With Her in My Hand

By Coral Lights

Part 1: The Card

Chewl's boss gave him a credit card: "Take this card and have a merry Christmas."

 

Chewl studied the shallow depths of the old eyes belonging to Mr. Jones, his boss. A cloud was there, but they showed no hint of betrayal, only curiosity below the bald pate of thick forehead. Jones's hand retracted Chewl's attention as it waved the card impatiently above the polished desk.

 

Chewl took it, running his thumb over the transparent surface. "Thanks," he said, wondering why his boss would hand him an empty credit card.

Chewl watched Mr. Jones snort and sit back, like in a distant flickering movie. "Ahh." He relaxed his hands behind his head. "Is this your first holiday season away from earth?"

"Yes," Chewl said, "matter of fact it is..."

"Have you ever seen a miracle?" Silvery shadows from the moonlight outside and red blotches of warmth from the indoor firelights played across Jones’s white skin.

"No, I—eh, don’t think so, sir."

"Well," Jones turned up his eyes, "you're about to." The hefty man stood up. And the wall panel behind him lifted with a whoosh. And then off he sauntered down a passageway to disappear into an enveloping kaleidoscope of colors. Just like that!

 Mr. Jones’s vacant chair returned itself underneath his desk, the firelights extinguished and the panel slid back down making a slight thump against the carpet. Chewl stood alone in the unlit office. Suddenly panicked, Chewl looked through the solar panel windows down across the surface of the moon--he needed to escape. Chewl dropped the credit card to the floor and turned to run for the soft green lights of the glowing exit.

"Bones!" The Boss's voice returned on a loudspeaker, making Chewl jump as it echoed over the office walls. "Tell him."

Chewl suddenly felt squeamish as shoots of red light formed a shield blocking the hallway.  He understood he was not to go anywhere. He was trapped and he whirled back around. Who was Bones?

"Yezzz?" a peculiar voice answered from within the shadows. Chewl hadn't noticed anyone other than his boss before; and now that the Jones was gone: He wasn't alone in the office? Chewl got moving and slid his palms along the wall, on the defensive in case whoever else was here meant to swallow him up like a drink the Boss left on the desk. Chewl edged his way to the windows. He looked down over the ledge.

"He meant me."

Two tangerine eyes formed on the window and Chewl spun to see the shape of a man gliding toward him.

Chewl cringed and shivered. He banged on the window. "Let me out!" It was a beta being coming his way!

Chewl peeked over his shoulder. It was not that this mechanistic attempt at human impersonation didn't resemble a real man--it did--but the way it walked, the skin wasn't soft enough, the face looked stretched on steel, the voice icy and strange--

"Zure," said the voice, opaque tangerine irises alighting and blue pupils bouncing within. "Zure as the zun's light. I think we'll be seeing more of each other."

Chewl hoped not, and continued to pound his fists. "Someone let me out--Mr. Jones!"

"Merry Christmas," the terrible creature spoke. "You just got roughly one half Mr. Jones’s fortune and twenty hours to spend it." Tangerine dizziness clouded Chewl's vision. "Do zuh well..." And then the patter of shifty feet as it walked away.

Chewl fell to his knees and crawled to look at the credit card he had dropped, now sitting aimlessly on the carpet. He picked it up as a single glowing blue digit of the numeral 1 expanded outwards exponentially with trailing zeros until it reached 1 000 000 000 000

Part 2: The Money

 

One trillion in credit? Chewl hid the card in his pocket. And jogged across silver sand. He meant to put distance between himself and Geocapsule's towering headquarters, now just a small glow in the distance, as quickly as possible. He weaved in between the impossibly tall lunar trees and caught scattered glimpses through the green canopy of the black sky with its chromium spatter of stars. Beneath Chewl's boots, the Magnetic Seepers rumbled, deep below the surface providing a heavily laden gaseous atmosphere:  cold earth-like, breathable, and protective against radiation. Despite the cold, Chewl was glad to be moving away from Geocapsule. It wasn't exactly how he had envisioned his first meeting with his Boss.

And what was with that creepy beta being? He’d never seen one so ugly. Chewl had known Geocapsule’s robotics development team was working on them for a possible entry into the home robotics market. But that one was too strange. Who would want that one? It had orange eyes, emitted darkness, and--

Chewl didn't want to think about it any more. Besides, he had more pressing matters like: what to do with the card? Maybe he should just throw it out? Or, kick a small hole and let the Seepers dine? Safer yet, what he should do is turn it into the nearest moon security station. Let the authorities take it off his hands.

