Lunar Rising

My head throbs. Bleary and teary-eyed, I blink three times and come to the realization that I’m sprawled on the dirt floor. I’m amazed that I’m still alive.

Dust lingers in the air, heavy and gray. Every breath I take is in agony. I prop myself up on my elbows and struggle to regain my mind. My entire body aches. Looking to the side, I see someone else lying on the floor.

“Raven!” I gasp, gripping his shirt and shaking him. “Raven, you okay? Can you hear me?”

“Stop,” he mumbles.

I release him, and he scrambles to a sitting position, rubbing the back of his head and wincing. We both cough, then stare at each other and burst into laughter.

“Nice job falling into the hole,” he teases.

“Nice job falling in after me,” I reply.

Raven’s dusty hair makes the edges of my mouth twitch into a tentative smile. I reach up to pat mine, and I can feel that it’s a huge mass of knotted hair. Raven glances up at his hair and mine and smiles.

“How are you feeling?” he asks, his arm extending to touch my hand.

“A little sore, but nothing major.”

“That’s good.”

“You?”

“I’m pretty tough. A little dizzy, but could be worse, right?”

We both laugh again. I suspect that we’re in shock, since both of us are still trembling. Then something out of the corner of my eye draws my attention.

“This isn’t an ordinary underground cavern,” I whisper, pointing. Raven and I look around us.

The ground is oddly level, and parts of the cave floor are even paved with small tiles of steel. The paved trail leads farther into the tunnel, extending past what I can see. The tunnels aren’t completely dark. Some faint light is coming from deep within the tunnel.

Raven and I glance at each other. We’re both thinking the same thing, however improbable.

Helping each other along, we slowly go along the tunnel, feeling our way around a bend. Then, the haze of light shapes into something I can recognize.

“A panel door,” I breathe.

Raven and I approach the rectangular door in the dust. It’s obvious what it leads to. The hidden lab.

“We made it!” I pause to catch my breath as we stand in front of the silver doors. Engraved into the silver are patterns of complex green lines, stretched out like a web of circuits from the large black onyx in the center of the door. All around us remain bleak walls of pale dust.

Raven takes a long look at the door and whistles once, low, in disbelief. “It’s smaller than I imagined it,” says Raven. He coughs and hacks a dry breath. “The air down here is terrible, though, so be careful and speak less.”

“Take your own advice, then,” I say, stepping forward to examine the door. I gently tap the smooth, slightly dented surface.

There is a loud thump above me, and the next thing I know, a pile of gray dust showers on me and covers every inch of me with fine, prickly specks of white dirt. Behind me, Raven stifles his laughter.

“Hey!” I spin around and swing a playful punch at his shoulder. He moves away just in time, but he comes forward again and catches me in his arms before I can stumble.

I untangle myself from his embrace, trying to hide the flush in my cheeks.

“Let’s see how we can get in the lab.” I turn back to the doors. My mind pushes Raven out of it, but my attention keeps getting distracted to him. This happens more and more now, and it frustrates me.

The door has no handle, so it must be an automatic door. Raven is watching me. Where is the sensor, then? My hands inch along the door, feeling along the onyx and the intricate lines embedded in the door. Raven is still watching me as I work. I stare at the onyx, and bring my face closer to its shiny, dark surface. Huffing a breath and wiping it clean, I can see that within the shell of the gem, there are many circuits and wires inside, connected to a panel directly behind the onyx covering.

“The scanner,” I breathe, feeling anxious.

“What?” Raven coughs.

I face him. “Behind the onyx is a scanner. We have to scan something against it and the door with automatically open.”

“Scan what, then? A card?”

“My eyes.” I brush the dust off my hands as well as I can and gently remove my green contacts. Still, the particles of dust sting my eyes. “It’s the color of my eyes, Raven. Natural white irises will unlock the door.” I take out the green contacts and place them in my palm, my eyes closed and watering because of the dust. “Okay, here we go.”

Raven doesn’t respond, so I keep going. “I’m going to look into the eye scanners hidden in the onyx,” I say. “Then, if this door isn’t too old, the lab will be unlocked to us.”

