Madeline Beaufort and the Moon Thief

Rex carried Madeline in through the door, having to duck under the frame. The soldier woman followed them through, along with two more agents.

“I hope you don’t mind if my colleagues join us.” Said Rex, the question phrased like a statement. Madeline wondered why Rex needed armed security today, but she suspected it had something to do with her parents. The two agents began closing the blinds while the soldier woman stood guard by the door.

Wiping a little wetness from her eyes, Madeline hopped out of Rex’s arms, resolving to be the best host she could in her parent’s absence. Her mothers always stressed good manners, after all.

“Please, sit down.” said Madeline, clearing the table of her cereal. Rex obliged, but the soldier lady and the two agents stayed at their positions.

“Coffee, or Tea?” She asked as she put a kettle on the stove.

Rex looked surprised. “Tea, please. Thank you.”

Madeline grabbed a silver tray and put cheese and crackers on it. She filled a little cup with sugar cubes and carried the platter over. She turned to Rex and plastered on a smile.

“I don’t want to be rude, but may I ask the reason for your visit?”

“Getting right to business, I see. I expected no less from you Maddie, this is no time for needless repartee.” Rex paused and then sighed. “As you have correctly deduced, this visit has to do with both the absence of the moon as well as your parents. The short version of the story is that this planet needs you, desperately. The long version is that... well there are a lot of details. And unfortunately, I’ve found that there’s never a good way to bring someone into the fold.”

He paused, scanning Madeline’s expression, then looking over his shoulder at the soldier lady. The woman gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to Rex. “Major Hernandez here had an existential crisis when she learned the truth about the world. Isn’t that so, Major?”

“Yes, sir.” The major almost smiled. “I threw up, sir.”

“Go on” prodded Madeline, eager to hear some explanation for the insanity of the day.
“Well there’s three ways we can do this. Option one; We can leave, and you can try to forget this conversation ever happened. You get no answers about your parents, and you always wonder what we needed you for.”

Madeline scowled. Rex continued, “And by the look on your face, option one is a no-go. Option two is that we rip the band-aid clean off, quick, but not so painless. Option three is we work our way up to the revelation with questions. Either way, the same result. Everything is different after the next five minutes.”

SpoilerShow

>_ What will it be? Option two, or three?

option 4, i already know

"Can you please get on with it."

Say you want option 3 but then get impatient

Madeline pondered for a second before deciding on the ‘third option’ She had many questions after all. The girl got up from the table and walked over to the stove just before the kettle began to whistle. She began to pour the water into teacups.

“Option thee” She said. Looking over her shoulder at Rex.

“Alright” Rex sighed, and looking more than a little disappointed. “It may take longer to explain this wa-”

Madeline interjected, “Fine! I just want to know where my parents are and what you want with me! If this ‘option two’ will get things done faster, can you please get on with it already!”

“Option two it is. Although, I’m going to wait for you to bring the tea over and sit down first.” Madeline quickly obliged, almost spilling some tea.

Rex raised his left arm, followed by the other to touch a button on his watch. Suddenly the distortion Madeline had caught a glimpse of earlier became more visible. Madeline looked in amazement as a sphere of what could only be described as thousands of sparkling dust motes buzzed and circled around Rex’s hands, legs and head. The soldier woman retrieved a cannister she had been concealing on her person, and opened it, and the glittery substance flew inside.

Revealed was a being which, was somehow even larger than the man known as Rex, though it was clear that this was the same ‘person’ as the expensive suit he came in with did not change, except that the slacks he wore now accommodated his unusual leg and torso structure. This being could only be described as a humanoid tyrannosaurus, though somewhat small by comparison of any dinosaur bones Madeline might have seen at a museum. His face, was more expressive than any lizard she had ever seen and while he looked fiercely at Madeline, studying her every expression, Madeline never felt threatened by his carnivorous appearance.

Madeline didn’t flinch. Instead of feeling fearful she was captivated in wonder by what had just transpired before her. The lizard-man gently blew on the cup of tea before taking a sip.

“You’re not afraid?” His voice now more guttural in its articulation.

“I had a suspicion it was something like this, honestly. Not that I know what ‘this’ is exactly.” Madeline explained, “but when you tapped your neck earlier, there was a strange distortion. And if I could figure it out, my parents must know. They are way smarter than me, after all. If they know what you really are and still thought you were safe enough to invite to barbecues, there’s not much sense in being afraid, is there?”

