"NO, you cannot have any more" said Tremain, Tresille's father.

"But I'm still hungry" whined the seven year old Tresille. Tremain's eyes pooled with anger and rage, but the rest of his face remained calm.

"Come with me" said Tremain, as he pushed through the fabric curtain. Tresille obediently followed. Despite the sour mood of her father, she loved going on walks with Dad. He usually took her where mom wouldn't, like the windows or the recycler. This time he took the main spiral branch up, that meant the windows! It took close to ten minutes to climb the spiral and reach the leafy portion where the sun was visible, but her father continued up, ignoring the route they normally took.

Tresille's eyes grew wide as plates with excitement, they were going all the way to the top, none of her friends were allowed to go up there, high enough to see the shadowlands. At the highest peak of the spiral branch, Tremain hoisted Tresille onto his shoulders, allowing her to have a perfect view out of the top of the pyramid greenhouse. At first Tresille focused on the rising green marble of earth over Luna's horizon. It gave some of the farming ruins out in the wasteland a false greenish tint. Tresille was told that many people were fooled by that light into thinking that some of the crops in the wasteland really did survive and the experiment was a success. Tresille didn't know for herself but did trust her father, who said nothing lived out on the moon’s surface.

A moment longer, and then Tremain turned around, looking away from the earth. Tresille saw the long shadow cast by the pyramid, and many more similar pyramids, each casting long shadows.

"There are so many of us" said Tresille. She never seen all the pyramids before. She counted eleven of them.

"There were so many of us" said Terrain.

Keylin woke up with a start, instantly reaching for her scream machine. It had a technical name, and a much more mundane common name that Tresille favored, but Keylin saw it for what it was, a scream machine. The button was not there, nor were her gloves. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light and she saw Tresille, buried in the coarse fabric sleeping quietly. Keylin shook out her drowsy brain, requesting for a shot of norepinephrine. Nothing happened. Looking around some more, her eyes finally rested on the giant man, who had extended his wings around them to keep the rain and wind out. He was not standing straight up but was crouched down somewhat to keep the floor dry. How long had he been standing like that? Then she noticed that his head was not tucked in. The man’s head was out, getting pummeled by the rain and wind. There were icicles forming on the tips of his hair. It was toasty inside, had the temperature dropped that much?

‘Hey Tress’ sent Keylin mentally. ‘Are you awake?’

‘No thanks to you’ Tresille replied.

‘My ears are fixed!’ sent Keylin.

‘Good for you’ sent Tresille.

‘Don’t go back to sleep Tress, what’s going on here? Why is he letting his face freeze? Why did he come back?’ Keylin asked.

‘He refused to look down when he saw our suits delaminate. He’s been like that since last night’. Trestle replied. Keylin patted her shoulders and thighs.

‘I still have my base layer on, don’t you?’ sent Keylin.

‘Of course I do’ Tresille replied.

‘So what’s the problem?’ asked Keylin.

‘Go ahead and spend a few hours explaining to him that his idea of modesty is wrong’ Tresille snipped. 'I’m going back to sleep’ Tresille added.

‘Tress?’

‘What?’

‘This blanket smells like sweat’

Two hours later, the sun was rising above the mountain and the clouds were nearly gone. When Stone straightened up and lifted his wings, a blast of fresh clean air reminded their noses that there was still beauty left in the world. Tresille and Keylin ran to their suits and hung them out to dry, It would take a minimum of two days for the suits to be wearable again, in the meantime Stone loaned them some string and one half of his shirt to each, so they would have something warm and 'modest'. All around Stone was exactly as expected, a completely fallen grove of trees. Branches were everywhere. The trees had no strength. Stone had not expected to read the clouds so well from below, but with the added instincts of the wings, he felt he could almost see the wind currents, and know what was coming. He was a little concerned at the ferocity of the storm, but the wings did an excellent job of protecting the little chicks, Stone chuckled, he protected them like a hen.

"And what are you laughing at?" said Keylin. She had just finished adjusting his shirt, using the short sleeve as the opening for her head.

"Do you know of chickens?" asked Stone.

"What's a chicken?" asked Tresille.

"Then it does not matter" said Stone, still chuckling. Keylin grew red in the face.

"What does it mean to chickens? Am I dressed like chickens?" Stone could not hold in his laughter, he had no way of explaining the mannerisms of a chicken, and the way she used the word was so far away from normal. The Elders would have kept her around just for the entertainment. Keylin stomped away and began investigating the bottom of an uprooted tree.

"Stone, I wanted to thank you for saving us from the storm. We uh, do not have anything like that where we are from" Said Tresille.

