Luna

Henry Adams once said, “ Chaos was the law of nature. Order was the dream of man.”

Our Earth was born out of Chaos, according to Greek mythology. Out of a vast nothingness came Gaia, the Earth, the Mother of Everything Beautiful. Uranus, the starry sky, became her mate. He was to be her equal, surround her on all sides, and be an everlasting place for the gods. As I stare at the constellations that represent those gods, I am reminded of how much our Earth has transformed since those myths were first told.  

I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a true story. I can vouch for that because I lived through it. I am amazed at all the things mankind has survived throughout the history of our world. In my lifetime alone, the Earth has changed significantly, and humans have still endured. It all started when I was twelve years old.

Actually, it began long before then.

A very long time ago, two neutron stars collided somewhere far out in our universe in an event called a kilonova. Remnants of the kilonova had been traveling through the cosmos since the collision. Some of that material clumped together to form an asteroid that was heading straight toward Earth. The signal finally reached Earth in August 2017, when I was nine years old. We had time to prepare, but there was still the fear of a mass extinction, so a plan for survival was formed.

Taking ideas from books and movies, along with scientists and other professionals, a series of caves with massive bunkers were built into the mountainsides and other areas believed to be safe in case there was a direct hit. Every tornado and fallout shelter was secured and utilized. Every underground bunker that could be found was to be occupied. At that time, my family was living in New York, on the east coast of the United States. I lived with my parents and three older siblings. My family was moved to a bunker in the middle of the United States, where we would stay during the crisis.

The government and the American people stocked every shelter and bunker to capacity. Back then, we had Superstores, like Costco or Sam’s Club. Every ounce of stock was used for the survival of our population. Unlike the movies, not one human was to be left behind. Every person was supposed to have a safe place to shelter during the crisis. The last people were moved into safety two years after the announcement of the discovery.

At that point, we had approximately six more months until the possible impact. Tracking showed the asteroid could be a near miss. It was going to be very close. No one could predict if it would hit or bounce off our atmosphere. We locked ourselves in and waited, crossing off days on our calendars, trying to keep track of time. 

We knew when the asteroid hit because we felt and heard things. It was terrifying not knowing what was happening to our Earth. Sometimes it felt like earthquakes, sometimes it sounded like massive tornadoes. My family was hunkered down in an “apartment” close to the main entrance of our bunker. Even all of these years later, I still don’t know where our bunker was located. We were brought there by military personnel and were not given much information about the location, other than it was far enough inland to be safe if there were tsunamis.

Once it was quiet for what I thought to be several months, the first people exited the hideouts. Somehow, the bunkers were able to communicate with each other, using morse code, I believe. I overheard that there were certain shelters with trained personnel who would assess when we would be able to leave and reinhabit the Earth. Rumors flew that a team tried to leave too early and were never heard from again. I don’t know how many attempts were made or how many lives were lost; we didn’t have news broadcasts or the internet anymore. All we had were rumors. 

When I was 15, three-and-a-half years after we entered the bunker, food supplies were dwindling to poverty levels. We had found ways to produce some food, using tricks taught to us by NASA before locking down the shelters, but it was running out. Luckily, it was then that we got word that we could leave.

We were told that we could exit the bunker, but we couldn’t go anywhere. We had to stay in close proximity to the entrance. We would continue to live in the bunker until we could figure out how we could live outside. Our Earth had changed and we had to learn what was different about our planet and how to adapt. The bunker would remain accessible while we were outside if people wanted to go back in, but most people wanted to be outside after being trapped for so long. Everyone wanted to witness the changes for themselves.

At first, when I left the bunker, I saw a somewhat normal landscape. We were set at the foot of a mountain in the middle of the United States. Below the horizon, not much seemed different. We were sure that we just couldn’t see the extent of the damage from our vantage point. It was decided to send volunteers on short excursions to assess our surrounding areas beginning the next day.

Then, someone looked up. It was daytime. We weren’t sure what time exactly, definitely afternoon sometime but not evening yet. The sun was up and shining brightly. The moon was out, too, but it looked odd. It wasn’t beautifully round anymore. It appeared misshapen and closer somehow. Our moon just didn’t look right.

We stayed out for most of the day. My family maintained a close huddle, unsure of what might be different. We all eagerly watched the moon, curious as to why it was out all day. It didn’t appear to move either. It wasn’t orbiting us anymore, but it did appear to rotate. The conjecture was that the asteroid hit and damaged our moon. That was the consensus. Until sunset.