But, one trillion can do a lot. First, Chewl let curiosity get the best of him. He knelt beside the trunk of a tree and slid his hand down into his pocket and grasped the card.  Then he took out his phone.

After several tries, he managed to slide the card into the sleek universal keypad's reading slot. From a graphics card housed within, a thin mote of light beamed slightly below Chewl's eye. "Chewl," Mr. Jones’s tiny face spoke. Smoke whiffed from a cigar. "Let me remind a man who doesn't need reminding. By now my assistant Bones will have told you right. Sorry, I had to leave so suddenly on you, time flies…  The credit card you have reading in your machine holds half my fortune. One trillion." Pause. A breathe. "Of course you deserve it! Geocapsule had a record year let me remind you. But I only give you twenty hours to spend it. Dream away...." The Boss disappeared.

Chewl stared off across a hill in the lunarscape. He envisioned the vast dusty fields of small bullet shaped capsules far beyond. The ones made and used by Geocapsule to transport mined elements back to Earth. The same ones Chewl had been hired to help maintain and protect, but had really yet to. And that's what confused him: he hadn't really done anything worthy of such fortune in the short time he had arrived here from Earth...

Chewl pressed a call button on his wristwatch. A few minutes later, an air taxi came through the trees taking coming to rest in a small crater. It opened its canopy and Chewl hopped into its rounded seat. Air taxis were the primary mode of public transportation on Luna. They were easy, you just had to flag them and they simply asked in female contralto: "Destination?"

The canopy above him closed. "Too-uh”—he wasn’t sure where—sudden inspiration—“Dragonmall".

"Confirmed," said the taxi, winking with long laser lashes above the visor.

City lights soon came into view and, the taxi landed in a sea of its own blue force-padding. Chewl climbed out under the canopy and jumped down, then he immediately hot-footed it toward a monstrous sprawling complex resembling a sleeping dragon. Revolutionary lantern lights coming from within Dragonmall's huge solar panel scales immersed anything nearing without prejudice:  machine, animal, man.

Chewl stepped onto the escalator stairs of a small pedestrian bridge. It led him over an underluna parking lot. He could see the cars parking in a series of crisscrossing tunnels carving the surface. Every now and then, an air car exited or entered and disappeared.

Chewl kept a constant eye on the pedestrians and robots around him. Mr. Jones was a calculating man, monopolizing the moon's mining trade, and surely calculating his losses as soon as Chewl spent a dime. Chewl leaned and gripped the bridge's moving railing heavy in thought. He felt for the card in his pocket, chilled when his fingers touched the card's rectangular surface. God, it was real.

The bridge continued on, crossing over more air car traffic and then the sidewalks with throngs of shoppers. Several bulbous domes rose high above him, forming restaurant attachments to the mall. Chewl could see a group of patrons carrying their trays.

            The bridge ended and Chewl rode down the escalator into Dragonmall's gaping mouth. He went through the ivory teeth and onto the marble floors red like a tongue.

A deep low rumble coursed through the throat of corridors. The roar periodically stopped and started. On his left in the corner, shoppers were renting hovercarts to ride in. The inflated craft whisked riders all through the corridors.

Then, a small, blue dragon approached Chewl, opening its wings to form a map.

It spoke: "May I help you find your shopping destination? I can be your helpful companion." Tongues of flames jumped from between its teeth and tendrils of smoke rose from its nostrils.

"Tell me where the bars are," said Chewl.

Several icons blinked on the dragon's blue map grid.

"Take me there," Chewl said, pointing to one near the Dragonmall’s belly.

"As you wish," said the dragon, flying off for Chewl to follow. "Now first get on this escalating floor and..." Chewl stepped on floor three, let it drag him along, all the while listening to the dragon maps chatter about sales as they passed various storefronts.

Purplish, red-blue lights soon covered the cavernous walls.  The colors came from within a bar framed by large blocks of granite. Heavy bass music pumped from the speakers. Voices inside were calling and laughing.

Chewl told the map to wait outside the bar and walked in. He moved past the crowds, as lanterns of coral lights dodged patrons and hovered over the tables. He walked along the long plastic bar and took a seat near the far end. All around him drinks shook, slid, and fizzled with the colors of earthen rainbows as the robot bartender were kept busy.

Chewl recognized the song bumping from the speaker cones:

Oh, good God girl
Don’t leave me to curl

Up and die

Without a why

You’re not so good without me

And Lord I’m even worse

Chewl carefully scanned the crowd, most keenly the entrance. He didn’t recognize any faces or think anyone was watching him. He ordered and sipped on a mug of Green Ivy and tried to relax. The music stopped and soon most human eyes turned to the far wall. The robotic bartender nearest Chewl kept on drying a glass. Chewl spun on his seat.

