Chemistry, Chaos & Steam: A Magistery of Dunces

To the Moon and Back

The tables, it turned out, were more than just slabs of wood on which to place cups, silverware, plates, and food. They were, much to the obvious delight of the incoming class, actual machines with a circular mid-section that would periodically give off a burst of steam around its rim, rotate downwards through the floor and moments later rotate back up again with all-new plates of food. The children watched the process in awe and then took their cue on what to do next by seeing how the other students "worked" their tables—put the dirty dishes into the circle then wait patiently for the next course to appear. Each time the center of the table let out a burst of steam there were happy gasps of surprise.

Leo, who'd made sure to secure a seat next to Victoria, immediately began plying her for info about the "curious adventure" she'd had aboard the Crimson Cloud. Victoria deflected his questions by asking Leo about himself. It didn't take long to get the excitable boy off topic.

"There's a whole universe out there to visit," he managed to say through mouthfuls of bratwurst. "I've heard there's a telescope here at the Magistery that'll let me see into it; supposedly the biggest in the world outside of London!"

"So you want to be an astronomer?" asked Amy.

"Nah," he answered, using his sleeve to wipe his face, despite the ample supply of napkins. "I don't just wanna look into space."

"Then, what?" asked Victoria.

Leo paused for a moment as a sly grin worked the corners of his mouth. "I wanna go there."

"An...astronaut?" asked Amy, eyes wide in disbelief. "You want to be an astronaut?"

Leo's nod was slow and determined. He'd even stopped shoveling food into his mouth.

"In that case," said Amy, "you may want to stick with astronomy. The ancients going to space..." her face scrunched up, "that's just a myth, a story. They had all sorts of crazy science fiction stuff back then."

"It's not a myth," insisted Leo. "The ancients did orbit the Earth and...and...even walked on the moon!"

Amy laughed out loud. "Oh, for goodness sakes, Leo." She looked over to the person who'd been the object of Leo's affection. "Victoria, back me up here. Tell him how crazy he's sounding."

"Well," answered Victoria, "It does seem possible the ancients could have orbited the Earth."

Amy's jaw dropped and she was about to protest but Victoria wasn't through.

"However, the notion that they walked on the moon is, I must admit, a bit farfetched. Don't you think, Leo?"

"But they left mirrors there," he argued. "And...and, if I can build a laser powerful enough, I can shoot it straight at the moon and the reflection will bounce back."

"Mirrors on the moon?" said Amy, eyes wide in disbelief, "I suppose you believe in tooth fairies too, or the treasures of Fort Knox."

Victoria looked at Leo. "Why is it so important to you?" Her voice was soft and reassuring.

"Because if it is true that the ancients went to the moon, it means we can too."

"Oh, I see," countered Amy, "now you want to walk on the moon?"

Leo nodded. "They did it and so can I."

"I don't think so, Leo," said Victoria. "It would be nice if they had and I'd like to believe that they did, but think about it. If they were really capable of walking on the moon how could they have suffered the Fall?"

It was such a good question that for a moment Leo had no answer.

"If we can build a powerful enough laser to reflect off the mirrors, will you believe me then?"