As the sun set, the actual Moon rose. That’s when we realized what we thought was the moon was actually the asteroid! It must have bounced off our atmosphere or our moon and got stuck in the gravitational pull. Trying to discuss the two moons became confusing, so we dubbed the new moon, Luna.

In the following days and weeks, we learned a great deal about the changes to Earth. As it was, NASA set up shop high on top of a mountain with massive telescopes and brilliant ideas. They were able to communicate with each of the communities that lived in the bunkers. Once that communication was reestablished, the communities were able to actually talk with each other, as well. The government had planned very well.

The people who resided in each bunker were called a community. Each community had sent out search parties to gauge the damage to the surrounding areas. We discovered that we lost many miles of land that were swallowed by tsunamis. There were at least two new volcanoes that formed where they hadn’t been before and the land surrounding them was covered in lava.

Tornadoes must have ripped through the US, as well, because damage paths could be seen from communities in what was the Midwest. Massive cracks in the ground could be seen from multiple communities all over the remaining land. It was believed that the force of the ricochet off our atmosphere or the settling of Luna caused an increase in extreme weather.  

One entire bunker full of people was lost during a massive earthquake. We learned about them after a search party was sent by the government when communication couldn’t be established. The entire mountain crumbled from the intensity of it and they were buried alive. Two other bunkers were buried under lava from the newly formed volcanoes. 

We were locked up for 1,318 days. That’s three years, seven months, one week, and two days. No one knew exactly when Earth had finally settled from Luna’s arrival, but we did learn that it was long enough for animals to adapt and change their behavior.

Luna provided additional light. Luna’s light wasn’t as noticeable during the day, but it was very noticeable at night. The Earth was brighter. Night was brighter. Different animals were now nocturnal. We believed some species of animals would now be extinct if they couldn’t adapt to the new environment. One animal that was missing was deer. There were no reports of seeing deer anywhere. I knew we would discover many more missing in time.

Many animals were hunting at night. It was scary in the foothills of the mountains when it was supposed to be dark and the animals came out to hunt. We learned quickly to lock ourselves in the bunker after sunset. Besides hiding from hungry predators, it was the only way to have complete darkness to sleep. 

Adjusting to sleep schedules was one of the most difficult changes we faced. Several people went mad from sleep deprivation. They just couldn’t get their rhythms to regulate. A small group of those poor souls wandered away from our sanctuary one night. The Rescue Patrol found their remains the next day.

After several months, humans began to adapt better. We were learning how to live on a planet with two moons. Scientists and mathematicians were trying to design a new calendar. New topographical maps were being drawn from the information the communities were reporting. Each community was responsible for collecting data about our new satellite. We were tracking things like moonrise and moonset times, phases, and drawings of the positions of the moons in the sky at different times and in relation to each other.

There weren’t any computers or the internet anymore, so we went “old school.” The Gen-Xers taught us how to perform paper-and-pencil math calculations to determine orbits and velocity, among other information. It was this data that was collected that caused NASA to become concerned. 

According to the data collected by the communities and NASA’s interpretations, Luna was moving away from Earth by some measurable distance each day. It was theorized that as the moon made its orbit around Earth, it’s gravitational pull was drawing Luna towards it. That was when they told us we needed to lock ourselves back in the bunkers.

At the rate it was moving away, Luna would crash into the moon within the next week or so. Hand calculations were not precise, so an exact date could not be determined. We were instructed to secure ourselves in the bunkers again until further notice and wait it out once more.

So, we went in again. It was mentally so much harder to be locked in for the second time. Hunters and gatherers had been stocking food for their communities. We would be alright for a few weeks to a couple of months. Communication was still working, but only community leaders were privy to any information at that point. We were told it should be over soon, but no one could tell us what we would find when it was over. 

After what felt like months, but was actually only a few days at most, we heard something. The sound was muffled by the bunker and the mountain, but it sounded explosive, like the Gucci firework display. There were crashing and pounding sounds outside for hours, like Luna or the moon was raining down around us. 

It didn’t take as long as I had expected to stop. I had expected to be sequestered for much longer, but we received word that we could leave the bunkers soon after the collision. 

The doors were unlocked and we all vacated tentatively. We were curious to see what had changed this time. It was still daylight, but the sun was beginning its descent behind our mountain. There were visible craters around us from the pieces of rock that scattered from the collision. The land was pockmarked.

Luna was gone. The sun was setting but the moon was not rising. We all stared at the darkening sky waiting for the moon to appear. As the light of day faded into darkness, we realized that the craters around us were not formed by the elimination of Luna alone. The collision of the two satellites caused them both to explode.

And that is the story of how Earth got her rings.