The Discovery of Neopias Moon by firestormchick_52 |  |
It was just another normal working day. Negative 54 degrees
out in the endless space surrounding Virtupets Space Station, but it was comfortable
inside of the station. As usual, many Grundos rushed back and forth throughout
the station carrying stacks of papers and the odd box or two. It was still early
in the Neopian day, so only the pets that worked at the station were there, or
just arriving. Not all pets that worked at the Space Station were Grundos, though.
There was one oddity that traveled everyday to the station from Meridell…
"Another day of staring into deep, dark space
from a cramped room while pushing buttons to keep watch on whatever may be out
in already mentioned deep, dark space." Lutra_Makibi, a green Krawk, muttered
as she stepped out of the docking area of the Space Station. Various Grundos
greeted her as she walked to the office area, where she worked as a space watcher.
She had to watch out for various things like Evil Fuzzles, stray meteors or
comets, and any of Dr. Sloth's evil gizmos (even though he hadn't been seen
in a while). Passing by Grundo's Café, she looked at today's menu, preparing
for her lunch break. After deciding on a Beef Rouladen and some Green Tea, she
made her way to her cubicle, avoiding the scurrying Grundos that were cleaning
up a paper spill. Sitting down, she sighed. Picking up a convenient duster,
she dusted off her console and the windows that surrounded the room. She sat
down at her console, turned it on, and started her workday.
A couple hours later, Lutra sighed as she stared
out the window. She muttered to herself, "This ship is but a shell, it's hull
lies in vacuum…" A skittering noise was heard as a Robot Spyder crawled down
the wall. She shooed it away from her desk. "No robot bug nor alien race, chills
my soul as cold as space." She leaned back in her chair and smiled slightly.
"Or something like that." Lutra squinted at the ceiling. Something seemed to
be sparkling a little in one of the cracks. She stood up, put a crate until
the crack, and stood on it, reaching into the crack and pulling out a shiny
coin. She turned it around in her hands, staring at it. It wasn't a Dubloon,
there wasn't a pirate-like symbol on it, and it wasn't a Nerkmid, since it was
round. "Maybe one of those collectable coins," Lutra muttered as she stuck it
into her Neopoint pouch (she refused to call it a purse). Noting that it was
about noontime, she made her way down to Grundo's Café. Waving to the chef,
she picked up her food and sat down at a vacant table. While nibbling on her
Beef Rouladen, she overheard two Grundo workers talking.
"I swear, I saw this large rock circling Neopia!"
said the green one.
"Did it look natural? I mean, did it look like
a real rock, or did it look metallic?" the blue one answered.
"It looked real! I swear! I'll look after lunch
for it again."
Lutra shrugged off the conversation and continued
eating. Searching for oddities was her job anyway, and she hadn't seen any oversized
rock today. Quickly finishing her lunch, she headed back to her station, the
thought of a huge meteor slamming into Neopia on her mind. "The green one did
say circling, meaning, more or less, rotating…" She slammed into her head like
a charging Elephante. "Does Neopia have a moon?"
At her station, she ran a scan around the surrounding
area of space, and picked up a large signal. Squinting out her window she noticed
something moving…something large moving towards the Space Station! "Oh my…"
whispered Lutra her eyes widening. "Neopia DOES have a moon!" Quickly writing
down the information that her console provided about it's location and size,
she ran to the head Grundo of the Space Station. Skidding to a stop in front
of his office, she knocked loudly. A "Come in!" was heard, and she rushed in.
"Ahh, Lutra, what brings you here?" he asked,
chewing on the end of a pencil.
"At lunch I overheard two other workers talking
about a large rock so I decided to see for myself what it was, so I ran a scan
of the area and found this!" Lutra said quickly, and shoved the papers in her
boss' face. He quickly scanned over the papers, nodding, and then spoke.
"So… Neopia has a moon, eh? We'll have to send
someone over there to see what it's like. How about you, Lutra? You did find
it."
Lutra was shocked. "B-but… I didn't find it,
those other did and…" she trailed off as the leader stood up.
"I'll get a space ship ready. I'll put enough
fuel it in for a round trip, since there probably won't be any life there. Unless…"
he said.
"Unless what, sir?"
"Nothing. I'll have the ship ready by the end
of the day. Send a letter with the mail carrier to your owner saying that you'll
be home late." He exited the room leaving Lutra standing there confused. Why
her? Why was she selected to go to Neopia's moon?
***
Three hours later, the space ship that would take Lutra to the moon was ready.
Equipped with thrusters, it would only take the Krawk about forty-five minutes
to reach the moon. The ship was insulated enough that she didn't need a spacesuit.
Making sure that strange coin was with her, she climbed into the ship with cheers
from her fellow workers. Flashing the victory sign, the hatch was closed, and
she prepared for the many g-forces of launch. The hanger was cleared and the
doors were opened. Lutra's mind was overflowing with thoughts of what this place
would look like and if creatures lived there. As the launch commenced, Lutra
was excited and nervous. The ship then took off into the darkness of space.
