Save The Planet
by Jellyfish
It was a dark and stormy night on Moonbase 64. Of course, the sky was always dark on the moon, and there were no "storms" that could compare to the atmospheric squalls that Earth was subject to, but there was a restlessness among inhabitants of the base that even beings who were just passing through could feel. Moonbase 64 was one of the busiest space ports in the Earth System and one of the most heavily populated bases on the moon. Story upon story rose above the ground level, with stores, hotels, and large apartments for the extremely wealthy. Below the surface of the moon, however, the base stretched out to twice as large an area as it covered on the surface of the moon, with corridor upon corridor of apartments and tenemants for the lower and middle classes.
Although Keira was supposed to be jaded to the enormity of the space port, she could not help glancing up once in a while to see the stars peeking through the glass top of the base and the beauty of the crescent Earth, blue and green with white clouds swirled across the top. She knew that acting like a tourist by gawking at her surroundings was dangerous to her safety and the safety of her mission, but even the space ports at her home planet, Sallaeda, were not as immense as the "Ellis Island for Earth." Refugees, immigrants, and merchants all gathered at Moonbase 64 to be checked for disease and vaccinations before heading to Earth. Some, however, even after being granted permission to go to Earth, decided to stay on the moon base because of the intensity of the place, a feeling of excitement in an ever-changing world all contained under one dome.
Keira shook her head angrily. There she went again, letting her mind wander; not facing the task at hand. Keira breathed in slowly and cast her eyes about the bustling masses of beings from all corners of the galaxy, all speaking in different languages and dialects. One of those beings held critical information. One of those beings held the fate of Earth in his hands...until he handed it to her. Keira leaned against a decorative metal sculpture and studied her reflection in a store's window. She was considered almost pretty on Sallaeda, with her mahogany skin, serrated ears, and rather flattened nose--even though she was half human. However, by human standards, Keira would never be called beautiful. It was all for the better. When she relaxed against the silver chrome of the statue in a relaxed position, no one stopped to look twice. She was an alien to all the worlds, stuck somewhere between a Sallaedan and a human. No species would ever notice her, and that was good. She did not want to stick out. She wanted to blend in with her surroundings. Keira was a spy, and a good one too.
Right now, she was supposed to be meeting her informant who had infiltrated the greatest threat to Earth ever--the government of Fanden. The overpopulated planet of Fanden was always looking for new places to take advantage of to supply them ore, oil, and foods for prices that only slave colonies could provide them. Earth had once been polluted and overpopulated also, but humans were an exploring race, and they ended up spreading their race across their solar system in domes, letting their mother planet heal herself. The people of Fanden, however, had made themselves clear: give us Earth or we will destroy Earth, and you with her. Keira's contact could be the key to the situation, but Fanden's spies were everywhere and could try to trick her. Keira had to be careful.
Suddenly, she heard a noise behind her. Keira whirled around. A tall human stood before her, stiff and symmetrical, every feature perfect on his smooth face. "You are to come with me," he said, nodding his head with a calculated movement toward an alleyway that ultimately lead to the lower levels. Keira stiffened. Only years of experience told her that this was no human: he was a well-crafted robot. Should she trust a robot? She was under the impression that her contact would be alive and breathing.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a gray-haired old man running towards her position. Although people rushed in the space port, very few ran unless they were about to miss a transport, and from his uniform the old man was one of the inhabitants of the lower levels.
Keira looked past the robot's shoulder. A shopkeeper in his shop held a piece of glittering metal in his hand. It was obviously a scanner, used to find metals, remote controls, or explosives. What would a common shopkeeper be doing with a high-tech scanner?
Keira looked nervously at the robot. Things were happening too fast. What should she do?
Choices: