Author's note: Sorry it took so long to upload this chapter; frequent writers-block, and circumstances outside my control prevented me from writing as often as I would've liked. I hope you like this one, this is when the story gets good.

Chapter 3

Things did not look good from where Appare and his friends now stood. However, much to their surprise all the soldiers in the crowd (who's armor was made of some black metal that does not exist on earth), kept a distance of seven feet from them, and didn't even lower their spears at them; just forming a ring around the crew, separating them from the rest of the crowd. Now that they weren't focused on running away, Kosame was able to take a good look of the blue people that now surrounded them, and read their body language and facial expressions more distinctly. He noticed young couples holding each other in their arms, little children hiding behind their parent's legs, and most surprising of all; even the soldiers' hands were shaking a little as they held their spears. "Of course their more afraid of us, then we are of them" he thought to himself slightly amused; "from their perspective, we're the aliens." His fellow crew mates noticed this too; it didn't give them relief, but rather understanding. "Perhaps we can talk our way out of this, or at the very least buy Appare more time to think" Al thought. This whole time, Appare was in a squatting position, working on plan to get him and his friends out of their current predicament and back home to Earth. Usually when he started brainstorming nothing could break his concentration, but this time a part of him remembered to stay current (if only partially), just in case he had to improvise. And that instinct proved useful, because two soldiers suddenly stepped aside in order to let someone into the circle.

Out of the four aliens now approaching the landing party, two of them were soldiers; the other two looked much more important. One was a man, with a clean-shaven scalp, a boney frame, and wearing an outfit that while brown looked regal. The other was a woman, with her black hair done up in a tight bun; she wore glasses and a white robe that resembled a doctor's lab coat. Kosame tapped his best friend's shoulder, who then jumped to attention as they walked right up to them. The man spoke first; while the language he spoke was unlike any language spoken on Earth, strangely enough Appare found he could understand every word he said. "Is that your ship?" the bald man asked pointing back at it. "Why yes, yes, it is" Kosame replied, stepping forward with a big nervous grin on his face. "Appare here built it with his bare hands, and flew it himself" (he hoped that by answering the alien's questions, it would keep them from being harmed for at least a little while longer). "Oh, so you must be the captain" the bald man said, brushing past Kosame to address Appare. "Dr. Caiaphas and her team of scientists have throughly inspected your ship, and it is truly a work of uncanny genius" he said shaking his hand. "Allow me to introduce myself; I am Orin Cocteau, commissioner of diplomatic affairs." He then pointed to the woman on his right and said "and this is my good friend, the aforementioned Dr. Dejah Caiaphas; she's the chief minister of science." Dr. Caiaphas had her nose stuck in a tablet and didn't even raise her head when Orin mentioned her name. "My apologies if our fellow azurites frightened you" she said; "we heard and felt your ship landing from underground, so we came up to investigate." "If you don't mind my asking" Orin said to Appare, not even looking at the others, "but where did you come from?" "Earth" he responded; the two aliens cocked their heads to the side as if they had never heard the word before, so he pointed up at the blue & green orb floating silently overhead. All the azurites looked in the direction he was pointing, and they all gasped in amazement. "So, there really is life on Gaia after all" Dejah said, suddenly sounding much more engaged. "For centuries we have conducted theories about sentient life on our sister planet, but we never imagined they'd be as technologically advanced as us." "What a monumental development this is" Orin exclaimed, "we must get word to the prime minister at once." "I've already taken the liberty of live-transmitting the data of my report directly to his office" Dejah said. Appare wondered if she was using the strange device in her hands to do this. Two seconds later the tablet ringed, and she went back to it while Appare and his friends craned their necks to see how the alien appliance worked. Dejah noticed this, and with a smile turned the tablet towards them so they could see what she was doing. "Our prime minister Talos Tron has responded with an invitation to his house in Maggus City, and a banquet in your honor the following night." Kosame was about to object, but Appare beat him to it. "When we embarked on this journey, I intended to return to Earth in 3 days, 5 at the most. So, before we accept, I must know how long is a day here?" Dejah was surprised by this question, and so was Kosame; he was also concerned with staying too long on the Moon, but never considered that time might run differently there. "Well technically it takes the sun 709 hours to rise and fall here on Luna" she answered; "but since we live under ground, we thought it best for our society to operate on a 24-hour day. So, you'll still make it back to Gaia by your deadline." That was enough to reassure Appare, but he still wanted the consent of his friends, so he had them huddle up to discuss what their next course of action should be.

