In her slumber, Elsa could hear distant voices in her dreams, chattering about many things that she couldn't understand.

Who were these voices?

Was she on The Moon already?

"T-minus nine minutes and counting. Starting preflight check ... booster."

"Booster is 'go.'"

"Guidance."

"Guidance is 'go.'"

"FIDO and network?"

"FIDO is 'go.'"

"Network?"

"Network still in confirmation."

"Okay. Telemetry."

"Telemetry is 'go.'"

"Control."

"Control, definitely a go, sir."

"Network, we need confirmation. Are you go?"

"Confirmed. Network is 'go.'"

"All systems go. Final engine tests in progress."

And with that said, the voices ceased their jabber, and Elsa's dreams could continue without any further interruptions. That made her very happy; she loved dreaming. In dreams, she could achieve the impossible. She could be whoever she wanted or do whatever she wanted, and no one could tell her against it. She was the owner of everything, and she could control everything.

For years, Elsa had experienced this strange phenomenon; she even came to think she might be sick, that maybe her mind had caught a cold or something awful like that. During her slumber, she would go through all sorts of adventures—some of them were nice, but others were really, really scary and awoke her with a racing heart.

In the end, Tee-bee, as usual, had solved the puzzle for her, and she could finally put her mind at ease.

That phenomenon was called "dreaming."

But, while she enjoyed dreaming, she didn't like it when dreams became dark and scary—those were called "nightmares."

Nightmares were the complete opposite of dreams. In them, Elsa didn't have control of anything, and every time, she found herself spiraling down through an unavoidable trail of terrifying situations—like her misadventure at The Moon Club. And no matter how much she wanted to wake up, she wouldn't until the nightmares let her.

Maybe dreams could also catch diseases and become nightmares.

For Elsa, the mind was a complete mystery.

In this dream, Elsa was in a vast grassy field, eating as much as she desired and going wherever she pleased. But then the voices returned, echoing and thundering from the blue sky as she continued wandering about in the field.

"Arms retracted and auxiliary power units started. Ready for main engine start."

"Flight, main engine started."

"Continuing with launch sequence. T-minus ten seconds and counting. Nine, eight..."

Elsa tried to ignore them, but the ground started to rattle and quickly turned into a terrible earthquake. It cracked open beneath her hooves, and she ran as fast as she could, trying desperately not to fall into the infinitely deep abyss below.

"Five, four..."

And then, when she couldn't run anymore, she fell. But before she plunged into the darkness below, the sky opened, and a large hand snatched her—huge enough to wrap around her body.

The hand took her higher and higher into the sky above.

"Two, one, main engine start."

Finally, Elsa woke up. She was back in The Lunar Module. Everything shook, and a fierce rumbling stormed from outside.

What was going on?

What was all of this?

Soon, an invisible force pushed Elsa's body toward the floor. She felt heavier and heavier with each passing second. Having sat on the floor in the first place seemed like the worst mistake she had ever made in her life. She couldn't hear anything through the loud rumbling and rattling all around her.

She was terrified, powerless.

"T-plus three minutes. Everything looking good so far. Liftoff successful."

Elsa tried hard to stand up, but it was useless—the invisible force still held her down. She was terrified but also annoyed about being subdued to the floor. Any other time she would've fought back, but she just couldn't see who was doing this to her.

Was this a nightmare?

"Flight, boosters, and external tank now separated. Proceeding with main engine cutoff. We're still on schedule."

"Nominal altitude is one hundred and twenty miles."

After those words, the invisible force restraining Elsa started to recede. She wasn't sure what had she done, but it was going away. She didn't feel as heavy anymore.

Actually, she didn't feel heavy at all.

Wait one second...

Something was terribly wrong.

All of a sudden, her body took off the ground, weightless. She was suspended in midair!

She waved her legs, trying to drive herself back to the ground, but to no avail. Turning around and over, the floating cow found herself unable to control her direction of movement.

There was no up or down anymore!

After a long while floating aimlessly inside The Lunar Module, Elsa concluded that the first step in regaining control of her predicament was to calm down. The place was full of fragile-looking stuff, and she didn't want to break anything else. Sadly, a couple of foldable pieces of plastic with many buttons had already suffered the consequences of a drifting cow. Elsa could only hope the astronauts at NASA wouldn't get mad at her for that; she really wanted to become one in the future.

During the next three hours or so, a series of thuds, clanks, hisses, and all other sorts of noises stormed from outside. They eventually became white noise to Elsa, who was too busy learning to control her hovering body, and, in all honesty, she was doing a pretty fair job at it. At least she wasn't breaking things anymore. For her, the outside world had gone from new and exciting to weird and just plain confusing. Not even her dreams got this wild. Well, apparently that was something she would have to learn to live with if she planned to become an astronaut someday.

A deafening bang echoed, and the cylinder surrounding The Lunar Module was gone. Through the windows, and through her awed eyes, Elsa watched The Lunar Module sweeping through an infinitely vast field of... darkness. Pitch darkness filled with small, glittering lights of all imaginable colors.

It was as if she was sailing through the night sky.

Was she...?

Was she actually sailing through the night sky?

That was a very good sign! The Moon lived in the sky, and it only showed up at night. This time over, Elsa was sure she was on her way to The Moon.

Still, after such a long journey full of obstacles, she couldn't help but feel something terrible could happen anytime. The outside world was a place subject to luck and chance, and luck had laughed at her many times already since she had left The Farm.

Elsa thought of her friends, the ones who hadn't believed in her, the ones who weren't as brave and determined as her. All things considered, she was happy they hadn't followed after her; they sure wouldn't have fit in The Lunar Module! Elsa couldn't wait to get back and tell them all about her adventures. Maybe she would even consider writing a book and sharing her stories with the humans—they loved those stacks of paper filled with funny symbols. How hard could it be to write one? She would have to learn how to use the symbols of the humans first, though.

Even though Elsa's luck had turned against her many times, what she saw through the windows of The Lunar Module shifted her expression to one of awe. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

There it was, massive, shiny, and magnificent: The Moon.

Elsa had never seen it this big before.

She was getting closer to it! And closer with each passing minute! By the looks of it, she would be there soon.

As The Lunar Module continued its journey across the dark sea of lights, Elsa's eyes remained fixed on the surface of The Moon, lost in its vastness. The Moon was thousands of times as big as it looked from The City. Did other humans or animals live there? Elsa wasn't sure. There were no trees, no water, no... color.

It was all grey.

Lots and lots of empty space.

Still, the lack of variety and content didn't disappoint Elsa. She was going to The Moon! And also, she didn't have a way to get back, anyway.

Yet another hissing noise echoed inside The Lunar Module, louder this time. This one wasn't muffled. It wasn't coming from outside. It came from a door close to her.

Somebody was opening it from the other side!

Elsa panicked immediately, waving her legs out of control again.

She was going to get caught. And this time, there was no place to hide.

The door opened.

And there he was, in the next room equally as limited in space: the Farmer's son. Next to him was another human Elsa couldn't recognize. They wore funny-looking clothes, white and sturdy. NASA's logo was on their shoulders like the onesie-wearing humans.

Were those astronaut clothes?

But most importantly, was the Farmer's son an astronaut?

They both stared at her with wide eyes and slack jaws, unable to believe their eyes. The Farmer's son sought for words, but his face revealed that there were no words to describe the scene.

"E—Elsa?" he mumbled. "What... ?"

Elsa remained still, frozen—or at least, as still as a floating cow could stay. But then she lost balance and tumbled about. At this, The Farmer's son panicked and floated toward her, trying to get ahold of her before she broke anything. It was too late for that, though.

"Jesus, Mark! Give me a hand here!" the Farmer's son yelled to his astronaut companion, who remained petrified in his seat, watching the ridiculous scene.

"W—what is that thing doing here?"

"I don't know! Just—" the Farmer's son grunted, tumbling along with Elsa, while they both spiraled in midair.

The other astronaut tried getting off his seat and help. But as Elsa waved her legs, trying to regain control, she unintentionally kicked the Farmer's son and threw him away. He crashed into his companion, and both of them grunted in pain, mumbling things Elsa couldn't understand.

They tried to get back to her, but as Elsa continued in her panic, she kicked the metallic door they had just opened, hitting both astronauts. Both floated away, seemingly asleep, and crashed back into their seats.

What had happened to them?

Elsa was utterly confused.

Were they okay? Were they tired?

Something told her that she would need their help to get back.

❖

Author's Note

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