Since I've got other stories already written, I thought I'd post something else here to keep things going. Enjoy, and please feel free to leave a comment.

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“10.”

The PA system blared out it’s countdown, ticking down to finality.

“9.”

Luna shifted in her seat, nervous about what was coming. She knew that her life was about to change, as surely as that timer counting down.

“8.”

She kept fidgeting, the acceleration slightly uncomfortable, the mass of her body being pressed into the back of her seat.

“7.”

It was a bit annoying, this countdown; it wasn’t really counting down to anything significant, they were already committed.

“6.”

Luna glanced out of the small porthole beside her seat, seeing the vast expanse of the Earth below and the thin ribbon of the atmosphere ringing the curve of the Earth’s horizon in the distance.

“5.”

She couldn’t wait for the damned countdown to be over.

“4.”

Luna closed her eyes and laid her head against her headrest. Despite herself, she could feel her nerves rising.

“3.”

As soon as they took off, Luna knew her life would never be the same. Of course, she knew she had ensured that as soon as she had signed that contract.

“2.”

With difficulty, she felt her hands reach up to her belly, feeling the firmness under her blouse.

“1.”

It was about time, they had been accelerating for more than two minutes now, and could barely wait. The last second seemed to take forever.

“Launch.”

Luna breathed a sigh of relief as the acceleration forces on her body ceased. She felt the sled separate from the launch loop, and everything suddenly felt light. She took a deep breathe, the lack of acceleration forces now allowing her lungs to fill properly, and she could feel her body no longer pressing into the seat she had previously been seated in.

She was weightless.

Being an engineering student back on Earth, she knew it was coming, and had even experienced brief moments of weightlessness on rollercoasters or in planes, but this was different, this was real; she was in space.

Looking back out the porthole, the view hadn't changed much. They started out at an altitude of 80 kilometers on the launch loop, and had only gained a kilometer or two in the few seconds since the sled took off, but it was the knowledge that she was well and truly outside of the comforts of Earth, and in the vast, unfriendly void of space.

It would be another half hour or so until they docked with the space platform and she transferred to the shuttle that would ferry her to the lunar colony that would be her home for almost the next year. In the meantime, the seatbelt sign was turned off, meaning Luna and her fellow passengers were free to get up (a relative term in zero gravity) and move about the cabin. She wasn't the only thing moving, however; her long, flowing hair, freed from the constraints of gravity, was now floating around her head like a cartoonishly large afro, and as wrapping around and getting in her face.

The stewardess, used to passenger's hair getting unruly, was quickly at Luna's side with some hair bands, and she helped her tie it down into a long pony tail, allowing Luna to move around without being blinded by the silver blond mass following her around. She spent the next few minutes floating around the cabin with the others, getting used to moving in space.

Once she felt a little more confident moving around, Luna made her way to the front of the sled, peeking over the pilot's shoulder and out the small portholes that looked forward. Off in the distance she saw a small glint of sunlight marking their destination, the imaginatively named Platform 2, the jumping off point for journeys to the moon and beyond. Its counterparts, Platform 1 and the still unfinished Platform 3 were out of sight, spread around the globe in regular increments in low Earth orbit.

Platform 1 was a working platform, responsible mainly for the flights to various orbits around Earth to fix existing or place new satellites, and was also where the first parts of Platform 3 were constructed. Platform 3, once finished, would serve as the gateway for the growing space tourism business, while Platform 2 would be left to handle non-tourist trips to the Moon and, increasingly, Mars.

Since it would be the only one handling regular tourist traffic, Platform 3 had a spinning hub that offered a small amount of gravity to help tourists get used to the low gravity. As a student, Luna had helped design new tableware and silverware that kept foods, particularly those of a more fluid nature, safely where they belonged. Although she wouldn't be seeing in action, it was nice to know she was still making a difference.

