Moonscar

  It was dark in space. But darkness was not the problem on most space colonists’ minds.

About five years ago, the prestigious Space Facilities of Nueva chose ten humans to search for life on other planets. Every year, the humans would travel across the galaxy, from planet to planet, adapting to the climate and culture of each one. Guiding them was a line of self-aware AI, able to break down information and use them to form their own complex, abstract thoughts. That means they were able to reprimand colonists when they were doing something wrong, or reward them when they were doing something right. This was truly a pinnacle of space travel.

On this flight was an individual named Moonscar. He was what you’d expect of a space colonist: with his Spartan-like conceit and short, dark red hair, he was what you’d consider a “ladies’ man” back on Earth.

But Earth was very hazy to Moonscar.

See, he’d applied for this mission because he forgot who he was. All he could remember was waking up in a cornfield, with no one round to help him. The only thing remaining of his previous life was a scar on his right arm, in the shape of a moon. It posed an eternal mystery to him. There were some nights where his mind was so puzzled by the scar that he couldn’t even sleep.

Moonscar wanted to serve a new purpose in life. He had a strong sense of morality, but he didn’t know the origins; therefore, he wanted to put that sense of right to the test by teaching it to other lifeforms.

Upon telling this story to the Facilities, they guaranteed he would be chosen. And they did. Because they knew he would succeed; they knew he would be the breakout star. All the discoveries would be broadcast on TV, and people would look at him and go “oh, there’s Moonscar, the hero of our generation!”

The Facilities babied him, actually. Gave him the most special treatment out of all the ten commandos, which made others jealous. Like, who else had a TV in their fighter jet? Even Moonscar hated the treatment the Facilities gave him. Why couldn’t they realize a person should be treated like anyone else no matter how special? 

But there was one upside.

Lita.

Lita was Moonscar’s AI guide. She was a pink, feminine figure with deep magenta hair, and her personality was as light as her colours.

She was always there for Moonscar, to hear about his troubles, and she always had a comment or two about not giving up hope in his mission. In a way, she was Moonscar’s only friend, as he was aloof and didn’t like talking to the other space colonists.

Lita knew what she was doing was technically illegal. To the Facilities, AI served only as navigators, to simply give advice about terraforming. A glorified prop. But she still carried on with moral support. At the end of each day (the Facilities used military time), Lita would report back to the corporation about the going-ons that occurred. But she kept everything she told Moonscar a secret, for fear of being taken offline. Any AI who was caught slacking off was taken offline, in a slow but painful process. As the Facilities described it, it was like ‘being unborn.’

But mainly, Lita focused on being the best partner for Moonscar there was.

Today was no different from Moonscar’s usual days. He woke up from his icy cryogenic chamber, surveying the room he knew all too well.

“Moonscar, it’s time to move to a new planet,” Lita’s soft, amicable voice called from the navigation system.

“Already?” Moonscar asked, as he stepped out of the blue tube and into the heated open of his ship. Surprisingly, the heat was not a novelty granted by the Facilities’ babying.

“Yes,” Lita said. “You’ve spent a year on Simusun.”

“Felt like a few hours to me,” Moonscar said. In space, millions of years felt like seconds, because time on other planets differed from time on Earth. And Moonscar’s time on Simusun, a planet named for its simulation of the sun on an otherwise-inhabitable ground, certainly flew. “So, where to now?”

Lita conjured a holographic screen, tapping buttons that appeared out of thin air. In an instant, a grey planet displayed, orbiting round the sun.

“Metallus,” she said. “A planet named so for its easily-mined metals. Some are especially rich.”

Moonscar took his protein pills as he thought over Lita’s description for a moment. Especially rich? He wondered if the Facilities would push his “fame” onto Earth even more if they found out he was mining metals. After all, alchemists turned metal into gold, and gold was especially valuable to Earthlings.

Finally, he spoke out. “I don’t think I wanna do this.”

“Moonscar, you have to,” said Lita. “You’ve gotta bear with what the Facilities think of you. Don’t let them get to you.”

“They’re treating me like a child,” Moonscar said, reiterating something he told Lita often. “They’re controlling my life. They can’t let me be myself.”

