Luna Reed
Luna’s eyes are fixed on her screen as her gamer headset hugs her green face. “Hold, hold, hold.” Her whole body is set, this petite lady waits for the right moment to release the joystick. The stream is live, and she will not mess this one up. There’s too much betting on this.
The chat fires off.
Spacecadent279: You’ve got it!!!
Plantariumxx: She’s always too late.
Marsmaniac1730: She’s hot for m0o0onie
LunaReedFanClub: LUUUUUUNNNNAAAA CRASH IT.
StarsGuard5: GOOOOOOO!!!
Luna shifts her thumb forward. The ocean wave on her screen starts to barrel. A surfer rides through the center with her raven hair whipping around her. She makes it through.
The chat goes wild. PRIZE WINNER flashes on the screen. Luna throws off her headset and chugs a galactic-pop. “YES. I DID IT!!” She rushes back to her stream, throwing her headset back over her pink braids. “Thank you all for tuning in and watching history in the making!! Your girl got it to 12.5 meters!”
The stone walls shake around her. She looks up, masking her concern. The chat pours in as the room continues to tremble. Her eyes widen, a small smile crescents on her face. “They’re home.” “Hey Mooners, they’re back!! I don’t need to leave. I’ll be back later tonight with an update, but for now, I’m Luna Reed and I’m signing off! Moon you later!” She holds up a circle with her hands and exits the stream.
Luna looks through her telescope, but dust fills the starry skyline. She quickly unravels her braids and throws over a sweatshirt. Everything about her changes. Her hair is ivory and fluorescent, craters and bumps cover her skin, she grows twice in size, and her pupils fill her eyes completely black.
The neons around her buzz with excitement. “CRRRRRR” Her hands fly to her ears. She runs over to her radio to cut the interference. BANG. BANG. BANG.
Her ceiling begins to crack. A pole plummets through the roof. Her head cranes to the side. She pushes it back up. It stabs back down. She presses it up into the ceiling again while she kicks out her foot to pull over her desk chair. Something is fighting her. She holds it in place while she climbs on the chair, grabbing duck tape along the way. She manically tapes up the hole.
Luna rushes back to her telescope, swiveling it around. The crack grows on the ceiling. All she can see are stars, stars, stars and -
The ceiling caves in. Some entity covered in red striped fabric lies unmoving her carpet. She peels off the fabric, blue and white stars unfold and there lies the strangest thing she’s ever seen.
“CRRRR Armstrong, do you copy? Armstrong??”
Luna stares down at the orbed figured duck taped to her gamer chair. She pokes them with her bubble wand taped to a broomstick. She stabs at them harder. Their glass face cracks. Or is it a face? Luna dares closer. There is a face like hers passed out inside the orb. “Oh fuck.”
Luna tugs at their orb, yanking and twisting until it comes off. “Wake up!!” She slaps their face. Crystal blue eyes flicker open and he gasps for air. His limbs start flapping against the tape. The gamer chair rolls around chaotically. She flits around looking for anything to help.
“What do you need!?” She grabs galactic-pop and shoves it in his mouth. Neil spits it out in her face. He tries to roll over to her hand. His face is turning purple. “Okay, I’m sorry!!” She refastens his orb. He gasps until his breathing regulates. She is still inches from his face. Her breath fogs up the glass.
Neil scans the perimeter and his foe. He made it to the moon. He made it in the moon. A call rings from Luna’s computer. Neil lunges toward the screen. Luna dives in front of him and spins the chair away. She opens the video call. Neil peddles towards the window. Earth orbits further and further away.
“Mara!! I need your help! There’s this THING. It broke into my home, they’re trying to destroy it.”
“What thing!?”
Luna shoves Neil's chair over as hard as she can. He tries to plant his feet down, but it’s no use. He skids across the floor in front of her desk.
“Luna, that’s not a thing, that’s a human.”
“There’s no such thing as humans. That’s spacetales.”
“What characters do you think you play within your game? Those are real entities.” The waves build and crash on her second monitor. Luna turns Neil around in the chair and leans closer until her nose smushes against the glass. Luna sniffs him and scrunches her nose. “These humans are nasty. Do you speak human?”
“Let me pull up a translator. Okay, what do you want to say to it.”
