The Deep Space Adventure

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The Deep Space Adventure

6.

Qxuel and Zquel finished their inspection of Fireball XL5's main cockpit. Zquel opened the main panel in front of the pilot's station and carefully attached a small device into the system's wiring, and then closed the panel. “We will now have control over this ship when we need it.” Zquel told his companion.

“Good work.” Qxuel replied. “Let's go to the back of this ship and take care of the two robots.”

The two beings opened the cabin door and made their way back through the main body of the patrol ship. The finally reached the engineering section where Astro and Robert were lying on the floor next to each other. The two residents of the Dyson Sphere bent over to examine Robert, he was the easier robot to inspect due to his clear skin, and he appeared to be the simpler of the two so they decided to work on him first.

Astro was still in a low power state, but his sensors alerted him to the presence of the two intruders and he opened his eyes a crack to see what was going on. Realizing that they were ignoring him at the moment to work on Robert, Astro sprung into action. He got to his feet quickly, but silently, and placed a hand on the neck of each of the two aliens and released a jolt of electricity.

Qxuel and Zquel dropped their tools and froze rigidly under the electrical discharge that Astro released though their bodies. Both of them started twitching and became paralyzed. Astro shut down the discharge and the two of them fell to the floor, unconscious.

“Robert, are you OK?” Astro asked.

“OK!” Robert replied.

“Good, help me tie these characters up!” Astro said.

Robert grabbed a spool of wire from Matt's storage closet and wrapped a few yards of the heavy gauge cable around Zquel. He then repeated the same for Qxuel. Astro inspected Robert's work and nodded. “You'd make a good cowboy, Robert. Them critters are hog tied for sure!” He said.

“HOG TIED!” Robert repeated.

“I hope I didn't hurt them too badly with that jolt.” Astro said, seeing that neither one of their uninvited guests were moving. “I didn't know how much voltage to give them.”
Qxuel came to first, his breathing became deeper and he opened his eyes. He saw Astro and Robert standing over him, and then discovered he had been immobilized. Zquel stirred a few minutes later and also found himself compromised.

“It seems the Earth Robots were not deactivated by our IM fields.” Qxuel said.

“My instruments showed them to be rendered harmless when we came on board this ship.” Zquel insisted.

“No matter. Reinforcements are on the way.” Qxuel told his partner. “They've been monitoring us.”

“You do realize I can understand what you are saying.” Astro replied in the Alien's tongue. “My electronic brain understands several hundred Earth languages, and I have the ability to decode most forms of communication!”

“Very well, then you know you'd better just release us before you find yourself out numbered.” Qxuel said, this time talking in Earth standard.

“Actually, I think you'd better tell your superiors to back off, otherwise they will find you two badly injured.” Astro said. “I want to know what happened to my human companions, or I am going to get very mad, and you wouldn't like to see me get mad!”

“What do you think Zquel?” Qxuel asked.

“We still have the upper hand here.” Zquel replied. “We can afford to communicate with him.”

“Very well.” Qxuel said. “If you release us I give you my word that we won't try to overpower you, at least not now. We will give you and your human friends a chance to explain yourselves.”

“Actually, I think we are the injured party here.” Astro said. “You are the ones who were hijacking our ships, in our solar system. I think you are the ones that need to explain yourselves.”

“Perhaps it does seem that way to you.” Qxuel agreed.

Astro handed Robert a ray gun from the arms cabinet. “Robert, keep these guys covered while I untie them. If they try anything funny, zapp them!”

“KEEP THEM COVERED!” Robert replied.

Astro unbound Qxuel, and then removed the wire from Zquel.
“OK then.” Astro said. “I want the crew of XL5 beamed back here at once. Then we can talk.”

Zquel slowly removed a device from beneath his cloak. He nervously eyed Robert who had his finger on the gun's trigger. “It's only a communications relay!” Zquel said.

Astro nodded. Four blobs of light appeared in the room with them, and gradually took on familiar forms. Steve Zodiac, Matt Matic, Dr. Venus, and Reno materialized in the engineering section.

“Welcome back.” Astro smiled.
“WELCOME BACK” Robert repeated.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Robert kept the ray gun aimed at the two aliens. Steve Zodiac stared at the two of them for a moment before saying anything. “Thank you Astro, and you too Robert. Now what exactly is going on here?”

“We seem to have caused these beings some distress by our presence here.” Astro guessed. “Maybe they might be willing to explain themselves.”

