Episode 26
Finding Drillbot
The techs thought maybe the problem with 928’s engine was a microscopic crack in the alignment coils, so they asked the NDT guy to come over and do a particle wave scan.
Meanwhile, Exo guy headed out to the mining site to ask if anyone had seen Drillbot. He stopped at the supply base to ask. They told him they heard of a drilling robot who was out at one of the sites, but they didn’t know which one.
Exo guy went to the fantastium site, but the guys there hadn’t seen Drillbot. They did say that they heard of something like Drillbot out at the pandemonium exploration site, but that was quite a distance away.
Exo guy figured he may as well get going. It takes a long time to walk an exo suit such long distances, but he had fully charged batteries and was determined to find Drillbot.
Off in the distance, he saw a moon rover coming. He thought “maybe I’ll ask these people if they have been to the pandemonium site, and maybe they’ve seen drillbot.”
Exo guy asked the other legonaut if she had been to the pandemonium site. But as she was about to answer, Drillbot peeked around the corner of the rover...
It was Exo guy! Drillbot began to beep and jump and blink his lights so Exo guy would notice him. Exo guy saw it was finally his friend, Drillbot! He ran over to greet him.
Drillbot jumped off the rover platform and gave Exo guy a big mechanical hug.
Exo guy explained to the rover crew that he and Drillbot had come to the moonbase together, but somehow in all the excitement they got separated, and they’ve been looking for each other ever since.
The rover crew were glad that Drillbot had finally found his friend and now understood why he had seemed so sad of late. They told Exo guy that Drillbot was a great worker and to be sure to come visit them from time to time at the mining section.
And with that, the rover crew headed back to their work at the pandemonium site.
Then Exo guy and Drillbot began the long journey back to the moon base.
Episode 27
Exposed Pandemonium
Flight Co-ordinator went to brief the pilot of 6929 for his next mission out to the mining section. They have another load of amazium to bring back. Green Guy is listening in because he likes to think that he understands what the pilot guys are talking about.
The NDT guy couldn’t find anything wrong during his ultra-sonic scan, so now the techs have no idea what is wrong with the engine. They’re all looking at each other and saying “whuddahell???”
On their way back, Exo guy and Drillbot met the crews of 894 and 889. Exo guy asked them what they were doing. They replied that Green Guy asked them to see if they could receive those strange signals again. They came way out here because there is no electronic interference. They did get a strange signal briefly, but it stopped. They were on their way back to the moonbase to make a report, but decided to stop and try to get the signals just one last time.
Purplespacegirl was with the crew of 6980, getting a tour of the orbital command centre. The crew was excited to show some of the capabilities of their ship.
They feel they sometimes get overlooked by the grey and blue ships sometimes, and were excited to point out some of their unique capabilities to a visitor.
Furthest out on the mining section, out at the pandemonium site, the digging units and the rover had finally exposed the raw pandemonium crystals. Only the legonauts from the rover with the extra protective spacesuits were willing to get right up close to the crystals. Pandemonium is pretty crazy stuff.
And on the way back to the moonbase, Drillbot began to get tired, so Exo guy picked him up to carry him and let him rest for a little while.
Episode 28
The Canteen
Purplespacegirl looked for Green Guy all over the base, but couldn’t find him. She was going to call him on the radio, but she was out of time. She had to make some presentations to some staff members and didn’t want to be late.
The two new techs finished their orientation and wanted to get straight to work. Unfortunately, the moonbase didn’t have any tools for them, so they borrowed some from the service truck and the Maintenance Co-ordinator and headed over to 928 to get started.
The original techs were on 497, doing the post-flight maintenance there.
Meanwhile, Green Guy saw Exo Guy and Survey Guy putting up a new building with Drillbot.
What are you guys doing???"
"We're putting up the new canteen!" said Exo guy.
"Canteen??? Who said to do that??"
"Space Sue did. It’s going to be wonderful!"
Green Guy was upset. Space Sue had never even mentioned a space canteen to him, let alone direct guys to start building one. He was going to go talk with her right now. Cosmobot tried to cheer him up with some flavoured coffees, but to no avail.
While this was happening, Purplespacegirl was presenting a visored helmet to Rocket Tech. Since he was doing all the technical work with computers and satellite systems on the moon base, she thought it only proper that he be recognised as a tech by having a helmet visor. He was very pleased.
And the Space Dart pilot took over the overwatch flights on the base, using his spinny thing to protect the base from fazoo weapons, while the scout pilots got some much needed rest and maintenance.
Green Guy walked into Space Sue’s office.
"Hey, what’s up with this canteen business?"
* waves hand *
"This is not the canteen you’re looking for."
"This is not the canteen I'm looking for."
"Wait a minute!"
"First, STOP using that jedi mind trick thing. Second, why are you telling the guys to build a canteen???"
"SLUUUUUUUURP"
* drinks coffee REAL slow to buy time *
"Don’t worry about the cost. We can justify the expense and there is a budget for infrastructure."
"You’re the one who told me we’ve got not money! And it’s not just the cost, it’s the space. We don’t have the room for it. Things were already crowded around here as it is, let alone with a new building popping up. And we don’t need a canteen."
"Well actually, we do. The guys need a place to go on their breaks for a snack without having to go all the way underground to the habitat. They only have one elevator access and it gets too crowded. It’s become a morale issue. As for the space, Survey Guy has been taking all the measurements. Where they are is absolutely the best place for it."
