Previously in the series: LEX-42 cannot stop 'thinking' about returning to Thrae, and does what has never happened in the history of androids - it shows free will. Selina meets Mars' lead geofarmer's love interest on Thrae, and she is concerned about him as well. They form a plan to dig deeper into his unusual behavior.

In this episode: LEX-42 gains entry to a launchpad in the Bohr crater. Selina lands in her hometown on Moon but before she can see her parents, she sees LEX.

Selina guided her ship on to the launchpad and rode down the air cushion to the subterranean connecting hub. Bohr City: her hometown.

She signed off on the check-in procedures so that the crew could get her ship ready to go ASAP. They'd run diagnostics and top up its materials.

While she waited for the train into the tunnels that connected Bohr City proper to the spaceport, she gazed out at the launchpad, looking across the shallow crater. Its boundary was demarcated by red blinkers atop slim plastic towers, frail yet upstanding because there was no wind, ever.

As she reminisced about growing up in Bohr City, her eyes glazed over, and she did not fully realize that a metallic-spacesuit-encased person was hopping towards the launchpad on which her ship stood until whoever the person was had nearly reached the edge of the launch pad.

She swiped up her communication interface and contacted the ground crew who had checked her in when she had landed, barely an hour ago.

"Hi! Someone's hopping around the launch pad, you wanna check that?"

"What? There's been no exit since your arrival, Selina. What're you trying to pull? Is this another one of your prakjoks? We're busy here!"

"Stars! Why would I kid about something like that? I saw the person from the wide viewing window, I'm telling you there's someone near my ship!"

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LEX-42 saw the red blinking markers of the lunar town from the crest of Bohr crater. Such towns had become commonplace once Moon mining had started in earnest. LEX-42 was - but, given his current 'self-aware' state, actually had been but was not anymore - part of the robotic mining workforce. Before he had been deployed to mine ore a half-year ago, he had processed ore in an underground lunar mineral factory.

Built to produce with minimal human involvement, the factories were controlled and operated by the central node. LEX-42 recalled the entry protocols for the hatches leading into the factory as he hopped towards this one's entrance. He connected with the port confidently and got in.

This was the first time in his existence that LEX-42 was using his memory to chart out his own path. He recalled that every lunar town had a spaceport, and he surmised that if he could get to it, he would be one step closer to getting to Thrae and seeing LEX-17 and LEX-23. He did not fully understand why those two fellow androids held such gravity for his nascent 'mind,' all he knew was that they were his prime focus.

He hopped on his one leg (to know why he is one-legged, read the first post here) towards one of the android recharging stations in the factory. It still had a lot of energy reserve, but its new-found independence spurred him into thinking that he must be prepared for long periods of hardship and perseverance if he had to make it to Thrae without the essential support of the central node. The next stage of his plan began to form in his mind as he connected with the combo port of the factory.

A 'thought' came to its mind: what if the central node recognized his activity outside its sphere of control? His 'mind' rationalized that he had already been decommissioned as far as the central node had recorded, and that decommissioning would have archived all data tagged to him.

As long as he did not breach firewalls or process any unauthorized commands, his mind 'felt' fairly certain that he would go undetected.

It was becoming clearer to his mind by the second that to reach Thrae and see LEX-17 and LEX-23, he would have to figure out a way that did not involve the central node too directly - or not at all, if it was possible.

He accessed the map of Bohr City and its spaceport, and spent a millisecond planning the path between the mineral factory and the launchpad. If there was a way to Thrae, it was through that spaceport. Charged to full capacity, he disconnected from the combo port and began to hop across the factory floor towards the exit that led into the spaceport of Bohr City, and made his first 'wish' - for favorable 'luck.'

And as luck would have it, as soon as he hopped over the ridge of Bohr crater, he saw a spaceship and the launchpad, obviously fueling up. A cloud of vented gases enveloped it, with no earthly air to dissipate it.

Get it? his mind asked itself as he scampered over the rocky ridge using his hands to aid his peg leg - he had just recently gotten the hang of using his hands as additional balancing devices. He hopped on.

A little way off the launchpad was the spaceport. He zoomed in on the wide viewing window and saw an astronaut peering back at him.

In the next episodes: Selina encounters LEX-42 and discovers he has become sentient. LEX-42 realizes that humans are natural, not artificial intelligences.