While Al and Hototo were excited to see this subterranean civilization, Jing and Kosame were a little more hesitant. "I'll admit, I'm curious too, but we don't really know anything about these people or what their true intentions are" she whispered. Then Kosame added, "for all we know, they might mean to eat us during this banquet." The others felt that was highly unlikely, though not entirely outside the range of possibility. Hototo argued that they could take more pictures and stun everyone back home with evidence of not only life on the moon, but an entire civilization similar to our own. And Al made the case that if they refused the aliens' invitation, it might put them in greater danger. "Besides, if anything goes wrong, Appare can come up with a plan to get us out of trouble." Appare himself had remained silent throughout the conversation; he also wanted to learn more about these blue people, but not at the cost of his friends' safety. And while he was flattered by Al's total faith in his ingenuity, he found it incredibly overwhelming too. Eventually, after weighing all the pros & cons, they decided to continue the expedition and go to Maggus City; on the condition that they could grab some supplies from their ship. "Of course, captain, take whatever you need and then Dr. Caiaphas and I will escort you and your crew to the capital" Orin said, still only addressing Appare (much to Kosame's chagrin). As they were gathering their provisions, Hototo asked Kosame why they didn't confiscate their weapons. "Maybe because there's only five of us, or maybe they correctly assumed we brought them purely to defend ourselves. Whatever the reason, I hope they won't be necessary." "Yeah, me too" Hototo replied, "but like Mom always says, 'better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.'" Once they had food for the night, they followed Orin and Dejah to the nearest crater while the crowd slowly began to disperse. Jing watched in amazement as Dejah and Orin stepped into the crater and rapidly disappeared like they were in quicksand; Appare then jumped in after them half a second later. The others just stood at the rim of the crater for at least a minute, before Appare's head suddenly reappeared and gestured to his friends to come along before sinking back down again. Al quickly followed, but Hototo and Jing had to take Kosame by the arms and drag him into the crater (he'd clearly forgotten that he had his spacesuit on and thus stood no risk of drowning or asphyxiation). The sand was only about 3ft deep; Kosame (the tallest) could feel his feet dangling in what felt like thin air before the sand came up to his shoulders. A moment later he was coming out the other end, and landing with light a thump on his butt. "Amazing isn't it" Appare said, helping his friend to his feet; "the Moon's lighter surface gravity holds the sand in place, like oil on top of water. You'll notice it's a lot closer to Earth's gravity down here." Kosame did indeed find it strange that he could move around normally again, but he didn't dwell on that thought for very long. He looked around and saw that they had dropped into a large tunnel that stretched out into total blackness in each direction. Appare and the others were standing on some kind of small barge that hovered four feet above the ground. The only source of light was a bright white orb the size of a basketball; it was positioned at the front of the barge and seemed to light up the whole vicinity for about four yards in each direction. Orin, Dejah and their armed escorts stood close to the orb, and Orin asked Appare if he and his crew were ready. As soon as he said "yes", Dejah took the barge's controls and they took off at a mild speed.

At first it seemed to Appare and his friends that she was aimlessly piloting the barge through a virtual labyrinth of tunnels, but after 5 minutes of left turns and right turns (all the while going further down with each turn); they eventually came upon a massive cavern. It was at this point that Orin turned off the orb, for a huge mushroom hanging upside-down from the ceiling of this huge cave was casting a light of its own that was far stronger. "Incredible!" Al said in amazement; "it certainly is" Dejah responded, "the bioluminescent fungus is yellow during the day and turns to blue at night, it even provides warmth to our crops depending on the size of the mushroom in question." Hototo and Kosame looked over the rim of the barge, and saw the vast fields of strange looking plants below, as well as fenced in pastures where strange looking beast grazed peacefully. All of which were being tended to by more azurites. Appare tried to take some pictures, but the barge moved too quickly to get a good shot. Orin reassured him that they had plenty of photographs of their sectors in Maggus city, and that he could take as many as he wanted back home with him. "consider it one of many gifts from us to you" he said cheerfully, and Appare nodded in response. They passed into another large chamber (a little higher than the first one); in which there was a 4000ft waterfall, pouring down into a river that forked into several directions. Orin explained that the waterfall was fed by an inland sea from a higher cavern, and that the waterfall in turn fed all the rivers that provided water to all their farms. A thought popped into Appare's head, and to the shock of everyone, removed his helmet and took in a deep breath. "It's ok everyone" he said; "the air down here is safe to breathe." His friends were dumbstruck, while their azurite guides were only mildly confused. "How did you know you'd be ok without your helmet?" Kosame asked slightly upset. Appare explained that due to the existence of water on the moon, it was only logical that oxygen exist as well since oxygen is a major component of water. The others nodded in agreement, and each removed their helmets. It was a great relief for everyone, for the suits had gotten quite hot under the heat of the glowing mushrooms. When the humans started to remove their suits too, that's what shocked the four azurites with them. The younger of the two guards blushed when he saw that Jing's torso was completely naked. The other one said, "we've always imagined in our storybooks and art, that all Gaians looked white and pudgy with large circular heads. I never thought the real thing would look entirely different." "Indeed" Orin replied; "the citizens of Maggus city are in for quite a surprise, including our prime minister." It took the party 15 more minutes to reach the cavern where Maggus city lay; it was just as beautiful and futuristic as Appare had imagined.

