Chapter Four

The signal emitter was a silver rectangle, about 3/4 foot by 2 feet. It was a few inches high, and there was no way to open it as far as Mila could see. As she ran her hands over it, she noticed that the surface was unnaturally slippery: she could barely get a grip on it. Jakk had decided to drive while Mila examined the rectangle.

"Anything?" Jakk said over his shoulder.

"Nope," Mila answered. "Is the signal still up?"

Jakk tapped a few buttons on his tablet. "Yep. I think we're going to have to bring it to ULOS for inspection, just to be on the safe side."

Mila groaned. "ULOS takes forever. Do you know how many regulation forms they have to fill out?!" ULOS was the acronym for Unidentified Moon Object Services. They regulated and tested any objects found outside the colony. "And we might not even get it back," Mila added.

"What are we going to do with it then?" Jakk flipped the switch to put RALT on auto-pilot and turned his seat to face Mila. "Smuggle it in?"

Mila smiled one of her signature Cheshire cat grins. "Exactly."

☯☯☯☯

Mila and Jakk stared at the rectangle, their hands beneath their chins. "It's not doing anything," Jakk said in a whisper. "Shut up," Mila snapped. "Maybe if you'll stop talking, then it'll activate, or something..."

Jakk stood up. "We've been here for--" he checked his lunar watch, "almost an hour. I'm going to get some dinner. Want to come?"

"Nah, I'm fine," Mila said, not taking her eyes from the silver object. "You go on ahead."

Jakk sighed, gave the rectangle a last parting glance, then picked his way through the junk in his lab. Mila heard the lab door open and close as he walked out, but she paid no attention. All of her scrutiny was focused on the silver rectangle that lay a few inches from her nose. She could see her warped reflection in it's shiny depths. On an impulse, she reached out her index finger and touched the object's surface.

The silver surface rippled under her touch. Mila pulled her hand away instantly, but the change did not stop. From where her finger had touched, a black stain rippled outward, engulfing the entire rectangle. With a hiss, the top half of the rectangle separated from the bottom. Mila scrambled away from the morphing object in distress, knocking her chair over. She clicked on her headset, but all she heard was static.

"Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me? Repeat, is anyone there?"

Nothing but feedback.

By now the top rectangle had floated over and laid itself to the side. Mila approached the other half of the object and peered cautiously inside. The inside was completely white, blank. Mila groaned. "All this for nothing?!" Her voice echoed around the empty lab. She didn't expect an answer, but one came. From the rectangle on the table.

-Who has activated my probe? Speak up!-

Mila gaped in astonishment. "I'm....Mila Arwyr," she stammered at last. "Of LuCA."

-What is this "LuCA" you speak of?- [[classic alien line, had to put it in there!]]

"Lunar Colony Alpha. What are you?"

The voice grew cold. -That is of no concern to you. Where is this LuCA?-

Mila crossed her arms. "Tell me what you are first, and then I'll tell you that."

-No matter- the voice sneered. -You have activated my device. The signal should be even stronger now. I should be thanking you.-

"For what?!"

The rectangle ignored her. -Tell me, how did a female carrying the blood of the Llachar come to be on Terra's moon?-

"Blood of the who?"

-Never mind. You have proved yourself useful. Too bad that you must be destroyed.-

In a flash of light, the box and it's contents disappeared, leaving Mila Arwyr with more questions than answers.

Chapter Three

"I hate having breakfast at Geal's in my work clothes." Mila took a bite out of her toast with butter and cinnamon.

"Why?" Jakk asked. He was busy cutting up his scrambled eggs.

"Everyone stares at me," Mila said, casting glances around at the other customers. "I mean, I know I'm only Labor and most of them are Elite, but they could at least be polite."

Jakk looked around. The resturant was made of a shiny, flawless white color. The tables, the chairs, even the workers' uniforms were pure white. The only color in the diner came from the customer's clothes, and most of those were a smooth silver, gray, or black. Only Jakk and Mila stood out: her in bright pants and boots, he in his crocheted green sweater and dark brown pants.

"Well, watch them bow on their knees and thank you when you fix everything in their over-bedazzled quarters." Jakk said, forking scrambled eggs into his mouth. "That'll be a sight to see."

"Yeah, but I hate feeling like I'm inferior to them," Mila complained. She lowered her voice. "Look at how they're staring at us. Like we're something that they scraped off the bottom of their polished shoe."