“We don't have very much time.” Qxuel said. “We must leave this system very soon. We had originally hoped not to have been discovered, but your patrol ships wandered into the outer regions of your system and detected us, we could not risk you reporting us to your superiors.”

“Is that why you captured our ships and held our crews hostage?” Steve asked.

“We had no intention of harming you.” Qxuel said. “You'd have been released after we were on our way back” Zquel added.

“Something went wrong, didn't it?” Astro asked.

“Yes, it did.” Qxuel answered. “In the span of time measuring three of your Earth days our sphere must leave your system. If we cannot do so things will go supercritical. Even now, it may be too late.”

“I don't understand.” Steve said.

Matt Matic examined the ships instruments from the console on his rotating desk. “I think I know what the problem is Steve.” Matt pressed a few buttons and an image appeared on one of the large monitors. “That's the star located in the middle of this Dyson sphere.” he replied. “It's a G class sun, several orders larger than our own. It's also nearly at the end of its run on the main sequence.”

“Exactly, Earthman.” Zquel replied. “In building this sphere, we encased our sun to trap nearly all of its radiation. However in so doing, we have limited the expansion of the solar output to one AU, in the terms of our own planets original distance from the sun. We did not allow for the expansion of the solar constant over time. The combination of our sun's normal expansion due to exhaustion of its hydrogen fuel over time, and the compression caused by containment of the solar output within this sphere as only increased the rate at which the star is now decaying.”

“Normally, a G class sun will end its life in about 5 to 20 billion years.” Matt explained.
“Our own sun is about halfway though its own projected 10 billion year lifespan. This sun should have been a 7 billion year star, given its luminosity and mass, and it appears to be about 3/4 of the way though that cycle.”

“Except for our tampering of things.” Zquel sighed. “G class suns don't go nova, but ours will.” Qxuel said. “And it will do it very soon.”

“We didn't count on the gravitational influence of your systems own sun.” Zquel explained. “Though very small at this distance, it is the tipping point of a complex reaction that we can no longer control.”

“We've lost our ability to maneuver the sphere.” Qxuel added. “Our engineers have been working on the problem, but its a matter of mass vs energy.”

“You use the output of your sun to somehow propel the sphere?” Reno asked.

“Yes, we can collect enough of the solar wind to direct out of the sphere to act as a kind of reaction engine.” Qxuel explained. “However, the solar collectors are failing as the suns energy output becomes unfocused and chaotic.”

“Matt, what would happen if their sun went nova at this distance from Earth?” Steve asked.

“Nothing good.” Matt answered. “It would tear our system apart.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Reno stood in XL5's front cockpit and stared out of the large view port. He marveled at the engineering that had gone into the Dyson sphere, and couldn't believe that its creators could have made such a blunder. Something then occurred to him, and he picked up the intercom microphone.
“Astro, could you come forward to Fireball Jr?” he asked.

In a few moments Astro walked into the front cockpit of the patrol ship. “Whats up Reno?”

“I don't understand these guys.” He said. “They built this marvelous system and they can actually move it about the galaxy, but they've made such an engineering blunder. Their star is about to go nova and they can't stop it. What did they say, it was a matter of mass vs energy?”

“Yes, that is the problem, according to them.” Astro said, “though I don't understand what they mean.”

“I think I might have the answer, but I'll need to contact Space City command.” Reno said. “I need to talk to Dr. Schlemiel.”

“I'll relay that.” Astro said, returning back towards the main body of the ship.

“Zquel,” Astro asked, “why can't you guys move your sphere away from our system?”

“Our sun's output is no longer stable enough for us to control it,” the alien replied. “We were hoping to make use of your systems sun to stabilize ours, but then we noticed that this system is inhabited. Our laws prohibit us from destroying alien life, even to save ourselves so we realized we'd have to leave. That's when we were discovered by your patrol ships.”

“We should have trusted you.” Qxuel said, “But we couldn't chance it. That's why we captured your ships and held the crews, we didn't want your Earth command to know about us.”

“If you could move your system away from ours, would you be able to stabilize it?” Matt asked.

“No.” Zquel said. “Though the danger would diminish once our sun was out of the influence of your sun's gravity. Gravity is the problem, if we could only control our sun's gravitational field, we could stabilize it.”

“I heard that!” Reno said over the intercom. “Listen you guys, I need to talk to Earth command. I think I know how to fix your little problem!”

