Episode 21
Being Watched
6929 landed at the supply base and received the latest cargo of fantastium to take back to the moon base. 917 flew a holding pattern overhead. The pilot said it was to maintain security, but privately the mining crews figured it was because the pilot was nervous about austere site landings.
Green Guy went to Mission Control to see if everything was still good with 497 coming back, but the Mission Control crew took the opportunity to tell him that they’re feeling a little overworked and underappreciated. There are spacecraft constantly coming and going from the moon base, and now they are being asked to track vehicle movements as well. It’s too much and they need some help. Green Guy didn’t really know what to tell them.
Cosmobot got a software upgrade that allows him to make toasted bagels now, so he immediately came out to find Purplespacegirl and see what she thought of the new menu.
Meanwhile, the rover was steadily making its’ way back to the supply base with the first samples of pandemonium. It’s pretty rough terrain out by that crater, so they had to drive carefully.
After switching places with Kenny, Jenny flew the shuttle back down to the moon base where she can finally take a shower and eat a proper meal, one that won’t float away on her if she doesn’t bite it.
894 and 889 carefully made their way out to the lip of the Djuli crater. They hoped they could catch that strange signal again from there. But they didn’t notice they were being watched.
To Be Continued...
Episode 22
Pandemonium Processing
Green Guy: "Hey Space Sue, what’s in our cap-ex budget? We need to build an expansion for Mission Control and maybe something to help with the maintenance. Our techs and Mission Control staff can’t keep up."
"Sorry to break this to you, but this base is broke. We’ve got no money."
"What do you mean, we’re broke? Are we operating beyond designed capacity?"
"I mean, we couldn’t get this base to the next crater if it cost $25 to get it into orbit. That’s what I mean."
"Gee, I didn’t realize things were that bad. What happened?"
"We had to do some upgrades. My office cost more than we estimated, so did the elevator to the habitat underground. And don’t forget 497’s emergency crash landing on Titan. That cost a bundle and was totally not forecasted. We’re still trying to pay that off."
"Hey, is that wine???"
"Don’t judge me, little brother. This is the only way I get through the day around here."
At the supply base, the Rover crew brought in the pandemonium, but the other legonauts couldn’t handle it. The rover crew has extra shielding on their space suits, and they forgot the other lego guys don’t. It was just too much for them.
After giving the other legonauts time to get out of range, the rover crew tried backing in to the supply base to let them process the material. Since the shovel truck or grabber arm couldn’t get close enough to them, they had to try with the pandemonium still on the rover ramp. The processing crew lowered their shields to protect themselves and gave it a try, but they weren't able to process it. It was just too powerful. The supply base could handle amazium and fantastium, but the new pandemonium was a cat of a different breed.
While that was going on, Purplespacegirl met Jenny once she landed the shuttle craft and told her that after she has had some proper food to eat and a good night’s sleep, they would present her with her new blue space suit, just like Kenny’s.
Jenny thought that was great, but after so log in orbit, she was really tired. She didn’t really react, so Purplespacegirl thought maybe she had said something wrong and now Jenny was upset with her.
With another load of concentrated amazium on board, 6929 returned to base with 917 in escort. A very pleasant, if uneventful, flight.
“Hey, are you picking up this signal?”
“Yes, I am! Wow, it’s never been this clear. It must be close!”
“Now it’s gone, like a burst transmission. Maybe we should get back to base right away and tell Green Guy.”
“Let’s wait a bit, and see if we can’t pick it up again. It was so quick, I couldn’t finish analyzing it. Maybe it will come back.”
“Are you sure? Maybe we should head back. We’re out here all alone.”
“We’ll be fine. We’ve come out this far out plenty of times before, and nothing has gone wrong. Besides, if we can get a proper recording and breakdown of the signal, everyone will be really happy and want to be our friends!”
To Be Continued...
Episode 23
A Strange Event
The Flight Co-ordinator waved good bye to 6980 as they got ready for take off.
"Where are they going?"
"Gotcha"
"They are going to meet 497 at 6 AU and escort them back. Other than 929, they’re the only gunship we have with extended range. Don’t you remember? You were at the briefing."
Refueller guy was talking to Purplespacegirl when he mentioned that he saw Jenny and said hello, but she didn’t answer him. Purplespacegirl said that she might have accidentally put Jenny in a sour mood. Refueller guy said he doubted that. Jenny kind of always had an ambient expression on her face that wasn’t particularly friendly, but that was just her way. It’s not that she is peeved with the other legonauts. She’s just very focussed on her job.
