Message from the Moon

Chapter 5

***Thank you for reading!!! Sorry for the sporadic updates, I have adhd and the concept of time has been making even less sense than usual. I've set a reminder on my phone now so hopefully I get a little better so I can do right by those sticking with this! Thank you again and I hope you enjoy!***

Hardly an echo followed the sound of my feet as they slapped the ground. I was sprinting the fastest I ever have, stretching my legs to their absolute limit. Yet even at that pace, I couldn't keep up with Xethe. Xe had just taken off without warning, and now xe had to circle back several times to urge me on, never once slowing. I swear xe could put the best Olympic sprinter to shame.

I tried to remember our path in case I needed to find my way alone later on, but there didn't seem to be any structure to the halls. I thought of the moving staircases and mysteriously disappearing hallways I used to dream of exploring as a kid; now I'm not so sure I'd much enjoy getting lost in an unfamiliar maze, even if it was magical. We wound in what felt like complete circles, and for all I know, we might've been. I still haven't seen a floor plan, so it could be built in a circular shape. Might make sense since the moon is a sphere, now that I think about it.

Thankfully, we eventually reached a door that Xethe dove into. I nearly blew right by it, but xyr arm shot out to catch me and pull me in.

It was a room much smaller than the one Xerat had been working in. It was only about the size of my dorm room, not that it looked like it at first glance. It was completely crammed with computers. They covered every inch of the walls, with a tiny square of floor left for a singular, normal-looking desk chair, sitting unoccupied.

Xethe said something I couldn't understand, though xyr tone suggested swearing. "Okay," xe said in English. "Xirco programmed these to only respond to xyr touch. If either of us tries to access them, they'll send a virus throughout their system to prevent infiltration. So don't touch anything."

I sat in the chair, my lungs still heaving and my legs fairly wobbly, doing my best not to brush any of the keyboards. The chair didn't even need wheels; just spinning put me within reach of every key. I kept my hands securely between my thighs.

Xethe was sidestepping in a circle around me in an attempt to pace. I had to bite my lips to keep from giggling at the sight, which was particularly hard when xe almost fell into my lap.

"Well," I said after a while, tracing cracks in the armrest with my pinky. "Until your friend—"

"Not my friend." Xe didn't pause in xyr dance.

I spun with xem, studying xyr face. Xe carefully tried to keep it blank; I did however catch a few flashes of something that could have either been annoyance or nerves. Both? "Okay then... until this person gets here, why don't we at least start brainstorming?"

"Brainstorming? That sounds rather unpleasant. Why would one want to storm a brain, unless you are thinking of a possible war tactic? Or are you perhaps referring to a type of weather storm? That, too, sounds like an ordeal to be avoided."

"No, no," I laughed, "I mean, like come up with ideas for how we're going to go about this."

"There isn't a need. We will build a machine that will read these 'auras' and determine which humans deserve to live. It is quite simple."

"Yeah, and my sister said riding a bike would be simple right before I lost most of the skin off my face. Do you know how we're going to make this machine?"

Xe stopped for a moment and stared at me. "That is what the computers are for. All we will need to do is enter our information and what we wish to attempt and they will tell us if it will be possible or not."