Finding Stardust

For the first time in her life, Emma felt so carefree and happy. Even for a moment, she seemed to be able to forget her longing for her father and mother. She continuously stared at the night sky, which was decorated by endless sparks from fireworks of various colors and patterns.

Haoran approached Emma, ​​who was looking dumbfounded while she was gazing up. He slowly held her hand while turning his gaze toward the night sky. Emma was surprised when she felt Haoran"s hand touch and then clasp her hand. She looked sideways and was fascinated when she saw Haoran"s side profile, while the man was gazing up at the sky solemnly.

Emma then turned her gaze back to the sky and looked at the sky together. For some reason, at that time, she felt so peaceful. She liked Haoran"s hand holding hers while they enjoyed the beautiful spectacle.

After all the fireworks were gone, the teenagers decided to light a bonfire and barbecue some corndogs for snacking while they chat happily. They talked about everything, starting from their school their dreams for the future, then shared silly stories about their childhood together.

"After this, we can go inside and try Moon Bounce," Haoran said. "Actually, we are not supposed to do it because we haven"t got our license, but let me deal with the a.s.sociation."

"Oh, really? Then, who will take the exam to get our license?" asked Emma.

"I"ll take the exam," Haoran said. "I have lots of free time to study and take care of it."

"Ah ... alright then. We are counting on you," Emma smiled at his words.

Haoran placed the Moon Bounce equipment in his room. At 10 pm, after they all felt satisfied having fun outside, they went up to Haoran"s bedroom to try sending their first message to the moon.

"Everything has been set up by the technician, and now it is ready to use.. hehehe. I asked them to teach me everything yesterday and we can just start," Haoran said. He took a chair and sat in front of his computer, while his friends surrounded him excitedly.

Emma felt rather tense. She considered this an important moment, a milestone in their quest to find her parents. She and Haoran would start actively doing Moon Bounce after they obtain their radio license and hopefully ... hopefully, AWA would be able to catch her message and recognize Emma.

The girl walked toward the balcony as Haoran began to send the first signal. Subconsciously, Emma"s eyes stared fixedly on the moon in the eastern horizon. Tonight, the moon was in a crescent shape and was only visible at 26 percent. The night sky looked darker than usual, and they could see so many stars in the milky way galaxy, visible above them.

Where was Akkadia? How far was it from here? If Emma could reach AWA on the moon, would she be able to find Akkadia? Would she find her parents there?

She really wanted to know the answer from AWA.

"Wow !!! It works!" Alex gushed suddenly, startling Emma, who was gazing at the moon. The girl immediately turned and approached them.

"Did you hear the reply?" Emma asked admiringly.

"That"s right! It took less than 3 seconds to hear the bounced signal... This is so exciting!!" said Alex enthusiastically. He tapped Haoran on the shoulder. "Let"s try doing it again."

Haoran smiled and sent another signal to the moon, and 2.5 seconds later they could hear the bounced signal in their device.

"I deliberately bought an expensive set of equipment so we could catch even weak signals. With ordinary equipment, most people could only send signals and cannot listen to the bounced signal. Usually, only bigger EME stations with stronger capacity can hear it ..." said Haoran proudly. "I didn"t make the wrong choice."

"Try sending it again ..." said Dinh, who was also very excited.

Haoran followed his request and again sent a signal. Emma stood on her spot and watch her friends eagerly sending signal after signal to be reflected by the moon.

Ahh ... everything turned out smoothly, thought the girl. Later she and Haoran needed to think about how they could send signals regularly to the coordinates Kaos.h.i.+n had left behind, to attract AWA"s attention.

Ah ... I hope AWA is still on the moon and can listen, Emma muttered inwardly.

Moon Bounce started several years after World War 2 when the use of radio was still very active. From outer s.p.a.ce, Earth was a very noisy planet. The radio signal from Earth only became quiet after humans invented the internet and no longer use the radio to communicate.

People said Moon Bounce was highly addictive. Once people tried it, they would want to keep doing it, because the feeling of euphoria when the message they send to the moon was bounced back to earth couldn"t be described in words.

That"s what now happening to Haoran and his friends. As soon as the first try was successful, they took turns trying to send more signals and always shrieked happily when they could hear their messages bounced by the moon"s surface.

And so time flies, and suddenly an hour pa.s.sed with them having tried Moon Bounce many times with great success.

"Gosh, Haoran ... this is very exciting. We have to do this often," Dinh said after they decided to end their Moon Bounce activity. The time showed it was already 11 pm.

Haoran nodded. "Of course, later after I get our license and call sign, we will try again. Now we should stop. What we did was actually against the rules."

Haoran couldn"t wait to try Moon Bounce because tonight was the right moment to show his telescope and EME device to Emma, while they all had a sleepover at his place. He didn"t mind paying fines or sanctions for this violation. His father"s money could pay for it all.

"Emma, ​​do you want to try the telescope? I checked that there will be a meteor shower tonight, starting at 2 am ..." Haoran said as he approached Emma, ​​who was standing on his balcony, still staring at the sky.

"Really? How exciting!" Emma looked at her watch and sighed. "Three more hours."

"You can sleep first. I"ll wake you up," Haoran told her.

"You will stay up all night?" asked Emma.

"Uhmm ... the boys are bringing the liquors here," said Haoran. He pointed at David and Eric, who appeared by the door with bags filled with bottles, two ice buckets, and a few gla.s.ses. "We will chat and drink until past midnight. Later, when they are sleepy, I will send them to their rooms, wake you up, and you can see the meteor shower with me here."

"Ahh ..." Emma looked at the champagne, whiskey, and scotch bottles that the boys began to arrange neatly on the table, and she finally nodded. She remembered Haoran asked her to promise she would never get drunk because Emma should not lose her self-control in front of others.

"Then I"ll sleep now. I"ll set my alarm for 2 in the morning to see the meteor shower with you," Emma told Haoran.

"I won"t sleep. Later if your alarm doesn"t go off, I"ll wake you up," Haoran said.

Emma nodded and walked out of Haoran"s room to her own room. As she pa.s.sed David, she embraced the young man and congratulated him on his birthday. "Happy birthday, David. Good night."

"Thank you," David returned Emma"s hug then let go. He had seen Haoran"s eyes narrowed as if warning him not to embrace Emma for too long.

"Have fun!" Emma waved to them all and then disappeared into her room.

After the girl left, the five young men immediately opened the bottles of booze they liked and enjoyed the drinks while chatting and laughing. They actually didn"t mind if Emma joined them for drinks, but not now. No matter what, Emma was still 17 years old, the youngest of them and she never drank before.

They could not guess the girl"s alcohol tolerance level and prefer to avoid troubles as much as possible. Maybe one day, when they are all grown up, it would be easier and more comfortable to drink together like this with her.