“How?” Zquel asked. “Our scientists are thousands of years ahead of you, and we don't have the answer.”

“Then I guess you didn't notice what powered our ship out here.” Reno said.

“Your XL ships use a rather primitive Nutronic rocket engine.” Zquel said.

“Not this one!” Steve laughed. “Follow me!”

Steve Zodiac led the two aliens toward the back of the ship, into the engine room. “We do have Nutronic rocket power, that's true. But XL5 is now the test bed for this contraption.” He pointed to the small refrigerator sized box behind the main nutronic rocket engine that had been tied into the ship's propulsion system.

Zquel bent down and examined the device. “What is this thing?”

Reno entered the engineering section and walked up to Zquel. “That is what our Dr. Dillion Schlemiel calls a Spindizzy.” Reno said, “Though the full name is Graviton Polarity Generator.”

“An anti gravity device?” Zquel said. “That isn't possible! Our scientists proved that centuries ago.”

“Well in that case, I guess we have one up on you!” Reno laughed, “Because this gizmo just pushed XL5 though the light barrier”

“Superluminal velocity?” Zquel gasped. “Amazing!”

“I need to phone home.” Reno said. “If I'm right, I think the spindizzy could control your sun's gravitational output an easily move this sphere away from our system. I'll need to talk to its inventor to know for sure.”

Zquel and Qxuel stepped aside and seemed to talk to each other using non verbal communication. Qxuel nodded his head, and then turned towards the earthmen. “I'll contact my supervisors and instruct them to allow your ship to use its radio equipment.” he said.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The Deep Space Adventure

7.

Astro, Reno, Steve Zodiac, Qxuel, and Zquel stood in the back of XL5's engine compartment. Steve activated a communications screen, and Matt Matic contacted Space City from his revolving desk in the engineering portion of the ship.

“Space City, this is Fireball XL-5.” Steve spoke into the intercom.

“What the in the blazes has been going on out there?” Commander Zero asked. “You've been out of contact for over a day out there! Have you found the missing ships?”

“That we have.” Steve replied. “We've made contact with an alien envoy from another part of our galaxy. They were responsible for the disappearance of our patrol ships, but it was just a misunderstanding. They need our help with an emergency that could affect us badly, so we need to assist them.”

“Is Dr. Schlemiel there?” Reno asked. “I need his assistance.”

“Yes he's here, and very interested in knowing how his engine tests went.” Zero replied. “I'll put him on the comm.”

After a few moments the face of the scientist-engineer appeared on the video screen. “My spindizzy, how'd the test go?” Dr. Schlemiel asked.

“Very well.” Reno replied, “We broke the light barrier!”

“Fantastic!” Dillion replied.

“Listen, we have a problem.” Reno started. “We've made contact with an alien civilization that has entered our system from another part of our galaxy. We are inside of their Dyson Sphere somewhere in the outer regions of the Kuiper belt. Their sun has become unstable and unless they can move their system away from ours it will go nova. They can't move the Sphere because tapping their sun for the power to move it will only increase the instability. Conventional rocket power is useless due to the mass of this thing.”

Dr. Schlemiel's contorted his face in thought. He pulled a slide rule from his pocket and started to quickly perform some calculation. “Just how large is that thing?” He finally asked.

“The Dyson Sphere is about 1.5 to 2 AU in diameter.” Steve replied. “Their sun is maybe 50% more massive than Sol.” Matt added.

Dillion made a few more quick calculations on his slide rule. His face suddenly lit up.
“Holly cow!” he replied. “I think this will work.”

“What?” Reno asked.

“The greater the mass the Spindizzy has to work against, the greater is its efficiency.” Dr. Schlemiel explained. “I expected that the greatest test of the thing would be to move an entire planet, and I'd worked out the power requirements. It could be done with the equivalent of a few tens of watts of power. Moving XL5, required much more than that, something like the output of a few locomotives.”

“Could the Spindizzy move the Dyson Sphere?” Reno asked.

“If you can mount it on the outside of the sphere, somewhere on the equator where it can be influenced by the most amount of mass, yes it should work.” Dillon said. “Acting upon the mass of an entire solar system, my power calculations whet off the scale.”

“So how much power would it take?” Steve asked, “Do we have enough?”

“You don't get it.” Dillon laughed. “The theoretical efficiency gain from the anti-gravity effect on something as massive as that is crazy. You'll be lucky to control the thing.”