Laughter and chatter.

The glass panel serving as a wall flashed to life becoming a TV.

Most voices quieted. A high-pitched women's laugh.

Channel 4 covered the TV surface. From the ceiling above water flowed down the glass to a small pool. It cast a shimmering glow when the overhead lights dimmed. The water grew heavier and a projection of clear butterflies played around the bar room walls.

A voice came on loud over the barroom speakers. "I want to know what time it is." An eye blinked open on the TV screen. An ugly creature formed out of complete darkness. It wore a tux and had a pale green face with white eyes. More plastic and metal than flesh, thought Chewl.

"I think it's time," the creature continued, "to..." Hideous face leaned into the bar.

"Buy a girl for you!" shouted a studio audience.

"Yes, I think so." The studio lights came on.

And there slid Buy a Girl for You titles across the screen, soon to be perforated by gorgeous women with long Luna dresses and heavily made up faces. Some danced, some blew kisses the camera. Music perfumed their every move.

Chewl had heard about this TV show, but had never seen it.

The creature reappeared. "Gameman here and guess what my game is?"

"Games!" the studio audience replied with a mad shout.

"I shouldn’t have to tell you you’re right!" said Gameman. “But, you are you morons!”

The audience laughed; so did Chewl.

"Now Gentlemen, I know you're out there, so without much further ado, here are the ladies for tonight!" A wave and a bow.

"Hi my name is Kassie," said a blonde doll. "I want a man with a sense of humor and--"

Gameman interrupted, "If that old cliché' were true, then I should have millions of women breaking down my door."

The studio audience laughed.

“Girls want bucks, not chuckles!”

One by one, several ludicrously gorgeous women were introduced with print graphic bios, career ambitions, and audio clips stating what they wanted in a man. Lastly, all the girls gave their price to earn a date with them--or heck some even offered marriage. Delightful smiles dazzled the wall, dancing here, curtsying there. All but one.

"Okay, gentlemen," Gameman said, "We've let Brianna pass for two straight weeks.

            “Two!” exclaimed the audience.

            “Yes, two.”

"Awwww," sympathized the audience. Several men in the bar whistled.

"But,"--Gameman silenced the crowd--"this living beauty is too good not to go! The price is steep, but the reward is great. All she wants is..." He walked to the girl with a microphone.

"Diamonds," said Brianna, blinking huge lashes as the camera focused on her, "and one hundred billion in credit."

"Ohhh," gasped the audience.

"Our highest request ever," pointed out Gameman. "But such beauty is beyond price!"

Loud cheers.

Brianna, Brianna, there was nothing more in the world now to Chewl. Ah, her lovely, lovely honey coated complexion was soothing his mind. Her--the camera focused closer to amethyst eyes he was sure met his. She was lost up there...

Suddenly, Chewl knew what to do with Jones’s money. In his excitement he tapped the shoulder of a brutish man sitting next to him at the bar. "I'm going for her."

"Puh..." The man didn't even look away from the screen.

------

Chewl didn’t ride but jogged over the gliding floors, moving as quickly as possible without jostling the shoppers too much as he made his way down Dragonmall's vast corridors, with the tiny blue dragon map chasing him in tow (“Wait, sir, where shall we shop next? I can help you.”).

Chewl stopped his legs enough to take out his phone and hastily connect to Buy a Girl for You studios. He followed the short procedure to schedule an introduction with Brianna and was assigned number four as his customer number.     

The mall was crowded, normal for the night before Christmas Eve, but Chewl dodged his way around the bustle letting the map help guide him as if he wished the jewelry stores into place. But as he entered each store, he wasted precious time, fretting and wondering which diamonds Brianna might like. He leaned over counters, ran his hands through his hair, gritted his teeth in frustration. Sliding over a clear glass case, he finally spotted what he was looking for. There it was sitting on a red padded pedestal: a large gold chain necklace with two dragon claws clutching a huge diamond. Chewl asked the salesrobot to see it and when he held it aloft, he could see through a lucent facet to the damp red lights on the ceiling. He purchased it and soon it didn't matter, the ball was rolling and he bought diamond bracelets to match the necklace without cares to expense. And when he looked at the Boss's card, 95 000 000 000 in tiny red letters blinked on the transparent surface, 5 000 000 000 less than before.

Eventually, Chewl hoped he had enough in diamonds to please Brianna and with the dragonclaw necklace and matching bracelets in his pockets he rode the revolving floors toward the nearest exit. On the way, noisy Luna fashion shows surrounded him. Mostly women walked the runways, and mostly men watched.