Faster than she expected, Luna saw Platform 2 loom over them. It wasn't very good looking, just a number of large silver grey cloth balloon like modules connected by metal and composite tubes that acted as hallways and the platform's working areas, with a number of movable solar panels sticking out all over the place. But it had it's own sort of majesty, as a bastion of human functionality in the final frontier.

With a bump and a jolt, the sled was secured to the underside of the platform amidst the other sleds, and Luna felt a brief flow of air as the airlock pressurized and opened, and Luna grabbed the small bag with her belongings and followed the other passengers into the reception area. It looked surprisingly pedestrian, a simple plastic desk with a young man sitting behind it, with a simple lap belt to keep him from floating away. He checked in each of the dozen passengers in turn, directing them to either their quarters for those staying a while, or, like Luna, to a waiting area while they waited for their shuttles.

As Luna got to the desk and checked in, she was directed to a waiting area on the other end of the platform. Her bag in hand, she grabbed one of the handles sticking out of the tube walls, and was pulled along the trackway the handle was set in, like a skier being pulled up a slope. Along the hallway, Luna saw some windows, larger than she expected considering the forces acting on them as they held back the vacuum of space. And as she got closer, Luna noticed a small shuttle, about the size of a big rig truck, with a stylized stork painted on the side. Rounding the corner, Luna saw a small waiting area ahead, right next to the shuttle she saw, with a young man floating inside, reading a book.

Luna floated in quietly, not wanting to disturb him; luckily, his back was to her and the background noise of the platform covered the sound of her approach. She looked out the window, the city of Tokyo in view now, with the massive Sky City she grew up in visible even from here. But she had in fact been noticed, and she looked up at the young man when she heard him close his book.

"So, you're coming with me to Serenity?" he asked her.

Luna looked him over a bit; it was hard to tell since he was, relative to her, floating on his side, but he looked like he was tall and a bit on the lanky side, with dark eyes and tousled brown hair. He looked young, about her age, and had a certain boyish charm about him.

"Um, yeah. I signed up last month," she told him timidly. Growing up she had been somewhat self conscious because of her intelligence, which was made more difficult because her beauty put her in the spotlight, at least among the males she found herself around.

"You seem a bit nervous; first time in space?"

"It is, but that isn't why I'm nervous," Luna said, feeling at ease with the young man. “I guess I just don’t know what it will be like in Serenity. When I was younger I had plans, then the Virus came along and everything changed.”

“It changed things for everyone,” the young man replied. “I’m Alistair, by the way, but most people call me Ali.”

“Luna.”

“What will you be doing in Serenity?”

“I’m a Host,” Luna told him, “but I’m an engineering major, and I want to keep taking classes, and eventually I want to be an aerospace engineer. I was told this would be a good way to get on the radar with the GSA, some hands on experience, I guess.”

“Well, you’ll have plenty of time on your hands to study in Serenity,” Ali said. “I got recruited as a Donor, but I’ve got experience with mechanics and farming, so I’ll be doing duty as a Maintenance and Hydroponics tech. Otherwise I wouldn’t get to go, I’d just be stuck on Earth.”

“What are you going to do once your contract is over and you’re back on Earth?” Luna asked, wanting to keep the conversation going to kill the time until they could leave. While she was talking, she pulled one of the nutrition bars out her bag and started eating. She’d been eating one every half hour or so between meals, and would sometimes wake up at night to have one or two.

“Not really sure,” Ali replied, looking at the rather large food bar. Luna certainly didn’t look overweight, so it was a bit incongruous seeing her eat so much. But he’d been briefed on it, so he didn’t mention it. “I guess this is my way of getting out there and trying something I’m good at. Who knows, maybe I’ll make a career out of it.”

“Good luck with that,” Luna said between bites. “I figure do this, then get out and finish my degree. I don’t really have much of a plan either, besides that.”

They were interrupted by the arrival of two other young women, one who looked southwest Asian, Thai maybe, and the other looked northern European, like Luna, with long blond hair in a long pony tail just like hers. For some reason there seemed to be a lot of blonds in the program; Luna made a mental note to ask someone why.