There were several skyscrapers, but not even the tallest of them came close to touching the roof of the cave, which like the others had a large glowing mushroom hanging from it. There was also a great number of other flying vehicles like the one they were riding on; some resembled bikes, others looked nearly identical to the cars Appare and his friends were all too familiar with. Once they were in the midst of the city, they saw other aliens besides azurites walking up and down the numerous streets, using strange devices, and getting on and off the light rail. They were still pretty high up so they couldn't make out any specific details very well; some were large and purple, others lanky and green, and a few resembled earthly animals. The prime minister lived near the center of the city, where there was a huge statue of an azurite man in dreadlocks standing in the middle of the square. "That's Xergiok Rex, the founder of the Unified Sectors of Quasar" the younger guard said pointing at the statue. Suddenly Appare was overcome with curiosity, and longed to learn more about this civilization's history. There was also a massive jumbotron in the square that was playing a news reel; Kosame was trying to listen, but was suddenly given a terrible fright, when the screen cut to a wanted poster depicting a monstrous face. The man, (if you could call him that) had violet skin, and the irises of his eyes were yellow. The thick hair and beard which covered most of his large head was dark indigo, and with the addition of a wide-open mouth lined with long sharp teeth, gave him the appearance of a lion. He looked very angry and menacing, for his big hands were stretched out in front of him, as if to grab and devour all he could reach. "What manner of monster is that?!" Kosame shouted pointing at screen, thus drawing everyone's attention to it. "He's known as Belik Thun, captain" Orin answered very seriously; acting as though Appare had asked the question and not Kosame. "He and his band of terrorist have been trying to disrupt our peaceful way of life for the past five years. But not to worry, you and your crew will be perfectly safe within the borders of the city." Orin's words gave Kosame some relief, but also more fear; this beastly character was apparently the leader of a previously unheard-of terrorist group that may pose a threat to himself and his fellows. Appare wasn't as fearful, but he now only wished to stay until the banquet tomorrow night, and the others felt the same way. The prime minister's house was 4 stories tall, and about 200ft long. Its exterior appeared to be made of opal, and was surrounded by 20 acres of perfectly cut grass. The barge touched-down in front of the main entrance, where Talos Tron was standing in the open doorway with his wife and two children. He was a little taller and more muscular than Orin, and his black frizzy hair was cut short. His facial hair was well trimmed, and his emerald robes indicated his high rank; his countenance however gave him an air of friendliness and approachability. "Mr. PM" Orin said, "allow me to introduce you to Captain Appare Sorano and his crew." "Greetings neighbors" Talos said enthusiastically with a cheerful smile. "When Dr. Caiaphas notified me of your arrival, I could hardly contain my excitement." Appare walked right up to Talos to shake his hand and introduce him to the rest of his crew. "It's a pleasure to meet you all; I look forward to learning more about you, and your home planet. Come in, and meet my family" Talos said, and one by one: he introduced his wife Thuvia, his daughter Terra (the first born), and his son Titan. As they walked through the main hall, Appare explained how he built the space gun that brought them there; he even showed Talos and his family a map of Earth that he brought with them. "But enough about our world, please tell us a about yours" he said finishing up; (truth be told, he wanted to make his description of Earth as brief as possible, so he could start to learn all about Quasar).

