Certio turned to face the door on the left and pushed the button at the side. The door slid open and we stepped into an enormous room. Certio grinned at me and said "This is my life, right here."

The room was filled with rows and rows of growing crop patches. I would say that the entire room was about the size of a football field, maybe a little shorter. Remember guys, this was all indoors so each crop patch had a few small sprinklers above it to give the crops water. It now made a whole lot more sense how farming could get done on the moon.

Certio and I had stepped onto a large platform that I saw had a large row of control panels. Certio saw me looking at them and said "Those are how I run the farm. When each crop patch needs water, when it needs more sun, new soil, it's all controlled through these panels. Let me demonstrate."

Certio walked over to one of the control panels and pushed a blue button. Immediately I saw a crop patch in the corner had a sprinkler go on and start watering it. This was amazing. Certio was almost more of a scientist than a farmer. His job involved much more thinking than physical labor. He had to calculate when each crop patch needed to be watered, when it was ready to be harvested, and I 'm sure a lot more things too. It just reminded me how smart people on Aploshion were.

Certio looked at me to see if I was impressed. I was and said "This is awesome. How many crop patches are there?"

"Over a hundred," Certio said. He then added "You can help me with the farm if you want Pendragon. You'll be staying here a while after all."

I nodded and told him I would. Then we left the farm area and I told Certio that I was feeling tired again and was going to go take a nap. He nodded and told me he would keep a look out for Kiah.

Later back in my room, I sat down at the desk and started writing more of my journal to you guys. Journal writing was becoming a thing that I pretty much did whenever I got a chance. I wrote a lot back in Kiah's apartment when she had extra work to do for Shewin. Now I wrote down my whole adventure that had happened with Nexelake. It was almost impossible to believe that it had all happened yesterday.

I was disrupted a few hours later by a knock on my door. I said "Come in," and the door opened.

In stepped Kiah, looking very tired and exhausted. We were both overjoyed to see each other and I immediately got up and hugged her. She smiled and said "I'm so glad to see you awake again Bobby. I was afraid you had fallen into a coma."

"I'm fine Kiah," I assured her. "But how are you? Where have you been? How did we escape?"

Kiah shook her head and said "One question at a time, Bobby. Anyways, I'll explain it all to you."

I sat back down on the chair next to the desk and she sat down on the bed. Then Kiah started to explain to me "Okay, let me find where to begin."

She thought for a moment and then said "Well, when you were unconscious I noticed a yellow salvaging ship moving towards us. My first thoughts were to run away but as they got closer I received a transmission from the ship. It was an old friend of mine from Okil Academy, Deak Waker! He was very confused when he heard my voice reply but I begged him to help me escape from the Okil security and I would explain everything to him later.

"He obliged and got his salvage team to move in the way of Ferha, just enough time for us to escape. Then when I found a safe hiding spot, I responded to Deak that I was safe. When Ferha started yelling at Deak for getting his ship in the way Deak calmed her down and told her where we were. Then Deak met up with us and I think I we were safely to the moon by the time Ferha realized she had been fooled.

"Then I spent the today with Deak, getting our ship fixed in case we need it again and trying to scrap up any information involving Saint Dane's possible whereabouts. We still have to find out what he's planning."

After Kiah told me all this I nodded and said "Yeah, I expect Saint Dane will turn up again soon enough. Is Deak still here, by the way?"

Kiah said "No, but I explained to him my explanation of Nexelake by telling him that someone had drugged you and hypnotized you into firing that missile. I told it convincingly enough that he told me he understood and wouldn't tell anyone about us."

I nodded and said "Thanks Kiah, I definitely owe you one."

She smiled and said "Well, I had to do it. All Travelers get in trouble, even if they're the Lead Traveler, right?"

We both laughed and Kiah said "You've met Certio right? Well, he expects us for third meal. So, let's go."

We both stood up to leave and then a thought came into my mind. I asked Kiah "Kiah, does Certio know that we're Travelers?"

Kiah said uneasily "No, he doesn't. But I was thinking about asking him to be my acolyte."

I nodded and we left the room. I would have to remember to keep all talk of Travelers, Saint Dane, and all people of Aploshion being in mortal peril on the down low.

Third meal was delicious. Certio cooked up some more of that green meat and also made a side of some roasted darenties. Kiah and Certio talked about politics and the Aploshion government or something like that. I think Kiah was just trying to enjoy a normal conversation. I doubt she had had many of those since my arrival.

I just kept to myself during third meal until I felt something lick my hand. I looked down and freaked out.

"What is that?" I exclaimed.

Certio looked to where I was pointing and laughed. "Oh, don't worry Pendragon, he's harmless. His name is Max."

Kiah looked down and said "Oh, he's so cute."

Max looked similar to a dog except that he had three eyeballs, was covered in huge heaps of shaggy hair, and had two tails. It was the first animal I had seen on Aploshion. It took me a few minutes to get used to him before I could even remotely think of him as 'cute'.

