Sky-Water

The Moon-Castle Observatory and Scientific Outpost

The observatory room of the Moon-Castle sat like an onion on top of aspire, rising above the rest of the moon-castle. It was a staircase I had never ascended, nor had I ever spoken with Dr. Zimmerman, whom everyone said kept to himself. "He's in love with the stars," Dr. Lima had once told me. "I think he prefers them over people."

For the sake of his work, the moon-castle stayed dark at night, except for dim lamps here and there to light the way. Most of the inhabitants slept through the night. But at the top of the stairs, I met the night crew—Dr. Zimmerman's team of astronomers and astrophysicists—who worked through the night and slept through most of the day.

I knocked at the observatory door before letting myself in. I had learned from my previous encounters that the only thing scientists hated more than me walking in unannounced was making them leave their work to answer the door.

Six scientists looked up at me in the darkness, but said nothing. The room had no light except the sparkle of starlight and a shimmer of moonlight that came through the glass walls. It wasn't bright, but there was something about the silvery tint that my eyes weren't prepared for. I blinked hard rubbed my eyes.

"It's the radiation," a man said in English. His voice came from the platform above me, but my eyes still hurt too much to look up at him.

"Here,"someone else said. This voice was much closer to me. "Put these glasses on. They'll protect your eyes." He shoved the glasses in my hand.

With the glasses on, I could look around without my eyes feeling the dull pain that they had before. They were clear lenses and did nothing to darken the lighting in the room. It surprised me that they offered any protection at all.

Dr.Zimmerman descended a set of metal stairs at the top of the room and came to greet me at the door. "You must be with the Mpaji Company,"he said. "I'm Dr. Zimmerman, thank you for coming up here, right away. I have a favor to ask. Of course, I'll be willing to pay you for the service, but... Are you Mr. Ndangi? You seem a little young."

"My uncle is the Mr. Ndangi that runs the company. I'm his nephew, Nuru. I am the translator."

"Ah, I see. Nuru Ndangi. Nice to meet you." He shook my hand and leaned in close. His eyes behind his own protective glasses were bloodshot and had an unfriendly look to them. "I am Dr. Pete Zimmerman. I have a rather strange request to make of your company. I was hoping to speak to the man in charge... or perhaps the captain of the ship."

"I've been sent to find out what you need. Neither my uncle nor the captain speak English."

"I see," he said again. "Well then... Come up here for a moment, I think showing you will help you understand the urgency in this. Then you must make your uncle and captain understand what you've seen here."

He led me up the metal staircase to the platform at the top of the room. In the center sat a massive contraption with a network of valves and wheels on either side and a long pipe that went straight through the glass roof and out into the sky-water as far as I could see.

The view of the sky-water from that platform was unlike anything I had seen before. The water glowed with the light of the moon and glimmered off the sea creatures that drifted by. A giant turtle bobbed its head near the bottom of our glass enclosure, looking for some food among the reef life that covered the castle.

And the moon! I had never been so close to it before. Its ghostly form looked like a bubble above us, holding the castle up by a single chain lassoed around its middle. But looking at it too long made my eyes tired, and when I blinked, I saw spots.

"If you're used to the darkness of the trench forest, those glasses won't be enough to protect your eyes from the brightness of the moon,"Dr. Zimmerman said when he saw me rubbing my eyes.