I take a deep breath and stand in front of the onyx; my face is only a centimeter from the scanner when I hear the faint sound, “Eye color scanned. Welcome.”

I step back and the door splits into four triangles, sliding away to let us go inside. “Come on.” Raven reluctantly follows me, and we head into the lab.

The first thing I notice is that the lab is more than one story. It appears to be a circular two-story lab in the ground, but without windows or additional doors. We have emerged from the top floor, and I walk forward to the railing that overlooks the first floor. I peer down and see a faint orange glow coming from underneath a huge, round tarp in the center of the circular lab.

“Whoa.” Raven carefully holds up an intricate contraption. “I’m not sure what most of this stuff does, but there’s so much, and probably all for a great purpose.”

While Raven fondles the inventions on the upper floor, I glide down the staircase weaving along the side of the circular room to see the lower floor. The thing that glows and is secured underneath the tarp is on a platform, and surrounding the platform are computers. The computers look old-fashioned. The keyboards are holographic, but they use a button to turn on rather than the more popular way of activating it from the screen. My fingers brush away a thin layer of dust from the screen. The functions on there are unfamiliar to me.

The thing underneath the tarp. I reach forward and tug the tarp free from the old fasteners on the sides, and then I slide it off. A wave of dust flies through the air, and I use one arm to block my nose and mouth. The tarp is completely lifted, and the object underneath it glows bright orange. My breath catches in my throat.

It’s a star.

Or at least, a very, very small one. Held within a protective tinted capsule, the huge ball of swirling flames and gold sits in a hovering position in a little dip in the platform. I hear footsteps racing across the room, and I turn away from the bright star-like ball of energy to see Raven.

“What is that?” He looks into the star, the colors of fire dancing in his dark eyes. Like magic and destruction in his twin galaxies.

“I don’t know,” I reply. “It looks like a star, but it can’t be…can it?”

“Humans made their own planet, but I don’t think we have the technology to make our own star.”

“Unless there’s technology that nobody except the government knows about.” I sweep my hand through the air, gesturing at everything around us in this organized lab. “All this stuff down here is worth millions in equipment. The only equivalent of this lab are the labs in the government’s hands, except the inventions here do much more than simulate landscapes and build skyscrapers. The inventions here can build whole planets, or in this case,” I nod towards the star, “whole solar systems.”

“No wonder why the government wants all this stuff so much. This lab contains too much power. It threatens mankind.”

“Not unless this tech in placed in the proper hands,” I point out. “Under the right interests, these inventions can save the world.”

“Who do you think this lab should belong to, then?”

“To be completely honest with you, Raven, I don’t know. It’s obvious that the government can’t have it. I wouldn’t trust just any scientist either.”

“Well, we can’t just leave this here. If someone goes wrong, or if seismic activity trigger something, everything in here could blow up or be destroyed.” Raven makes a face. “There’s something wriggling around in a test tube over there that I really don’t want to disturb.”

Suddenly, I remember my grandfather and Aiden. “Wait. I know who this lab should belong to.”

Raven furrows his eyebrows. “Who?”

“My family.”

“Can you trust them?” Raven looks worried.

“Of course, I can,” I assure him. “They’re family. Doesn’t that mean that I can trust them?”

“I…guess.”

I tap on the screen on my watch and text Miffy, Aiden and Grandfather’s contact name. My heart struggles against my ribcage. I take a deep breath and text Miffy: I found it.

Almost instantly, I receive a request for a video call.

“Hello?” I murmur.

My grandfather’s face shows up.

“Hey, Charlotte. You said you found it?”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

Raven starts to walk to me, but I silently wave him away. He nods to me and goes to the other end of the lab to inspect the notes stapled to the walls.

“Where are you?” Grandfather’s hologram continues.

“I’ve sent you my coordinates using my microchip.”

Grandfather’s relieved voice sends a rush of joy through me. “Good job, Charlotte.” I beam at his hologram.

“Now what?” I ask. “What are we going to do with this lab?”

“Not to worry, Charlotte.” His voice changes into something darker, something more sinister that I cannot place. “The government has good plans for what you’ve got there.”

“The government?” I narrow my eyes. “What--?”

