Luna’s Pimsey songs during the karaoke were so darn cute that I just couldn’t help but tease her a little afterwards. So after I’d asked her to show a couple of her favorites, I continued about it while we walked back to the cabin.

“Hey, you know you do actually have a really nice singing voice, don’t you? I sounded like a drowning cat in comparison.”

“T-thank you.” She blushed. “But I think you sing pretty well too…”

“You don’t need to flatter me, I know I’m not a very good singer.”

“But you are!” Luna insisted. “And the way you show your confidence is also really cool. I was immediately enamored when you started singing.”

“Ah…” It was my time to blush instead. “I guess we both need to be a bit more confident in our abilities then.”

“Mhmm.” Luna nodded. “Let’s do the karaoke again one day… it was fun.”

“On that, we can definitely agree on.” I nodded as well and opened the door to our cabin. “You can shower first so I can make the bed, okay?”

“Alright.” Luna agreed and immediately diverted off to the bathroom.

We’d opted to stow away the other mattress, as my bed was the only one we’d been using lately anyway. It gave us a bit more room and also less work to keep things clean.

Since we had to get out of bed a bit hectically this morning, as we both slept through the alarm I’d set, we didn’t have time to make the bed. It was always nicer to sleep in a made bed than it did in a messy one. In my opinion at least.

“Hey, Lauren!” Luna yelled for me.

“What’s wrong?” I yelled back. I’d only just neatly put the pillows back in place.

“The shampoo is out!”

I walked up to the bathroom door to spare my voice. “Is it? I’m pretty sure I just got a new bottle.”

“I can’t see it anywhere, and there’s only an empty bottle in here.”

“Ah, wait, I think I left it next to the sink.”

“Oh, yeah, I think I see it. Thanks.” I heard her step out of the shower and walk over to the sink.I walked back to the bed with a huge grin on my face. I really liked living together with her. I really did. And with everything settling back to normal… I think now actually might be a good time…

I waited for Luna to be finished showering and waved her over to sit next to me on the bed as she walked out of the bathroom. The rose-scented perfume of the new shampoo bottle smelled lovely.

“Is something the matter?” She asked, curious as to why I waved her over.

I looked at her and smiled softly. “I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”

She nodded and let me continue.

“I told you I wanted to take some time to think things through… you know… about being together? I think I’ve thought things through enough now.”

“Ah…” At first, she reacted by smiling, but quite quickly that smile soured a little.

“Hey, you’ve not heard my answer yet.” I tried to cheer her up a little. “Don’t you want to hear it first before drawing conclusions?”

She put her hand on mine and then looked at me. “Lauren… I already know your answer… it’s pretty clear… but…” She looked away from me for a second before looking back, tears had begun to form.

This sudden turn of events had completely confused me. “Oh, hey, why are you crying? I thought you would be happy to hear this?”

“I.. I am… I am very happy… but at the same time… it makes me feel so wrong…”

“What? Why? I don’t think I understand.”

She pulled her hand away from mine and stood up. “I… I thought I could delay this for a lot longer… I thought I could live this life with you for just a little bit more… To be happy… But it’s all a lie…”

“A lie? What are you talking about?” I stood up from the mattress as well. “Don’t you want to be in a committed relationship with me? Did I understand that all wrong?”

“I do… I do, I really want to be in that kind of a relationship with you… but…” She glanced at the door of my cabin. If she wanted to run I would’ve let her, of course I wouldn’t block her way. But she decided against it and stared back at me, her tears now rolling down her cheeks.

I approached her but for every step I took she took one away from me. “But what?” I asked gently.

“A-after everything that’s happened… I’ve been lying to you… And it just doesn’t… I don’t feel like I can go on like this… especially not if you…” She took a deep breath. “If you love me like that… So now it’s time for me to stop lying. And face the consequences.”

“Lying to who? To me?”

“To… to you, to Eva, Yuki, Gunny, everyone on this ship!”