Rex smiled a monstrous grin, showing a mass of perfectly white, razor sharp teeth “You know, I was a little disappointed in you for a moment, earlier when you picked ‘option three’, but you really are an extraordinary little human. Now, you must have some questions.”

SpoilerShow

>_ What will you ask the lizard man?

Have you heard anything from our moms? Were they on the moon when it went missing?
And where DID the moon go? Did it explode? Are we going to have moon bits falling down?
Or is it something like how you looked smaller somehow until just now?
Are there a lot of dinosaur people around? Is it a secret and that's why you have the disguise dust stuff? Why is it a secret? How does the dust work? Can I have some?

i seem to have forgotten my last name. what is it again, i forgot

So who are these people? You're clearly some sort of organization. But what do you do?

The floodgates were opened, Madeline began shooting off questions faster than Rex could respond. “What are you? Are there more dinosaur-people like you around? What is that disguise dust stuff? What happened to your voice?”

“We are known as the Reptilian Race. And yes, there are many others like me. Though, our species is has a wide range of genetic diversity. We don't all look like dinosaurs. You’ve met my daughter, Liberty, she is reptilian like me.”

This made sense to Madeline, because she wasn’t raised by her biological parents she would often have a subtle sense of the other kids who were also adopted. Even though Liberty was significantly older than her and she had apparently never seen Liberty’s true face, many traits were very apparently passed down from father to daughter.

Rex continued, “The disguise dust as you call it, is an incredible technology called optical nanites. They form a lattice, like a screen around the body parts we need to disguise, and they project a three dimensional image outward. They can actually project completely what is on the other side, creating the illusion that light passes through an object, effectively rendering the user invisible. That’s why I look somewhat smaller when I wear the disguise.”

Madeline thought of all the things she could do with a technology like that. “Can I have some?”

“You wouldn’t get much use out of it, unfortunately. You would need to know how to program them to really apply the nanites to any situation, and I have a whole tech team for that, myself.” Madeline was somewhat disappointed, but this made sense to her.

“For my voice, I use a Voice Modulating Translator. Unlike many aliens who haven’t learned human language or that can’t pronounce human speech at all, I simply use the translator technology to hide the obvious reptilian characteristics of my voice.

Most non-humans living on earth need to use the optical nanotech disguise their appearance, and use a voice modulating translator to cloak the sound of their speech, especially if they were working with humans on a regular basis, and those humans aren’t briefed on the existence of other intelligent life forms.”

This led Madeline to remember her parents, and why she invited these people into her home in the first place. In all the excitement, she had forgotten that there was a crisis going on and her family was apparently in the middle of it.

“Have you heard anything from my moms? They on the moon when it went missing, weren’t they?”

“No we haven’t, and unfortunately yes they were. Last we heard from them, they had just touched down on moon-base theta. They were conducting very important research into remnants left by previous visitors to the lunar surface.”

A grim look covered Madeline’s face. “The moon exploded didn’t it? That’s why you're here, informing the families of their loss.”

“Oh, dear no! I suppose I should have led with this, I’m not much used to dealing with children. My best advisors seem to believe that the moon is still intact, so we don’t think there is any cause for concern about your parents. By all accounts the moon has been stolen, and your parents with it.”

“Stolen?” She thought to ask how that was possible, before realizing she was having a conversation with an alien over tea and that what she had previously thought as possible may have expanded slightly.

“By a criminal with extraordinary power. That’s why we are here. We need your help to apprehend him.”

Madeline supposed she knew this was coming, Rex had said that he needed her for something, but she couldn’t help but be surprised. “Why me?”

“He is hiding out in a location that we cannot follow, but you can. In short, because of your age and ability, you have the means, and opportunity to follow him without causing an intergalactic incident, unlike ourselves. We know we can trust your motives, because you want to see your parents as much as we’d like to see this terrorist brought to justice.”

It all made sense, she supposed, in an extremely roundabout way. This group figured they had a mutual goal aligned with her own. Madeline was the tool they would use to retrieve their target. She grew more curious about Rex’s chosen profession and who he worked with.

“So who are you people, anyways?” Madeline asked, gesturing at her guests. “You're clearly some sort of organization. But what do you do?”

“Our ‘organization’ is a highly specialized coalition of humans and various other species-”

“Aliens.” interrupted Madeline.

“Some, yes. We operate within the american military, with ties to several other major government organizations around the world.”

This didn’t seem to entirely answer Madeline’s question “Yes but what’s it's purpose?”

Rex posed dramatically. “We keep earth safe from those who wish to harm it.”

