Mornaro

Mornaro.

Tomorrow it slides back, again.

Every nine years, Arnon catches up to Mornaro, and again, darkness falls over Arnon for months. This cycle is no different. Well, it is different in one interesting way. Tomorrow at 5:12 PM will be the first sunrise of cycle 6. It has been 54 years since the asteroids slammed into Mornaro, slightly slowing it.

For eons, Mornaro flew in a perfectly matched orbit between the star and Arnon, blocking all star-light from Arnon. When the asteroid, or more exactly the series of very large rocks, struck Mornaro, that planet slowed ever so slightly. Allowing the light from the star to strike Arnon for the first time in the history of the planet Arnon.

Mornaro slowed enough to no longer be in perfect sync with Arnon, but not enough to change its orbit or pose a danger. Once the gray line passes over your point on Arnon, you have 99 days, 13 hours, 18 seconds before the light returns.

Like clockwork, the moment the dark hits Arnon, all the major cities start a timer that counts down to the light. This cycle, Bizzy looks at the giant digital timer in the town square, which she can see from her balcony, and it started at 8,600,418. The number of seconds until the light returns.

She has 46,800 seconds until the star rises, around 5 PM this evening. She plans to be on the street at 4:45 PM. This year, this cycle, the light will fall on their city when it returns for the first time. For a few years, she envied those who had the star rise in their early mornings, but since then, to her, 5 PM is a great time for the star rise, even if it is her evening.

She woke up early this morning, most likely with excitement. Bizzy, or Elizabeth Rusoe, has been a cop all but the first 20 years of her life, and today is her 80th birthday. In five more years, she will reach the mandatory retirement age.

She threw on a robe, went to the kitchen, and made coffee. She set it up the night before as she always did. It’s ready for her when she begins her day.

Pouring a cup and splashing in a bit of vanilla creamer, she stood in front of the great window in the living room. Her apartment is on the forty-sixth floor of her building. The top level. She had secured the apartment at a higher price than any of the surrounding apartments had cost half a century earlier. She had the entire top level of the building.

Bizzy had something to eat and another cup of coffee. Fully dressed now, she opened her front door and headed into the world.

The elevator took a minute to reach ground level, but it made it. Walking through the lobby, she hit the street. Less than a mile to the precinct, and she walked in.

“Happy light day, chief!”

“Happy light day, Lieutenant. You volunteered to work on a holiday?” Bizzy took a few steps and stopped. “You know, we met when this all started!”

“That we did, Chief.” He paused a moment, “I did. Let the younger crowd off since today is Light Day and tomorrow is First Star-Rise; let them have some fun.

“Good for you. I’m here too, but I need to be; gotta keep my eye on you, ya know? Bizzy closed her eyes a moment, “A shame Liz is gone. One of the first to pass from light sickness, or as they named it, CDI.”

“True. We had no idea that the star’s radiation could do so much damage so quickly. I miss her this last decade, but I hear her daughter is following in her footsteps.”

“Ariel? Really.”

“Yep. Graduating from the academy in a few months, and I hear she is top in her class.” Marc sat back in the chair and made himself look old and wise. “Now, if I were the chief of this precinct, I would request that Ariel be assigned here so I could train her to be as good as her mother.”

“Now, Marc, that is a great idea.” She started walking away.

She stopped abruptly and turned to face him. “Oh, by the way, Ariel will be here in two months. You are her TO. You should get her jacket this afternoon, once she has the assignment in hand.”

Marc started laughing.

Bizzy went to her office. She is the Chief, the leader of this precinct. She worked on a few reports and realized time was getting short; she needed to be outside.

Captain Barnes walked past her office; the door was normally open.

“Chief. A bunch of us are heading outside to watch the show.”

“I’ll be close behind. I’m reviewing a PR document talking about the Day of the Rocks. Evidently, my report from that day half a century ago reads like the holy book or something to the media.”

“So, Reverend Bizzy, Reverend Chief?”

“Captain Barnes, if by some chance you make the route or the halls of this facility, your promotion to Lieutenant and reassignment to the traffic unit will take place shortly thereafter.”

Barnes laughed, “Understood, Boss. See you outside.”

Finishing her reports and annotating what she saw needed adjustment, she stood and walked out of the office. As she passed the empty desk of her typist, she dropped the reports into the red basket, the one labeled “FROM THE BOSS.”

She decided to take the stairs after seeing how many people were standing and waiting for the elevator. It was only two levels downhill! She chuckled at the thought.

She headed outside, and the precinct looked like a ghost town; she was literally alone there, it seemed. Walking outside, she looked at Mornaro; it made her feel like she was a kid again, lying in the grass on her parents’ farm, looking at the ring of light around Mornaro.

She sat on the steps and leaned back. Putting on her solar-deflection devices, she really needs a new name for these specs. Light dimmers or something would be better.

As she sat there, time stood still, for the moment, and she saw the little girl she used to be playing in the grass. The air was always cool before the asteroids slowed Mornaro’s orbit, but now, during the day, it gets hot.

Some discovered that if star-light hits your bare skin, it can darken it a few shades, and some, like Bizzy, discovered that the light from that star can cause pretty painful burns.

Bizzy limits her light exposure now, and if she may be in the light for an extended period, she wears a long-sleeved top.

She talked with those around her as the timer approached 75, and it sounded like the entire city was counting down to zero.

People coming together to do something good. That is what she was thinking.

She looked at the timer: 0,000,005.

She put on her dark specs and looked at the planet, and as she watched, stared, the star peeked from around the edge of their sister planet.

A moment later, the light from the star hit the city again. It has been months, and now it’s back, at least for just under a decade, when it will hide again for a few months.

As the light hit people, they cheered. It was amazing. The parties were already in full swing.

“Chief, remember the last time this happened? People were scared, wanting to hide, or riot, or at worst, they wanted to kill themselves because they never saw star light before.”

Bizzy smiled, “Yes, Lieutenant, I do remember. I also remember a couple of rookies who balked at me when I told them to remove the round from the chamber of the pistol.”

Marc grinned, “Saved our collective asses too!”

They were now in full star-light, and beginning to look uncomfortable.

Simultaneously, “I think I’ll head back inside.”

They stood and looked around. People were still watching Mornaro slip back, and more of the star became visible, meaning more and more star-light hitting them in the face.

Yes, the heat felt good, but the devastation and chaos it created in your skin and body made it not worth the price of a little star heat.

Bizzy sat back at her desk thinking about that day. The first time light from the star hit her. Yes, it scared her, but at the same time, it was exciting and new. Since then, people she knows look forward to the Light Day celebration. She is about to go off shift and head home to a party being put on by Ariel’s father, Willis Moore.

She will be there, since classes are canceled today due to Light Day. At the gathering, she’ll pull Ariel off to a quiet area and let her know where she will be assigned after graduation and who her TO (training officer) will be.

She planned to head home after dark, since she had no desire for the Cellular Disruption Illness that her friend Liz contracted from spending too much time in the starlight. She was one of the first to perish. But not the last.

Bizzy stood and gathered a few reports she had finished to drop on the desk outside her office.

She said to herself, “I guess I need to go make nice, be around people, and celebrate the light returning to the planet.”