Their mouths hung open as each hesitantly turned to face the other. It was like there was a mirror hung between them, and when their eyes met, the same rapturous expression spread across each of their faces.

"Adeela, this is it!" There was an excited twinkle in Eleutheros' blue eyes that gave them the appearance of containing an entire galaxy. "I knew it was out here - we always believed they were up to something - who ever thought it would be like this? Can you believe it?" He could hardly get the words out; myriad thoughts were racing through his head. At long last, they had found the evidence they were looking for, the explanation to all their fears. Two independent explorers, young and determined to effect change, had discovered the greatest secret in history.

Eleutheros and Adeela had been traveling for three suspenseful months when they passed Pluto, the last familiar landmark on their journey. Anything outside the solar system, though it was vaguely documented and diagrammed on astrological charts and in textbooks, was unknown to human eyes. Yet here they were, hovering two miles above what looked to be a dreary city - 3,640,000,000 miles away from the Earth.

Adeela had turned back to look out through the wide curved windows of the spacecraft. Through the blue-tinted glass, it was possible to see 180 degrees left and right, and almost the same amount vertically. Although the sky held a dramatic fireworks display of bright colored mists and glowing stars, her attention was focused on the dismal scene below. A vast array of about six hundred angular concrete buildings covered the dusty purple surface of a small asteroid. Spaced at regular intervals were giant olive green scaffolds that were supporting the construction of what looked to be immense silver missiles. Although the ground was a great distance away, Adeela could see that the colorful banners waving from the tops of several of the larger buildings displayed the flag of her own country on Earth.

"And no one ever believed us…" she sighed. "Except Verity, of course! We need to radio her. She needs to know -"

"Everyone needs to know!" Eleutheros corrected her in a stern voice. He pushed her into a black aluminum chair, stared into her hazel eyes, and said gently, "Do you remember that Antitrust movie, Adeela? 'Human knowledge belongs to the world!' That's why we're here, isn't it? When everyone else thought the government was actually working for the people, the three of us took it upon ourselves to show the sad reality to the world. You spent five whole years designing this spaceship with Verity, working against the fact that those pigs down there were hiding the technology from everyone. If we tell her now, her newspaper will be able to publish our findings. You know none of the other media will listen to us - they're all in league with the government. This is our only chance. Don't you want to see the fruit of your labors?"

"Of course I do!" she cried out defensively, jumping up from the seat.

"I just want to be cautious."

"Adeela! Those are federal installations, built by the trusted leaders we voted into office, in a part of the universe that, according to our government-funded scientists, hasn't been explored yet. Anyway, this might not be the only asteroid they've chosen to use for their operations; there could be even more to this than we see."

"Even if it's just this asteroid, it's bad enough. Look, you can see the weapons they're building. I dread to think what plans are behind those. And those telescopes aren't pointing out into space," Adeela said, referring to the massive white dome-shaped observatories visible on top of some of the buildings; "They're directed back at the Earth. They're watching everyone. Most likely, they even already know we're here."

"So we need to tell Verity right now, so she can spread the news to everyone," decided Eleutheros, pushing past Adeela in the narrow cabin and picking up the radio.

"No!" Adeela grabbed his arm and pushed the radio back down to the table. "We can't do it so close to the asteroid! Their radio monitors will pick up everything we say. If they find out what we're doing, that'll be the end of us!"

"What, you think their radios are going to stop working if we go a few miles away? How do you think they communicate with people on Earth? You said yourself, they probably already know we're here, so in any case they'll find us and stop us from doing anything to undermine them," Eleutheros explained, his voice trembling on the last sentence.

In fact, the government had been watching the two explorers for days. Although nothing was known of Adeela and Eleutheros' intentions, they had been regarded as dangerous spies who were about to find out highly classified government secrets. This was a serious affair, and behind steel doors militaristic officials swore that the culprits would not escape. Two miles below the spaceship, a roomful of young men were wearing thick headphones and tuning into various amplitudes and frequencies on the radio. Nothing Eleutheros or Adeela said would get past them.

Placing a hand on Adeela's arm, Eleutheros told her quietly, "In a few hours, we'll be shot down. We have to tell Verity now. We have to let the truth be told."

"Our only crime was curiosity…" Helplessness surged over Adeela. "I guess we have no choice," she resigned.

