Chapter Six

"Ah, Mila Arwyr," the ULOS official smiled his cold smile at her. "Nice to see you again."

"The pleasure is mine," Mila said, though her words were far from the truth. She hated ULOS, with it's synthetic voices, the manner in which the Elite customers looked at her, and the feeling of inferiority she got every time she walked through it's polished doors.

Mila was sitting in a silver chair in a small office. Across the glass desk, the ULOS official was polishing his glasses. "So, Mila," he began. Mila tried hard not to let her hatred show. "I understand that you took a rover out at approximately," he checked his watch, "0900 Terra hours yesterday. Your companion was Jakk Cynor, and you returned at 2304 Terra hours. Is this correct?"

"It is."

The man sniffed. "Jakk Cynor filed a report saying that you had found evidence of a ULO. Is this true?"

Here comes the hard part, Mila thought. She leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table. She saw the man flinch as she moved closer to him. Idiot. "What you have to understand about my friend," Mila said, trying to make her voice as close to the silky tones of the Elite as possible, "Is that his imagination is, to say the least, wild. What we found was an oddly shaped rock that looked remarkably like a satellite. Jakk was convinced that it was a ULO of some sort, and he insisted on filing a report immediately. I inspected the rock, I even took the liberty of running some tests on it. It is a perfectly normal moon rock, despite what my friend might have said."

The official seemed to be buying her story, though you could never tell with ULOS. After a few awkward minutes of silence, he answered. "Very well, Mila. I shall cancel the report. Have a nice day."

Mila rose. "Thank you," she said graciously, dipping her head for effect, before turning and gliding out of the room.

And hold for the applause.

☯☯☯☯

Back in her room, Mila pulled the book she had found in the library out of a compartment under her bed. She flipped carefully to the page that mentioned the Llachar. "Scan," She ordered her interface. A green light clicked on and ran over the page in Mila's hands.

-Scan complete-

"Send it."

-To where?-

"Jakk Cynor."

-Message sent-

Mila sighed. "Thanks, interface." She carefully wrapped the book in white cloth and placed it in her pack. She zipped up the bag and grabbed her dark blue jacket. She hastily put the jacket on, grabbed her bag, and headed for the transporter. "Interface, lock my room," she called over her shoulder. "I won't be coming back for a while."

☯☯☯☯

Mila pressed the red button in the booth. "State your name and business," came the cool voice. Mila took a deep breath.

"Mila Arwyr. I'm going to Earth."