Lutra was alone with her thoughts now.
***
As she got closer and closer to the newly discovered satellite, Lutra could
make out some features of it. She saw a couple buildings, so either there was
life there now or there used to be life. The alarm on the ship sounded, alerting
that she should pick a landing spot and deploy the landing chute or crash land
and burst up in flames. Finding an empty space of land, she aimed her ship at
the ground and deployed the chute. She was preparing for the gravity to suck
her in, but it never came. "Gravity must be really low here…" she muttered as
she lessened up on the thrusters to come to a safe landing.
***
Bernard sighed as he put a few more books on the shelves. Not many of the
other orange Grundos came to buy books anymore since every single one in the
city had read the books that he sold. He almost wished that an outsider would
come, but the last outsider that came…he didn't want to remember THAT outsider.
Sighing again, he stepped outside and looked at the stars. Something caught
his eye. Squinting he made out a flame shape. A comet? A meteor? No… it was…"A
space ship!" he yelled and ran towards where it was landing. As the small ship
came to a stop near the Neocola Machine, he ran up to it to see who or what
was inside. The hatch opened, and a green thing stepped out… and immediately
fell head over heels and started to lightly gasp for air. Bernard caught the
strange Neopet and set it upright. He watched as it took out a pad of paper
and pencil.
"Air is 80 to 90 percent of normal quality…
gravity is very low," it muttered as it wrote. Looking up, it also added, "And
there IS life here."
"Um, excuse me…" Bernard asked quietly. "Who
are you, what are you, where do you come from, how did you get here, and are
you a minion of Dr. Sloth?"
The pet laughed a little. "My name is Lutra_Makibi,
Lutra for short, I'm a Green Krawk from Meridell, on the planet of Neopia."
She, as Bernard could tell now, pointed to the distant planet. "I traveled here
from Virtupets Space Station which orbits Neopia in the ship that I'm standing
next to."
"So you DO work for Sloth! He created that place,
took our family and friends away from us, and left us to work in the mines he
also made here!" Bernard exclaimed angrily.
"I never said I worked for Sloth!" Lutra said.
"The Space Station is more like an amusement park now, and Sloth hasn't been
seen in a while." She paused for a moment. "Wait, you said that he took your
family and friends away? I've never seen an orange Grundo before. Why don't
we go inside and talk about what's happened since then?"
***
"The Grundos were peacefully living here on Kreludor until Dr. Sloth came
to us in the month of Hiding in Year 2. He came with a large space ship, very
large, and took all of the red, blue, yellow, and green Grundos from the planet.
He left only us orange Grundos here, since he miscalculated how many of us there
were. We were barely surviving until one day one of us found a rare metal. Then
Sloth returned here, beaten by the Neopets on Neopia, and started the mining
operation. He returned to Neopia then, and we haven't heard from him since."
Bernard finished his story. He and Lutra were sitting in the back room of the
bookshop drinking some Neocola.
"I believe he left to invade the Lost Desert
at that time. Of course, he was defeated there as well." Lutra sipped some of
her Neocola. "So, now that we know about history and stuff now, do you happen
to know what this coin is?" She pulled out the strange coin that she had found
earlier that day. Bernard took it and looked at it and handed it back to her.
"It's a token for the Neocola machine. I wonder
how it got to the Space Station." He shrugged. "So, now that you know about
us, are you going to tell anyone?"
"Of course!" Lutra exclaimed. "Kreludor is basically
a part of Neopia. I'll tell the boss at the Space Station, Fyora the Faerie
Queen, anyone else that's important…but don't worry. People will flock here
at first, but the hype will slow down after a while." She stood up. "I should
be heading back to the Space Station now with my report. It'll be a few days
before trips from there to here should begin, so enjoy the peace while you can!"
The two pets walked back to Lutra's ship, said their farewells, and Lutra took
off for the Space Station.
***
When Lutra returned to the Space Station, she was met by many Grundos and,
of course, her boss. Grinning, she handed him her report on Kreludor, and his
eyes almost popped out of his sockets.
"Kreludor, our home, is actually Neopia's moon.
It must have an irregular orbit since this is the first time it's been in our
sights. I'll be sure to make a few special ships to take pets there first thing
tomorrow." Lutra nodded in agreement. The boss continued. "I wonder what Fyora
will say about this…"
***
"Miss Fyora?" A young Kacheek tugged on the Faerie Queen's dress.
"Yes, young one? What is it?" she asked the
small pet.
"What's that glowy thing in the sky? It's too
big to be a star and it doesn't hurt my eyes like the sun does."
"Well…" Fyora said, looking at the small, slightly
glowing light grey ball in the sky. "I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I
bet we'll find out soon. You better be going home now, little one."
"Okay! Bye-bye!" The little Kacheek ran out
of the Faerie Queen's castle. Fyora looked back at the ball in the sky and said
to herself, "Does Neopia have… a moon?"
The End
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