"I don’t like it when you do things like this. It makes my job really difficult."
"I’m sorry. I promise I won’t do it again. We just really, truly needed this."
"Wait a second, is that a dog?"
"Where did you get a dog?"
"That’s Peanut. She’s a good girl."
"Long story. In the meantime, you and Purplespacegirl need to figure out what our future priorities should be. If we ask for new funding, what specifically should we ask for? Do we need to expand Mission Control? Do we need to increase our maintenance capacity? Do we need to build a lab for pandemonium processing? Do we need additional vehicles for the mining section? All these things have to be decided.
Episode 29
Pandemonium Problems
Rocket Tech put new nozzles onto the refueller. It won’t solve the problems in switching over to the new pandemonium / fantastium fuels, but it will work for now.
The techs can’t decide what they are going to do about the outboard engine on 928, and frankly, they are getting a little crabby.
While they were doing that, the Maintenance Coordinator and the Avionics Tech were on 924, double checking the installation of the new flight systems by the crew. 924 can’t go anywhere until Tech Services signs off on it.
And as that was going on, Purplespacegirl took a break for an English muffin and a mug of tea with Cosmobot.
The crew of 924 were thrilled to learn that they installed all their new computer hardware properly and that maintenance had signed off on it. They were now cleared for flight again.
On the other hand, the techs couldn’t for the life of them find out what caused the failure with the engine in 928, so they just put it all back together and moved on to other work. They were just too far behind schedule.
The crew wasn’t at all happy about it, and they gave Green Guy an earful.
All the satellites are still working fine, so there is no need to launch any rockets. The rocket guys now have nothing to do. They try to keep busy and make sure everything is ready for a launch if someone asks, but it is not easy on them.
Mission Control just go word that 497 is headed back from Åstvej Station, but they have new passengers on board! They wanted to tell Purplespacegirl all about it. She still hasn’t had a chance to finish that English muffin.
6929 headed out to the supply base to pick up another load of processed fantastium. Escorting him was 917. The “no fly alone” policy meant that all transport and administrative flights had to be accompanied by at least one fighter. The Flight Coordinator insisted on fighter escort for everything. Many of the legonauts were beginning to question if this policy was worth the wear and tear on the fighters, the pilots, and the maintenance techs. Nowadays they always have one of 917, 918, and 920 on standby, in addition to the scout ships. There is also 929 hovering in orbit. That’s plenty of firepower if something bad were to happen.
Speaking of 924, the crew heard that they had extracted the first samples of pandemonium from the mine site. They figured they would probably get the nod to take a sample back to Åstvej Station for testing, so they started doing their pre-launch checks to make sure everything would be ready to go.
Meanwhile at the mine site, the extraction crews were unsure of how to get out the pandemonium. No one could really get close to it without adequate protection. After all, pandemonium is pretty crazy stuff. After some discussion, they decided the mobile lab units had enough shielding to put the samples on the cargo deck of the rover. The rover was adequately shielded to carry the pandemonium with no danger.
And since his unit couldn’t extract the pandemonium, the open shovel driver went back to the supply base to let them know they would have to make some kind of adaptations to receive the pandemonium samples. They couldn’t handle it in the same way as fantastium or amazium.
To Be Continued...
Episode 30
Meeting at the Supply Base
"Hey Green Guy, 6929 called in to Mission Control. There’s a problem out at the Supply Base and they need you to come out there right away."
"Oh no, what’s wrong?"
"Something to do with the pandemonium. They asked me to take you there right away in my scooter."
"Ok, I guess we better get out there."
"And away we go!!!"
Green Guy met with the legonauts at the Supply Base. They told him how their processing equipment was made for amazium and fantastium. It just wasn’t made for pandemonium.
"So what is this pandemonium stuff anyways? Why is it so difficult to deal with?"
"For starters, it can be really loud. Pandemonium can come with a lot of noise. But that’s not important. The main thing is inside each molecule of pandemonium there are four stellning particles. It’s the four stellning that makes everything happen. It’s magic, really."
"Ok, so what do we do?"
"We need a new lab, one that can process the pandemonium into a super-gaseous state. Then we can use it for whatever we need.
"Oh dear, I have no idea how we’re going to do this."
Back at the moon base, Flight Co-ordinator asked Purplespacegirl if she would sign off on the new duty schedule for the pilots. But Purplespacegirl wanted nothing to do with it, saying that was for Green Guy to sign off on. But Flight Co-ordinator said that Green Guy said that she was in charge when he was away.
Purplespacegirl just ran away, leaving Flight Co-ordinator very confused.
Meanwhile, out front of the Command Base, Survey Guy was back at work, taking measurements. Nobody knew what for, but he seemed sincere so they didn’t question it.
894 and 889 continued their trip back to base. They met one of the mining crews and told them how they had managed to record some of those strange signals again, and how they were very excited to tell everyone back at the moon base. The mining crew agreed that it was very interesting and told them they were doing great work. This made 894 and 889 both very happy.
Since they couldn’t process the pandemonium, and they couldn’t just leave it at the Supply Base, the rover crew loaded it up and headed back out onto the moonscape. They would go find a safe place to store the pandemonium until Green Guy could figure out what to do with it.
And Green Guy went on the shuttle back to base, not sure how to solve all of these problems.