Less than half an hour after Verity received the revealing transmission, news reports began pouring out of all the corporate media. Inflammatory headlines such as 'Attack from moon thwarted' and 'Secret missiles on Mars threaten Earth' adorned the front pages of conservative newspapers like Metro Journal and News Today. Adeela and Eleutheros had warned Verity that she would be unlikely to hear from them again, and she could only assume that they would soon be captured. In their transmission, the two explorers had given a complete description of their findings, and now Verity had the information she needed to break through the corruption in the world that surrounded her.

Alone in her tiny downtown apartment, Verity looked down over the white rails of her balcony at the grimy pawnbroker's shop and the brown and white graffiti that stained its crumbling brick walls. Lurid neon signs flickered in the windows of cheap liquor and tobacco stores further down the narrow street. An ominous black helicopter loomed overhead, silhouetted against the monochrome gray sky. The deep rumble of its engine seemed to come from every direction. Verity slid the glass doors closed and turned the key in the lock, checking the handle as if concerned that a potential intruder might bother to scale the wall to her fifth-story room. She paused, and then as an afterthought, she moved to the painted wooden front door and fastened the dead bolts. Leaning back against the wall, she hid her face in her cool hands and sank to the floor. An unusually chirpy voice reported from the television:

"Two independent scientists were apprehended by secret agents this morning at their private astrological research center. The suspects, who refer to themselves simply as Adeela and Eleutheros, are believed to be the masterminds behind the nuclear missiles found on the moon and Mars. Evidence shows that there may be as many as three hundred people involved in the entire diabolical scheme. Officials fear that while they managed to intercept the first intended attack, others may be in the works. A nuclear missile launched from the moon could be devastating to entire countries, but authorities say that the arrested suspects are likely to surrender their plans. A government spokesperson said this morning…"

The voice changed to that of a man's: "We are shocked at this attempt to undermine democracy, and saddened that anyone would betray the peace-loving people of this great nation. The cowardly perpetrators, Adeela and Eleutheros, will be brought to justice, as will each and every one of their accomplices…"

A wave of nausea washed over Verity. Suddenly she understood why this article was so important, so urgent. While the government had the power to define truth, no human being was safe. Wiping the hot tears from her face, she crossed the room to her computer and began to type.

This is the truth, as I know it, and as many others know it. There are secrets being kept and lies being told. The conspiracy must be exposed - for every journalist that has fought for a voice and been discarded by her employer - for every mother who has lost a child to cancer, believing scientists had no money to develop a cure - for every man and every woman that have been stolen from their friends and families - for everyone who has been criticized for opposing injustice, at the hands of oppressive leaders who are desperate to retain their power. This is my story, and I present it to the world…

Verity was gone early the next morning. The darkened room was silent except for the sound of broken glass and ceramics crunching under the feet of her distressed family and neighbors. The rose-pink curtains were slashed, and a photograph of Verity, Adeela, and Eleutheros had been torn out of its frame. Among the shattered remains of lamps and furniture on the carpet, her computer lay in pieces, its internal hardware torn out and mangled. Verity's article was never published; it never left the room. Though some strongly suspected her sudden disappearance to be a murder, the issue never made the news and was hastily dismissed by the police.

"They call this a suicide?" her mother asked, weeping. "I know ma girl an' I know she wouldn't do a thing like this. Look at this place! Somebody took ma baby away from me. What kind of a police are they if they don't find them guys who did this?" Her husband held her while Verity's neighbors tried to sort through the piles of abandoned belongings. The glass in the doors to the balcony had all been smashed. The room was chilly, but on the horizon a deep red sliver of the rising sun was visible over the factory smokestacks.

A young man was sifting through the rubble of fragmented microchips and colored wires in the center of the room when a piece of white paper caught his eye. A ray of orange light streaked across the typed words 'conspiracy' and 'secret,' but what seemed most surprising to the man was the fact that a sheet of letter paper could survive such a violent attack without a single crease or tear. Curious, he picked it up and found that the article had a short hand-written message attached. Two sentences were scrawled on a small crumpled piece of notebook paper that was torn along the edges and stapled to the top left corner of the article. Verity had written upon it, The truth is out there. We've found the evidence, and now it's up to you to change the world.