Grandfather smiles. “Good job, Charlotte. I must thank you for all the help you’ve provided for us.”

A huge blast sounds from the upper floor. I whirl around to the sound and leap for the staircase, pressing myself against the wall and moving up. I reach the top of the stairs and see the solid door from which we came in, blasted to pieces and kicked aside. People dressed in black stream through the door with guns, pointed directly at me. I hear footsteps behind me and tense up, but it’s just Raven. He gasps, reaching my side, and stands to face the government

I spin around, take his arm, and lead him back down the stairs. “Come on!” I yell to him, letting go to grab the nearest dangerous-looking object. We jump down the stairs five steps at a time to skid to a halt at the bottom. The strong glow in the room reminds us of the item that needs to be protected the most.

“The star,” we gasp at the same time.

There’s no hesitation. Raven rushes forward and snags the tarp on the floor and immediately begins to throw it over the star, trying his best to cover up the glow. I turn around and point my object at the stairs, aiming at the swarm of people trying to get down. I fire.

A wave of hot gases envelope the stairs. I turn a small knob on my contraption and it shoots out something that looks like a string. As soon as the string makes contact with the gas, it sets it on fire. The flames roar in my ears, traveling up the stairs to meet the government’s screams. I back away a bit and try to fire again, but the container attached to it is now empty. I shake the invention desperately before tossing it aside and reaching for another one.

The government people have been stalled by the cloud of fire, which is quickly disappearing. My new contraption looks like two glow sticks. Holding one in each hand, I rub them together and slowly bring them apart. Like a thread being woven into a scarf, electricity jumps from stick to stick, getting thicker as I hold them longer. Moving the sticks in circular motions, I manage to shape the energy into a huge ball, and then like a catapult, I hurl it towards the people above the stairs.

There’s a huge snapping sound, the sound of lightning striking a city dome. People fall down with shock carved onto their faces. Frantically I try to rub the glow sticks together again, but I curse under my breath, knowing that it will take too long. The government descend the stairs at breakneck speed.

All hope is lost. Everything that I’d fought for vanishes in a heartbeat. At this time, everything flashes before my eyes. My meticulous planning to get onto Tylius, my false identity to get me into school, meeting Raven and thinking that we could save Earth…

“Charlotte, duck!”

I drop to the floor and whip around.

Raven, holding a huge light blaster (finally, something that I recognize), aims at them and prepares to pull the trigger.

But one big mistake that I notice right away: The blaster has an adjustable barrel, which right now is pointed backwards at Raven.

“Raven! No!” I jump up to try to stop him from pulling the trigger. “Don’t--!”

He pulls the trigger.

White hot light flashes into my eyes. I yelp, struggling to cover my face, but it’s no use. Spots of darkness appear all over my vision. I can’t even see Raven, who is only, by the sound of his breathing, two feet away.

Both of us blinded by the backfire, we’re sprawled on the ground and surrounded by government goons within seconds.

“Charlotte,” Raven wheezes. I crawl to him and clasp his hands. They’re chilled and shaking. “Charlotte, what are they gonna do to us?”

“I don’t know. Stay calm and comply. That’s the best we can do now,” I whisper back.

Boots thump heavily on the metallic floor. I turn my head upward, but I can’t even make out the silhouette of the man standing above us.

“Charlotte Blacksand,” the voice rumbles. “I’m so glad you led us here. Allow me to thank you. Even with our drilling, this would’ve taken us so long to get here. The seismic scramblers located around the lab are so frustrating.”

I know that voice. “Aiden?” I growl. “You’ve been working for the government all along?” They’ve played me. I was just a pawn. The news dawns on me painfully. They were never family.

“Precisely. Charlotte and…Raven Ire, was it?” Aiden nudges Raven’s shoulder with his foot. “You two are coming with me. I suggest you come without resisting.” A pause. “However, knowing your antics and the determination of you two, maybe you shouldn’t be given the choice.”

A soft, muted whoosh and a sharp sting to the side makes me realize that we’ve been tranquilized. The last thing I see before going under is Aiden smirking, tapping on his watch.

“Mr. Lancrux, sir? We got them.”