"What are you going to do about it?" Jakk leaned back in his seat and stared across the table at his friend.

Mila ran her fingers through her sandy blonde hair. "That's just the thing. Ican't do anything about it." She sighed. "Forget it. It's just a stupid pet peeve."

Jakk studied her. "Hmm," he said indifferently. "Well, I'm done." He pushed out his seat and stood up. Mila did the same. Jakk laid down two gold lunarcoins down on the table.

"That breakfast cost me a lot. You eat like a pig," he teased as they walked out of Geal's.

"Hey, you wake me up early, you pay the price," Mila smiled. "Now, let's go hunt some signal."

☯☯☯☯

"You sure it was here?"

"Positive."

Mila and Jakk had been tracking down the signal for over eight hours. It had taken them at least six hours to get to the Other Side, even using RALT (Rover Alpha Lunar Three)'s boosters. They had been actually scanning the three mile radius for about two hours. The readings had gotten stronger the closer they got to the site, but so far they had found nothing.

The moon's blank, gray surface surrounded them. No crashed satellite, no mysteriously glowing rock, no weird looking craters. Nothing.

In RALT, Mila sighed. "Maybe we should just give up."

"Give up?" Jakk asked. "The great Mila Arwyr giving up? Impossible." He handed Mila a hand scanner. "Here. Let's get out on foot."

He pressed a button on RALT's console, and the top hatch slid open with a hiss. Jakk and Mila, dressed in their spacesuits, climbed out and onto the moon's surface. Mila bounced around, enjoying the feeling of being (almost) as light as air. LuCA had artificial gravity, and it had been a long time since Mila had ventured outside of the colony.

Jakk was scanning already. Mila pulled out her own scanner and bounded several yards away.

Blip. Blip. Blip.

The scanner was consistent in it's beeping. Mila walked forward.

Blip blip blip blip blip.

The beeps became more rapid. Mila walked forward another few bounds.

blipblipblipblipblipblipblipblip

The beeping became almost a single sound. "Jakk!" Mila shouted excitedly over her headset. "I think I found it!"

Chapter Two

"I'm in the back," Jakk called. Mila picked her way through the debris. Scattered bits of metal littered the dirty lab floor. The overhead lights were turned off to conserve power: Jakk was slightly paranoid about power failures. A faint light came from the console lights in the back. Mila climbed over what looked like an ancient Class B rover and landed with a thump in front of the wrecked probe. Jakk was bent over the console, tapping it's surface.

"Oh gosh." Mila stared at the fried rover. "You really did it this time, didn't you?"

Jakk gave a snort of protest. "Well, I was trying to re-calibrate the sensors, when suddenly it went all whacko on me!"

Mila leaned over Jakk, examining the console from over his shoulders. "Did you try rebooting it?"

"Yes, yes," sighed Jakk. "I ran it through a few programs. Nothing."

"So you're saying it's manual," Mila reached into her back pocket and pulled out her yellow work gloves.

"That's why I called you in." Jakk explained.

"Then, let's get started." Mila slipped on her gloves and reached for a hoverpad. She laid the body-sized panel down on the floor, where it hovered a few inches above the ground. She laid down on it gently, the pad dipping slightly to compensate for her added weight.

"Mila, before you go in there, I think you should know something first," Jakk peered over at her.

"Make it quick. I can see lots of outward damage," Mila snapped. Her hands were already itching to rewire the rover.

"Well, the whole reason I was trying to recalibrate Ralph's sensors was--"

"Wait a minute. 'Ralph'?" Mila's attention turned back to Jakk.

"Yeah. Ralph." Jakk shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "From it's initials. R. A. L. F. Rover Alpha Lunar Five."

Mila smirked. "Continue."

"I was recalibrating Ralph's sensors because it picked up a reading from the Other Side."

There was dead silence in the room. Mila slowly slid out from under the rover and sat up. "Did you just say, 'from the Other Side'?"

Jakk's hazel eyes were still fixed on the screen, but Mila could see the tightness in his forearms. "Yes." His voice was so soft, Mila could barely hear it. "It was so faint and quick, I barely caught it. At first, I thought I was imagining things. Been stuck in the lab too long. But then, a few minutes later, there it was again."

Mila got up from the hoverpad and walked over next to Jakk. She pulled up a chair from behind her and sat down next to her friend. "What kind of reading was it?"

