Page 56 of Lunar Bound
Poppy completed her circuit of the perimeter and headed back toward the cabin. The modified scanner she always carried detected no sign of Milano's specialized equipment. They'd been careful, changing locations twice before finding this abandoned ranger outpost. So far, it had remained secure.
Eclipse met her at the cabin door, his twilight form pulsing with what might have been excitement.
"Rowan has made contact with a journalist," he said without preamble. "Someone who might help expose Milano's operations."
Poppy nodded, processing this development. "Is it safe?"
"We are taking extensive precautions," Eclipse assured her. "Anonymous data drops, encrypted communications."
"Good." Exposing Milano had become their shared mission, something to focus on besides waiting and worrying. "I have some photos from the extraction site we could include. The weapons they were using weren't standard military issue."
Inside, Rowan was sorting through files, her reporter's training evident in her methodical approach. She looked up when Poppy entered, her expression softening.
"How's the perimeter?"
"Secure," Poppy reported, then hesitated. "I think I felt something again last night. Through the array. I think it was his energy calling out to me."
Rowan set down her files. "What kind of something?"
"A pattern in the static. Soft clicks." Poppy tried to keep the desperate hope from her voice. "It could have been interference, but..."
"I will examine the recording," Eclipse offered, his twilight essence rippling with encouragement.
"Thanks." Poppy managed a small smile. She appreciated that they never dismissed her hunches outright, even when they seemed far-fetched. "I'll be in my room for a bit."
Her room was barely more than a closet, but it had space for her cot and the small table that held her most precious possessions. There was a collection of shadow stones she'd gathered, similar to the ones she'd given Lunar. Next to those was a shirt she'd been wearing when he'd enveloped her in his essence, now folded carefully as if it might still contain traces of him. And, finally, a small notebook filled with calculations and frequency notations for the array.
Poppy sat on the edge of her cot, reaching for the largest of the shadow stones. Black tourmaline, cool and weighty in her palm. She closed her eyes, letting her consciousness drift the way she had when connecting with Lunar.
"Where are you?" she whispered to the emptiness. "Are you thinking of me?"
The stone remained inert, offering no answers. Yet sometimes, when she held it just right, she imagined she could feel a distant echo of his energy, a ghost of the connection they'd shared.
Was it real or just desperate wishful thinking? She couldn't tell anymore.
Hours passed as Poppy alternated between helping Rowan organize evidence against Milano and working on her array. The routine was familiar now. First, she’d check the frequencies, then adjust the calibration, send a signal pattern, listen for any response, and repeat. Logically, she knew the chances of reaching across light years with cobbled-together Earth technology were infinitesimal. But logic had little to do with why she kept trying.
As evening fell, Eclipse prepared dinner while Rowan continued sorting through files. Their domesticity would have been comical under different circumstances, an alien diplomat cooking pasta while a fugitive journalist built a case against a shadowy corporation. Somehow, they'd found normalcy in their shared abnormal situation.
"You should eat something real," Rowan said when she caught Poppy grabbing an energy bar instead of joining them at the table. "Eclipse actually makes decent pasta now."
"Only minor molecular combustion occurred during preparation," Eclipse added in what Poppy recognized as his attempt at humor.
She smiled despite herself. "I'll eat. I just need to check one more frequency adjustment."
The array waited in what had once been a storage room, now transformed into her makeshift communications center. Solar panels on the cabin roof powered it, while a complex arrangement of antennas on the surrounding trees boosted its signal. Eclipse had helped with the design, incorporating elements of Zorveyan technology using Earth components.
Poppy adjusted the final dial and sent out the same signal she'd been transmitting for weeks. The pulses meant nothing to her, but Eclipse assured her Lunar would understand them.
Static answered her, as it always did. She was about to switch it off when something changed in the sound. There was a barely perceptible shift in the white noise, a patterned clicking where there should be none.
Her heart raced as she adjusted the reception frequency, trying to isolate the signal. For a moment, she thought she'd imagined it. Then it came again, clearer this time.
Three pulses. Pause. Three pulses.
"Eclipse," she yelled, her voice cracking with sudden emotion. "Eclipse, I need you!"
He appeared almost instantly, his twilight essence flowing through the doorway with liquid grace. "What is it?"