Purplespacegirl was relieved to hear that.
"Have you had any error codes on the Titan satellite?"
"No. Why do you ask?"
"I’m not aware of anything wrong with it. Let’s check with the mobile launcher. Maybe their satellite saw it too. I’ll call them."
"Hello, Mission Control?"
"497 hasn’t reported any problems, so hopefully they won’t require anything more than an inspection. I know your crew has been working long hours lately."
"Hold on, we’re getting a message."
"Hello? No, we haven’t seen any error messages from either of the satellites. I don’t know if the mobile unit has picked up anything, but I’ll try and send them a message."
"What is it?"
"It’s a message from Mission Control. They want to know if our search and rescue satellite picked up a flash in deep space."
"I don’t think it did. Did it?"
"I don’t think so either. There’s nothing in the system log.
Episode 24
Looking for Drillbot
Exo Guy talked to the crew of 497 to see if they knew where Drillbot was.
They told him that they heard a drilling robot was out at the mine site and maybe he should look there.
At the other end of the moonbase, Survey Guy was taking measurements around Mission Control.
The Mission Control guys asked what he was doing. Survey Guy told them he needed to get ready for a new building going there. They hoped that meant they might be getting some help soon.
Meanwhile, out at the mine site, the rover crew noticed Drillbot always seemed to be so sad. They thought maybe they should take him to base for the techs to look at him. Maybe they could find out what was troubling their friend.
Together, they picked up drillbot and put him up on the cargo deck of the rover.
With Drillbot securely loaded onto the deck, they began the long drive back to the moonbase.
Maintenance Co-ordinator and the avionics tech are having trouble getting their Bricktooth systems to link up. It seems some problems never change.
The techs continued working on 928’s outboard port engine, but asked the crew if they could maybe step back a bit. They know the pilot guys just wanted to help, but they were kind of getting in the way.
With the information from the 497 crew, Exo Guy headed out to the mine site to find Drillbot.
To Be Continued...
Episode 25
Scheming Sue
Finally, the crews of 928 and 924 took off on their cargo mission to Åstvej Station, escorted by 920.
When the three ships reached full speed, they headed off into space.
Meanwhile, 497 and 6980 had returned from Åstvej Station. The Maintenance Coordinator, along with Green Guy and Purplespacegirl, went around back of 497 to greet the three new technicians who had just been assigned to the moon base. They were eager to get settled in and start working.
Purplespacegirl saw Survey Guy taking measurements in different places and asked him what the new project was. He said he wasn’t exactly sure, but Space Sue asked him to identify a spot for a new building, and he was really excited about it.
“Gee, that’s odd,” Purplespacegirl thought. “Space Sue didn’t mention anything to me about a new building.”
Meanwhile, the satellite tracking team asked Green Guy if they could use the larger dish from one of the other stations. He said it was fine, provided the other stations weren’t already using their dishes for something else.
Since all the other stations were using their big dishes, they went to talk to Space Sue. She asked them why they wanted to use her dish.
“Because we need to look way out into space near Neptune. Our smaller dish isn’t powerful enough for that.”
Space Sue told them that her dish didn’t have that kind of software installed. She only used her dish for communication. They told her that would be no problem. Rocket tech could come by and install the software on her system later that day. In that case, Space Sue said she was fine with it.
Shortly afterwards, Purplespacegirl went to go see Space Sue. “Hey Space Sue,” she said. “Did you tell Survey Guy to pick out a spot for a new building?”
“Ummmmm, maaaaaybe,” Space Sue replied.
“Did you tell Green Guy about this?”
“Nah. I never tell him about stuff like that. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. He’ll rant and rave and wave his arms about for a few minutes, but I just use the Jedi Mind Trick on him and he forgets all about it.”
“You can’t just go around building stuff like that! It costs money, and he needs to know where it’s all going.”
“Relax, I’ll find a way to make it work. I can make it look like we got new office furniture, or sardines or something. Want some coffee?”
“No, no thank you. Wait a minute...is that a fish bowl? Where did you get a fishbowl?”
“I got it on the internet. I tell you, those guys can deliver ANYWHERE.”
So Purplespacegirl headed out to find Green Guy and tell him that Space Sue was scheming to spend lots of money and build something, and he should know about it.
Meanwhile, Rocket Tech came over to Space Sue’s office and installed the new software for looking into space. While he was there, he also installed the new hardware that arrived on 497 and upgraded Space Sue’s whole computer system. She was pretty happy about that.
To Be Continued...