System Tour: The Moon

by Edd

Cinderella’s castle in Lunar Disneyland is a latticework of thin metal rods with nanodots that cycle through a thousand color changes a day. Right now it’s purple near the base, shading into pink with white starbursts above.

Right now it’s all blue with an animated Tinkerbell swooping in and out the tower windows. That’s how fast it changes.

Park Hoppers are a constant nuisance, teens in spacesuits leaping over the fences. They carry resonating jammers that opens holes in our forcedome just big enough, just long enough, for them to pass through. The computer feels this and notifies me of their trajectory. Usually I’m there before they touch down, zipping through underground tunnels in my bullet car. I read them the riot act about loss of atmo, about endangering park guests, about paying their entrance fee. I tell them a fable about the kid who landed on the Matterhorn tracks and got run over by the bobsled. Then I have my robo-Pluto sniff their DNA and bill their families.
Everybody’s got a robo-Mickey, or robo-Donald, or robo-Goofy. Part tour guide, part guard, part shill, they ensure that no part of the park gets overcrowded. “Let’s go visit Main Street,” they’re always saying. That’s where most of the shops are.

Lunar Disneyland has the largest dome in the solar system. It’s visible from Earth, but of course there’s nobody down there to see it any more. From the outside it’s opaque: white to reflect the sun, cycling to black in the shade. Inside it’s all puffy clouds and flying horse-ladies. Pegasi with women’s torsos and heads. You know, from Fantasia.

Guests come from all over to visit the park. Spindly Martians, half-gaseous Venusians, bulky Uranians. They’re human inside, where it counts, and mouse ears come in all sizes.