Little Luna
“Art, it’s time.”
Art’s eye glanced at the time in the corner of his glasses.
“Not yet dear, the rocket isn’t launching until next hour. It probably won’t start boarding for a while.”
She reached over and gripped his hand. Hard.
“It’s time,” she stressed.
“Already?”
“Yep.”
“Can’t you stop it?”
“How the heck do you expect me to do that?”
Art felt beads of sweat forming on his head. Their last-minute vacation was taking a disastrous turn.
“Madam, are you doing okay?” a concerned steward asked.
“No. I’m having the baby right now.”
“We can wait until we get on the rocket,” Art told the steward.
“Sorry, we can’t risk that. There are too many risks to infants on re-entry. But we can escort you to the hospital here.”
“We’re going to have a moon baby?!” Keiko exclaimed.
“We’ll figure it out,” Art failed to disguise his anxiety.
“Don’t worry, you are not the first to have baby delivered here. You’ll be the third.”
“Third? No I can’t go.”
“Dear, we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”
She tried to think of a witty retort but another contraction distracted her from any thoughts.
“Sir, please get the shuttle to the hospital,” Art pleaded.
“You’ll be there soon.”
Six hours later and Art was staring at the young girl sleeping in the crib. He couldn’t help but find her fascinating. That was his child. He helped bring her into existence. The whole concept made him think deeply about existence.
“Good morning,” the resident nurse on duty greeted them. “I see little Luna is already sleeping well.”
“Your hospital did a great job. I felt so relaxed through the whole delivery,” Keiko said.
“I’m glad. The hospital staff is well-versed in all kinds of medical emergencies, though this was definitely a rare case.”
“Ha, I guess we’re the fourth set of parents,” Art chuckled.
“Third actually. One mother was here twice. But that’s a long story. I really just came here to give you some forms to fill out.”
“What are these?” Art immediately started noticing strange fields.
“Citizenship papers. Luna will need to apply to your home country. Technically the moon is an independent jurisdiction.”
“Does that mean she can’t come home with us?”
“Some countries have immigration carveouts for family members. But don’t worry, we won’t discharge you until you take your daughter.”
“How long could that be?”
“That depends on local immigration laws. Though I’ve heard the waitlist in some countries is over twenty years.”
Keiko and Art shared a look.
“Twenty years? She’d be all grown up and never once set foot on her homeland.”
“Technically, the moon is her homeland. And when she turns sixteen she’ll be allowed to vote here just like any other citizen.”
We talk a lot about space settlements but not a lot about space families. That’s why I was excited to read “A City on Mars”. There are a number of medical questions about pregnancy and space, but we can probably figure those out.
The legal questions will be a lot harder. Immigration between countries is a bureaucratic mess that will likely get worse with new settlements. Today, the moon is officially not the jurisdiction of any one country, but as more people live there it will certainly develop into its own state. And every state has to deal with passport control.