Episode 6
A Puzzle To Solve
Gramps put the finishing touches on the new elevator access to the habitat under the moonbase. It was his first project since arriving there and he was pretty happy with the result.
497 with a half crew lifted off again for another cargo run to Åstvej Station. Once more, 6980 flew as escort.
Meanwhile, out at the mining site, the lab techs were putting the final touches on the new pandemonium processing lab.
Vielen Dank an Raumfahrer für das Labordesign!
The construction crew were very proud of their work and were quite excited to see it completed.
Mission Control told Green Guy they had just got confirmation a new ship was coming out to the moonbase with 928, 924, and the fighters. They just didn’t have the equipment of the capacity to keep track of all the ships and vehicles constantly coming and going from the moonbase. Unless they got some help, there was going to be an accident.
Green Guy talked to Space Sue to see if there was any funding available to expand Mission Control.
She said “There isn’t anything available in the regular accounts, but there is still that emergency funding Dr Oz talked about when he was here.”
“Who???”
“Dr Oz. The guy in the Time Lord get up.”
“Oh right! That blowhard.”
“Can you tap into that account so we can put an extension onto Mission Control? They really need some help.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Next Green Guy went to the Command Base to send a message to Åstvej Station.
He put in a request for some more Mission Control people who could help out with the rapid growth the moonbase was experiencing.
929 landed for some long overdue rest and maintenance. The ship had been in orbit for a very long time, and Benny, Jenny, and Kenny were due for some time off.
Purplespacegirl and Flight Coordinator were there to welcome them back, along with Cosmobot of course.
Maintenance Coordinator also came by. 929 had been in orbit for quite some time, and the Maintenance team knew they had a lot of work to do on her.
After handing over the ship to the maintainers, Benny, Kenny, and Jenny headed to the habitat for some welcome rest. They were pretty happy about using the new elevator.
Green Guy went over to the far end of the moonbase to see what dozer guy was up to. If new ships were coming out to the moonbase, they would need landing pads and roads to service them.
Dozer Guy got some timely help from the shovel buggy and together they were able to complete a section of road beside the canteen.
Green Guy mentioned a new ship was on the way. Dozer Guy promised they would do their best to get things ready for the additional ship.
Nearby, Gramps was helping 6890 to build a passenger car to dock into his spacecraft. This would allow him to shuttle passengers between the mining site and the moonbase when he was between research missions. They were almost done.
Elsewhere, the Surface Hopper was fully reassembled and making his way to the mining site.
At the same time, the Mobile Heavy Rocket crew came back onto the moonbase to meet with the Satellite guys.
They told them that they were able to see the Neptune 1 satellite on their system and that it seemed intact. But nobody knew why it had suddenly shut down the way it did. It was a puzzle they were all eager to solve.
Shortly after the meeting, the Satellite guys found that there had been another strange energy burst near Neptune, but the Neptune 2 satellite they had just launched was now suddenly not working either!
They were pretty upset about that. Something was going wrong with all their satellites.
Meanwhile out in space, in distant orbit around Neptune...
Episode 7
Respectfully Silent
The techs continued their maintenance work on 929. They worked as quickly as they could, trying to get as much finished as possible before the resupply mission returned from Åstvej Station.
The service bots from 929 were also helping.
Gramps and the pilot for 6890 were finished with the passenger car they were building. The Maintenance Coordinator said it passed inspection and was ready to go.
Now 6980 would be able to carry passengers. The pilot and Gramps were both pretty happy about that.
Kenny and Jenny were enjoying Chef's famous Spaceberry milkshakes in the canteen.
With so many ships headed to the moonbase it was going to get really crowded. It would get even worse when 497 and 6980 came back. Green Guy decided to go see how Dozer Guy and the road work was coming.
Dozer Guy had another couple of vehicles helping him and they were making progress. Green Guy urged them to keep working as fast as they could.