"Hey, mister," a smallish whispery voice called. Chewl jumped off the moving floors. Was it for him?

A flying cart had to swerve to avoid hitting Chewl.

"Sorry," said Chewl, when the angry drivers looked back at him.

Chewl quickly spun back to the source of the calling voice, flinching and expecting the worst.  But there was nothing there. None of the shoppers even noticed him.

"Pssst, hey," the voice repeated, intent on being heard. Standing in the distance within a shell scooped corner was a young boy nodding at Chewl.

He was far away, but Chewl was sure that had been the boy who had called to him. Chewl wasn't sure how.

"Come here," repeated the whispery voice like a phantom. The boy was looking both ways.

Chewl made his way around a fashion runway where a woman in a skin-tight silver suit and a cone on her head walked on by.

"It's okay," said the phantom voice.

Chewl approached the child, comically dressed in a large brimmed dress hat, and a much too large trench coat embedded with blinking lights and monitors as if the boy carried his own microcosmic world.

But wait, most peculiar of all, in an already dark corner of the mall, the boy had on dark glasses with purple multi-dimensional arrays of information swimming within the left lens! "You got someone watching you," said the boy, turning his head to the left and right. He raised his glasses to look at Chewl with the most serious of brown eyes. He rubbed his nose.

"Huh?" Chewl said; he stepped closer into the shadows. Shivers ran up his spine. The boy looked all of ten years old! "How did you do that? How did you call me from way over there?"

"Oh, voice projector," said the boy nonchalantly enough to disturb Chewl. "I locked on, targeted you and sent my whisper. They call me Ghost."

For the first time, Chewl noticed the boy, er--Ghost wore a tiny filament microphone wrapping around to the opening of his mouth. It was nearly invisible!

"Walk," Ghost said. "Don't look at me." The boy moved along methodically running his hand along the smooth surface of concave walls and Chewl followed.

Ghost lowered his glasses and whispered earnestly: "About fifteen yards behind you tails a Rattellite."

"Rattellite?" said Chewl, leaning in closer to hear while trying to look away from the boy. Chewl kept his eyes on the dragon's solar paneled windows.

Ghost continued whispering: "Yeah, it's a tiny hovering spy satellite invisible to the human eye. They're no more than spy cameras. An invasion of privacy in my opinion... But look, I see you are a man of good taste. So, I'll rid you of it for two hundred dollars. But tell me: who’s watching you?"

Watching me? Mr. Jones? “Wait, kid, I want it off me.” Chewl grabbed him by the collar.

“Lay off the jacket.”

Chewl let him go.                     

"Have you your gun?"

"What?" Chewl stared.

"I said don't look at me. I'm out of here if you look at me again."

Chewl averted his gaze, scanning over the boy's head at a furniture store's flashing arches, and then onto the balcony above where resting shoppers leaned down over the rails watching the fashion shows below. No one in particular seemed to notice Chewl; he moved his glance all the way back to the windows. He wondered if any of Mr. Jones’s men were in here now, or any of the robots would be sent to kill him.

Chewl turned back to the boy: "Nuh-uh, I don't have one."

"You don't? all spy types carry one," Ghost said, as if Chewl was a pea-brain.

"I'm not a spy." Chewl shuddered at the thought. “But, I think someone may want to kill me, so get it off—“

"Wheeeww." Ghost whistled through his teeth like a phantom shrieking. "If you aren't a spy, then you got some sort of rich pal keeping tabs on you. These things have highly sophisticated anti-collision detection systems onboard. Nobody but international spies are worth wasting a Rattelite on."

"It's coming closer," Ghost suddenly said, making Chewl jump. Chewl imagined the tiny satellite blasting him to pieces.

Ghost pushed his glasses tighter against his forehead. Chewl could see his eyes squinting beneath the dark lenses. "No, now it's backing off," said Ghost. "Don't worry." Chewl's muscles relaxed slightly. "Sometimes those things are loaded with weapons. I thought it might take us out for a minute."

Panicked, he grabbed Ghost by the shoulders. "I want it off me!" Ghost snarled--enough of a warning for Chewl to turn away.

"Not, so loud," whispered Ghost.

They stood back to back. "Then get me a gun," the boy's phantom voice projected over his shoulder, "and..."

Chewl listened to hardly audible plans, wondering if they were from a boy he could trust.

Chewl spun on his heel without a glance back and headed for the sporting goods store.

He made great haste, quickly choosing a zapgun from a sliding virtual display, paid for the piece and left. He didn't dare glance behind him for fear of his Rattelite. --His own tiny, invisible moon.