“You can be yourself,” Lita reassured him. “Celebrities deal with this all the time. How do you think Michael Jackson felt when people were calling him a pedophile?”

“He wrote so many songs telling the haters to screw themselves. I just don’t know what to do, Lita. I’m at the end of my rope.”

“It’s okay. We’ll figure out a way to tell off the Facilities soon enough. Right now, let’s focus on Metallus.”

Moonscar sat in the cockpit and pressed the ignition button. His seat vibrated, as the engines were warming up, preparing for the inevitable jump to hyperspace. One could hear this takeoff from anywhere if this were Earth; alas, this was space, and no one could hear a thing. Moonscar waited, silently counting the moments it took for the jet to do it’s thing… and then… ZOOM.

The jet entered a rapid, colourful vortex that resembled the visions of a living LSD addict. It rushed along the spinning spirals almost at the speed of light, the positive G-forces pushing Moonscar back in his seat, as if it were a rollercoaster. Lita, on the other hand, was unaffected by the forces. As human as she was, she was still artificial, with a holographic body that differed from humans’.

Then, just as quickly as they entered, they exited the demented dimension, and reappeared in the starry void of space, orbiting the greyish-hued Metallus.

“Arriving at your destination,” Lita said, jokingly, in the voice most Earth GPS systems used, as the ship gracefully glided downwards to touch down on the bleak surface. She turned to look at Moonscar, hoping he’d laugh; however, his face remained stoic as ever. “Moonscar?” she asked, worried. Still, no response.

Lita decided to ignore the ever-encompassing sadness that she seemed to feel each time she was with Moonscar, which was a lot. It made her question lots about her autonomy: what if she woke up one day unable to remember anything? AI were becoming more and more like humans, and the very thought of amnesia could send her into an existential crisis if she thought about it too much. Thus, she quickly racked her mind for something else to think about.

“Come on,” Lita said, tugging the pensive Moonscar by the arm. “Get your armour on.”

Moonscar looked up, breaking out of his trance. “Oh crap, we’re already there?” he said. Lita nodded.

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Just… put your gosh-darn armour on and get this over with.”

Moonscar walked over to a locker near his cryogenic tube. It was a medium-sized box, with a keypad at its front. Moonscar punched in a combination: 5-16-52. A small ding, and the doors opened to reveal rusted, silver armour, with a visored helmet to match. Moonscar grabbed the armour and slipped it on, making sure to bring a long, slim rifle loaded with plasma. He met with Lita at the hull of the ship as the entry door opened, and the pair prepared to step out.

The militaristic tone of the ship gave way to an indigo, endless sky as Moonscar and Lita carefully exited, Moonscar aiming his rifle at any potential attackers. One thing Moonscar was very good at was his aim. Again, just like his scar, he didn’t know where it came from; but the Facilities were very impressed by it when he demonstrated it at his recruitment. 

Moonscar looked round at his surroundings, squinting a bit, as it made his vision sharper. Eventually, he felt as if the coast was clear, and put down his rifle, giving the motion for Lita to follow him as he started trekking the grey ground.

“This place is freakin’ hot,” Moonscar said. He could feel the heat even in his armour, and he desperately wanted to cool off; though as a space colonist, he had to adapt to what was thrown at him. Lita conjured her holographic screen and began reading from it.

“Metallus has a temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit,” she said. “However, the temperature has been decreasing over the last millennium.”

“Good,” Moonscar said. “Heat is my worst enemy.”

As they traversed their latest shop, Moonscar continued. “You know, planets are like Goldilocks. Lots of them are too hot. Lots of them are too cold. Unlike Goldilocks, though, I can never find one that’s just right.”

“It’s out there… somewhere,” Lita said. Suddenly, their sights laid on a series of four growths in the land, almost like piles of dirt. They were huge. Moonscar, for one, couldn’t believe his eyes. He had seen landmasses before, but four of them?!

“Lita…” Moonscar said, “...what the hell is that?!”

Lita brought out her screen and tapped it to analyze the masses. Instantly, results displayed.

“This planet has four major landmasses clumped fairly closely together round the north pole area,” she said. “So, we are in North Metallus.”

“What do you think those landmasses are made of?” Moonscar said.