SpoilerShow

>_ Do you have any more questions or do you feel ready to accept this mission?

huh.
like, is there something about earth IN PARTICULAR that is making it need protection
or are we talking more like the industrial cycles of exploitation and ecological devastation that we've been inflicting on ourselves already, but on a larger interstellar scale?
in any case the job it sounds pretty cool tbh. Uhhh what should I pack for this trip?

> Act like a girl your age would act in this situation. You ARE a girl your age, after all.

What's in it for you? I mean, besides your parents, obviously.

She stood in awe of the beast-man’s proclamation, but one thing nagged at her.

“Why earth?” Madeline blurted out.

Rex looked puzzled “What do you mean?”

“I mean, what makes earth so important? Why do a bunch of aliens need to be protecting this specific planet?”

Rex laughed, “You sure catch on quick, kid. As you might imagine, many civilized races have their own homeland defences, but most of them don’t employ such a large percentage of aliens. Earth is special, though really it’s better to say that your moon is special. It emanates a power that is particularly important to mediating life on this planet, a power that even the most advanced races have trouble understanding completely. The tidal shifts, the earthquakes, volcanic activity and planetary wobble are minor in comparison to what will happen if we can’t get it back.” He paused to level with Madeline.

“That’s why we need you. There are other candidates, but in my opinion, none are as qualified as you.”

Madeline had to admit to herself, a secret organization that defended earth sounded pretty cool. Any kid her age would have thought so, but she was the one being invited onto the team. Maybe, this would have given some children pause, and reflected on if they actually possessed the abilities to be successful in such an adventure, but not Madeline.

She had been raised by two strong, uniquely talented and courageous women who had taught her that she was capable of any task Madeline set her mind to. She learned from them to be resourceful, creative, and to respect her own intelligence despite the societal pressures imposed upon young women. They had loved her and cared for her as if she was their blood, and now they needed her.

“So, girl are you in or not?”

Madeline didn’t need to think about it any further. “When do we leave?”

The reptilian clapped his hands together, and stood up from the kitchen table. Clearly pleased, Rex’s whole face beamed. “We leave now! Pack what you can, you may not return for some time and you are going to be very, very far from home.”

SpoilerShow

>_ What do you take?

It all needs to fit in a backpack, or it'll be a pain to lug around, so we probably can't take too much. Let's pack a camera, a blank notebook (and writing utensils), a waterbottle, compass, a phone, and a change of clothes.

Madeline ran upstairs and dumped out her school backpack. She got a couple changes of clothes, accounting for different climates, and folded them neatly, placing them at the bottom of the main compartment. She ran into her bathroom and got her toothbrush and some floss, among other sundries, completely neglecting the hairbrush once again. From the pile of school things on the floor, she grabbed a notebook which was mostly blank, and her pencil case which was filled with various different types of writing implements. She grabbed a nalgene water bottle from the top of her dresser and slipped it into the netting on the side of the backpack. From her bedside table drawer she got a compass and her phone charger, briefly pondering if there would be any outlets wherever she was going. Madeline figured it was probably better to be safe than sorry.

Finally she grabbed her camera. Her parents always had a hard time finding presents for her during christmas or her birthday, but when they got Madeline her first camera, they knew they had struck gold as she ran around the house taking close-ups of everything. A few years later, they got her the newest model, that could take both video and photos at a high resolution. Her one real passion was taking pictures and filming things, documenting regular occurrences as if she was the first to ever observe them. She lived to capture those little moments in time which would be lost forever, had she not been there at the exact right moment.

All packed, she put on the backpack and walked out of her room towards the stairs. But, she stopped and ran back into her room to her bed. A white platypus plushie she had had since she was 3, somewhat ragged from the years, sat upon it. She grabbed “Bill” and ran down the stairs.

Rex was waiting at the bottom, back in his human disguise.

“All ready?” He asked.

She nodded. The Major opened the door for them and they left the house, the two agents following closely behind. Madeline hopped in the backseat of the Suburban, Rex getting in after her. One of the agents touched his ear and muttered something, and all the other agents moved from their positions in the front yard to return to the convoy of vehicles. The suburbans in front of her began to peel off down the road at timed intervals. Then Madeline and Rex's vehicle began to move down the road. She looked back at her home watching it shrink with distance, until it disappeared as the the convoy rounded a corner.

“So, Where are we going exactly?” Madeline asked.

SpoilerShow

>_ Where are they going exactly?

The Other Moon!

It's a big paper-mache replica being built in orbit so that people down on earth don't notice the moon is gone, and also the base of operations for this heinous crime!

A theme park.