After third meal Kiah said she was tired and was going to turn in early. I followed in suit and went to my room. There I finished up writing yesterday's events in my journal. It felt good to finally get it all down on paper. It almost felt like releasing the memories from my mind. I hoped that here, at Cerrito's farm, I could evade Aploshion security notice for long enough so that I wouldn't have to live in so much worry.

For the next month Kiah and I stayed with Certio. As the days wore on, Certio taught me more and more about his farm. At first it was basic stuff, like which button activates which set of sprinklers or how to activate more solar light over a crop patch. Basically I was now helping as Certio's assistant which I preferred much more than when I was Birt's assistant.

Another thing I enjoyed about staying with Certio was that he was a great cook. He would always feed Kiah and I delicious meals, most of which came from his own crops. I actually started to get along with Max, which I found out was a durgo, one of the few remaining animals to survive Aploshion's destruction. Most durgos I was told were taken aboard the space stations as pets.

One thing bothered me during my stay with Certio though. Kiah would leave Certio's home occasionally for up to several days at a time. When Kiah first disappeared I questioned Certio about it but he didn't know anymore than I did. Then when Kiah returned a few days later, she would not give me an answer when I asked her where she had gone. When she first told me this I grew angry and Kiah reassured me "I'm sorry that I can't tell you now Bobby. But I promise that all will be made clear later."

The next couple times Kiah left I questioned her again when she came back. Both times she still gave me the same reply. I eventually just gave up and held Kiah to her word that she would eventually tell me. Still, it didn't feel good to be the Lead Traveler and have no idea what's going on.

One day, I was out in the crop patches helping Certio root up some purple carrot-looking things for Certio's next trip up to Okil. Yes, being a moon farmer still required some physical labor. Most of it was set in rooting up all of these crops. Certio and I had been rooting up vegetables for the last three days now! Kiah was absent from Certio's home, which I didn't take much notice to anymore.

After a few more hours of rooting Certio wiped some beads of sweat off his forehead and said "Whew, all right that's enough work for today Pendragon. Let's bring 'em up to the cargo ships for transport and then I'll cook us some good roasted darenties for a snack."

I nodded gratefully and got to work setting the purple carrots in these large, rectangular boxes that hovered a few feet above the ground. When I had stored all of the vegetables in the boxes I pushed a button on each of the boxes and followed them as they hovered toward the cargo ships, which lay in Certio's garage.

After that I entered the kitchen and warmly welcomed a nice bowl of roasted darenties from Certio. After a few minutes of blissful snacking, enjoying the aftermath of a hard day's work, Certio and I heard a knock on the entrance door of Certio's home. Certio went up to check the peephole in the door and then came back a few seconds later running, saying to me "It's the Aploshion security looking for you! Quick I have a hiding place for you. Follow me!"

Certio and I had heard that the Aploshion security was searching the farms on the moon. We knew it would only be a matter of time before they came here. Luckily, Certio had a hiding spot for me under one of the tiles in the floor that he was sure nobody would look under.

Once I was tucked into my little hole and the tile closed back over me, Certio ran to answer the door. I heard Certio welcome the security by saying "Hello. What brings you to my farm?"

A bored voice answered "It's required that we search every farm on the moon for traces of the Nexelake terrorist. We just need to search your home for a couple minutes."

Certio kept a false cheerful voice and said "Not a problem. Not a problem at all. Search away!"

The bored voice responded "Thanks for your compliance sir. We've had to go through ten of these farms already today and probably another several more before the day is done. Some of those farmers don't like their privacy being invaded and try to fight us away. We try to tell them that it's for their own safety but some still don't agree. They say we should at least give them notice before we just bust in, and I have to admit I kind of agree.

But, we're just following orders. Trust me, I hate this boring job. I mean, as if we would really find the Nexelake terrorist on a moon farm."

A faint laugh went through the security members. They took the next couple minutes to check every room of Certio's house. Then, to my relief, they left without another word. Certio came and lifted the tile, revealing the small hole I was hiding in.

Certio smiled and said "Well, we won't have to worry about them anymore Pendragon. And by the looks of them, it didn't seem like they expected to find anything anyways. Trust me; they did a very poor search. They didn't even bother to check the garage!"

I laughed and so did Certio. It was a huge load off of both of our chests knowing that we wouldn't have to worry about the Aploshion security anymore. I wished Kiah was here because I was sure she would be laughing and smiling with joy too. That night, Certio fixed the both of us a victory dinner. It included roasted darenties, an insanely good salad made up of Certio's crops, sweetened yooghs, that green meat that I had fallen in love with, and to top it all off a pie made with little cherry-tasting fruits called jajas. It was the best meal I had ever had on Aploshion.

This day had gone great. I had finished rooting the crops and had evaded the Aploshion security only a few minutes later. For the rest of that evening, I forgot all of my troubles. I was feeling so confident and victorious, I even forgot about Saint Dane. It felt great.