MoonDom Five
Jon Coley
©️ 2026
For my cousin, Chris. I always go by our family name until you show up.
Disclaimer: Any similarities, either real or imagined, between the characters in this book and anyone else are completely coincidental. I have never been to Jupiter or one of its moons, and I never plan to go on the trip.
Disclaimer 2: This book was completely written by a human being, namely me. It may have been lightly edited by a robot, but it was not the one who vacuums my floors.
Introduction
MoonDom Five Magic System (Known locally as Full Alignment)
Gravity / Active Abilities
Shedding
Ability to transfer weight (not mass) into the atmosphere dropping personal weight almost to a zero measurement. While objects can be temporarily affected, other living beings cannot. Why is not yet known.
Burdening
Ability to transfer weight to other individuals or objects temporarily to the point of physical distress.
Passive Abilities
Insight
Ability to sense weight anomalies in their own bodies down to the molecular level and in others’ bodies (with intense concentration).
Sensing
Ability to sense the weight differences among other living things in the immediate area. Useful for recon.
Classification Avianoid (Ryder)
Electromagnetism / Active Abilities
Storming
Ability to transfer vast levels static electricity from the area and to redirect it anywhere. A powerful weapon when used sparingly. It’s virtually an unlimited resource during a moon storm, but otherwise, static needs to be recharged.
Sapping
Ability to temporarily drain the electrical charge of other living beings to the point of distress.
Passive Abilities
Insight
Ability to sense the electrical movement in their own bodies down to the molecular level and in others’ bodies (with great concentration)
Sensing
Ability to sense the electrical differences among other living things in the immediate area. Useful for recon.
Classification Voltoid (Gage)
Weak Force / Active Abilities
Alchemy
Ability to change the molecular makeup of most objects. Not an easy Art. Random anomalies can be catastrophic. The affects on objects are usually permanent, but living beings are, for the most part, immune.
Healing
Strangely, inorganic or formally organic compounds can be changed (within limits) rendering diseases and poisons ineffective. Ability works stronger internally, but can also be used on others with great concentration and energy. An experienced Morphoid can self heal all but the most grievous injuries while in battle.
Passive Abilities
Insight
Ability to sense the atomic weight of any and all compounds within their own bodies and in others’ bodies (with great concentration)
Sensing
Ability to sense the differences in chemical makeup among other living things in the immediate area. Useful for recon.
Classification Morphoid (Diem)
Strong Force / Active Abilities
Fusion
Ability to fuse the molecules of the atmosphere around them, thus releasing vast amounts of plasma. A powerful weapon when used sparingly. Since all beings need air to breathe and shelter to live in, this ability must be well controlled.
Fission
Ability to release the atomic energy of any object to the point of explosion. More easily controlled and less dangerous for the user.
Passive Abilities
Insight
Ability to sense the atomic weight of any and all compounds within their own bodies and in others’ bodies (with great concentration)
Sensing
Ability to sense the difference between living and non living things in the immediate area. Useful for recon.
Classification Thermoid (Yarrow)
Alignment
Young people with full alignment are often considered burdens on society. Their “passive” abilities are continually functioning, which drains their entire system, making them weak and lethargic, difficult to keep fed as well. Many do not speak due to the vast amounts of aligned information in their brains. Societies on the four MoonDoms are only too happy to banish them, along with criminal undesirables, to the fifth moon.
Pemmican
Survival food. When prepared by an aligned cook, it is imbued with protective attributes to any aligned consumer. This allows them to use their active abilities without risk of draining themselves to the point of sickness or death for at least one day. It also allows them to thrive physically. Over time, it increases their cellular integrity, providing slightly heightened reflexes, fractionally higher than average strength levels, endurance, and resistant health. Although by no means are they invulnerable, they are more resistant to hardships, such as disease and the elements, than most other people. They can also live up to three times longer due to a slowed aging process, causing some to believe they are immortal.
If an unaligned person does the preparing, it is but a highly nutritious food. While a skilled aligned person may still access his or her active abilities, there is great danger of causing personal harm. Only an aligned person can imbue the enhanced characteristics while cooking it, not afterward. The reason why is not fully known, but it seems to be a symbiotic relationship between the natural purpose of this particular survival food and the preternatural purpose of the aligned cook.