“Probably metal. Why else do you think it’s called Metallus?”

“Let’s mine it,” Moonscar said, after some hesitation. He didn’t want the Facilities to know what he was doing, as it, like said before, would give them another reason to paint him as the archetypal “hero.” Nevertheless, he opened his bag full of supplies, and brought out a shovel.

The next few hours were composed of shoveling, digging, mining, however you want to put it. Moonscar was hard at work, Lita monitoring his progress. Of course, she too was scared to report this to the Facilities. She didn’t want another reason for Moonscar to be depressed.

Eventually, Moonscar’s shovel hit metal at what seemed like the core of the planet. Moonscar scooped it up, unimpressed.

“Please don’t tell the Facilities we found this,” Moonscar begged. “Please, please, please.”

“Sorry, Moonscar,” Lita said. “I have to report everything you do to the Facilities, or else I get taken offline. That’s the way it works.”

Moonscar sighed. “Fuck… there goes my only hope.”

Suddenly, Moonscar heard something. A noise. It was too far away to make out clearly, but it sounded like a roar of some sort. A creature roar.

Moonscar’s mind immediately began to race. Creatures? Nobody told me there’d be creatures on this planet… fuck, fuck, FUCK…

 He turned to Lita, asking, “Did you hear that?”

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “What was it?”

“Listen again.” After awhile, the roar sounded again. Lita strained her ears to hear it, but at once, she panicked.

“Oh my God,” she gasped. “Should we go check it out?”

Moonscar pondered this question. Should he meet a grisly fate at the hands of a potentially dangerous creature, thus freeing him of a life of depression and amnesia, or should he stick with Lita to guide him thru his shitshow of a job and possibly reach light at the end of a tunnel?

He didn’t have to decide, as whatever was making this hellish noise was approaching, as evidenced by the roar getting more and more deafening. Moonscar seldom had to deal with aliens, as most organic life on the planets he terraformed weren’t existent, save for plants. The ones he did have to deal with were small and rarely a threat. But this… this was a monster!

Eventually, the creature entered Moonscar’s field of view, and presented its ugly facade: a countenance that was cubist malevolence, with sunken-in eyes, gnashing, drooling fangs, and twisted tentacles protruding from its head. Moonscar nor Lita could compare it to any Earth animal. The closest they could get was a monstrous jackal.

“Lita, GET DOWN!!” Moonscar screamed as he aimed his gun at the creature, charging it. Lita did as she was told, and ducked as Moonscar released a beam of plasma hurtling at the looming giant. It knocked the beast backwards, but wasn’t enough to take him out.

Moonscar tried again, this time with more ammo. He pulled the trigger back, watched as it charged, and another zap of plasma came beaming towards the creature. It roared in anger, as it drew closer toward Moonscar, who was angered at his gun not being good enough.

“Damnit!” he shouted. “I need a better gun!” Then, setting it to the highest amount of power, he squeezed the trigger yet again, praying that this would be enough to take the creature out.

Another charge… please work, PLEASE WORK…

“EAT PLASMA, FUCKER!!” Moonscar angrily screamed, eyes closed, as a humongous burst of plasma expelled from the gun, like a firecracker. Then there was silence. Was the creature finally dead? Moonscar didn’t dare look. Eventually, he opened his eyes after five long seconds, to be confronted with something else:

The creature was standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM.

Moonscar froze in fear. What should I do? The Facilities never told him anything about confronting dangerous aliens. In fact, like him, they had no idea aliens even existed on any of these planets. Therefore, he had no idea what the hell to do right now.

Too little, too late, as the creature reached out his tentacles and ensnared Moonscar in them, its ooze seeping into his armour.

“Lita, HELP!!” Moonscar shouted. Lita looked to see what was going on.

“Moonscar!” she yelled back. She could only watch in horror as the creature cracked Moonscar’s visor, and spat a foul-smelling slime in his face.

Moonscar was immediately repulsed at the taste of the secretion. He was a space colonist, so he had to deal with odd-tasting foods, but never one as gross as this. Inhaling deeply thru his nose, he swallowed.

Goodbye, Lita… my only friend… he thought as the creature’s dark, cave-like jaws advanced towards him.

Just then, a JOLT, and he was released from the tentacles.