“Hu man. Why do you want my home!?” Her computer reads the message in 17th-century French. He looks completely bewildered. He chokes out something completely inaudible.
“Mara, did you get that?”
“Oh, he speaks End-glysh. He said he’s Lieutenant Armstrong of the… United States of America and you must release him.”
“Hard pass. Ask my question again.”
Computer, “Human, why do you want my home!?”
Neil finally looks Luna in the eye while he whispers, “Home.” He murmurs back to her.
“The computer says that he wanted to be the first to visit. It’s some big deal where he’s from.”
“Yeah, why don’t I visit you and break your home!?”
“He said he can show you Earth. He’ll take you back with him.”
“I’m not some star chaser, I need to be here for-”
“Do you think they’re coming back?”
Luna turns away from the screen to walk to the window. She looks at Earth with her telescope. She looks around and discovers his spaceship. She stands up defiantly, “Tell him I’ll go. But he needs to bring me to my family… and fix my roof!”
Her computer reads off her demands and he nods. “Mara, send me that translator simulation. I’m set.”
“You sure? I can stay on?”
Luna sizes him up, “I can handle this.”
Luna grabs the edge of the tape and spins him at lightning speed. “There you go!” He falls to his knees and clamps his lips together. He swallows back bile.
He slowly moves his hand to his shoulder. His radio is just in reach. His freedom is moments away. Luna swipes it off of him and slams her keyboard, “I can send you out there without your orb.” The computer translates. From a knelt position, Neil slowly gets to his feet with his hands up. His hand covers hers. He stares deeply into her eyes and whispers.
Computer: I will bring you to Errth.
Tears fill her eyes. Her form flashes between her gamer girl green, her moon-cratered face, and Mara’s face. With each deep breath, she morphs back to her cratered form. “Let’s get to work then.”
Neil stands on a ladder with a bucket of slate clay. He patches the ceiling as she sets up a fan. They trade laughter, stories, and lingering looks. The computer works overtime.
Luna hands him a galactic-pop, he smiles awkwardly, but mimes chugging the drink. She blushes, her cheeks warming with starlight. “Right, well keep it for later.” She cheers him and chugs her can with a belch. Their knees bump. He pulls her chair closer. Her breath fogs his helmet as she reaches around him to the keyboard, “Trust me?” He nods.
As Luna holds both sides of his helmet, she bites her lower lip and nods her head. Is she convincing him or herself? He sucks in a giant breath. She clicks his helmet to the left and slides it off of him. She wants to take her time and savor this moment, but this mortal man doesn’t have that luxury. Luna puts the helmet in her lap, but leans in to feel his warm lips brush against hers. Neil throws the helmet to feel her flush against him, these two meteors colliding in one magnetic moment. He begins to choke with a sly smile. His lack of oxygen left this dazed man to see stars. They both reach for his helmet, hands over hands locking it in place.
Neal inhales a triumphant breath, but starts to gag. It feels like every cell in his body retracts, wilting inside of him desperate for air. An alarm goes off as he scans over his helmet, “Neil, tell me. What do I do!?” Luna picks up a clear pebble from the ground, the smallest piece is missing from his helmet. His skin turns purple. Luna blocks the hole. Duck tape. She needs one piece. She holds on to his helmet as he starts to slump in her arms. She stretches out her leg to bring it closer. To bring him to life.
Luna rips a piece with her teeth and mends his helmet. “Neil? Neil, talk to me. Say anything!” She flicks her hands from her lips, trying to communicate to him in any way. She runs over to the computer, begging this machine to help wake him up.
“CRRRRRR. Lieutenant Armstrong, do you copy? It has been approximately 37 minutes since your last contact. Do you copy?”
Luna picks up his head, his once glowing eyes blank and unanimated. Her tears slide down his helmet. She puts him down and back to the computer’s simulator. She presses translate and she fumbles with her English, “Do you copy?” She nods once it speaks back to her in a familiar tongue. She glances back at Neil’s lifeless form. She morphs into him, orb and all. She types on her computer and then clicks the radio, “Yes, I copy. Returning to my aircraft soon. Over and out.”
As Neil’s eyes begin to fog over, his ship flies back to Earth.
Luna Reed, as Lieutenant Neil Armstrong, watches the Moon get smaller. Her features flicker as it gets farther away. “I’ll be home soon, I’ll bring them back with me.”