A watery grave

Underground tunnel

Chapter Two: Grand Horizons

They traveled about an hour to their destination. She rationally understood that she wouldn't see anything extraordinary on her drive quite yet, but that didn’t stop Madeline’s face from being pressed up against the window the whole trip. After some time riding, in a precisely choreographed move, their car peeled off, away from the convoy.

“Why aren't they coming?” Madeline asked as she watched the convoy go down another road.

“We don’t need anymore active agents. They’ll draw too much attention looking like that anyways.” explained Rex “Don’t worry, we’ll be in a secure location. Agents there too, just not as dressed up.”

This only made Madeline wonder why all the agents and security was necessary in the first place, she attempted to come up with some explanations and concluded that either Rex or herself were very important to this nameless agency, or there was a dangerous enemy out there she’d now aligned herself against. She prefered to not think much about the latter.

The lights and the roar of the roller-coasters could be seen and heard nearly a mile away as they approached the theme park. Had the purpose of their visit not been made clear to Madeleine, she would have been somewhat disappointed, never being all too enthused with the rides.

She had come to this place some years earlier on a class field trip, as the park’s theme was somewhat space oriented and had a lackluster observatory. This was really more of a gimmick, but achieved it’s purpose in convincing schools to bring students here on “educational” trips. Madeline, upon her original visit was a little more than distraught when the astronomy show lasted less than a half hour, and nobody, including the teachers, seemed to care how little they actually were taught about space.

But now, the whole place held a new fascination with Madeline as she attempted to process it’s secret. They rolled up to a teenage valet, who was really doing no more than informing people of where to park themselves. The driver flashed a VIP pass at the adolescent boy who nodded and pointed towards spaces at the front of the lot. Which employees knew of of it’s purpose as a front, she wondered. This kid couldn't know anything, he was probably hired off the street, unless, she realized, he was an alien too. In this moment she started to realize the complexities of what Rex had tried to explain to her earlier, that she really wouldn’t ever perceive anyone or anything the same again.

They parked and walked towards the ticket booths, the neon flashing sign above them boldly titled “Grand Horizons” in all capital letters. Rex walked up to the ticket booth and passed the worker the VIP pass, and the worker informed them to go on ahead.

They walked past all the loud rollercoasters, grown men in alien mascot costumes and rigged games to one particular ride. The line for “Wacky Wormhole” was short, but Rex and Madeline took the VIP line to the front anyways.

Madeline had ridden this before on her class trip but with her new-found knowledge the obvious connection now occurred to her. Rex noticed her eyes growing wide.

“Before you get your hopes up, it’s not actually an Einstein-Rosen bridge.” He chuckled. Only momentarily disappointed Madeline saw the humor in the situation and laughed too.

They hopped into the little boat on tracks and were fastened in by the attendant. The ride started up and they entered the tunnel, psychedelic lights and planet models rotating all around the walls, with little alien animatronics dancing on their flanks. The ride was clearly meant for small children and stoners as it crawled along at its snail pace.

Rex piped up “Oh I forgot to ask you, I hope you don't have a problem with roller-coasters cause this thing is about to pick up”

“Funny.” Madeline retorted.

As she vocalized the sarcastic utterance, two levies protruded from the water, and the liquid began to drain from the small portion of the track. The railway switched downwards at a forty-five degree into the now drained hole.

“I wasn’t joking.” Rex replied as the boat careened over the edge.

The boat rocketed down a bleak subway style tunnel at a breakneck pace. The passage lit by white lights was in stark contrast to the dark tunnel of colored LED creations just prior. After a considerable distance she realized that there was a slight downward curve to the tunnel, and that they were likely still under Grand Horizons. After an indistinguishable amount of time the boat began to slow, finally coming to a stop in front of two big white doors.

Two doors closed behind them and a mist rained down from the ceiling. Rex’s disguise began to fizzle and distort, as nanites fell from their positions.

“Dammit! What did I tell you about starting decontainment before we deactivate the nanites!”

The white doors in front of them opened. A figure could be seen on the other side but madeline’s eyes were irritated from the spray and couldn’t exactly make it out.

SpoilerShow

>_ Describe the figure

>Tall, skinny, and in a nano-stained labcoat.

Huge goggles. Gangly.

> A tiny bug.

Sort of reminds you of an anemone, only without the clownfish darting aroun--oh wait, you spoke too soon.

As Madeline’s vision cleared she could see a tall, gangly man in a lab coat and goggles, running over to them with what looked like a high tech dustbuster. Rex helped Madeline out of the boat-cart and onto the platform.