As Moonscar made out his surroundings, he could see the creature toppled over, and Lita with some sort of ray gun.

“You… you saved my life,” Moonscar said, drowsily.

“Friends help each other out,” Lita said. “But don’t tell.” She helped Moonscar up, tugging at his arm, to see his rugged, injured face thru the crack in his visor.

Moonscar was able to walk, though, and he made his way back to the ship to heal.

Moonscar had just entered the ship when he felt a pounding, painful pressure in his abdomen. It was enough to make him keel over in sickness, clutching his stomach.

“Moonscar?” Lita asked. “What’s wrong?”

Moonscar coughed and moaned in pain. “God, my stomach hurts so fucking much…”

“Will you be okay? I mean, we have to stay here for a year…”

“No. I-I…” Moonscar was cut off by a violent cough, as the pain grew in his guts, so much to the point where he couldn’t feel anything else.

Lita couldn’t bear to see Moonscar like this. She instantly rushed to the medical equipment, pulling out a scanner to deduce the problem. She returned to where Moonscar was, and shined the scanner at his stomach. The results that popped up on its screen weren’t pleasant.

“You’ve become victim of a Druv’thax,” Lita said.

“What?” Moonscar asked.

“A Druv’thax,” Lita continued. “That must have been the alien you got attacked by. It spits in its victim’s face, and its spit travels to the intestines, where it transforms into eggs. Once they’re fully hatched… they burst out of the victim’s stomach.”

Moonscar gasped. Was he really going to die so soon?

“So unless I can do something about it, it’s goodbye to you.”

“Oh, no!” Moonscar said. “I’m too… I’m too young to die… and besides, you’ve

been such a big help to me that… I don’t wanna go…”

Lita needed an idea. Without realizing it, she began praying. An AI. Praying to God. This just cemented she was more than artificial. Most of the other AI she talked with were just advisors to their colonists. Why did the Facilities give AI self-awareness if they weren’t even going to need it? Perhaps… there was something more.

Suddenly, it came to Lita, as if God had given her an answer. The Facilities had all sorts of weapons on hand, right? They had to have a shrink ray. Maybe, if Lita asked for one, she could use it to miniaturize herself and go into Moonscar’s body to rid him of the eggs before they hatched.

It seemed like a plan. But… the one fault in her plan… how was she going to ask them without revealing her relationship with Moonscar?

Moonscar moaned and groaned as Lita paced about, racking her mind for a way to ask the Facilities without blowing her cover.

“Do something…” Moonscar muttered, weakly. “I feel like I’m gonna… I feel like I’m gonna…” He gagged, as his face turned deathly pale.

“Go to the bathroom, quick!” Lita said.

“I can’t even get up,” Moonscar moaned. So Lita had to get a bucket aboard the ship for Moonscar to hurl into. Moonscar looked into the bucket when he was finished. He knew he shouldn’t be looking at his own vomit, but what he saw frightened him.

The contents of the vomit looked eerily similar to the Druv’thax’s slime.

Lita stepped outside for a moment to think.

The Facilities said self-awareness would be a necessity for this mission… but most AI don’t need it. The AI came with weapons, but the Facilities expected them to act like Barbies, while the colonists were the GI Joes. Why did they give us a consciousness, then? And why did they think it’d be helpful? They’re not just hypocritical… they’re straight-up lying to Earth about us.

Suddenly, she realized that the answer to her shrink ray problem lay in her thoughts.

That’s it! I could lie to them myself about why I want the shrink ray. I could get back at them.

Instantly, she brought out her holographic screen, and dialed the Facilities. But she stopped for a moment to realize the consequences.

I’m sacrificing myself here. If they find out, and I’m taken offline, Moonscar will be alone… forever.

Yet she carried on, risking her life for her best friend.

The stern-looking face of Professor Jase, the head of the Facilities, appeared on-screen.

“Hello, Lita,” he said. “What is it you ask of us?”

“Uhm… we need help carrying some heavy metal,” Lita said, trying to sound believable. She couldn’t help but internally chuckle at the words “heavy metal.” “Do you have a shrink ray on hand?”