With all the other ships away on missions, 920 did the surveillance patrols over the moonbase.
Now that the pandemonium lab was done, Exo Guy, Survey Guy and the mobile crane were finally able to start work on the expansion for Mission Control. The Mission Control guys were pretty happy about that.
928, 924, 917, and 918 all returned from Åstvej Station. Everyone was very happy to see their friends return from the long journey, safe and sound.
They had been away for a long time, and it was good to be back.
The Galaxy Explorer and 924 both had lots of cargo to unload.
There was a new ship for the moonbase, the heavy transport ship LL 6985. Everyone was pretty excited about that.
It was also full of cargo to help build up the moonbase.
And there were two new members for the moonbase mining crew! The crew for the new Pandemonium Search Vehicle had arrived, and Green Guy and Purplespacegirl were there to welcome them. Cosmobot was also there to offer celebratory beverages.
They were eager to get their vehicle assembled and head out to the mine site.
Amidst all the exciting things going on at the moonbase, no one noticed a sudden burst of energy in Neptune's magnetic field.
"Jump is complete, Lord Procurator. We are in orbit around the eighth planet."
"Thank you, Executor" said the Alpha Draconis. "What are our remaining levels of beef chow mein?"
"We have 36% percent remaining my lord, only enough for a return jump."
"The science team had better be right that these planets contain sufficient levels of carbon and hydrogen," said the Alpha Draconis. "Our future existence depends on it."
"The research vessels confirm it. Carbon and hydrogen are abundant in the form of methane. There are also smaller but still sufficient amounts of nitrogen and oxygen in the upper atmosphere. We will be able to use these elements to form the missing organic compounds needed to synthesize more beef chow mein."
"The third planet of this system has much larger amounts of all these elements, does it not? Could we not manufacture virtually infinite amounts of beef chow mein there?"
"No, Lord Procurator. The magnetosphere of the third planet does not allow us to jump to or from there. We can only jump to the seventh and eighth planets in this system. The travel distances from them to the inner planets are too great."
"That is.... unfortunate. The sixth planet, the one with the prominent rings, what do we know about the life forms on the fifth moon?"
"The android scout reports that like us, they are lego based lifeforms and have comparable technology. And like us, they can bend space for faster than light travel, but they do not use our jump methods."
"The android further reports that they are weak and timid, and would be no match for us in a conflict."
"Those fools from the First Directorate never should have sent a robot to scout that moon!"
"Androids are too aggressive. They think everything is a threat. Instead of just watching and observing, they start picking fights."
The Executor was not accustomed to hearing an Alpha Draconis speak with such candor. Not knowing who else could be party to this conversation, he felt it best to remain respectfully silent.
To Be Continued...
Episode 8
Space Babies
At the mine site, the crew started their day with their usual safety meeting. The Supply Base chief introduced the crew of the Pandemonium Search Vehicle to the rest of the mining crew.
With the maintenance on 929 complete, Benny, Kenny, and Jenny got one last briefing from the Flight Coordinator before resuming their overwatch mission in orbit.
Åstvej Station contacted the moonbase to ask for an emergency shipment of Fantastium, so 6929 quickly loaded up and took off. The crew of 920 volunteered to be their escort.
And the Space Dart took over surveillance flights over the moon base.
The construction group made more progress, building additional roads and two new landing pads.
As soon as it was ready, 6985 moved over to their new landing pad. From there, the Loadmaster and Crew Chief decided to hop onto their rover vehicle and explore their new home.
With 929 finished, the techs got right to work on 918, 917, and 924.
With the new parts 6985 brought, the Satellite team was able to get started on building a new rocket and satellite.
And progress continued on the Mission Control expansion.
Green Guy asked Maintenance Coordinator about his plans for servicing 497 and 6980 when they returned.
He looked over and said, "hey, is that a space baby??? What the heck is a baby doing here?"