So Talos drew attention to the murals that decorated the halls of his house as they went along. The first one depicted some azurites landing on the moon for the first time. "You see, we azurites originally came from another planet called Morpheus, light-years away from here. Unfortunately, the sun which Morpheus orbited had grown old, and was about to explode, thus destroying all the planets in its solar system. So, our top scientist at the time, Dr. Cobalt D Rom developed a massive spaceship that would carry the entire population to another life sustaining planet through a worm whole; thus, allowing our ancestors to travel the vast distance of space in just 20 years instead of 2000 light-years." Jing wondered for a moment if such a thing could happen to the sun in their solar system, but Talos reassured her that stars last for billions of years. He continued on to the next mural, "of course when settlers first arrived on Luna, they thought they made a mistake. Because the surface was barren and devoid of water. Luckily, then 10-year-old Xergiok Rex stumbled into a nearby crater, which lead to the discovery of all the various caverns we inhabit today." Immediately, a twinge of suspicion began to rise up in Hototo's mind; remembering all the other alien races they saw on their way in, and noticing that neither Talos nor any of the murals mentioned or depicted them, only azurites. He was about to call Talos out on this when suddenly a figure approached from the opposite end of the hall. He didn't look anything like the aliens they had seen before; he kind of resembled Orin, except being the same height as Talos, and not being as thin. His "skin" looked metallic, and his movements were very stiff. "Master Tron" the figure said, "the press is here to meet the alien explorers." "Thank you Septimius, we'll be there momentarily" Talos replied. Appare inspected the shiny man very closely as he continued to talk with Talos, then suddenly flicked his skin, much to everyone's surprise. Septimius didn't object, nor did he even seem to notice; Appare explained that he flicked him to prove that Septimius' skin was actually made of metal. "You are indeed correct captain" Talos said, not upset at all. "Septimius here is a robot of my own design; I named him Septimius because it took me seven tries to get it right." Of all the technology they had seen since arriving on the moon, this was by far the most impressive. To Appare, this was like those wined-up toys he used to make in his workshop back home, but on a much larger and more advanced scale. Talos explained that before he was elected prime minister, he was the owner of the biggest robot production company on the moon; responsible for providing millions of citizens with their own automated servants. "Septimius was actually the first robot I ever made" he said, "and he's been a part of my family ever since." Septimius lead the way to the press room, where several reporters, journalist, and cameramen were already waiting to get coverage for the evening news. Orin and Dr. Caiaphas were already in the room, but as soon as Talos entered with his family and his Earth guests, cameras started flashing and all the reporters started speaking at once. All this stimulus greatly bothered Appare, and even Talos seemed a little taken aback by it, but the crowd of journalist settled down once Talos reached the pulpit and raised his hand for silence.

There was a long table to his left with seven microphones for Appare and his friends to sit at; Dejah and Orin sat at opposite ends of the table, while Appare sat in the center between his four friends. This was not Jing or Al's first press conference, so they were use to answering question after question; about Earth, and about their personal lives. Appare was eager to answer questions at first, but eventually, he grew tired and bored as the press conference continued on for what seemed like hours. He was grateful enough when all the reporters left, and Septimius guided them out of the room. "Septimius, would you be so kind as to get dinner started. I'd like to resume our tour" said Talos, "right away Master Tron" said the robot in response. "Oh, you don't have to do that Mr. Prime minister" Kosame said suddenly; "we brought our own food, we can't possibly impose." "It's no trouble at all Mr. Isshiki" said Talos, putting his hand on Kosame's shoulder. "I can easily specify to make dinner just for me and my family. We have plenty of guest-rooms for you and your captain, and I'll order my staff not to disturb you if you wish." "Gee, thank you" said Kosame. Talos then press a button on his watch and started speaking to it; "Septimius, tell the kitchen staff that Captain Appare and his crew won't be joining us for dinner tonight; get five guest-rooms ready, and make sure at least one of them has a stove-top oven." Appare was amazed that he was able to communicate with his robot in so quick and easy a fashion. "Once Septimius notifies me that the rooms are ready, I will personally escort you to them. But until then, shall we continue the tour?" Talos said, gesturing away from the press room. All said yes, and the tour resumed. As they went along, Kosame walked right up to the prime minister and whispered a question about Belik. "Orin said we would be safe here in Maggus city, but I'd like to know more details to make absolutely sure." Talos sighed and whispered back, "truth be told, Belik is a warlord who has claimed control of two-thirds of the sectors down here. Recently my company has been mass-producing robot soldiers to keep him and his allies at bay, but they're still gaining support. However, I've been personally working on a top-secret project that will hopefully turn the tide of battle. But if you truly don't feel safe, you and your captain can return to Gaia in the morning." "Thank you, MR. prime minister," Kosame said, "I'll discuss the matter with the captain; you'll have our answer by tomorrow."

