I'm not sure, but that's not the point. The Justice Association is an organisation on the moon that demands a real and fair legal system on the moon. It's made up of volunteers, and has members and supporters all over the moon. I'm one of the local leaders in Dunstan."

"So, it's like a neighbourhood association?"

"More like a worker's union," Jaime replies. Either she didn't get my sarcasm, or she ignored it. I'm not sure which I would find more disappointing.

"Anyway, the point is," she continued, "that the Justice Association is asking all of its' members and anyone else they can get, to come to a mass protest in Artemis two days from now."

I think for a moment, "I've never heard of mass protests on the moon before."

"No, it's never happened before. People have always been too afraid because the tigers have opposed the Justice Association. But, maybe this means that something has changed."

"The tigers oppose the Justice Association because they benefit from the status quo, right?"

"Yes, that's right. They don't want to have workers' rights and regulations enforced on them. But, the message says that the protest is demanding an independent lunar state, not a fair legal system. I get that having a state or governing body of some sort is probably necessary to have a fair legal system, but I don't understand why the tigers would support this. It's also strange how quickly they want the protest to happen as well. Normally these take weeks, even months, to organise."

"You know quite a lot about this, huh?" I say, a little surprised at just how much Jaime knows about this. Obviously, it's something quite important to her. I guess that makes sense, since the moon has become her permanent home.

"Not really, I just think about it more than other people," Jaime replied, "I'm supposed to go to Artemis tomorrow to help with the organisation, since I'm a leader."

"I see."

For some reason that makes me feel a little disappointed. I guess I was looking forward to playing volleyball tomorrow. Jaime is fun to be around, after all.

"Your coming with me, right?"

"Huh? But I have my training course."

"Yeah, I work the same shift as you. We can leave after. It's decided because I said so."