Purplespacegirl immediately ran over and scooped the space baby up. "Don't worry about it," she said. "This little one must have gotten into the elevator from the habitat down below."
"We can't have space babies running around up here!" said Green Guy. "This is a working moonbase, not a playground!"
"What if I built a space play pen for the space babies?" said Gramps. "Little ones need to get outside every once in a while. It's good for them."
"That's a great idea!" said Purplespacegirl.
And the two of them went off to plan it, leaving Green Guy wondering what the heck just happened.
Meanwhile, on the far side of Neptune's moon, Triton...
Two Zotaxian ships met for a secret meeting.
The Procurator began. "Science Executor, from your studies of this alien device, have they detected our presence?"
"Almost certainly, Lord Procurator. It is an orbital surveillance device, with sensors monitoring multiple bands of light energy, as well as the long wave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum."
The Science Executor continued. "This is the third such device they have launched, after we neutralized the first two. The fact that they launched a third device instead of sending armed spaceships suggests that they are still undecided as to what we are, or what to do about us."
"Good," replied the Procurator. "I suggest you keep it that way."
"Advise all crews and robots that I will impose severe consequences on anyone who confronts the life forms. Have the robot scout on the fifth moon of the ringed planet prepare for extraction. There is no further requirement to keep it there."
"In the meantime, continue to collect as much of the required elements as possible for synthesizing the organic compounds. Without a reliable supply of beef chow mein, hyper space jump travel will be impossible."
To Be Continued...
Episode 9
A Very Pleasant Day
It was a very pleasant day on the Moonbase. The construction group added some more roadway and another landing pad.
The Loadmaster and Crew Chief from 6985 paused their tour of the moonbase for a visit with Space Sue.
And the annex to Mission Control was almost finished! All they had to do was connect the new antenna array.
The annex was given hard point connections to Mission Control and the Satellite launching station. Now the Satellite crew would be able to use Mission Control's dish to use the Spyglass software.
Speaking of the Satellite crew, they were now finished the rocket and were assembling the new satellite.
Just a little ways over, Purplespacegirl and Gramps were hatching a plan to build something.
Right on schedule, 497 returned to the moonbase with some new staff!
The two new Space Traffic Controllers arrived just in time for the Mission Control annex to be completed.
The new Lab Supervisor for the pandemonium processing lab was also on board, but she was still sleeping and no one wanted to wake her up.
A new pilot from Åstvej also arrived. He said he needed to talk to Green Guy and Purplespacegirl right away.
6980 also returned to the moonbase as 497's escort. They were happy to be back.
Unfortunately, 920 also had to return. They experienced engine trouble on the way to Åstvej Station and had to turn back, leaving 6929 to continue alone. That was unlucky, but everyone was still glad to see that 920 made it back safely.
Meanwhile, out at the mining site, the Pandemonium Detection Vehicle was almost finished.
The Mineral Detector driver was very interested. He wanted to see the newest technology.
Since Exo Guy was busy doing construction, Drillbot went to do some mining work again with his old friends in the Rover. They were pretty happy about that.
And the Quartermaster got a tour of the new processing laboratory. Here is where the pandemonium ore is delivered and the mineral structure examined. Inside the unit cell of pandemonium are Four Stille molecules. This is what allows all lego bricks to do what they do. The first unit of the lab makes sure the Four Stille molecules are intact.
The separator unit of the lab extracts and gasifies the Four Stille, and feeds it into the pipeline that runs all the way to the moonbase.
The third unit of the lab is Quality Control. This section monitors the purity of the refined Four Stille.
The fourth and final unit of the lab is the control station. This is where the new Lab Supervisor will work. Mission Control said that she would be arriving at the moonbase when 497 returns.
The Quartermaster was very impressed!
And the Mobile Rocket Team headed back to the moonbase as well. They also needed to build a new rocket and satellite.
Finally, the construction crew stopped for coffee break. Cosmobot was there to assist. It was indeed a very pleasant day.