The Asian woman introduced herself as Sunee, and the blond introduced herself as America. This got some raised eyebrows from Luna and Ali, thinking for sure it was a nickname. But instead they were surprised when she explained that it was a German name derived from the explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

Luna looked over the newcomers as they introduced themselves. Sunee was a petite woman with black hair and dark eyes, and Luna thought she could see a slight bulge under her T-shirt as she moved. America, on the other hand, was clearly quite tall, with blond hair a few shades darker than Luna and striking, bright green eyes; based on the tone of her body and the grace with which she moved around the room weightless suggested the body of an athlete.

After introductions were over, another stewardess floated into the waiting area and ushered the four of them into the shuttle. It wasn’t very large, but being as spacious as a good sized RV inside it would be comfortable enough for the four of them, the pilot and the stewardess on the roughly 3 day trip to the Moon.

After about 15 minutes of checks, the pilot ordered the passengers to strap into the fold away chairs that were positioned behind the pilot. With just a gentle shudder, the shuttle slid away from Platform 2 and began to pull away. After about 10 minutes, the pilot felt they had put enough distance between them to ignite the main boost engines.

Once again Luna felt herself pressed into her seat, though with less force than she felt from the launch loop. After ten minutes the engines were shut off, and once again Luna floated free, finally on her way to the Moon.

dang it, I'm hooked on this one too! I like your writing style so far, but I'm curious about how you'll write about the pregnancy(s?)

I'm glad you like it. But I'm not sure what you mean when you say "I'm curious about how you'll write about the pregnancy(s)".

I've picked up on how different writers have different styles when writing about erotic pregnancy fiction. take rapidpregnancy, a deviantart writer, his style is fluid, descriptive, yet relatively quick in terms of how long the action lasts (eg, belly growing, etc.). I personally like that style,but I also enjoy 'epic' styles of stories like galactic expansion and the avpr series.

I'm anxious to see your style when writing about those key scenes. from what I gather so far, your style is descriptive and fluid, with no harsh pauses. but not too descriptive that it then competes with a romance novel style a la danielle steele. and thats a good thing! cuz thats really cheesy, lol

I haven't actually tried to develop any specific style, I've just more or less written what comes to mind. I'm a very visual person, so when I write, I visualize events, rather like a mental movie. And when writing the descriptive parts, I try to be realistic. As for the "style' of pregnancy, again I try to be realistic, though that comes a little later in my stories.

Since there is a time limit on how old a post can be and still be edited, I figured it's about time to just go ahead and post chapter 2. Since I've already started posts with the chapter in the title, I'll go ahead and keep posting. This is currently the only other chapter I've finished for this story as Michelle's Story has taken up the bulk of my writing time, however, I do intend to continue this story as time permits, something that comments will certainly help encourage. In the meantime, please enjoy.

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Luna looked out the forward viewscreen at the Moon, looming large in front of their tiny shuttle. They were just a few hours away from landing, which was good news for America and Ali; unlike Luna and Sunee, who had both grown up in large cities, America and Ami had grown up in smaller cities with open areas nearby, and they had been getting a bit stir crazy being cooped up in the shuttle.

Looking back at the Moon, Luna could faintly see the complex of tunnels and domes that represented Serenity, their new home, for the next eight to ten months, at least. Luna and the other two young women had continued to eat a good portion of the time, and thankfully Ali had been polite enough not to point it out or ask questions. Luna was starting to feel self conscious about it, however, and she could feel the waistband of her pants getting tight. She was glad there would be other clothes available when they arrived.

They were in a decaying orbit around the Moon; this was just intended to put them on the proper approach to Serenity as a straight line flight would have required far to much fuel. They were flying in the Moon's shadow for almost an hour as they descended, but it wasn't until the last 15 minutes of flight that the pilot finally called for the passengers to prepare for landing. They had gone through a brief burn of the retrorockets a few hours earlier; they had strapped into the jump seats for that, but this time they would be able to simply grab one of the handholds littered around the shuttle and hold on as they began to slow and descend.

