(G1) Chapter 9

LLGen5, the official name of the fifth generation of Sims to be born on the alien moon, was unique in many ways. This was the first generation that started embracing things like art, literature and music. It wasn’t that those before them hadn’t enjoyed it, there were thousands of images of famous works of art as well as millions of books and pieces of music from Earth stored in the computers of the ship that brought them to the moon. People had been looking, reading and listening since the crash. It was their main source of entertainment for two generations. It took that long to unlock all the potentials of the crystals in order to create things like TVs and computers. Lunar Lakes had it’s own version of the Industrial Revolution just as Gen3 was coming of age. They were able to finally transmit every TV show, every piece of music, every book and image stored in the ships computer to every individual colonist.  There was no more visiting the Perigee for entertainment and that section of  ship was closed off to the public and transformed into Lunar Lakes own TV/Radio station and Internet Hub.

Gen5 was the first that was the first generation that had become bored with the recycled Earth artifacts. They started creating their own books, music and art. Living had taken the place of survival. They had what they needed to survive and now they wanted to live. They were building restaurants and libraries and galleries and theaters for people to perform. It was said that a culture, a society, grows stagnate without the creation of art, and that was what was starting to happen. Stagnation.  This was the biggest reason that Lola was so popular. She was one of the first singers of Lunar Lakes, and she was good. Street performers, artists and writers were big news, when any of them did anything, an entertainment news reporter, aka the paparazzi, would always be there. They were the inspiration, the hope, that the colony needed.

In the beginning, as the colonists moved from the Perigee into homes that they had built for themselves, a newspaper was the easiest way to keep everyone updated on what was going on in the Perigee, what research was being done that would enable them to grow food in the strange yellow soil, if the crystals were safe and what could and couldn’t be done with them. The kinds of things that were important to people then. After years of dull, boring news someone decided it would be fun to start adding a gossip column and things grew from there into something that had become part a legitimate news source and part tabloid. Naturally, the colony celebrities would be stalked and written about almost daily. Survival hadn’t quelled the voyeuristic tendencies cultivated over generations of Earthen society. Lunar Lakes represented both the best and the worst of Sim nature.

Despite being hounded constantly by the media, Lola and Kaidan settled into a quiet life.

Naturally, how they met and got together was no longer a secret. Many seen it was the ultimate fairy tale romance. Kaidan was big news because he was dating  the biggest celebrity on the moon. It did present a few problems for the military. They had to implement security where there wasn’t any before because the media was always trying to find out what Kaidan was working on. There were things going on at the military base that were even classified from the scientists at the Perigee. The Perigee scientists were aware of this and were content knowing that the colony was well protected in case hostile aliens ever found them. They didn’t want the details and the colony didn’t need the details.

The other person in Lunar Lakes that seemed to get a lot of attention, and not the good kind, was Damian Su. He worked in the mines and there were rumors that the crystals were making him mad. He was rarely seen in town wearing anything but his bathroom slippers and a towel. He was notorious for misplacing his toddler daughter, Irene.

In the midst of the daily life there was a potential problem for the colony that was creeping in, and it was the one thing that the media refused to report on. A small number of colonists were, despite every attempt, unable to function very long in natural light without passing out. They were also sustaining themselves on nothing but a strange indigenous fruit of the moon. It was one of the many things that both military and Perigee scientists worked on in secret. The two current theories were that the change was either a side effect of the fruit or part of the adaptation process of living on the moon. Neither theory could be proven or disproved. Until there were answers nothing would be said. No one was panicking and it was best kept that way.

Life continued unabated.

Meanwhile Lola and Kaidan discovered that Lola had some crazy fans. One of them had started stalking her and attempted to break into their house.

They never did find out what the intruder was planning. That was the one good thing about the crystal acoustics, where the door echo was merely annoying when it closed, the sound of the intruder alarm reverberated in such a way that it would make your ears bleed. Whoever the crazed fan was left quickly, before the authorities could even arrive.

The event left Kaidan uneasy and he started to worry that he wouldn’t be able to protect her if her fans got to far out of hand. Earth history told tales of stalkers who killed the objects of their obsession while others were locked away from society. Society on Lunar Lakes was still in it’s infancy and these things were unheard of. He was aware that not all changes in society would be for the better, but he never expected this. He was glad that the plans  he sent into motion weeks ago were coming into fruition quicker than he expected. It was time…

There was a small park that was circled on three sides by the bookstore, the grocery store and a few other small shops that almost everyone passed by almost every day. This was Lola’s favorite spot to perform. She was easy to find there and always drew a crowd there. She wasn’t going to be deterred by the break in and performed that night just as she always did. Kaidan was on hand looking anxious. Everyone assumed it was because of the break in and the crazed fan remained unidentified.

Kaidan was more than anxious. He was nervous as hell, and with good reason. Things could go horribly wrong. Right or wrong everyone was going to be talking about it for weeks and everything would change.

The second Lola took a break in singing, before he lost his nerve, Kaidan went down on one knee, in front of half the colony, and proposed to the love of his life.