Luna Loud was known far and wide as a rock girl. Fifteen years ago, she may have been called a "riot gurrl." She loved rock (especially classic) and strove to live a chill, stoner-like lifestyle. She took pride in being "cool" and "chill" and secretly enjoyed the reputation she had around school as a seventies holdover. She was a free and artistic spirit who was deeply moved by art, especially the kind one makes with an electric guitar. Since falling in love with the genre toward the end of eighth grade, she had discovered so much moving and amazing music and never went a day or two without finding something new. There were so many great songs, epic albums, and mind-blowing live performances to discover and she delighted in discovering each and every one of them. She was like a comic book collector rummaging through cartons of comic books in search of that Next Big Find, the one that would complete her collection and that she could show off to everyone. Look at this. It's The Shaggs on vinyl. How cool is that? I'm so hip and special.

Okay, that last part was meant as self-deprecating humor, but she kind of was like that, Rock was like a special club and being in it made her feel…how could she put this…different. Not better, per se, just different.

It was hard to explain, but anyway, it was what it was.

Then again, there was a lot more to Luna Loud than just rock and roll.

For one thing, she was fascinated by the universe. She didn't know too much about the hard and fast science of it, but the concept of an infinite void where anything - and everything - could be lurking stimulated her imagination in a thousand different ways. Space was so big, so vast, so timeless. It had always been there and always would be. The concept of eternity was a hard one to wrap her mind around, but space was permanent and the impossible stretches of time it had existed made her think.

Mainly about aliens.

If space really was forever, it was possible that there had been other forms of life before us, Somewhere in the endless reaches of the cosmos, 500 billion years before the earth was even formed, there could have been empires and races that had been around for 500 billion more years, After the sun went supernova, another earth could form and another life form could take hold.

Maybe, just maybe, there was life out there even now, far beyond the rim of human reach. The chances of earth existing at the exact same time as other civilizations were so small as to be virtually nonexistent, and the chances of the two meeting were even smaller. Throw a single ping pong ball into the Atlantic and another into the Pacific. They had probably the same chances of touching as we have of encountering extraterrestrial life. Luna had a silly little fantasy - non sexual - of meeting aliens. She would be the first person to ever meet one and she would learn all sorts of cool and amazing things from it. She'd be famous and all, but that didn't matter as much as learning about the galaxy would.

She had resigned herself to the fact that that would never happen, but even so, when Lisa began to search the universe for intelligent life, she jumped at the chance to help.

Born with an IQ of a particularly bright college student, Lisa had always been a fact and data oriented girl. She believed only in what she could see and touch (meaning Santa Claus was out the window) and took great pains to explore and understand the world around her. She was your classic skeptic and scoffed at what she called "parapsychological hoo-hah." At the beginning of the summer, however, something changed. Luna didn't know what the catalyst was, but Lisa suddenly became very interested in pseudo-science, including telepathy, cryptozoology, and extraterrestrials. She concluded that the amount of circumstantial evidence supporting these and other pheneone was too great to ignore. She began to take things like ghosts and psychic powers seriously. "I supposed it's worth a look," was all she said in defense of her new interests.

Luna couldn't blame her for being curious. In fact, Luna had always been interested in the paranormal herself. That had become Lucy's thing, but she was into it waaay before the little emo. She figured that his was simply a phase for Lisa, and she intended to make the most of it. It was here, as a matter of fact, who planted the idea of searching for aliens in the genius's mind. Lisa thoughtfully stroked her chin and made an interested humming sound, but said nothing more. Luna was beginning to think that the seed hadn't taken root when Lisa called her into the backyard. Luna was surprised to find a massive telescope pointed at the sky, so big that it took up most of the yard. Her jaw dropped open, and Lisa flashed a rare shit-eating grin. "It's just something I slapped together."

She said this with more than a touch of pride.

About this time, Lincoln became involved after overhearing Luna and Lisa discussing aliens. "Aliens?" he asked. "I like aliens."

"These are real aliens, Linc," Luna said. "Not those fake ones you fight in your little vidfeo games."

"Okay," Lincoln said, "can I help?"

Luna and Lisa looked at each other. This was sort of "their" thing, but they both seemed to have the same idea: They could use an extra set of hands. "Alright," Lisa said. "But you have to keep quiet about our intentions. If anyone asks, we're simply mapping outer space."

"Got it," Lincoln said.

Over the next several days, Lincoln and Luna manned the telescope while Lisa sent signals into space. Her reasoning was that if intelligent life existed, pinging it would draw its attention to earth. That, she claimed, possessed risk, as the aliens might be hostile. "It also might not work," she told them. "Everyone assumes that aliens must be far more technologically advanced than we are, but that may not be the case."

For a month, they searched the stars, dedicating every moment of free time they had to hunting life and finding nothing. They discovered a hitherto unknown galaxy, a new dwarf planet, and what appeared to be the remains of the rumored lost cosmonauts of the early Soviet space program, but no aliens. Lisa's signals went unanswered and each day that passed without discovery killed their hopes a little more. Could it be true that we're all alone in this big, endless void? Could it be true that there is nothing else out there? Luna had never felt small or insignificant, but contemplating the vastness of space and out microscopic role therein, she did. It was all too easy to overthink and become depressed, and that's exactly what started to happen.

Maybe she should go back to being just a rock girl.