Chewl jogged down the huge corridors. He tried jumping and dodging near walls and into stores, hoping the Rattelite would crash. Chewl imagined Mr. Jones seated at his desk, monitoring his every move, laughing and watching him like a trapped rat. It made Chewl angry and he decided to try Ghost's plan. Genetically tweaked brain boy, he might be, but the tot with a hat had a plan, and it was the only bet he had now. And Chewl followed the next part of the plan, by exiting Dragonmall at its left back dragon paw. As he walked out beneath the dragon's claws, the throat of Dragonmall rumbled.

Chewl jogged across the smooth air car paths and stepped into the dim red vapor lights of the side streets. He walked beneath a bridge.

"Hey, over here," came Ghost's voice breezing into his ear. It surprised Chewl, for he had walked by the boy without seeing him.

Chewl rounded back and headed for Ghost's general direction. The kid walked out from behind a bridge support beam He had turned off his gizmos and now his jacket and hat were completely black.

 Chewl stepped off the pavement, kicking up lunar dust. "Hand it to me quick!" Ghost beckoned. It was obvious it was no use to be quiet now. Chewl ripped open the package containing the zapgun and handed it into the darkness.

The boy's small hand reached out and grabbed it. He skillfully charged the zapgun, which whirred, and then pressed his palms around it. He aimed and fired about fifteen yards back. Chewl ducked, placing his hands over his head. Zoom! A ripple like lightning jumped through the air and gently exploded in a chrome of gaseous light. Little tinkles of shiny shards hit the paved ground, some still sparking. Ghost stepped out of the darkness and lifted his glasses to his forehead and began to walk to where the broken pieces lay. Chewl lowered his hands, following.

Ghost smiled back at him: “Spyware removed…. And the sick thing is those suckers show you what's behind them from every angle. Completely invisible until the surface cameras are destroyed." Ghost pointed at silver fragments lying on silver powder. He bent to pick one up. He showed the smoking piece to Chewl. "Rattelite destroyed. Two hundred bucks I believe."

Chewl took out his phone. He pointed it.

"Beam it here." Ghost pointed to his trench coat, pasting a finger on a tiny display.

Chewl sent the boy some money.

"Zap gun man!" said Ghost, with widening eyes, "thanks." A display on Ghost's jacket registered 200 000 in digital numbers. He handed Chewl back his gun, slowly and with a new sense of awe. Chewl accepted it and holstered it between his pants and side. Big brown eyes studied him intently. "Now, you better get out of here, cause someone's supposed to kill you now."

Chewl took off running--he knew what Ghost inferred.

"It's okay. It happens to all spy types!" Ghost called after him.

Chewl kept running, stumbling in the dust, moving up a small mountain of crushed rocks.

The boy's voice projected shouts haunted his ears like a spirit out to take him away from his body (“Run man!”). They went on for quite some distance.

Chewl eventually stopped to rest when he came to a large hilly patch of woods, populace five thousand or so Live Oak trees, brought here on the early terraforming days of the moon; it worked great, too great in fact--these trees were engineered without control in mind, and they soon required huge rolling machines to chop 'em down. Chewl now stopped beside the tire belonging to one of these idle beasts. He lurked in the shadows and made his plans....

Chewl pressed his watch to flag down an air taxi. One soon appeared. "Destination?"

"Buy a girl for you."

"Confirmed." Wink.

And that was that.

The taxi soared into the air. Soon, it glided along a residential boulevard.

An expensive air car parked along the curb caught Chewl's attention when it took off after them.

"Ut-oh," said Chewl, turning back to look over his shoulder. The car followed closely.

"Go faster," said Chewl.

"It's not advisable here," said the taxi.

Chewl looked back again. "It's an emergency!" said Chewl. The car raced forward colliding with the taxi.

Chewl bumped into the dashboard. "Now!"

Chewl's air taxi revaluated the situation with its own keen sensorons. Then it sped up, zooming and zagging.

The taxi soared over a rooftop and up across a small mountainous crater, and dropped down the other side, blazing through the lunatropolis streets. Soon, as expected, moon security force appeared in red flashing patrol cars, tailing the chase.

"Not what I need," whispered Chewl. "Manual," he commanded and a panel opened in the dash lowering a flight yoke.

"Confirmed," said the taxi, winking.

Chewl saw a chance and wrenched the yoke to the right, crashing the taxi through the glass panel of a factory display. Water crashed over the canopy in waves as the advertisement disintegrated into small oceans of colors. Chewl skidded the taxi over the slick floors and ejected through the canopy before it stopped. He hit the floor, slipped, got up, and ran. The zapgun fell from his pants and clacked to the floor. A woman screamed as he entered the hall. "Help!" she called and ducked to the floor.

