"So yeah, that's me. I've condensed a history of Nova as well for, you know, an exchange of information. But yeah… maybe I'll talk to you soon?" Hal hit the stop button, his right hand still tugging at the hair on the back of his head.

Maybe I'll talk to you soon? What am I? A love-struck 8 year old? Grow up man!

Hal transferred the video to his goggles, and lay back on his bed. The clock on the corner of the lens glared the time at him 8:58. Just enough time to upload and send. Hal shuthis eyes feeling himself slowly drifting off to sleep, the gentle beeps of the file being uploaded acting as a lullaby.

"Hello?"

Hal opened his eyes, groggy from sleep.

"Oh my goodness! You're just eyes! How does that work!? Do you eat!?"

Hal saw her. The girl, from the video, Aurora, and she was talking to him, her brow crinkled her face scared but curious. They were connected. Hal pulled his goggles away from his face.

"Sorry, sorry. Just a second!"

"How are you talking? I don't understand! Can you understand me? Hello? Umm.. Hola! Kon'nichiwa! Namastē!" Aurora continued to greet Hal in various human languages as he rolled slightly, almost falling out of bed, quickly tapping a few buttons on his keyboard, transferring the uplink to the main screen.

"Hey, can you see me? All of me I mean?"

"Oh…But you're human… I thought you'd be-"

"An alien?" Hal asked smiling. "Nope, 100% human."

"But you're so skinny! And lanky! And… short." Aurora sounded shocked and almost disappointed.

"Thanks. It's called evolution, we only need our brains up here on Nova, so our bodies evolved to suit our needs." Hal explained, frowning.

"Oh… that makes sense." Aurora paused, her eyes calculating. She glanced into the camera "I thought Nova was dead. We were told the Novans had either starved or killed each other. How are you even talking to me?"

"Novans aren't dead!" Hal was sitting forward in his chair, suddenly aware of the volume of his voice. He glanced around his silent, dark room. "We're fine. It's you! You're clever and Terrans are supposed to be… you know!" Hal scowled slightly at the screen.

"No, I don't know. What are we supposed to be?!" Aurora was scowling at the monitor as well, her right eyebrow raised

"Everyone knows Terrans are… that you're little more than furless apes!" Hal spat out the words he'd been taught since he was a child. He watched the still figure on the monitor. Aurora's voice was low, her body tense.

"You talk big game for a fictional space-boy!"

"Can you keep your voice down? My parents are asleep in the room next-door." Hal hissed.

"Parents? I thought all you Novans would have come out of test-tubes!" Aurora drawled sarcastically.

"Look there's no point arguing because we're both real. Not fictional. Not stupid. But real life people." Hal insisted, sitting forward, pleading at the screen. Aurora nodded slowly. There was a moment of stillness; Hal could hear the dull thrum of his generator and his fathers snoring. I've just contacted the forbidden, betrayed societal rule and contradicted years of lies, just to throw insults at this girl... Not exactly the first contact situation I had in mind.

"I- I wanted to ask you something." Hal stammered nervously.

"Sure." Aurora smiled and sat closer to her monitor.

Hal fiddled with the cuff of his shirt. "What's a din-da-go?"

"A what?" Aurora asked, leaning forward a bemused smile on her face. "You mean a dingo?"

"Yeah, you mentioned in your message that they howled, why do they do that?"

"Dingos, or Canis Dingo, are wild dogs, once native to Australia. Unlike domestic dogs, dingos tended to whine, growl and howl to communicate, rather than bark. We've reanimated the species." Aurora smiled. "I think I have more about wildlife on the flora and fauna database. Do you want me to send you a copy? You can see that Terrans are just a tad more advanced than apes." Aurora chuckled at her own joke as she began typing

"Yeah!" Hal grinned and moved towards his keyboard. "I could send you all the data we've collected on planetoids and a possibility of life-"

"That's great, but could I also have your logs and recordings from Nova's launch? I'll send you Terra's logs too." Aurora didn't look up, her eyes trained on the monitor in front of her.

"The logs might be a more difficult to obtain." Hal explained, his brow knitting together as he resumed typing. "They're in the President's private data banks."

The sound of Aurora's typing stopped, causing Hal to look up.

"Why are such important records hidden from the public?" Her voice was controlled, but her eyes spoke of total confusion.

"No one cares about the past." Hal began to type again, his voice adopting a bitter tone "They only care about how they look in the present." Hal could have sworn he heard her gasp.

"You mean, they're more focused on themselves than on the people around them?" Aurora's voice was quiet and shocked. Hal just nodded and continued typing.

"How horrid." Aurora shuddered.

Delete trace of copying files and implement security file Alpha45

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Task complete

Upload files to server: Hal2001

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Task complete

Send data to location Aurora: 1145

Approximate time until completion: 20 minutes

"You should get the logs in about 20 minutes." Hal smiled at Aurora.

"Thanks! Yours should arrive around then too." Hal sat up straight and stretched his arms above his head, wincing when his back cracked.

"You might need to do some exercise there space-boy." Aurora taunted as she sat back in her chair, attempting to stifle a yawn.

"You might need some sleep earth-girl." Hal teased back.

Hal couldn't sleep. It was 12:30. He had to be up in 6 hours and he couldn't sleep. Maybe if you watch one. One log that Aurora sent, and then you'll sleep. He'd had this argument with himself for hours, knowing that one log would turn into three logs, which would turn into him not sleeping for days.

Sighing Hal reached over and snatched his goggles off his bedside table; he pulled them on and lay back down.

Just the first log.

Author's Note:

Hey! I just wanted to apologise about the delayed update. I've been really busy applying for my classes at uni and stuff. But, my next chapter will be up by Saturday (Sydney time). I hope you enjoy it, let me know! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed or favourited! It's greatly appreciated. ^_^