Religion
While there are many religions on the four kingdoms, and most exist in one form or another on the fifth moon itself, there is one origin story in which most agree, the tale of the three siblings. The creator brother, the destroyer brother, and the sustainer sister created the Moondoms’ home planet. For eons, the three enjoyed the their home in harmony until the creator brother heard the call of the maker of the universe to move on. Since the creator left first, the destroyer brother continued his work devouring the land beyond what the sustainer sister could bear. In desperation, she transferred the life-giving remnants of the great planet out into the new atmosphere left by the destroyer brother’s work. Those remains became five moons orbiting the old planet, which had become a gas giant. Upon four of the moons, the sustainer sister cultivated life and spent her time alone on the fifth moon. After a time, she could no longer bear to be without her brothers, so she left the MoonDom alone, albeit with her hidden blessings.
Voltoids 2nd Power
Magnetism is a natural byproduct of electrical energy. This often manifests in novel ways for the Voltoid. Sometimes he may have control over metals in his proximity. This is often not useful, but can be amusing, for he can only affect metals less than half his body weight. A practiced Voltoid can generate a protective magnetic field, generally around five times the area of his body mass, which can provide protection from most metal projectiles.
The Tethers
Travel between the MoonDoms has existed since time immemorial. All four societies fully accepted that the spinning tethers in the thin atmosphere had to be man made, but no scholar could pinpoint the inventors, nor explain why they were so reliable. Only the most esoteric scholars had a reasonable hypothesis, and those were hidden deep in the vaults of the aligned. Messages and goods were launched and received on a routine basis between the four moons when in view of one another. Only the fifth moon ever received people. All cargo were packed in large pods which were filled with an oxygen rich gel. This protected goods, even traded foods, from impact during launch and landing. No one ever checked to see if the people sent to the fifth moon survived their journey. Most of them did.
There is more to the story …
Part the First The Arrival
Chapter One
Shooting Stars
Rowena was not one to suffer foolishness, so the little girl felt particularly self-conscious as she approached the elder matriarch. Granted, she did know that her own mother was once messenger to the aligned, and that Rowena recognized the child’s face immediately from genetics alone, but she more than understood how revered the woman was. Even the elder men, few as there were in her village, bowed to her in respect as she passed. Still, the child wavered before her.
“Speak, Caverling. I’ve quite a bit to do this day.”
Rowena did not use a harsh tone with her, but her statement was more than true. Never ending were the duties of the aligned on MoonDom Five. And she was the only one left. In her two hundred plus cycles, she had spent most of that time as the youngest of her kind. At one point there were thirteen of them. All four houses were occupied. Now, she was the last, sitting alone in her Avianoid dwelling, though only when she felt the call to be alone. Rowena softened as the little girl paled before her. She knelt down to the caverling’s eye level.
“Your name is Ella. Correct?”
The child nodded.
“I remember your mother well. She was the greatest messenger of her time. I was more than happy to accept you into our service upon the day of your birth, little one. But now, I really must insist that you deliver your message. It was obviously deemed important enough to command my attention.”
The child nodded and swallowed the lump of fear in her gullet.
“The astronomers have observed a shooting star, Rowena of the Avianoids.”
Rowena worked to remove the shock from her face. It was not time for a tribute. That could only mean two things, one far more likely than the others. Prisoners were on the way.
“You’ve done well, caverling. Here is my reply. Tell the welcoming committee to meet me at the mouth within the hour. Do you understand?”
The little girl nodded.
“And Ella. Tell your mother I send my regards. Now, off with you. Go!”
As quickly as the child had appeared, she was now halfway down the canopy, the Cavers’ name for the upper chambers above the city. Rowena was impressed how nimble the girl was on the rocks. Every bit as agile as her mother in her day, perhaps more. But there was no time for reminiscing. Rowena had to fly.
Her eyes flashed in color as she adjusted her weight, reducing it to just above zero stone. With the grace only brought about from decades of practice, she leapt across the nearest chasm. Her strength, enhanced by bearing preternaturally increased weight on a regular basis, was more than enough to send her soaring. She even had to move her gravity alignment up a little to land.
Has it been that long since I’ve flown?
It had been quite some time, but she was by no means out of fighting shape. That was good, for battle might have been what she would soon be doing. She was at the mouth, the cave opening to her city, in a few moments. A random consideration of triggering the closing mechanism, which hadn’t been done in more than a century, crossed her mind. She shook off the thought to concentrate on the matter at hand. Having traveled the better part of a league, she knew she would have some time to ascertain the situation better before the others arrived. Allowing her weight to re-centralize, she walked out onto the red Almathean terrain. Just outside the periphery haze, she saw it. Something, or someone, was on the way. It did not appear to come from Io, though it was tricky to tell which tether had slung it, and it could have been any combination of routes. Regardless, a volley was approaching, and time was short.
