Luna Chen's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Luna Chen wanted to be the most famous model online, and she had picked her weapon: hairy armpits. She stood in a marble ballroom inside a rich man's mansion, arms raised, filming herself for a live stream. The mansion belonged to a collector who rented rooms to anyone with a camera. Luna's teal and pink hair caught the chandelier light. Her ankle bracelets clinked as she posed. The viewer count climbed past ten thousand. "Nobody's done this," she said to the camera. "That's why it works." She flexed one arm and grinned. The comments scrolled fast. Half loved it. Half hated it. Both counted the same to Luna. Becca walked in halfway through, barefoot, black nails, unimpressed. Luna knew her by reputation: the bikini model chasing the Void Sole cover, the foot magazine that collectors passed hand to hand across the Outer Rings. Becca was famous the slow way. Luna wanted famous now. "You're loud," Becca said. She named it flat, then moved. "That crowd isn't fame. It's a mob. They'll drop you by morning." "Ten thousand people," Luna said. "Watching me." "Watching you like a fire." Becca crossed her arms. "I built mine on one shot. One editor. It lasts because it's small." Luna kept filming. She wanted the argument on camera. But then a message flashed across her screen, pinned above the chaos. It came from a channel she had chased for weeks. The corporation that ran the decommissioned orbital station. The one holding a file with her mother's name. The message was short. Her stream had gone viral. Her face was everywhere. And now the corporation knew exactly who was trying to reach their station before the data wipe. Luna's stomach dropped. She lowered her arms. The viewer count kept climbing, but she stopped watching it. "What," Becca said. She read Luna's face and slowed down. "That's not a hater. That's worse." "I got famous," Luna said. Her voice came out thin. "They found me." She had spent months staying invisible. Four backup plans she never read, all built on nobody knowing her name. Now half the network knew her face and the exact station she wanted to board. The wipe was days away. She had a ship to find and no cover left. Becca picked up her own bag. "I know a pilot," she said. "Owns her ship. Fighting a debt notice, needs a job. Mikaela." She wrote a contact code on Luna's arm with a marker. "You wanted eyes. You got them. Now everyone's watching you run." Luna ended the stream. Ten thousand people vanished at once. The ballroom went quiet. Her name was out there, spreading, unstoppable. She had gotten exactly what she asked for. Now she had to reach that station before the corporation reached her first.