"Okay," black-skinned Zog radioed. "Dragon's hungry now."

They were about an hour out from having left orbit, and the blue mass of Earth still loomed large behind them.

"Alright," answered Orkan, also black. "Kill rockets ... three ... two ... one ... now!"

As they began to drift, Zog used his hand rockets to move over to his companion, then grabbed his backpack, peeled the flap open, and pulled out a slab of rock. "Got it," he radioed as he resealed the flap, and Orkan drifted a short distance away. Drawing Dragon out from its pouch strapped to his waist, Zog gently placed it on the rock and held it so that there was no chance of it getting away.

"Good to go?" Orkan asked.

"Yup. We'll have to stop again when it's done."

"I know. Start rockets ... three ... two ... one ... now!" He began the melody line they'd been composing for the trip, using the violin voice, and Zog chimed in with the piano accompaniment.


"Four days, twenty-three hours, and fifty minutes," radioed Orkan exultantly as they settled side-by-side into a low lunar orbit to check out possible landing sites. "Those tips Astro gave me really helped."

"Yeah," replied Zog.

"We'll do even better on the way back without the rocks."

"Whatever. Hup! It's feeding time again. Could you please dig a rock out of my pack?"

"No problemo. ... Here you go."

"Thanks."

Orkan gazed with his super-vision down onto the varied grey surface below them as it scrolled by. "Hey, there's one of those rover robots the humans sent. We should stop by later and pay it a visit."

"Sure. Which one is it?"

"Um, let's see. According to the records I was able to download before we left, it's one of the Lunar Wanderer series. It looks like this was one launched fifteen years ago, so a real oldie."

"Is it still working?"

"Its wheel drives are supposed to be shot, but its sensors are mostly still okay."

"Too bad we didn't hire ourselves out as maintenance 'bots, and come and fix it. That would have been kind of interesting."

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. Maybe we can talk to Astro about setting something up later. I'll bet the humans would pay pretty good to get their stuff running again."

"Of course if we start coming here regularly, they'd hardly need robots like that when we could do their research for them instead."

Orkan thought for a moment. "That's even better! It would be so cool to help the humans learn stuff. Dr. Elefun might know who to talk to."

"Okay, Dragon's done eating." Zog passed the rock to Orkan and waited as he put it back in the pack. "So let's land."

"I'm on it."


"Yee-hah!" Orkan exclaimed as he bounded high above the lunar surface.

Zog was right behind him. "This low gravity is the greatest!"

"You think I can get over that mountain?" He pointed to their right as they reached the apex of their leaps.

"No way. It's way higher than we are right now."

"Watch me!" Orkan fired his hand rockets to get reoriented, then arrived at the base of the mountain in two bounds. Crouching down, he pushed off with everything he had.

Zog watched from a hill on the edge of a neighbouring crater as his companion sailed higher and higher, then hurriedly blasted off towards him when he slammed into the face of the mountain some three hundred metres shy of his goal. "Are you okay?" Zog radioed.

"Yeah," responded Orkan, sounding miffed. "Obviously you were right. Let's go see that Lunar Wanderer robot now."

"Okay. Which way is it?"

"Follow me." He took off in the direction of the Earth hanging above them, and Zog quickly went after him.


"Oh hi Colonel," Astro said as he answered his phone. "What's up?"

"I'd like you to have a look at this," said Colonel Devan. "It was taken by the Lunar Wanderer Fifteen robot yesterday afternoon as it was doing a panorama shot."

Astro pasted the incoming picture file into his processor. There were two black figures with glowing eyes standing together in a bleak grey place, one of them pointing at the camera. Oh boy. "Um, it looks like Zog and Orkan, two androids who are on the moon right now."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. "I'll ask about Orkan later. So, exactly how many androids are there anyway?"

"Five grown-ups and one baby."

"Baby?"

"Yeah. It's kind of complicated."

"I suppose this has something to do with your 'little secret'."

"Oh yeah. Big time."

"Orkan too?"

"Yup."

Colonel Devan sighed. "I think it's time for you to tell me that secret, so at least I have a handle on things. You see, when this image came up, it scared the pants off of the technician who was manning the receiver."

Astro chuckled. "Let me guess: he thought they were aliens."

"Yes, it is funny, but you have to understand something: it could also be a nightmare if an image like this ever got onto the web. There are plenty of crazies out there who would happily start a panic."

"I'm sorry, sir. I had no idea."

"I know, but things have too much potential for blowing up to let your secret ride any longer. I can set us up for an interview tomorrow morning at a secure site if you want."