One Saturday afternoon, she and Lincoln were in the backyard shooting the breeze. They had been taking turns on the telescope since just before eleven and were both especially disappointed. Lisa had picked up a signal and for a while, they were all stoked, thinking they had made contact. They expected to see something out there, but they found only the same empty space. About one, Lisa came out with a grim expression on her face and a printout clutched in her fist. "I'm afraid I have some bad news," she said.

The "ping" appeared to be something of a false positive. "It was nothing," Lisa said.

Lincoln and Luna were crushed, but resolved to carry on.

Anyway, while they chatted, Lola and Lana came out to play. Luna saw them from the corner of her eye but didn't give them much thought. That is, until they smashed their battery powered Jeep into the telescope. Luna and Lincoln both jumped back at the last second, avoiding being mown down, and the Jeep's plastic front end shattered. The telescope began to teeter, and Luna's heart jumped into her throat. With a groan and a shriek, the telescope toppled over and crashed to the ground with a tremendous thud, shaking the earth. It broke into a dozen different pieces and a dust cloud rose into the air, blotting out the light of the sun. Luna cringed and Lincon turned away, eyes squeezing shut. When the metaphorical (and literal) dust settled, the telescope was ruined and Lana and Lola were hugging each other in fear. Horror filled Luna's breast and she pressed her hands to the sides of her head. "You guys broke it. You broke our telescope."

"We're sorry," they sobbed in unson. "We didn't mean to."

Maybe they didn't, but in the end, it didn't matter; the telescope was still dead and Luna's hopes of meeting aliens were dashed to pieces. She heaved a wet, heavy sigh and slumped her shoulders. "It's fine," she mumbled. How could she even be upset? It's not like they had found anything over the past couple weeks anyway. What point was there? There was nothing out there and they were wasting their time trying.

Head hung in defeat, Luna dragged her now depressed carcass inside and flopped face first onto Luan's bed; Luna slept on the top bunk, but didn't have the energy to climb the ladder. She buried her face in the pillow and took a deep breath; the fruity scent of Luan's shampoo filled her nostrils and she almost gagged because she was basically sniffing her sister's hair. Lincoln came in and sat at the foot of the bed. "Don't give up hope," he said. "We might find something yet. This isn't the end."

"Yes it is," Luna said. Her voice was muffled. "The child is grown…the dream is gone."

Lincoln was silent for a moment. "Something tells me that's a song reference, but either way, don't stop believing."

She chuckled at his Journey reference and felt a little better. By the time she'd had dinner and took a hot shower, she was totally over it. So aliens weren't real, big deal. It'd be cool if they were, but whatever. Life is way too short to get hung up on dumb stuff.

Getting into bed, she pulled the covers up to her chin, and Luan turned the light off. They talked for a while, but slowly, Luan's end of the conversation tapered off until it was replaced entirely by the soft sound of rhythmic snoring. Luna laced her hands under her head and stared up at the ceiling, where a sliver of streetlight made a sharp and icy pattern. She was wide awake, her mind racing with the endless possibilities of space, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she started to feel drowsy. Her eyelids grew heavy and static filled her ears, like a vacant station on the dial. Her thoughts slowed to a sluggish crawl, as if controlled by a switch, and the strangest sense of dread came over her. Her heart began to pound wildly in her chest and the short hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up. She tried to sit up, but her muscles had turned to stone, and she couldn't move, could barely draw a breath.

Gradually, her terror subsided, replaced by overwhelming peace, and the last thing she saw before dropping off was a faint green glow shining through the window.

At first, her sleep was deep and dreamless. She existed in a lightless void where neither time nor consciousness existed. Slowly, however, she became self-aware, like a sentient AI going online for the first time. She could smell, see, taste, and hear. She could think, she could feel, she could wonder where the heck she was. Her foot tingled with a phantom touch, and her nerve endings all caught fire at once. Her heart swelled in her throat and her mind focused one hundred percent on that strange but euphoric sensation. Something long and slender, moist but not wet, rubbery but not soft, snaked up her leg, swirling around it like a growing vine and left tingling warmth in its wake. Luna's brain scrambled with pleasure and biting her bottom lip, she rubbed her legs together, caressing the thing between them.

Something slithered across her chest and her heart skipped a beat. On some deep, primal level, she knew that she ought ti be afraid, but she wasn't. The thing brushed her erect nipple through her shirt, and her loins filled with boiling lava. The other thing, the first thing, grazed her inner thigh, and her eyes rolled back into her head. She opened her legs for it, and a rush of wet heat puffed out like a cloud of perfume. The second thing crept underneath her shirt and stroked her nipple while the first tentatively prodded her center, its heat driving her mad with lust. She arched her back and thrusted her hips insistently up and down, inviting her new friend to press further, deeper, to enter her and explore her more closely.

The thing slid between her sticky folds and curiously touched her clit, making her shake. When it finally thrust into her, she moaned through her teeth and tears of joy welled in her eyes. The feeling was so amazing, so indescribably heavenly, that she was thrown into an out of body experience. Literally. She seemed to float above herself like a ghost. She saw then that her body was being kneaded by a dozen tentacles. Another tentacle disappeared between her legs, its green flesh pulsing with life. Her first reaction was to be disgusted, but instead, she felt only cool detachment, as though it were happening to someone else…and as though it were completely normal.

Her body jerked and thrashed as the tentacles squirmed and rutted her. She ran her fingers through her hair, and her eyelids opened. For a brief and bizarre second, she made eye contact with her physical sef, then darkness stole over her, as if the universe had imploded in on itself.

For a long time after that, Luna slept.