Another car came crashing into the hallway, the air car that had followed Chewl. The patrol cars with security sirens soon followed.

Chewl ran down past confused workers, pushing some, nearly tripping over others. He raced down a narrow corridor and up to a flight of magnesoft stairs. They propelled him upwards with bounces until he reached a landing corner. It was a dead end and the door in front of him locked! Chewl took out his gun and turned back to the stairs.

"Prepare to meet your maker," said a robot confronting him on the landing. Chewl jumped, grabbing onto the robots neck and head. The robot lifted its arms and fired laser beams. Chewl looked at the face and recognized it as one belonging to Geocapsule. It flailed, trying to remove Chewl. Confused shouts.

Chewl was thrown down the steps. He bounced against the wall on the way down, somersaulting.

The wall above him disintegrated as the robot fired and blasted away. People screamed. The ceiling began to collapse. Propped on his elbows, lying on his back, Chewl turned to see the debris continue to fall where the robot once stood.

"I won't meet my Maker unless…unless…unless”—Chewl imagined Brianna—“unless it's with her in my hand!" Chewl got up and ran down another corridor.

Chewl ran by a security force officer and jumped through a smashed first floor window, landing in the lunar sand.

He called for another air taxi. 

Part 3: The Studio

 

When Chewl arrived out front of Studio Buy A Girl For You, his hands immediately went over his pockets were the diamond necklace and bracelets were. All was going according to plan—sort of. He stepped out into the circling spotlights fronting the studio.

Chewl fixed his dusty rumpled clothes as best as he could and began the walk down a glass hallway with a view of the stars. A quasi song pumped from speakers:

Buy a girl for you!
Boy, what you gonna do?
If you don't buy a girl for you!

 

The hallway led to a circle of steps leading down to a group of receptionists. Chewl stopped by the first: "I want to see Brianna."

"Number?"

"Four."

"She has left already," the receptionist said, without looking up, still painting her nails green. "Dear your appointment was an hour ago, she wouldn't wait. You're lucky someone else hasn't won her."

“No,” said Chewl running his hand through his hair. “I’ve come too far.”

“Oh, are you from earth?” The receptionist eyed him for the first time.

“It doesn’t matter.” Chewl wondered how long it would be before another of Mr. Jones’s robots was on to him. Or maybe, he would send several.

A computer caught Chewl's eye and an idea filled his mind. "Can I use that?" Chewl pointed to the computer in a small curved alcove.

"Sure," said the receptionist, shrugging. "It's for customer use, with a complete database of all the girls--"

"Thanks," said Chewl, hurrying to the alcove. He slipped inside the booth and touched the screen. A keyboard appeared before his fingers. Chewl didn't spend years studying electronics without spending some time learning to hack, well he had told himself: he only learned the craft to prevent it. Chewl cracked into the unauthorized section of the network's database.

Part 4: Brianna

 

"See, I got the diamonds," Chewl said, putting the dragonclaw necklace around Brianna's neck, brushing aside her hair, and clasping it in the back. "It's fair. And I had more--I will get more if it's not enough. They look so pretty on you."

Brianna touched the faint shimmering surface held in the dragonclaw clutch, gazing with her lovely violet eyes. The room was dark in Brianna's lunapad. The only light entering the room shone from faint turquoise rays in the background. Luxury fish swam in a nearby tank. Chewl could hear her breathing softly. "I don't know," Brianna said. "I'm thinking about going"-- she choked--"huh-huh-hom-m-m-e."

"And home is..."

"Euh-euh-earth."

"Don't cry." Brianna collapsed into Chewl's arms, tears dampened his shirt, and suddenly the final piece of the plan came to fruition....

Some time later, they stood on Brianna's outdoor balcony, under the stars. She folded her arms and leaned against the railing. She shook her long mane of hair, and reached for tree branch. She took off a flower from a leaf and watched it float down far to the surface below.

She had turned on Ellengy’s song The Moon Makes Me Delicate and now she rocked herself gently to the music. She had the sleeve of her sweater balled up around her fist and every once in awhile she dabbed at her eyes, still wet with tears.

Chewl spoke: "See, I work for Geocapsule. We send back mined elements to earth. But it could be anything..." Chewl pulled the Boss's card and nodded to it. "Ninety five billion, lass." He showed her the glowing red numbers on the surface. "Do you know how many diamonds that is?" He walked to her side.

She moved away. "You know, I don't get it"--she held up her palms--"Where's like, all the cameras and stuff?"

"Huh?" said Chewl.

"The cameras that are from Buy A Girl For You studios. I don't see them," she said, looking around. "They are supposed to follow us on the first night out."