"I'd like that. Thanks."


"Hey Orkan," Zog radioed as he let the still-pink baby feed on some exposed rock. "I can see Dragon's arms and legs now. Are they ever little!"

"That's cool," replied Orkan from the side of a nearby mountain where he was preoccupied with working his way to the summit.

Zog stared. The limbs were so delicate, so fragile-looking, the body so defenceless, as if it could be shattered by a touch.

Suddenly a shadow fell across his heart. He was delicate, fragile, and defenceless, a tiny and insignificant thing under the looming presence of Earth. What was he doing here? How could he possibly have thought it was okay to bring Dragon to this empty place?

He couldn't stay. He had to get Dragon back immediately.

"Where'd our backpacks go?" he asked Orkan.

"Why? What do you need it for?"

"Umm." No, he couldn't tell Orkan. "I was just wondering, you know, in case we need it for something."

Orkan hung on the side of the mountain and thought. They had already agreed that they didn't have any more use for those packs days ago, so Zog was hiding something. What? The only possible explanation had to be that he wanted to go back home, but that didn't make sense either. There was no way the 'droid would do that without talking it over with him first, and Zog hadn't so much as hinted that he wanted to leave. Something was going on.

Okay. He'd better deal with this, and now!

Blasting away from the mountain, he shot over to where he had left his companion and landed behind him. "What are you doing?" he exclaimed. "Planning to leave without me?"

Zog jumped, and rolled around from his crouch to sit and look up at Orkan. "I ... uh ..."

Orkan could feel the fear pouring over their radio link. "What are you so upset about all of a sudden, huh? There's nothing going to happen to us here! Come on, grow up!"

"I ... I-I'm scared, Orkan, really scared. We don't belong here, especially Dragon. It's so little and stuff. I don't want it to die!"

"It's not going to die! It's an android, and it'll take a whole heap of bad to kill it! Now stop this stupid talk and let's go exploring again!"

Zog cowered, covering his head with his arms. "Don't yell at me, please! I don't mean to be scared. It doesn't make sense to me either, but I'm scared! Please don't be mad at me," he whimpered.

Mad? Orkan glared at him for a moment, then realized that, yes, he was royally steamed. Why? Zog clearly needed his help, and he was being a jerk. Suddenly he saw that there was something weird going on: he and Zog had never been so upset before. What was with this?

He knelt down in front of his companion, lit his hand blue, and touched Zog's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he linked. "I shouldn't have yelled. What's wrong? You're not normally scared like this."

Zog relaxed a bit at Orkan's link, and looked up again. "I don't know. Something just kind of came over me, and then it all seemed so dangerous here. I'm sorry too."

"That's okay. Besides, God's not going to let anything bad happen, so come on, let's get going."

"Alright." He gathered up Dragon. "I just need to give it some skin, and then we can take off."

"Sure." Orkan let himself relax as well, and stood back up. He'd have to be alert in case something like this happened again.

A deeper shadow in the shadow of a large rock growled angrily and vanished.


Colonel Devan leaned back in the squeaky old office chair behind the ancient desk inside a musty concrete bunker deep within a small mountain in the heart of Antemonain. "You androids are life forms," he said in awe.

"That's what my dad, that is, Dr. Tenma, said," said Astro.

"Wow." He leaned forward and rested his arms on the desk. "I never imagined such a thing was possible. But your 'little secret' will not go beyond me. No-one else needs to know; no-one else will know."

"Thank you, sir. I appreciate that."

"And I appreciate that you are willing to trust me. Now, hopefully you and your family will be able to live your lives with no further interruptions from me." He smiled.

"Sure." Astro grinned back. "And I'll make sure to tell everybody to stay away from the robots, so it doesn't happen again."

"You do that."


Zog glanced behind him as the Earth sank slowly towards the horizon. They were flying around to the 'back' of the moon, where their home planet couldn't be seen, to check out several more robots.

"There's a seismic station closest to us; it's still running," radioed Orkan. "Then we can scope out another Lunar Wanderer, number twenty-three I think. That one will be hard, because it's still able to move."

"And we've got lots of time," finished Zog. He could feel Dragon wriggling in its pouch. At two weeks old, it was starting to be a bit big, and he might need to get one of the backpacks just to carry the baby.

"That's right. Okay, down there by that really little crater."

"Yup. I see it. Let's go."

They started their descent, when Zog saw a bright flash come from Orkan's direction.

"What was that?" he radioed.

"I've been hit!" Orkan called back. "Help me!"