The man from the moon

The man from moon

 Like every visit of ours in Australia this time too spent a day with Sharon and Dave who are like our extended family in Australia. Sharon is tomboyish and very much interested in outer space. Both call me Baba and my wife Ma as they are close friends of our son Anish.

She goes out of the way to help, recently they gave shelter to a drug addicted destitute girl. While discussing that girl she shared a weird story about a man whom her group has given shelter by rotation. 

This is what she told us.

One day our friend John brought a Caucasian man who was wearing an oxygen mask and was walking with a drag. John introduced  that man to us and requested to give shelter for a few days.He had a duffel bag . He had no identification papers except for a strange looking handheld gadget which he stated contains all information about him.

John separately told me that the previous night he found him loitering in his open acreage.John is a plumber by trade and is not much educated . That guy was talking about the moon.

Hearing about the moon I got interested so agreed to keep him in our house. 

After John left him,I accomodated him in Dave's man cave. I offered him food,he declined and pulled out an aluminium can and opened it to eat the pasty stuff inside.

I asked him about his country of origin.

He informed me that he had come from the moon.

"Moon? But the moon is not habitable yet. Recently India landed Chandrayan 3 which also didn't indicate any habitation."

With a twinkle in his eyes with a visible smile wrinkle behind his Oxygen mask he informed he is a time traveller and has come from 2091. 

"What a time traveller from 2091,but that means our scientists could establish habitable domes as shown in sci-fi movies. But how could you travel?"

"A group of us scientists stole a spaceship to do this experiment of time travel through a wormhole. We were lucky to locate such a wormhole which could take backwards to 2023. It was kind of an adventure for us. We don't intend to go back, there is no chance for that. At this time on earth the space travel technology for Interstellar movement is yet to get matured from experimental to working model. My 3 friends are out there like me."

"What are you eating and why are you walking with a drag? Are you sick,why do you require the Oxygen mask?"

He replied.

I will first tell you briefly about our domes where we 4000 people stay. You must be knowing that the moon has a thin atmosphere of helium,argon,neon,methane,ammonia,carbon dioxide. The gravity of the moon is ⅙ th of earth so you see me dragging as I am still to get habituated to this high gravity of earth. The earth's atmosphere has oxygen plus nitrogen,carbon dioxide etc but for survival 20 percent of oxygen is enough so our Aluminium domes with thick glass at the top are pressurised with 20% Oxygen. So as of now I am with this oxygen mask but gradually I will remove this.

Initially when the domes were getting made we carried big oxygen tanks from earth but now oxygen is by product from Aluminium refinery. As you know Aluminium Oxide has 3 atoms  of oxygen.

We don't grow crops instead we get these canisters of food which have all elements required for a human body with artificial taste and flavour chemicals from earth on a regular basis. Basically we manufacture aluminium and glass on the moon now.

There is regular tourist flow from earth and also some super rich people have made the moon as their second home. We get fugitives and social outcasts. The moon administration is with a private conglomerate consisting of super rich American,Saudi,Chinese,Indian etc.

Anything more do you want to know?

I asked whether he has any knowledge about earth in the intervening years.

He informed us that there had been wars, epidemics,asteroid strikes which kept the population in check. In that future the sun was the main source of energy on earth.

As I am a scientist so with your help it shouldn't be difficult to get citizenship as I can share my knowledge of the future technology.

When Sharon finished her strange experience I was eager to know more,so I asked her whether I could meet him.

She informed me that she got in touch with agencies and he is in their custody now.

I started imagining how people stay in those domes but then I realised that in India itself we have gated communities with all facilities thrown in such that one need not go out anytime with the work from home concept. I remember in Vizag I was with my family inside a submarine and had lunch with the captain. There he explained how for days they don't come in touch with land.

I told Sharon that if the moon would have been available then our fugitive billionaires would have taken shelter there.

I thought to myself that the ageing will be slow on the moon because of low gravity as strains on muscle will be low.

I am sure in 2091 many Indian super rich would be going to moon for destination marriage.Practically they will have honeymoon there.