Moon Hunter

The Moon was forged in fire and brimstone, although the humans would have you believe a meteor carved it out on impact from Earth. Indeed, it was a rouge watchmaker that, bored with her trade, decided to branch out into the practice of Interstellar Creation. Business had been slow of late, and in her spare time Will had been constructing an airship, a chimera of Nature’s finest elements translated into cogs and pistons.

She had wanted it to fly silently wherever she went, vacuum or no vacuum, but instead Will had opted for steam power and rippling sails. The craft was a simple egg-shaped design, with the panoramic cockpit in front of her tiny living quarters. The majority of the ship was occupied by the engine room, a sweaty tangle of machinery pumping power through funnels to propel the ship.

On the first tour, Will traversed the inky skies searching for inspiration. Earth had yet to gain a Moon, and it struck Will as odd that no-one had thought to build one. In fact, the other Creators had long since surpassed Moon Creation: it had been her plan to simply speak to other Creators, but she found them hostile and greedy, wanting only to build the biggest, most important planets and stars.

I shall build the Earth’s Moon, she thought, humming tunelessly as the idea gained traction, a Moon unlike any other, something simple, artistic and to inspire throughout the eons.

Out in the darkness Will spotted what she was looking for- a dying planet with 7 Moons, too many to sustain. Moons had a funny habit of overpowering their parent orbit, all pulling in different directions, demanding attention. Among them, a small grey sphere was limping around his axis (Will had decided it was a male). Carefully, she took aim with her guns, darting the Moon like a cow in a slaughterhouse. Will edged closer to the now still Moon, softly releasing the work capsule she’d designed to drag the Moon home. It was a snug fit: she’d need to shrink the Moon later somehow.

Through the vacuum, Will searched for a place to tether her craft, locating a rusty satellite in fixed place. She set to work immediately, first filling the pod with blistering heat to remove any trace of colour. Fortunately as a by-product this reduced the size of the Moon by half, its outer core melting away to reveal an off-white layer beneath. Although she had planned to leave her mark through colour, the scratched patterns criss-crossing the skin of the Moon left her dumbstruck and pensive. She couldn’t bring herself to blemish its flesh, so instead she set about calibrating his innards, balancing each component to keep the Moon in place in an elliptical orbit around the Earth. She didn’t want to create an overbearing Moon, though, and decided he would only have one power over her home planet.    

It took about a week to get the calculations just so, and after that Will knew she had completed her task. Before her was the Earth’s first Moon, an arctic fox caught in a blizzard and hollow as a bird, Shiv in hand, she cut the harnesses holding down her creation, and allowed it to settle into orbit, a new Moon. Will had bequeathed him with power over water: the tides would bow to his every whim. She could never tell the other Creators of her work, though. They’d be furious that a newbie had dared intrude on their territory. A rumour of meteor creation or something to that effect would have to be started; Will knew that would be no mean feat, and she would have to work hard to keep her name clear. Carelessly, lost in her own mind, her hand glanced a scorching poker.

The watchmaker removed her goggles, speckled with dust. On her finger was a moon rising, angry and red.