“So how much power do we need?” Reno asked.

“About 7 microwatts!” Dr. Schlemiel replied. “Fly power!”

“That can't be!” Zquel gasped.

“Hey you guys, we'd better hurry!” Matt replied over the intercom. “I've been monitoring the output of the sun in the middle of this sphere. It's solar constant has been creeping up constantly over the last few minutes. We don't have much time before it goes nova.”

“OK.” Dillion said over the comm link. “You guys are going to have to remove the Spindizzy from the ship and get it in position quickly. You'll need a good amount of energy to get the thing started against such a large mass, but once you get it going it won't take much. You'll need a remote computer to handle it too.”

“How much power will it take to kick start it against the sphere's mass?” Steve asked.

Dr. Schlemiel quickly performed the calculations.
“About 100,000 horse power, for a few minutes, then throttle back to idle!” He said.

“Any equipment we can remove from XL5 to handle it?” Steve asked.

“I'm afraid not.” Matt sighed. “We don't have a portable power source that size that we could remove quickly enough, not to mention a suitable computer.”

“Yes we do.” Astro said. “ME!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Astro and Reno worked quickly to disconnect the Graviton Polarity Generator from XL5's engine systems. “We'll have to depressurize this compartment to open the large hull hatch so you can remove the spindizzy from the ship.” Matt said, handing out some oxygen pills. “Here swallow these and you'll be able to withstand the vacuum of space once we crack the hatch.”

Reno and the rest of the crew each took one of the pills, Astro being a robot didn't need to. Qxuel, and Zquel passed on the pills. “Our species has developed a sort of internal space bladder that enables us to withstand a low atmosphere environment for several of your hours.” Qxuel explained.

Steve Zodiac activated the depressurization controls and the atmosphere inside of the ship was pumped down into the storage tanks. The ship's large side hatch slowly opened. “OK, I'm going to carry the spindizzy outside now.” Astro said. Reno understood him despite the lack of sound in the near vacuum, he could read Astro's lips. Zquel used a kind of electronic ESP to explain to Astro exactly how to exit the sphere and where to place the GPG. Astro grabbed hold of the refrigerator sized anti-gravity engine and pushed it through the hatch. Once clear of the ship, he used his leg rockets to get away from XL5.

Qxuel followed him out and floated in the low gravity. The alien pointed to where the tunnel leading out of the sphere would open up in the wall of the Dyson Sphere. Astro headed for the opening, and soon found himself in the passageway leading out into space. Once outside the sphere he followed the markings leading toward the sphere's equator. The surface of the sphere was marked in some kind of alien writing which Astro's electronic brain quickly figured out how to translate. “According to the icons on sphere, I'm about 1000 km from the attachment point.” Astro radioed back.

Zquel had donned a rocket pack and followed Astro out of the sphere. He carried with him a magnetic harness that would anchor the spindizzy to the surface of the sphere at the desired location. The two of them reached the designated point in about ten minutes. Zquel brought a set of tools with him, and together he and Astro soon had the GPG ready. “You get back inside.” Astro said. “I've got to connect myself up to the spindizzy now.”

Astro opened the access panel on the spindizzy and soon located the computer interface and the power cables. He opened his chest panel and connected himself to the device's network, and then plugged the heavy power cables up to his nuclear power pack.
“OK, I'm ready.” Astro radioed back.

Qxuel shook Steve Zodia'c hand. “Thank you very much Earthman for your assistance. You'd better leave our sphere before starting your anti-gravity device. Zquel has looked at the calculations based on the information that your Dr. Schlemiel provided us. We may end up flying away from your system too fast for your ship to make it back to your planet. We've already released the crews of your other two patrol ships, they are leaving our sphere now.”

“But Astro is controlling the spindizzy!” Venus said. “How will he get back to earth.”

“You know,” Reno answered, “I'm sure that is the last thing on his mind right now.”

“If it's all the same to everyone else,” Steve said, “I'd vote for remaining behind with Astro.”

“Sure, why not?” Matt said. “I'm in for a bit of exploration.”

“I agree” Venus added.

“Make it unanimous.” Reno said. “I'm not leaving my buddy behind.”

“Right then.” Steve said. “XL5 will remain at the dock until you guys are clear of our system. We can then return our spindizzy to XL5 and get back to Earth.”