“We do,” said Jase. “I’ll send it over to you soon. Make sure Moonscar is doing his job correctly. If that metal is worth of alchemy, he’ll be the richest among the colonists. And you… you make sure you only act as you’re supposed to… or else.” He hung up, leaving Lita to rejoice that she won against the corporation… for now.

Lita went back inside, to meet with a groaning Moonscar, clutching his stomach and dry-heaving. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, wondering if he had ever been in as much pain as this in his previous life. Perhaps, he had, and the pain was so large that it made him lose his memory.

That must suck, she thought.

“Lita…” Moonscar moaned.

“Yeah?” Lita said.

“When I looked in the bucket…” Moonscar lifted the bucket, which had more gastronomical contents in it than before. “It looks like the Dr… Druv’thax’s slime…”

“Oh, my!” Lita said. “That must be excess that couldn’t make it to your intestines. Don’t worry, Moonscar. Help is on the way.”

Suddenly, she heard the sound of something landing on the ground, and she turned round to see it. A box that had parachuted in from what Lita assumed was the Facilities’ mothership.

Lita opened up the package, and found her shrink ray.

“What’s that?” Moonscar said, weakly and strained.

“That’s a shrink ray,” Lita said, picking up the ray. “Using this, I can miniaturize myself and go into your body to dispose of all the eggs. You ever seen Fantastic Voyage?”

Moonscar shook his head.

“Well, it’s an old movie in which a group of doctors go into the body of a comatose man to fix a blood clot.”

“Only… ugh… I’m not comatose,” Moonscar said.

“That is true,” said Lita. “That means anything that I do in there, you’ll have to feel.”

Moonscar was a bit shaken. The idea of having someone inside your body and feeling what they did seemed threatening. But he dismissed any negativity he had about it, as Lita was doing what she could to save him.

“Now, hold still,” Lita said. “No sudden movements while I’m in there.” She handed Moonscar a communicator. “If it helps, you can talk to me here.”

Moonscar groaned. “Just get on with the show; the pain is killing me.”

“All right,” said Lita. She aimed the shrink ray at herself, and with a quick motion, pressed the button which zapped her.

The world round Lita grew and grew as she became tinier and tinier. She’d never seen things at such a close angle.

Some organic creatures… such as bugs… they see this everyday.

She levitated herself off the ground, taking in the gigantic gusts of heat that tried to sway her off-course. Her one goal: Moonscar’s mouth. She drew closer and closer to the crack in his visor, his pair of brown eyes now giant, focused on her like she was a mosquito buzzing round its prey. His mouth opened as she approached his face.

Lita carefully slipped past the cracked visor and was inches away from Moonscar’s maw. She could feel his warm breath swaying her forward and backward. She steadied, then darted into the wide open mouth, closing soon after she entered.

The atmosphere inside Moonscar’s mouth was humid and moist, probably due to the overabundance of saliva. Lita could smell the putrid odor of vomit, and the rancid stench of the Druv’thax’s slime that she had to withstand before. Moonscar’s pearly whites were firmly clenched together at the gate Lita had entered from, sealing off the exit to make sure there was no turning back. Besides, this was a matter of life or death.

Lita flew thru the pink, fleshy cave, to the bitter edge. Before she could take a dive into the throat, she picked up her communicator and spoke into it.

“Hi, Moonscar, I’m in your mouth right now,” she said. “I’m just about to head into your throat.”

“Good,” Moonscar said. “God,” he yelped as he felt a bolt of pain shoot thru his stomach. “I’m getting worse by the minute.”

“Well, you won’t have to deal with this pain any longer as long as I do the right stuff,” Lita said.

“Just… go,” moaned Moonscar, nauseated. “I think I’m gonna hurl.” Then he hung up.

Lita started to look worried. He’s gonna hurl again? That means I’ll be expelled out of his body! Almost instantly, she dived down into the throat, intending to finish the job before Moonscar blew chunks.

Outside, Moonscar resisted the urge to vomit, as he knew Lita was in him, and he wanted to get the job done. He felt the pain and pressure in his belly absolutely murder him, making him unable to move a muscle in his body. He felt his throat muscles tighten erratically, trying to contain the rising bile.