“Rex we’ve talked about this, do you know how long nanites take to fix these after they come into contact with the decontainment aerosol? Days!” Complained the man, as Rex looked completely unmoved. The man ranted on, “And, the last time I checked we didn’t have interns or undergrads to do the grunt work here.”

She was briefly disappointed that the first to greet them wasn't some kind of alien, but as she looked past the man into the space behind the big white doors she could see all sorts of beings were working about in a large open room. The man’s angry lecture phased out of focus as she took in all the sensory information of the laboratory. Screens, panels and buttons covered almost every square inch of reachable space, each with a distinct purpose. There were plenty of human workers, mostly humans in actually, but Madeline’s eyes were drawn immediately to those that weren't.

“Ah you must be Madeline, It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The man said, “My name is Gregory Thompson. I lead the science division here.”

“Nice too meet you Mr. Thompson” Said Madeline, still focused on the other room.

“It’s Dr. Thompson actually, but I won’t hold it against you.”

Rex chimed in, noticing Madeline’s distracted state “Why don’t we give Madeline a tour, the containment room is pretty boring compared to the rest of the base.”

Dr. Thompson frowned, “You’d like that wouldn’t you.” He chastised Rex, “You have to stay here so we can retrieve any nanites that are stuck in your suit. I can’t believe you would do this a second time.”

Rex was also getting upset “What do you science division nerds expect me to do? Deactivate the damn things while we’re rocketing down here on the track? The damn containment starts as soon as we get down here! Maybe you expect me to reveal myself in front of the humans in the park?”

Madeline didn’t know what the office politics of secret organizations was supposed to look like, but she could feel that the petty squabbling between the giant lizard man and the bookish scientist was somewhat unprofessional behavior. She never had much experience with people fighting, as her mothers never argued in front of her. Madeline shifted her weight and folded her arms, staring out into the room beyond her.

“I swear I have to repeat myself twice every time I talk to you. There is an optimal time to deactivate the nanites as you round the first corner on the ride and go out of sight of any humans. If you would just follow protocol you would know this.”

Rex finally noticed madeline’s clear discomfort in the situation “Fine, I’ll stay here. Please don’t keep the girl here on account of my mistake. I have a feeling that halting her from exploring is a form of torture.”

Shaken from his anger, Thompson sighed and turned to madeline. “Yes, that is something I can sympathize with. I have to stay here and collect the nanites though.” He paused to think. “I think that James and The Abyssal can take time off to show you around.” He put his hand up to his ear. “Yes. James, can you bring your partner here and show around our guest?” He paused to listen for a response, replying, “Yes, the combat room. Thank you.”

Moments later, a very big being approached Madeline, Rex and Thompson. Upon closer inspection it was revealed to be two beings sharing one very large, completely enclosed, robotic suit which seemed to contain water within it. One being was a large, anemone looking creature who occupied the lower portion of the suit, seemingly having no face or way of communicating. Floating above the anemone-being was a small, orange fish man, with markings that made him look almost like a clownfish, though his facial features were distinctly more shark-like.

“Hi there!” The little fishman said “I’m James and the big guy is known as ‘The Abyssal’ around here. Not a super clever name, but his species don't typically got one of those and he’s the only one of his kind on this planet.” The Abyssal bobbed up and down. “What do you say we show you around.”

Madeline jumped at the opportunity, “Yes, please!”

“Kid’s got manners” James said to his partner. “I like that.” The abyssal bobbed up and down again.

They began to walk to the other room. She turned around to wave to Rex, who was being vacuumed by Thompson. Rex waved back. “I’ll join you shortly.” He said, looking entirely unamused with his predicament.

“This is the command center.” Said James as they proceeded into the main room.
The room was extremely large filled with various species, all hard at work. From her observations Madeline concluded that the majority of the non-humans here seemed to be of one particular race, which resembled the classic diminutive “grey” aliens. It made sense to Madeline that the classic american myths were based in reality. She came to the realization that some of the people in the room were not in fact humans, but just closely resembled them.

“You might also call it a situation room.” Explained James. “We usually use this room for simulations and a general-purpose workspace, but we’re currently dealing with the moon crisis. Adjoined to this room is a cafeteria if you are hungry, then there’s the garage-hangar, armory, and various labs. We’re supposed to be making our way to the combat testing room, but we can stop by anywhere you’re curious about first. If you have any questions by the way, feel free to ask me.”

SpoilerShow

>_ Where should Maddie have James and The Abyssal take her? Any questions to ask?