Just as they began to ready for their final approach, Luna looked ahead and saw the Earth rising from behind the Moon, in a dramatic reversal of the scene seen by billions on a daily basis. Luna just stopped and watched as more and more of her home planet appeared from behind it's celestial neighbor. It was a beautiful sight, and one that mesmerized her for several minutes until she was roused out of her reverie by Sunee. The stewardess explained what to expect while landing and instructed them to stand with their feet towards the Moon to prevent anyone from bumping their heads as they landed.

Luna, however, was more interested in what was going on with the shuttle itself, and watched as four booms with a variety of attitude thrusters swung into place to stabilize the shuttle as it descended. As they descended, the pilot called out their altitude, much like they early Apollo Moon landings of nearly a century ago. As the base neared, several other shuttles could be seen on a landing pad with pressurized walkways leading to the base itself. It looked very much like a terminal at an airport on Earth, except far smaller in scale.

Luna watched as the lunar surface seemed to rise to greet them. At about Serenity was at the edge of a lunar mare, or sea, in what corresponded to the northern hemisphere of the Moon relative to the Earth. In fact, the base was not far from the location of the landing of Apollo 17.

With a slight bump the shuttle touched down. The pilot went through his shutoff checklist while the pressurized shuttleway was rolled out to dock with the shuttle door. After just a few seconds the pressure was equalized and both sets of doors swung open. The stewardess lead the way, clearly at ease in the low lunar gravity as she demonstrated how to walk on the Moon.

The passengers didn't get it right away; Ali was the first out of the shuttle and promptly launched himself into the low ceiling as he stepped up to meet the shuttleway. It wasn't a major impact, doing more damage to Ali's ego than his skull, but it was enough to get peals of laughter from the three young women following him out. Even the stewardess chuckled a bit at the scene as she walked back to the group.

"The halls with lower ceilings have handholds you can grab onto," the stewards said, gesturing to a discrete metal rail running about waist height down the hall. "At least, until you get used to the gravity," she finished with a wink towards Ali.

Ali grumbled and grabbed the railing as he followed the stewardess into the base, the three women, still giggling, in tow. They quickly found themselves in an underground tunnel buried more than a meter under the lunar regolith to provide protection against the sun's harmful radiation and the occasional meteorite strike. The underground tunnels rapidly increased in size, soon looking more like a road tunnel than a pedestrian tunnel, with about three meters of head room in the center of the tunnel. Luna guessed this was done so that anyone who got too carried away in the low gravity would have time to recover before hitting anything solid.

They were lead to an amphitheater with a large curved glass window set at an angle to allow a spectacular view of the lunar sea reaching out in the distance with the Earth, partly in shadow, hanging low over the horizon. Even from this great distance, pinpricks of light could be seen on the nighttime side, showing the location of the planet's major cities. Luna could even see a tiny, almost invisible blip moving across the face of the planet before disappearing into the shadow; given that it was large enough to be seen from where she was, Luna figured it was one of the platforms orbiting the Earth.

Her attention was brought back to the present by the arrival of someone else. Luna recognized her immediately as Dr. Omondi, the director of the Serenity Initiative. She came to prominence on Earth in the aftermath of the Chaos virus, and although most people would recognize her from the news and knew a little about the Serenity Initiative, few knew many details.

"Welcome to Serenity Station. This was one of the first Moon stations built in the aftermath of the Chaos virus...”

Luna closed her eyes as Dr. Omondi went through her welcoming briefing. She had actually seen a video of another briefing the doctor had done a few months ago; a cousin of hers had entered the program as well, and was invited to the briefing to help lend support to a particularly nervous newcomer, so Luna knew what the speech was. Instead she thought about the effects of the Chaos virus, and her path to her current position.