Inside, Lita was swamped by the wave of bubbling bile sloshing upwards at her. It smelled horrid, just like everything else she’d encountered in Moonscar’s body so far. Of course, Lita was determined to save her friend, and rushed into the acid head-first. 

It was a painful experience; almost like she was being eaten alive by piranhas. Maybe, just maybe, this is what being taken offline feels like, she thought. Once she made it thru the gurgling mess, she looked down at herself to realize parts of her body, namely her right leg up to her calf and her left arm, were corroded. She gasped. It ate thru my holographic nanotech? The Facilities’ AI were designed with hi-tech, sturdy nanotech that ensured there’d be no way to attack their bodies. Either stomach acid was the only exception, or surely, Lita was something much more.

And to her horror… there was more where that came from. She realized as she degraded into an uncontrollable fall that she was headed straight into Moonscar’s stomach… a river of acid.

Lita’s eyes were closed as she plummeted straight into the ocean. She awaited the burning agony of the acid. But she didn’t feel it. Has my body blocked out the pain? Most likely, maybe. She felt round her body with her remaining right hand. Her torso was still there. Am I just an upper half and a right arm now? Suddenly, it came to her that she was sitting on something. She opened her eyes.

She had landed on one of Moonscar’s protein pills. He had taken them every day to guarantee he’d be strong and healthy (so the Facilities could shill him on TV, of course), but of course, they weren’t enough to fight off the Druv’thax’s parasitic slime. She took out her communicator and contacted Moonscar.

“Hey Moonscar…” she said.

“Yeah?” Moonscar said, struggling to move his facial muscles from the pain.

“You know those protein pills you take each morning?”

“Uh-huh. What about them?”

“I just landed on one in your stomach. If it weren’t for it, I’d have been eaten by the acid. You saved me.”

“Happy to return the favour, Lita.”

“Anytime… Moony.” Lita hung up. That’s when she noticed she was moving. Not across, but down. The pill was sinking into the acid!

Lita had to think of a situation, and fast. She scanned the stomach for any other things she could use as stepping stones.

There was at least one other protein pill, located in the very heart of the stomach. However, Lita was too far away to reach it. How am I going to get over there without being torn apart?

Suddenly, a gust of wind swept the stomach. Moonscar was coughing, apparently. The gust brought Lita closer to the core. That’s it! If Moonscar keeps coughing, I’ll be able to reach the other pill!

As Moonscar coughed up a storm, breezes blew thru the stomach, and the pill set sail to the center. Eventually, Lita was just inches away from the other pill, which was enough for her to climb atop it, struggling due to her half of a right leg. However, just as she climbed aboard, the core opened like a trapdoor, gurgling deeply. Lita and her “sailboat” dropped down, with no time for her to register what was happening.

The next thing she knew, Lita was in the duodenum of the small intestine. The pill she was riding on had slid out from underneath her, following the path of the slimy Druv’thax matter thru the twisting, turning tunnel. As she limped thru the darkness, Lita could hear rustling from afar. It had to belong to the offspring, waiting to hatch from their eggs. Lita opened her communicator and began to speak to Moonscar.

“Hi, Moonscar. I’m in your small intestine right now,” she said.

“Thank God,” Moonscar moaned. “One step closer to telling these monsters inside me to fuck off.”

Lita looked ahead. The road lying beyond was getting darker and darker, so she turned on her night vision to see it clearly. She flew down the beating, fleshy passage, examining the rumbling walls for signs of where the eggs were. If Moonscar’s intestine were getting irritated this bad, then surely, an egg must be here, right? Lita kept looking out for any eggs that might have worked its way up to the duodenum. And indeed, she found one, just at the entrance to the jejunum.

It was a small, rotund shape with a greyish color similar to the surface of Metallus, drenched in the signature foul goo of the Druv’thax. It must have not been incubated enough, as it wasn’t moving one bit. Lita picked up the egg to study it closer.

“Moonscar, I’ve found an egg in your duodenum,” she said into the communicator. “It must have been a straggler.”

“Get rid of it…” Moonscar groaned, before coughing, which caused the entire landscape round Lita to warp and shake.

“It’s not moving at all,” said Lita. “It’s dead. It won’t hurt you. I’ll leave it here to pass thru your intestines.” She put the egg down so it could continue the digestive process, and continued her journey into the jejunum.