Jakk massaged his forehead with the bottom of his palms. "From what I can tell, it was a signal."

"Did you get a lock on the coordinates?"

"I have a general locate."

"Then you know what that means." A grin split Mila's face. She stood up, kicking the chair away with her right foot.

"The last time I saw that look, I spent three days filling out rover regulation forms," Jakk sighed.

Mila's smile got even wider. "Grab your tablet Jakk, we're going on a signal hunt!"

"But breakfast first!" Jakk insisted.

Chapter One

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Oh shut up..." Mila muttered. Her interface continued beeping. Mila slid her gray heat-generator blanket off of her body and rolled out of bed. She landed with a thump on the floor.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Coming, coming!" Mila groaned. She got up from the floor, still sleepy, and rubbed her gray eyes. "Interface, what is it?"

-Message from Jakk Cynor-

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?!" The interface did not respond. Cheeky little thing. Mila thought. Maybe I'll get it replaced.

Interfaces were the way that the inhabitants of LuCA communicated with each other. The lunar colony was expansive, so the development of interfaces allowed colonists to send messages to each other quickly and efficiently.

"Play message," she said aloud. Jakk's voice came through the interface, as clear as if he was standing right next to her. "Hey, Mila. Sorry to disturb you so early, but one of my rovers is fried. I need you to come right over and take a look at it ASAP, k? After you check it out I'll buy you breakfast at Geal's. Bye." The interface clicked off.

Mila rolled her eyes. "Interface, send a reply to Jakk." She waited for a minute, then recorded. "Jakk, that breakfast better be good. Mila out." A ping sounded. -Message sent-

Mila slipped out of her one piece sleepwear and pulled on her dark yellow jumpsuit pants. The pants were DuraCloth, a material that was resistant to tears and burns. The DuraCloth pants had several pockets, which were littered with spare lunarcoins, bits of paper, and tools.

Over that, she put on a dark gray-blue work shirt. This shirt was less high-grade than her pants, but it had stuck with her ever since she had started work at age 13. It also had a sleeve pocket, in which she stored her ID chip.

Mila pulled on her brown DuraCloth socks and bright orange boots, clipped the overall straps on her pants to each other and swung her dark brown pack over her shoulder with a clink of metal. She crossed to her door, pulled it open, and stepped out into the transporter's bright light.

☯☯☯

Mila loved transporter travel, but the thing she liked even better was rover travel. Unfortunately, GOM, the government of LuCA, had suspended her rover license two terra months ago. There had been a little accident involving a couple of broken labs, and even though Mila had fixed everything, she had only just gotten her permit back. She decided that taking the transporter would be a better way to play it safe.

The doors hissed open in front of the door to Jakk's lab. Mila stepped out of it and pressed the blue button by the door. "Jakk? It's Mila." she called. There was a pause, then Jakk's voice came back through the speakers. "Come on in." The silver doors slid open, and Mila walked into the dark lab.

Intro & Info

LuCa is a science fiction story by me, Akire. It chronicles the adventures of Mila Arwyr, a twenty five year old living on LuCa, the first lunar colony. When her friend's rover's sensors pick up a strange energy reading from the Other Side of the Moon, she is plunged into an adventure that will change her life, as well as millions of others' forever.

Info:

LuCA-->The name of the colony is an abbreviation of Lunar Colony Alpha. It was established in the year 2020. LuCa is now on it's 71st year, the date being 2091.

Labor--> The work force of LuCA. They are the poorer of the two ranks, and work in jobs such as Engineer, Construction, or Rover Pilot. The higher of the Labor can also be assistants to the Elite in areas like science or medicine.

Elite--> The Elite are the higher rank of LuCA. They are typically very well groomed and mannered, and they hold jobs that don't require as much effort as those of the Labor. Elites might have jobs like Teacher, Doctor, Scientist, or Researcher.

GOM--> GOM stands for Government Of the Moon. They are in charge of everything on LuCA, and can revoke or grant privileges to anyone.

ULOS--> ULOS stands for Unidentified Lunar Object Services. They deal with new objects discovered on the Moon's surface.

Culture of LuCA--> The Elite typically look down on the Labor, and treat them like servants who cater to their every whim. The accent of LuCA is sort of a mix of everything, though some of the older generations still retain their "home" accent.