Some time later, they all got together in Jing's room to have dinner and discuss whether or not they should stay until the banquet tomorrow night. They had dealt with dangerous people like Gil the snake before, but an outlaw's strength and influence are nothing compared to that of a warlord. Hototo wanted to bring up his suspicions about Talos and the USQ's history, but he felt it would be pointless since everyone seemed set on leaving first thing in the morning anyway. And indeed, they were unanimous in that line of thinking, when suddenly, there was a soft knocking at the door. Jing got up to see who it was, and when she opened the door, she was surprised to find 9-year-old Titan; dressed in pajamas, holding an action figure, and three books. Terra showed up shortly afterward, and somewhat out of breath; "Mom & Dad told you to leave the aliens alone for the night" she scolded. "It's alright" Jing said, "after all, it's not everyday aliens come to your planet, let alone stay in your house. Come and join us for a little while" she said, so Terra and Titan came into the room and sat down with the others. They still had some food left over, which Terra couldn't resist asking to try; she loved food, and the once in a lifetime opportunity to taste food from another planet was too great to pass up. While she ate, Titan shared his action figure with Hototo. "This is Leo Thunder, my favorite hero" he said enthusiastically. "He was magically transported from Jupiter to Gaia, and has lots of amazing adventures." Jing pointed out that the toy in the blue child's hands looked near identical to her Joshua back home (although the toy's complexion was as dark as licorice). Titan then showed them the trilogy of Leo Thunder books he brought with him; on the first book's cover, Leo was fighting some creatures that looked similar to the spacesuits Sophia made for the team, alongside a tree man that bore a resemblance to president Abraham Lincoln. "That's Leo's best friend Oakson" Titan explained, pointing at the tree man swinging a large axe. The second book's cover had Leo standing triumphantly over some humanoid crocodile, while holding a beautiful mermaid in his arms. Hototo mentioned that the mermaid looked near identical to Jing, just as Leo looked identical to Joshua. "That's Bermuda, daughter of Nereus king of Aquarius" Titan said; "Leo rescued her from the evil shark prince Mako, and by the end of the story they get married." Jing found that amusing, thinking of her own engagement to Joshua. By the time he had reached the third book, Titan had the attention of everyone in the room; the cover of which depicted Leo shooting lightning from his mouth at a giant red ape with a long white beard while Oakson and Bermuda looked on in amazement. All except Appare, Kosame, and the two azurite kids laughed when Al pointed out that the great beast looked like Santa Claus, "especially with his big round gut" he chuckled. They had many more conversations about Leo Thunder, comparing the Gaia in the books to the Gaia in real life; while still very much fictional, Appare and his friends were amazed by all the similarities to real-life places and people in Leo's adventures. Then, Titan surprised everyone by asking if they were going to leave tomorrow. "Are you afraid of Belik Thun?" he asked innocently; "it's more like were concerned" said Kosame. "Well, father has increased security in Maggus city in order to keep you safe" Titan said; "he sincerely hopes you'll reconsider staying until tomorrow night so he can show you off to his wealthy friends" Terra said teasingly, much to Titan's disapproval. "It's more than that" Titan objected; "you see, I don't have any friends, so most of the time I sit alone reading my books, or listening to the radio adventures of Buzz Mercury, another hero of mine. I think dad wants you to stay because he believes it will make me happy." All of Appare's friends were touched by Titan's story, especially Al and Kosame who could relate to wanting to be good fathers to their own children. Appare related more to being a socially awkward loner with no friends, and reading science fiction. Suddenly Jing got an idea, "well how about this, when we go exploring the city tomorrow, ask your father if you and your sister can come along. I'm sure you know lots of fun places we can go." "That would be great!" Titan exclaimed, and immediately took up his things and bolted out of the room to tell his dad the good news. Terra didn't like the idea of disturbing her parents sleep, but knew Titan was too fast to catch up with, so she bid her new friends goodnight and made her way to bed. "I guess this means we're staying for the banquet tomorrow night after all" Al said. "Yeah, I guess there's no harm in sticking around for one more day" Kosame replied, "but after that, I want to be on the ship and bound for Earth." Everyone agreed, but instead of going to their own rooms to sleep for the night, they all stayed in Jing's room and slept on the floor.