The light of Lita’s night vision illuminated more bad eggs, all of which were safe for Moonscar to digest. Besides, the large intestine was where the hazardous eggs made their home. Lita continued into the ileum, minding the occasional unborn, until she felt something slippery beneath her feet, at the entrance to the large intestine.

It was a horde of Druv’thax slime, indicating that the large intestine was the offspring’s domain. Lita felt a bit nervous as she began her trek into the ascending colon.

Meanwhile, a bullet of pain struck Moonscar, as he clutched his stomach, nearly crying aloud. At any moment, the eggs would hatch, and he’d be doomed.

Please, Lita, fucking do this… he thought.

Lita entered Moonscar’s large intestine, getting up close and personal with piles of poop. But there wasn’t just feces to be found. The shaking bowels were home to a cluster of eggs, all in various stages of birth. Lita picked up her communicator and spoke into it.

“Lita to Moonscar. I’ve reached the foreign obstruction,” she said.

“Good,” said Moonscar, coughing. “Kill ‘em all.” He cried out in pain, Lita empathizing with his situation.

Lita observed the amount of eggs there were, and felt overwhelmed. How am I gonna take them all out? she thought, panicking. Isn’t there some kind of weapon I could use? The cracks multiplied one by one, growing larger and larger, as Lita’s mind raced for a solution. Then, it hit her.

The Facilities gave us weapons… that they didn’t expect us to use. FINALLY!

She conjured her holographic screen, and typed in a keycode: 9-27-02. Out of thin air, a plasma rifle much like the one Moonscar had used earlier manifested itself. Lita grabbed it, finding it hard to do it with one and a half hands, as her nanotech was still repairing itself. She wrapped her left forearm round the charger, as she aimed for the eggs.

One… two… BOOM!

A huge, plasmatic explosion bursted, disintegrating the eggs into nothing but particles of matter that were safe to digest. On the other hand, Lita could hear Moonscar scream in agony from the outside.

Oh, no! she thought. I’m hurting him! She quickly picked up her communicator to send a warning to Moonscar.

“I warned you this would happen,” Lita said, trying not to rub anything in.

“I know, I know…” Moonscar said, “but… god damn it!!”

“Bear with the pain for awhile, okay?”

“All right…” Lita hung up. She continued sending plasma bombs to the younglings in birth, all thru the transverse colon. Once in awhile, it was punctuated by Moonscar’s moaning, which shook the colon wildly.

Eventually, Lita made it to the descending colon, which was filled to the brim with awful-smelling substances. There was nothing but Lita’s footsteps to be heard as she stepped down the beating floor, trying not to step in any poop. Just then, a loud RUMBLE broke the silence.

Lita glanced upwards to see a ginormous egg towering above her. It was cracking more and more by the minute, its top already broken off. Lita instantly spoke into her communicator.

“I think this is the last one,” she said, nervously.

“Thank god…” said Moonscar. “Go for it.”

Lita steadied, trying not to be seen. She concentrated, aimed her rifle, then sent out a HUGE blast of plasma at the kaiju-like egg, hoping it would be enough to take it down.

But it wasn’t.

The egg sent a wave of putrid ooze at Lita.

It could think.

Lita, with her nanotech growing back faster and faster, tightly gripped the rifle and sent more beams of plasma hurtling the egg’s way. More and more beams made tremors made explosions, all with more slime than a Nickelodeon game show being flung at Lita.

On the outside, Moonscar grasped his stomach, in pain and nausea from the chaos going on inside him.

Lita pulled the trigger like a madman, shooting plasma almost automatically. Rapid-fire bursts emitted from the rifle like fireworks, the egg growing weaker significantly.

Eventually, it had gotten to the point where the egg was slower than a slug. Lita stepped back, aimed precisely at the very heart of the egg, then pulled the trigger, sending a huge, finishing wave of plasma at the skyscraper-sized obstruction. It angrily became nothing.

Lita dusted her hands off, then spoke into her communicator.

“Good news: you’re cured,” she said.

“Thanks,” Moonscar said, “but my stomach still hurts like crazy.”

Lita thought for a second. How was she going to heal Moonscar’s intestinal trauma?