"Where are you from?" asked Stone. Tresille seemed to debate in her head what to say, and opted for not saying anything, she only pointed up.

"Why do you not say anything?" asked Stone. Tresille pointed up more insistently, Stone followed her finger and looked up at the moon. It was in a crescent, and he could still make out a few of the bright lights on the darker side. "You come from the moon?" asked Stone. Tresille simply nodded.

"Why do you not say so?" asked Stone

"Why Indeed" said Henry. This time he looked a lot more detailed, instead of angles and flat surfaces, his face had curves and rounded features. Compared to the past few versions of Henry, this one appeared the most human, though still short and strong.

"l believe she is not actually allowed to say where she is from, out of fear of contaminating the indigenous species correct?"

"Oh don't act so surprised" said Henry, using a finger to lift up Tresille's chin. "We know you receive a last minute briefing before you come down, on the off chance you find a sentient humanoid clan." Henry then raised his arm, and out of the ground came a few stools for the four to sit down on.

"Come sit, there is a bit to discuss" Henry raised is arm again, and a hole opened up, revealing a large fire with a four-legged carcass rotating above it. Stone sat down immediately. The girls were more hesitant.

"Was the animal treated well in life?" asked Stone.

"The Derek was raised to be eaten, though it was given fresh food daily and clean stables for sleep" Said Henry. Stone nodded

"Just in case I will pray for it, that way the mountain will not be angry" Said Stone. He then clapped his hands twice and knelt to the ground, palms flat on the ground. "Oh mountain, these people do not let their animals roam free as you so desire, though it lived a confined life, the people of Henry claim to have treated it well. Please forgive the error, and do not punish my village." Stone rose from the ground, and saw Henry prostrated to the ground as well. Henry did not have to do so, as only the orator bowed to the mountain, but Stone nodded in acceptance. Henry was being respectful and that was good.

Stone picked off a piece of meat, tasted it, and handed it to Keylin who was sitting closest. She refused.

"This animal is called a Derek you say?" asked Stone. Henry nodded. "The flavor is good, you have been roasting it above the fire for a long time yes?"

"It was going to be your dinner had you stayed below" Said Henry. "We had it slow roasting in the ovens the last two days. This fire is just to make the outside crispy". Stone smiled and nodded.

“It tastes like chicken" Said Stone.

"GIVE ME THAT" demanded Keylin, swiping away a chunk of meat. After a few delicate bites Keylin froze in place.

‘Key-key’ sentTresille ‘What happened? Why did you eat that? We can’t eat anything from down here, it’s not clean’

Keylin remained frozen, but answered back to Tresille.

‘This is protein Tress. This tastes like protein from home, only SO MUCH BETTER’ sent Keylin. ‘I’m trying to burn this flavor into my memory’ Keylin added.

Tresille slowly approached the roasting spit and tried to peel a small chunk of meat off. It burned her fingers and she jerked her hand back. Tresille imagined the animal living a life in a cage, roaming only so far before the fences rose up, watching friend after friend disappear while her Mother kept eating slop.

"Thank you for the food" said Trestle. "But I cannot eat this or any other animal"

"Only one holdout this time eh? I must be losing my touch" Said Henry. He wiggled his fingers, and a hole opened up in front of Tresille. Out of it came a large salad bowl filled with the brightest richest greens the girl had probably ever seen. Henry watched as the two girls dropped any decorum they thought they had and began shoveling food into their faces. The two girls were completely different. Keylin was unable to touch the Derek herself, so she demanded large chunks of meat pulled off for her. Keylin ate the steamy hock like a ravenous wolf. Trestle simply buried her face into the bowl. Stone casually picked small pieces from the carcass and continued in a very interesting conversation about different roasting techniques.

Stone talked about some kind of seed up at the mountain ridge that when ground up and sprinkled on top, made fire roasted meat taste better. He also suggested using fire baked stones to put inside the animal during cooking, to cook the meat more evenly. Cooking by fire is a small passion of Henry, he tried to find a way to integrate roasted food into all of his interrogations. Henry did not care if the food helped or not, but he was given the title of Wordsmith so few people could tell him no. He had tried using heated stones before, but could never get it to work right. This new spice however had to be tracked down.

"So" said Henry "How long are you down here for?"

"These little birds have fallen out of their nest, l will help them go back, or teach them to live on their own, whichever takes less time" said Stone. Henry looked at Tresille, it appeared that she had stopped eating, but kept her face covered with the bowl. Keylin did not notice the question.

"And you two, how do you plan on returning back to your nest?" Tresille had been asking herself the same question since the crash.