"Oh," said Chewl. "They're not coming." He leaned over the railing and looked down onto the air car strips far below.

"You're not part of the show?"

Chewl: "Oh, no--I was. Just, not anymore. I found out where you were… independently."

"I can't believe this," she hissed. "No like you has one hundred billion dollars to spend. I--"

"I do. Go ahead"--he handed her the card--"check it out in your accounting machine. It's real."

With a skeptical glance, she took the card and walked back into the lunapad...

Chewl waited outside. He fretted. An agonizingly long time seem to pass...

But, soon she came out, looking more beautiful then ever, in a dress and twisting her hips while carrying the card at her side. A hint of a smile played on her lips. She held the card aloft.

Chewl felt shivers up his spine, into the base of his neck.

She handed him the card and nodded...

------

When they were in an air taxi together soaring over an open expanse of deep platter craters and silver sand, an almost as large expanse of silence passed between them, then the girl spoke: "See you probably are wondering why I did this. Why I was on that show..."

"Sort of," Chewl answered. But really he was desperately interested--interested in everything she had to say.

She looked out the window. "See, I tried everything else--but not yet money. I mean gobs of it." She laughed. "But, I thought my asking price was so outrageous, it would mean nothing other than I would get on a TV show--"

"And, now you're gonna take my money and ditch me, huh?"

"No!" She batted at him playfully. "Well, yes. I guess I was, sort of..."

“So what are you looking for?”

“I don’t know--Where did you get the money anyway?" Her eyes met his suspiciously. But, then the amethyst irises mirrored pleasurable mockery. Perhaps, she was already planning on how to spend the money.

"Oh, I was entertainment for someone--someone who followed me with a camera to see how I spent his money; then he planned on either locking me away or killing me--I'm not sure."

"Oh, my God. Are they still following you?" She looked deeply concerned. "Who was it?"

"No," said Chewl. "I took care of that--or rather a little boy did."

She laughed when she heard that. Chewl could tell she was unsure what to think.

"Well, what is it then? Here," Chewl said, pulling the Boss's card from his pocket. "Here it is--is that what you want? take it, there's still a lot of money left." Boy, was that an understatement. He pushed the card at her.

And to his surprise, she pushed the card back at him. "No, I change my mind." She smiled.

And that was enough for Chewl. The girl's not so greedy. But, now he would give her all the money and diamonds, then with or without him, she could be queen, at least for a little while...

They eventually landed at Hollow Hill Mall, where Chewl let her pick out more jewelry. He offered to buy anything thing she desired. No, she shook her head; it was all about the jewelry. And their allotted space together was uninterrupted; there were no more robots.

Part 5: Going Home

 

Flying an air taxi into Geocapsule's airspace was tricky, but not too bad for a man who spent a week working there learning the security systems. Chewl found his way around it, he hoped for enough time...

Chewl jumped down from the air taxi and helped Brianna dismount, being careful not to mash her dress. They walked a few paces and stood before one of the many capsules Geocapsule had lined up on this particular airfield. Chewl pulled the panel open of a vacant capsule with Geocapsule etched in the side and together he and Brianna walked back and forth between it and the waiting taxi, carrying jewelry to stuff among the capsule's padded containers. At a moment when Chewl and Brianna stood so close in the small geocapsule, Chewl wondered if they would ever get to Earth safely. They should hurry…

"Oh God," said Brianna, and Chewl spun to watch her get dragged outside by a growing band of blue light. Chewl hopped out after it, and her, grabbing at her hand, but being torn from her grasp. Now she hung suspended in a blue cage above his head like a canary. Her mouth was working quickly, but Chewl could not hear the words.

Blue light descended down upon Chewl and soon he was also trapped and lifted off the sand. As he rose, he saw a Geocapsule robot standing on a remote platform and controlling the jail lights. It pulled a lever and Chewl and Brianna's cages swung in the air, coming close together. Chewl tried to reach through the blue vapors and touch Brianna, kiss her, anything, before they both would be locked away forever to slowly disappear into soul vapors of their own. She reached out her hand, but he couldn't grasp her fingertips, the blueness held him back.

A loud bang and crashing of metal pierced Chewl's ears and then the energy supports beneath his heels disappeared and a dizzying hurtle downwards ended in a soft crash into the soft dust of the moon. He lay slightly dazed on sister Luna and then rolled over to where he saw Brianna stir.