“Luna… what’s going on?”

She brought her hands to her face and covered her eyes. “Please Lauren, just shut up… at least for a bit…” Luna sounded incredibly desperate.

“Alright… alright…” I backed off away from her and took a seat on the mattress again. “Take all the time you need.”

I listened to her heavy breathing as she tried to calm herself. I waited patiently as she removed her hands from her eyes and wiped away the tears. I said nothing as she silently took a seat on one of the dinner table’s chairs. Minutes went by in silence as she was thinking.

“I…” She started but she fell silent again for a minute or so. “There’s no way to easily say this… and if you want to hate me, or kill me after this… I’m fine with that. I can’t live on like this anymore.”

“Kill you? Why would I…” Luna stopped me with a gesture of her hand, so I let her continue.

“The Luna you know… doesn’t exist.”

It’s good that Luna had asked me to shut up, because I didn’t have an idea as to what to say. So I just waited to hear her out.

“It’s… I…” She continued. “I’ve been sent here… to spy on you… Not on you, you… but on you as in humanity, and this ship… And its mission…” She glanced up at me to gauge my reaction, but I just stayed still while I processed it all.

“So, what you are saying is… that you are an alien who was sent to keep tabs on us? Are you part of this empire?” I looked over to the kitchen counter where I’d left my sidearm, if I sprinted for it now I could probably get there first but I didn’t sense any danger from her at all.

“No, no.” Luna immediately denied. “I’m not part of the Empire. I was sent here by…” She stopped for a second, probably doubting if she could say whatever she was going to say next. “I was sent here by The Conglomerate… It’s a union of planets… of sorts… It’s actually because we feared for the influence of the Empire that we wanted to investigate Earth…”

“I see… So, that’s why you came up with that plan with the deity? You knew something about those races?”

She nodded.

“And why did they think the Empire was influencing us?”

“There are multiple factors, one of which is probably paranoia.” Luna explained. “The Conglomerate has had a very violent history with the Empire… And since Earth has had such a violent history…” Understatement of the millennium, right there.

I thought for a second. “And what if your reports to your people put us in a bad light, what would happen then?”

Luna’s expression turned even more sad than it already was. “Probably… annihilation.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

Luna shook her head before she looked back at me. “Why… why are you taking this so well?”

I raised my hand to make her wait a bit. “Can you first tell me… how did you get that body? Did you steal it from anyone?”

“No! I would never do that!” She violently shook her head and crossed her arms as if to protect her body. “I… I have this device… that lets me… mimic… the physiology of races that at least somewhat resemble our own in appearance… It doesn’t do it perfectly, but most surface level tests would easily be fooled…”

“Doesn’t do it perfectly…” That’s probably why she’s such a lightweight when it comes to medication and alcohol… “...and a second question… have you ever killed anyone?”

“Apart from that Imperial soldier… I’ve not.” She shook her head again.

“Sabotage?”

“No.” And once more, she shook her head.

“Have you ever wanted to harm any of us?”

“Absolutely not.” She’d started crying again by now. Looking at the floor.

I stood up from my seat on the bed and approached her slowly. I then crouched down before her so she could look at me without having to raise her head too much. “Then I don’t see many issues, do you?”

“But… I’m a spy… I lied to you…”

“You did.” I nodded. “And you are. But you came clean, didn’t you? We’ll have to figure out how to continue in the near future.” I put my hand on her knee. “But right now, please stop crying, okay?”

She sniffed. “I… I’ll try…”

“And there’s one more thing… if you don’t mind…”

“W-what’s that…?” She sniffed again and wiped the tears out of her eyes.

“I’d like to see your true form… if that’s okay?”

She processed my question for a bit but after a minute she nodded. “Okay… I’ll have to go and grab something in my other cabin…”

-While I was letting my curiosity get the upper hand on me right now… in the back of my head… the threat of total annihilation of my planet… Let’s just try to avoid that at all costs…-