The large steel hangar was as dirty as her home. The filters hadn't been changed in decades and the self cleaning features had broken lifetimes ago. Tresille did not live in the greenhouse anymore, it had been closed for a decade as the leading botanists tried their best to save the tree. Nobody believed the tree would survive, and everyone accepted that the dusty bungalows were no longer temporary. The leaders had promised that the earth would be ready to return to, despite what the projections had said a few years ago.

Commander Leear gently placed a hand on the ST-39, Tresille’s ship.

"Shelby here will take care of you, if you are good to her" said the commander. The craft had clearly seen better days, decades, and centuries. "There are only three working 39's left" he added. "If you so much as splatter an insect on her windshield, I’ll recycle your eyeballs"

"It's ok Sir, I’ve flown this simulation a hundred times, it is not like this is my first time flying a 39"

"This is your first flight into low earth atmo right?" Asked commander Leer.

"And it's also the last mission before the return, I know" Tresille responded. Commander Leer did his eye squinty thing and slowly moved his hand around as if his hand were a knife, Keylin liked to call it "Knife Hands".

"Don't you dare be complacent in this, no simulation can take into account all the Earth will throw at you" There was an uncomfortable pause in his statement before the commander continued. "Every scrap of metal is precious now, when you come back, even Shelby here will be stripped for parts and plate"

"Sir the launch window is in fifteen minutes, we need to run through the flight checks" stated Keylin casually. Commander Leer simply stared at the two for an uncomfortable moment.

‘JUST KEEPAWAY FROM THE GROUND’ he screamed through the mental link, and walked away grumbling.

‘How rude’ sent Keylin while rubbing her temples.

"The craft that we used to travel, cannot repair itself like our suits, it's based on much older technology." Said Tresille "We couldn't send out a distress signal before the wreck, and we are not due to return home for another two days. The people..." Tresille looked at Stone and Henry "We call ourselves Lunarians, and we have been planting grooves of trees like this all around the earth. l believe there may be an older groove of trees somewhere on the other side of this planet, that is capable of sending a message back to Luna and protecting us. With the message sent, it would only be a day or two until we will be rescued." Henry leaned back and whistled.

"Is that where the invasion will start? On the other side of the earth?" he asked. Tresille looked at Henry, then Keylin, then Stone. Stone did not appear to be as concerned as Henry, but she still remembered his reaction to lies.

‘Careful’ sent Keylin as she continued to gnaw on a protein heavy bone.

"The return will be wherever I’ve deemed safest" stated Tresille. She nervously looked at Stone for a reaction. Her words weren’t lies, but they weren’t fully honest either. Henry sat back with a satisfied smirk.

"This is not an invasion" Said Tresille, "We are finally coming home"

"IF you say so" Said Henry with a slight sneer.

“I DO say so" said Tresille.

The conversation fell silent for a while, Stone and Keylin continued to eat, Tresille and Henry glared at each other. Henry made the first move, raising his hand, and sinking down into the ground.

"If you will excuse me for a moment" He said.

Henry awoke and skipped his wakeup procedure. He raced outside to the door where Sarah was waiting.

"The conference is already in session" she said.

"Get me there immediately, and one more thing" he said, snatching the fresh robe and racing back to the glass table. Henry wrote a quick message on a piece of paper, and threw it at Sarah. Henry blinked.

“...Even our finished reports are nothing but speculation, we will not hold a vote until better evidence is presented." Said Hillam Thinker, Chief of intelligence.

"I agree with Hillam" said Henry. The whole cavern turned to see Henry approach. His golem was a rush job, very few details and his appendages were more blobs then arms. It didn't matter, all recognized him.

"l'll give my analysis to you all right now" Henry shouted. The room was packed to the brim with government officials, agency leads and two members of the Elected Royalty.

"It is clear that the two Lunarian Females are withholding vast amounts of information, and are likely lying about their ability to change the invasion landing point" The whole room erupted into conversation and some shouting. Henry couldn't help himself, and even under these circumstances he had to manipulate the crowd. Just a little bit, surely they would expect as much from him.

"HOWEVER" shouted Henry, gathering the attention of the cavern, "Our best intelligence predicts the invasion to make landfall here in six months. So any chance to change their landing site is worth a try. Officers of the council, allow me to take leave of my station, and follow with the group to the other side of the world." Henry paused, allowing the crowd to come to the same conclusion, this was the part that almost made him nervous. "To accomplish this task, I request the use of an Independent Golum."

The silence in the room was deafening. Stephen Decision Maker, the oldest of the Elected Royalty stood and spoke.

"Leave the room Henry Wordsmith, get back to the group and continue your interrogation in your standard Gollum until we make our decision. Thank you for your report"