"Go on, letz get out of here," spoke a voice. Chewl recognized the smooth pattern of speech, instantly knew it belonged to Bones the beta-being and Mr. Jones's most personal assistant. Bones helped Brianna to her feet, and then he helped Chewl. With Bones at their back, Chewl and Brianna ran back to their jewelry loaded capsule. Out of the corner of his eye, Chewl noticed robot wreckage, their once jailer, but now victim of Bones.

When they got inside the Geocapsule, Bones came crashing in beside them. "I'm coming witz you," Bones said, "you'll need a butler on Earth. Besides, I got the bozz's second card carrying the rest of his fortune" He held out another card exactly identical to the one Chewl had. "Mr. Jones is officially broke, and let us say: where he is, he will be incapable of canceling the accounts for quite some time. Huhuh."

In the distance Chewl could hear the siren wail of moon security patrol cars. He could already see the red flashing lights.

"Wait," said Chewl, this was going too far. "Bones, what time is it?" Chewl stepped out of the capsule.

"Earth time—eleven fifty pee em.”

"What are you doing?" Brianna called after Chewl who exited and who was kicking up dust.

Chewl turned and looked back at them. He took the Boss's card from his pocket. "Bones," he said.

"Yes?"

"Give me the other card."

Bones threw the second card to Chewl.

"Chewl what are you doing? They're coming." Brianna gestured for him to get back in the capsule.

Chewl could now see the police air cars skimming over the sand. They were getting closer.

"I'm making my own reality," said Chewl facing the charging vehicles. "See it hasn't yet been twenty hours since the Boss handed me this." He held out the original card. "I'm just doing what he told me--spending twenty billion within twenty hours."

Chewl threw the cards into the sand. And walked to the door of the capsule. "I won't spend a dime over account limit or go a dime past the time limit. He did give me permission to use one card, remember. The other one is Bones’s fault. I had nothing to do with it."

"Chewl, goddammit," said Brianna jumping on one foot. "Get the cards. And get in here!"

"No," said Chewl, standing. "I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ll just talk to Luna security and go on with my life here.”

“Get the cards,” pleaded Brianna.

 “I really like you Brianna even if you weren't on that stupid show. And now I've done nothing wrong."

"Nothing wrong! How did you get my address? How do you know Bones did anything wrong? Let’s get the cards and go."

"You shouldn’t have put your name in the database," said Chewl. "Darling, nothing these days is private."

The patrol cars came up behind Chewl.

“Police!”

Bones grabbed Chewl with lightning quickness and hurled him through the capsule door to land against the back wall in a heap.

“Ooof,” cried Chewl, looking at Brianna upside down. He got to his knees.

"We go!" said Bones, hopping back into the capsule, slamming the door shut and with a short "Pffffftt!" the capsule jolted and soon ascended into the air. Force fields within the capsule grabbed Chewl taking hold of him and holding him steady. He stood and reached for Brianna and put his arm around her protectively. He guessed for now he was staying, and so was she.

Through a capsule window, Chewl could see the moon's security forces in red flashing air cars rushing onto Geocapsule's airfield. He saw a man get out of one and look up. Several other men rushed into neighboring capsules.

“Human’s take so long to make decisions,” said Bones. “And I got the cards—“he held them aloft—“I couldn’t let you lose everything.”

“No, Bones,” said Chew, angrily. “To humans money isn’t everything.”

Brianna reached for the two cards and took them from Bones. “In that case I’ll take them.”

"This is gonna be a heck of a chase," Chewl said, running his hands through his hair and imagining the capsules already following them.

"Ah," said Bones, pointing to his beta-being brains. "I disabled the computer launch system. They won't be going anywhere until they rid themselves of a serious virus." His tangerine eyes flashed, and the blue pupils jumped.

"Teehehe." Giggled Brianna. "That sounds bad."

"You know, I always detested the man," said Bones, standing at a small window to look back at the moon shrinking in the distance. "Such a silly game for a man to play."

“He created you,” said Chewl.

“I know, but not to be good. I think you humans think your God created you to be good. But, he created me to attack and steal.”

Bones titled back his head and sang clearly like a bell:

A someone is what I am

With the dreams that’s in your hearts

Don’t forget to tell my lady

Money ain’t no longer just for the shady

But if that’s why you love me

What are you gonna go?

Cause, that’s fine too!

A beeping sound interrupted.

"Hey, look here," said Bones pointing to a display on his arm. "As of Earth time, Merry Christmas to the both of you."

"Bones wait," said Brianna, still worrying about the money. "What about customs when we reach Earth? Won’t the police intercept us?"

Chewl looked toward terra, with its great blue seas, tan continents covered with clouds, ever growing in the distance, and wondered what future he could still make.

“Beta-being?” Bones pointed to himself. "I don’t think so.  I'm alpha! I took care of that."