As I exit my keyhome and put it away after the milking, I find the ‘Lieutenant’ waiting for me; she’s holding a cell phone as she addresses me, “Welcome back.” She doesn’t … quite… ask what I was up to. I think she’s trying to get me to volunteer something.

I don’t plan to. “Thanks.”

She pauses a moment, and when it’s clear I’m not continuing, she adds, “Captain B. Strong let me know your drone is a few minutes out from the moon. Shall we go back and watch the landing?”

“Certainly.”

I follow her, and soon enough we’re back in the control room with the director and the generals… and apparently, they’ve got a spy satellite or maybe an observatory trained on my minion. It’s a very impressive telescope: I can make out my minion’s face as she travels. I watch as she lands on the moon, gets out her key, and telepathically flags me: 《I’m ready master. Please let me know when they are too.》

Before I can speak, one of the generals furrows his brow, “Why’d she pause?”

And I answer, “She’s waiting for my signal. Please let your astronauts know it’s time to get dressed for going outside.” I could do it - Greater Scrying and Message will let me talk to them directly, but I might as well let them use those radios.

Captain B. Strong turns the speakers back on, and the Director addresses the three astronauts, “Time to get ready to step outside, boys. Helmets on, let us know when you’re dressed. Over.”

“Thank you director, over.” That one’s Major Parry Orval Bisset, I think? The other two were Jayson Abner Wade, and Conner Dannie Willey… I’m not 100% sure which is which just from their voices, though.

We wait a bit, and then a different one of the astronauts chimes in, “We’re all locked up tight and on suit air. Good to go. Over.”

I flag my minion,《They’re ready. Please let them out.》

As the director turns to look at me, we hear the astronauts over the radio, “Oh, wow. This IS the moon. You guys have GOT to see this. Over.”

“Your helmet cameras should be recording just fine. I’ll see it later,” one of the generals speaks, “Don’t gawk too long, though; you have work to do. Over.”

“Yes sir. We’re collecting the regolith as we speak. This is just amazing. Nobody gets to see this view except we select few. And given how easy that ride was… this is going to become a lot more common, isn’t it? Over.”

The Director speaks up, “That’s the plan, major. And not just the moon - if these girls perform up to their sales pitch… and at this point, I’ve no reason to doubt that - we’ll also hit up Mars, the moons of the gas giants, and beyond. That’ll take a little longer, so we’ll still need to do some serious planning. We’re probably going to have to go to congress for some of it… but the galaxy just got a whole lot smaller. Over.”

I start counting… helmet cameras, telescope focused on the moon’s surface, radio tracking, the regolith, the astronaut’s accounts, probably suit readings too… they’re checking in several different ways to make sure this is actually happening, aren’t they? Clever. Good thing I’m not trying to cheat them, and this is as real as they are.

I wait patiently as they gather materials, take pictures, and run other tests. They do eventually pack up and go back into the Keyhome… taking a walk around it first, still examining the door to nowhere that goes somewhere nevertheless. Still, they do eventually pile in, and I have my minion close the door, pack it up, and head back.

The chatter over the radio is interesting.

From one of the astronauts: “OK, so… suit instruments are saying there’s air out there. But that door was open to a hard vacuum. How in the world is there air in here now? Over.”

That one’s actually pretty simple. Air seeps in at the key itself on a Keyhome, and my Companion has a Life Bubble spell on her, which provides a shell of fresh air out to one inch. The key is inside my Companion’s shell - via a Flesh Pocket from the Alteration Sphere - and so is also within that shell of fresh air. So the air in the Keyhome is renewed. But I’m not going to explain the details. Let them wonder.

One of the generals shrugs, not that the astronaut can see, “That’s for the eggheads to sort out. It’s not our tech, we’re just borrowing it for now - and will be renting it later - but if your suit instruments say it’s safe… well, one at a time, make sure it’s fine. Over.”

“How do we decide who risks it first? Over.”

“Up to you. But someone needs to go first. Over.”

I listen as they do a rock paper scissors match a few times. I can’t really identify each astronaut by their voice, but eventually they pick someone. I hear the first helmet unlock through the radio… and yes, soon enough, the others follow suit.

“Well, we’re breathing fine, could still use a good deck of cards. Over.”

“We’ll see about getting some jumbo sized ones for the next trip, or perhaps a nice module with an airlock that’ll fit through the door. Regardless… see you when you get home. Over and out.”

Captain B. Strong presses a button, and the radio switches back to her headset.

I look at August Allard, “So how’d the lawyers like the contract, director?”

He laughs, “They liked it fine. We’re not using space for war anyway, and I imagine she’ll report all findings herself so us sharing is quite redundant… one thing I am curious about though: Most leases we have to pay up when the equipment gets damaged, you specifically mentioned you don’t actually care. Why is that?”

Well, Keyhomes are easy to replace - for me - and… “She’s going to recover from basically anything that happens to her in short order. If you do manage to hurt her enough that she ‘dies’... she’s still not dead. She’s a chunk of my magic energy given form. Setting up her initial form takes considerable effort…” mostly the buff list; otherwise it’s just one extra swift action, “... but after that? She can easily be instantiated again. What you see when you look at her is more of a projection than anything else. She still feels everything, but… well, you can’t truly injure her. She’s ultimately running on my hardware,” which is a true statement: It is a buff on me that permits her existence, “so as long as I exist, she can - and will - be made to live again, and will return with full memory of everything done - including whatever ‘killed’ her.” I pause, “Which also means anything you need to keep a secret from me, you’ll need to keep from her, because nothing you can do would prevent her from reporting in. But NASA is all about sharing data, so I doubt it’s much of a big deal. After all…” I look at ‘Lieutenant P Swift’ “You’re not the NSA like agent Cari Randy Robson here. Such a difference one little letter makes.”

The ‘lieutenant’ manages not to turn white as a sheet, but the use of her actual name does break her facade, “I’m not…”

Yeah, Sense Motive is on full alert, and I have a great skill check, so I roll my eyes, “Yes you are. Look, I don’t really mind that you’re keeping an eye on me. Most of the time I don’t bother to let the agents know they blew it, but quite frankly, all of them do.” OK, that … might be a lie, might not … obviously, I couldn’t tell if I was fooled… “it’s kind of amusing to see the agents on which I have full dossiers working in the field,” and that one IS an outright lie, sure, I can investigate someone easily, but I don’t have a listing of agents to investigate, “But hey, you’re just trying to protect people from various kinds of bad things, and maybe get an idea of how I can bend reality so easily, as everyone wants that.”

The generals are just sort of blinking at the exchange, while the Director doesn’t. Yeah, that was a slip earlier. The NSA agent sighs, “Is that what you were doing in the door from nowhere earlier? Reading my dossier?”

Let her think that, better than her knowing what I was actually up to, “I knew before then, but it’s always good to get more information, isn’t it? But as I said, your intentions are… good enough.” And, you know, what they’re after, she is unable to actually get, as there’s no documents or anything that gives a detailed breakdown of how it’s done, so no big deal.

The director chuckles, “Ah well… I’m sure you thought it was worth a shot but…”

I interrupt, “You knew, director.”

He pauses for a bit while he considers. I suppose I’m getting quite the rep for knowing things I really shouldn’t. To be fair, I can, I just generally don’t, “Yes, I did. Are you still going to go through with the contract?”

“Oh yes. The spying is just amusing.”

The director lets out a sigh of relief. “All right, just one more detail, then, once they get back…”

“The interview of the drone.”

“Indeed.”