Guess what? Astro's actually in this chapter! Even though he can't quite form full sentences yet! But who cares? He's in it! (I'm exhausted right now) ~ E.G.

"This is the moon?"

"Yup, Moon Base 19, Zone Pink."

Astro was beyond confused. The last thing he remembered he was heading towards the sun. How had he gotten here? Oh wait, Dave was saying something to him.

"...everything seems to be accounted for. Except for parts of your arm and face. They still work -don't worry about that- it just looks a little..." He paused for a moment trying to find the right word. "different."

Astro looked down at his arm. Layers of artificial skin had been burned away to reveal gleaming metal and various wires and cables. He wasn't afraid; instead he inspected his arm with a small sense of wonder. He started to wonder what his face looked like. Would anyone recognize him? He had to know.

"I have to go."

"What?"

"Back on Earth…I have to tell everyone…the sun's better now!"

He got down from the table and was getting ready to go into a full powered run until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'd hold off on that if I were you." Dave warned

"No! I can't! I have to-"

"You're not ready to go back yet."

"Why not?"

"Listen Astro, you might not know this, but we had to make a few changes to get you working again."

Astro looked up at him.

"We had to entirely replace your energy core. Atomic energy doesn't exist up here, so he had to switch it out for hydrogen instead. It will probably do you more good in the long run too. But if you were to make it to Earth's atmosphere, the gravity and friction would be too great on impact. There's a good chance you would fall apart."

Dave made it sound so simple.

"Turn on the light in your hand if you don't believe me."

He turned the light on in his hand, the ring on his palm glowing blue instead of its usual orange. Blue, just like...

"Earth...what about..."

"Astro, I'm sure everyone is fine." he tried to reassure.

"But the sun...it's going to..."

"The sun isn't in any danger. Really it isn't. I remember there was a scare about it overheating a couple years ago, but that's been over for a while now..."

"Every one's safe?"

"Well yeah, why wouldn't they be?"

Astro felt like he was really missing something.

Dave sighed. "I know, you want to go home. I'll tell you what, I could get Boss to send a message to earth explaining your situation, and maybe some one can come up and get you. It would probably be safer and – oh that reminds me!" Dave let go of Astro's shoulder and stood up. "You haven't met Boss yet. Or Rusty. It was actually his idea to switch you to hydrogen, come on!"

Astro still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but he was feeling a little better.

Rusty and Boss were in the main hallway trying to fix the security camera.

"I don't see anything wrong with it." Rusty called down from the ladder.

"It said the whole system was jammed; look through the control box again."

"Alright, alright..." Rusty pretended to look through the box again, pretended not to see the restart switch. He didn't want Boss to know that he had been the one to jam the camera in the first place.

"There you are!"

"Oh, hey Dave, what's up?" Rusty asked while climbing down the ladder.

"I want you guys to meet Astro." He smiled as Astro stepped out from behind him. Dave went on to ramble about how he had been all fixed up.

Boss looked at Rusty. "Is that the thing you got off that satellite?" he mumbled nervously.

Rusty nodded.

"Any idea where it came from?"

"I dunno. It looks pretty advanced. Probably Japanese."

"Hello." Astro said with a polite bow.

"Definitely Japanese." they both muttered.

Dave then finished up on his rant. "So what's going on here?"

"The security camera is jammed again and we're trying to fix it." Boss informed.

"Need some help?"

"No I got it! All under control don't worry!" Rusty stammered a little too quickly, not wanting his secret blown. "So...uh...what are you doing?"

"I'm just giving Astro a tour around the base and stuff. You look pretty busy so we'll quit bugging you."

"It was nice to meet you." Astro waved as he followed Dave away.

"You too." Boss waved back with the best smile he could muster.

Rusty started to turn back towards the ladder. "Yeah, see you around."

"OK!" Astro smiled before he disappeared around the corner.

Boss and Rusty were quiet for a moment.

"I didn't think about it much before, but..."

"Yeah?"

"It is kinda creepy looking when it moves." Boss admitted quietly.

"I know..."

"What was wrong with the camera?"

Dave shrugged and smiled. "Oh, the usual. Rusty probably jammed it again so he could sneak outside without anyone finding out."

"Why does he do that?"

Dave glanced out the window towards the Wall. "I don't know."