The least I could do is go to the brain and prevent the pain signals from reaching him…

So it was up the vagus nerve, the closest parasympathetic nerve in the area.

Lita was able to climb the nerve with ease, as her nanotech had fully grown back compared to an hour before. She entered an electric blue wonderland, with Moonscar’s pulsating brain as a centerpiece. Cornering it, she found it was wired by dozens of nerves.

Which one is the pain nerve? she thought.

She decided to try her luck and go for a random one. She fiddled round with the nerve, hoping Moonscar would feel less pain once she was done.

But he didn’t.

Because what she had done made him feel a lot more.

Moonscar felt something flash before him in his mind.

A scene of an attack. A gross-looking alien, aimed at a couple.

An explosion.

Memories flooded his mind more and more. As his mind raced, he started putting the puzzle together, remembering who he was.

He had been Rich Thompson: a young boy, the son of a daredevil and a bumbling merchant. They lived together on the island of Tiesto. Things were fine in their world, until one day.

They had travelled to the city of Vekoma on vacation. Vekoma was known for its alien attacks, but there hadn’t been one in years. It just so happened that the day Rich visited, was the day an alien would rear its ugly head, shaped like a crescent moon.

His mother and father were caught in the crossfire. Rich managed to escape, but suffered a severe concussion that wiped his memory. 

Lita had fiddled with the circuits in his hippocampus, which made him regain his memory.

Moonscar instantly picked up his communicator to tell Lita.

“Lita… you’ll never believe it, but…” he started.

“What is it?” Lita asked, curious.

“Whatever you did to my brain… made me remember who I am.”

Lita gasped. “Really?”

“Yes. Forget about the pain. I’ve already healed. I am not just Moonscar. I am Rich Thompson.”

Lita followed the optical nerve to Moonscar’s eye, and found a tear duct she could exit thru. As daylight flooded her surroundings once again, she flew out of the crack in Moonscar’s visor and grew back to normal size.

She turned to look at Moonscar. He had never been this happy before.

“Thank you,” he said, taking off his cracked helmet, with tears in his eyes. He wrapped his arms around Lita’s holographic body in a hug, which warmed her digital heart she wasn’t sure other AI had.

But the two’s happiness was short-lived when there was a knock on the door.

Whoever was at the door clearly didn’t care to wait for an answer. Swinging the door open, the figure revealed himself to be Professor Jase. He did not seem amused.

“Lita…” he said, frustrated to the core.

Lita’s jaw dropped. She knew this was going to happen, but she had forgotten all about it, because she was preoccupied with saving her friend.

“What are you doing with Moonscar?”

“I-- I can explain…” Lita said, tearfully. “When I said I wanted that shrink ray… I didn’t use it for carrying heavy metal. Moonscar was sick with alien eggs in his digestive system. I had to miniaturize myself and go into his body to cure him.”

“And,” Moonscar added, “she restored my memory.”

“Y--yes.”

“Well, you blew it,” Jase said. “You should’ve known better than to act against us.” Taking Lita by the arm, he continued, “C’mon, it’s off to the Facilities we go.”

Lita complied, but as she was being dragged off into the distance, she shot Moonscar a final smile.

Moonscar couldn’t believe it. The only companion who knew him, who truly understood him, gone. Gone. He closed his eyes, trying to save that final smile in his memories for all eternity.

Now that he knew his family, would he continue being a space colonist or resign? Again, Lita was like a second family to him, and he’d lost her, too. Moonscar’s mind filled with thoughts of seizing the Facilities in a benevolent takeover, restoring all the offline AIs to their online state. He could only do that… if he continued his job. He would stop at nothing. This was for Lita.

His communicator rang. Answering it, Moonscar was met with a mysterious, gruff voice.

“Moonscar… I’ve been trackin’ you for the past few hours… you came down with a case of the stomach flu, didn’tcha?”

Moonscar gasped. Who was this? How did he track him?

He would have to find out.

Sitting in the cockpit, he pressed the ignition button and zoomed away from Metallus. The sky went from indigo to ink-black as Moonscar slammed the hyperdrive initiator.

Jumping into a portal, one thought was on his mind:

For you, Lita. For you.