They opened the library, and Luna went in. She had waited for fifteen minutes already and felt stressed.

  Not scared, stressed only.

  Luna wanted to honor her dad’s death—the anniversary was today.

  Eight years ago, her father died. The laboratory space, the scientific research buildings, all were destroyed. People—killed.

  Everything withered on Jupiter’s Moon Two.

  The news, when it came, and she grasped what it was about—an attack? What kind of, who, what? Some were screaming that the aliens had finally appeared.

  Not really, but the shock was huge. Then panic.

  Domini—she now admired, from this time perspective—he did an excellent job managing it all. All the people, all conspiracies, all rebels, all crime also, as some used the situation; how shameful. All angry and all sad. It took around half a year, and Unio was back on track, all organized.

  Just.

  Her dad was dead.

  Today, eight years later, Luna wanted to honor her father.

  She hadn’t ever done it properly, upon reflection.

  The Gate Luna had found in the Shadows’ library was without ID restrictions. It was one and a half years ago when she found it; it also took her a few weeks to gather the courage to try to use it. Then she had a way to travel without questions.

  It looked like a private Gate; surely it was, as it was protected by energy barriers. The first time she noticed them, she wasn’t aware this was for the Gate; she thought some data was hidden inside, less available for people without energy levels.

  Luna had energy; the library was full of people with energy, so it shouldn’t cause her trouble to use it to pass the layers. All right, if she were found out, it would. But she risked it. Taj said there could be something useful stored. He said he would scroll data quickly. So, she went in.

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  There was nothing interesting regarding the knowledge. There was only the Gate. Apparently prepared for easy sneaks out.

  What an exciting discovery. Shadows Lord, or his son, or whoever used it, must have had some fun business to have it not in his place but in the main library.

  Luna wondered how often her Shadows’ fiancé had been there; she had been there, and they had never met. She didn’t know what he looked like; there were pictures, but they were not detailed. He wore masks of sorts, so no face was truly visible.

  Of course, the legend was also that he was not a human.

  Right.

  Definitely, he managed his image in this way; Taj said it had to be it, as he said that Shadows were humans. Taj had no doubts. Luna could tell Taj was angry whenever they read news or articles where someone insisted that Shadows were ghosts or called them other names. He snorted many times and was very dissatisfied. Was it personal to him?

  Taj wasn’t Shadow. But he never explained why he was so agitated or why he cared that much.

  Luna gave additional energy to Taj earlier, when they were still in their house, in their library. She prepared her clothes as always, covering her face whenever she traveled like this. She also prepared the other clothes to wear when coming back, so she could safely cross the official Gate to Unio.

  In general, she had used this Gate only a few times. It was difficult to risk like this for her. Every time, she was proud that she managed. Like the last time. Lukai didn’t ask what Gate she used. She was aware; he needed to be aware. Her ID didn’t show up. But he didn’t ask.

  The anniversary, together with Taj they decided, dominoes were already in motion. Let’s honor her father, and later let’s welcome the future, as changes were inevitable either way. It was only a matter of time—these changes.

  Today, Luna went to the Gate, as before. No problems; she chose the destination. It was, as Taj would say, amazing; there was not only no ID tracking, but also the destination was not written on the screen. She had to know the destination’s Gate number to get there.

  She crossed the Gate and looked around.

  The moon was barren.

  The terraforming process didn’t happen here, as they announced. It didn’t happen and won’t ever happen.

  The oxygen amounts were still proper. But because of the years, it all was deadly empty, looking shattered. Buildings, remains of laboratories, and towns around.

  A lifeless, rocky place. Like from a book or an old movie.

  Back then, this place was the center of science between Unio and Shadows. It had a good atmosphere, as her dad used to say. Not only because of the air, but the light, it had excellent brightness for experiments with energy, especially splitting waves. Other places, also Planet One; of course, experiments could be conducted there, but here it was exceptionally comfortable. It was what her dad had said.

  Luna looked around and asked Taj to project.

  “Taj? Could you check if detectors are there? Are we safe?” she asked him.

  “O, sure, let me,” Taj said.