She had been a very young girl when the Chaos virus hit, and she and her family were living in northern Norway at the time, so she didn't have any direct contact with the virus. She was, however, old enough

Last, Dr. Omondi led Luna to her room. It was a fairly spacious room with a wide door and a private bathroom with shower. The walls were a dull grey like the rest of the lunar concrete that made up the base, but Luna had brought a few posters with her to decorate, and she figured she could probably get a couple cans of paint sent up from Earth to decorate. In the meantime, she could live with grey walls for a little while, and the window looking towards Earth provided reprieve from the greyness.

After exploring her room, taking a shower and having a brief nap, Luna checked her watch and saw it was evening and time for dinner. The difference between day and night was artificial, of course, given the Moon's nearly 28 Earth day rotation, with the difference between day and night being achieved using dimmable windows and dimmer controls on the interior lights. Regardless, it was her growling stomach that was setting the meal schedule.

Walking carefully to the cafeteria, her body still getting used to the low gravity, Luna found the only one in the room was Ali, who was again reading his book as he ate his dinner. He looked up at her and smiled in greeting as she walked to the counter where the food was arrayed. "How is the low gravity treating you?" he asked her.

"It's unusual, but I'm getting used to it," she told him, walking to the table he was sitting at with a tray full of food. She stood at the table for a second, still holding her tray without sitting down while Ali looked at her quizzically. After a moment, Luna let go of the tray, and they both watched as it fell to the table as if it were in slow motion. "I know about what low gravity is like from an intellectual standpoint," she explained as she sat down, the motion actually lifting her feet off the ground for a moment. "But it's still weird to feel it for the first time."

"You're a step ahead of me," Ali told her, "back on Earth I spent most of my time fixing things, I never did a whole lot of reading, at least not technical reading. You said you're an engineering student, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm worried about what volunteering for the Serenity program will do to that. Being away for a whole academic year might be a problem."

"What about virtual classes?" Ali asked, finishing his meal as Luna tucked into hers. "We've got the best communications equipment made here, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"It's not the hardware that's the issue," Luna explained. "I'm taking classes, but I'm worried that I'll be busy here, or just won't feel up to it."

"Well, if you need help, let me know," Ali offered. "By the way, I've been wondering, how did you get the name Luna? Is it your real name or a nickname?"

Luna blushed. "It's my real name. My parents are astrophysicists, and have always loved space and astronomy. They told me I was conceived the night of the first Moon landing since the Apollo program, and born the day the first shipment of materials for Base 1 was sent from Earth."

Ali laughed at this story. "Well your name is awfully appropriate considering where we are."

"Yeah, it is," she replied. "My parents were thrilled when they found out I was accepted. I think one of their dreams is to walk on the Moon, so I think they're trying to live vicariously through me."

"Lucky you," Ali said. "My parents were so concerned about my safety that my dad actually tried to impersonate me and back out of the program. They've always been a bit overprotective about us kids."

"How many siblings do you have?" Luna asked. She was an only child and had always wanted a sister.

"There's eleven of us, five boys, six girls," Ali replied with a grin. "As you might imagine, it gets crowded in the house sometimes."

"Wow, I can only imagine," Luna replied, her hand again going to her belly as she felt the lump under her clothes. "I don't have any brothers or sisters but I always wanted one."

"Well, it seems like you're in the right place," Ali said as he checked his watch. "Well, unlike you, I've got an early morning tomorrow, so I've got to head to bed. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night."

Luna watched as he cleared his tray and bounced out the door, then finished her meal in silence.

After dinner, Luna went back to her room for bed. Before she did, she spent some time online and made a video call to her parents, something of a novel experience for her. Due to the distance, there was about a two and a half second delay between her saying something and her parent's response, which made for a chaotic conversation at times. Still, they go better at it, and it was nice to hear from them. They promised to send her some stuff to decorate her room soon, and she promised them she would get out on the surface and tell them all about it.

Later, Luna simply browsed online, thinking about things. School would be hard for her until she returned to Earth, but Ali's offer to help her study made her more hopeful. And how fortunate it was that they had met; he was nice, and having a friend would surely help her get through the next year.