“If it doesn't burn itself out.” Reno said. “Dillon warned me that he didn't know how long it would hold up moving an entire solar system!”

They waited for XL4, XL7, and XL13 to get clear of the sphere before starting the countdown. Astro strapped himself onto the spindizzy attachment bracket that Zquel had provided. “OK, you can download the necessary program to my electronic brain's computer now Reno.” Astro said.

“Right Astro.” Reno answered, establishing a wireless network connection from XL5's computer to Astro.

Qxuel and Zquel stood in Fireball XL5's front cockpit looking over Steve and Reno's shoulders. “How's your energy levels doing Astro?” Reno asked over the radio.

“I'm fine.” Astro answered back.

“OK then, I'm starting the countdown.” Reno replied, throwing a switch on the panel. The countdown clock on XL5's heads up display started ticking down.

“10,9,8,7,6, initializing!” Reno said.

“Roger that!” Astro said, “I can feel the power drain starting.”

“5,4,3,2,1,0, energize!” Reno said.

Astro's vision narrowed into a narrow tunnel as he felt the spindizzy momentarily suck every ounce of energy from his system. He blacked out, but could feel a strange acceleration flowing though his body. On board the Dyson Sphere the atmosphere started to glow with a purple haze. The internal sun seemed to shrink in size and a sudden cold wave filled XL5's cabin.

“What's happening?” Steve asked.

“You've done it.” Zquel said. “Shut down the anti-gravity drive now!”

Reno hit the red button on the control panel. Astro's electronic brain picked up the signal from XL5's control panel and powered down the GPG. Astro's vision returned to normal and he could see the edge of the Milky way. He turned his head and could barely make out the dim star that was Earth's sun, far in the distance.

“We're now at a safe distance from your sun.” Qxuel said. “Central control is reporting that our sun has returned to normal, the danger is past. We can't thank you enough!”

“Astro, how are you doing buddy?” Reno asked.

“I feel kinda weak.” Astro replied. “Don't think I can crawl back on my own, think you could come by and get me?”

“Hang in there.” Steve replied. “XL5 is coming.”

The crew of Fireball XL5 said their goodbye's to Qxuel and Zquel. Steve piloted the ship out of the Dyson Sphere over to where Astro was still attached to the side of it equator. Reno dug into the supplies he'd brought with him and found Astro's spare energy cassette. “I'm going out to get him.” Reno said.

“Well then you'd better take another one of these.” Venus replied, handing him an oxygen pill. “Matt and I are coming with you.” Steve added. “You'll need our help to get the spindizzy back on board XL5.”

While Matt and Steve worked at detaching the spindizzy from the sphere, Reno carefully disconnected Astro from the device and replaced his energy cassette. “How do you feel now, buddy?” Reno asked when it was all done.

“Almost like my old self.” Astro replied. “My full strength is back, but I still feel a bit of
vertigo. That spindizzy field really knocked me for a loop at that power level, and I was right on top of it!”

“Think you're up to helping us move this thing?” Steve asked.

“I'll give it a try.” Astro said, grabbing hold of the spindizzy and applying a burst of leg rockets.

About hours later the GPG was back inside XL5's engine room. Reno and Matt were running diagnostics on the spindizzy. “That burst of super power to move the Dyson Sphere doesn't seem to have done any harm to it.” Reno announced. “We should be able to plot a course back to Earth without any problems.”

“When can we leave?” Steve asked. “I've just raised Commander Zero on the space channel and he wants a full report ASAP.”

“You can tell him we're on our way back.” Matt replied. “Reno and I have just reconnected the last system. We're all ready to go.”

“Where's Astro?” Steve asked.

“He and Robert are in the engineering section, sleeping!” Reno said. “They've both been powered up for days without a rest.”

“Guess they deserve a nap.” Venus said.

“We can handle everything.” Reno replied. “Let's get going.”

Just as Fireball XL5 pushed away from the sphere with thrusters the heads up monitor lit up with a transmission from inside the sphere. There was an image of Zquel, Qxuel, and a few other aliens on the two way video link. “Have a safe trip back home, Earthmen!” Qxuel said. “And thank you very much for your assistance. We're beaming a small gift aboard as our gesture of thanks!”

Somewhere in the cargo hold of the ship, an object materialized.
“Thank you guys.” Steve said. “We'll examine your gift when we get back home.”

Steve nodded to Reno, and the young man hit the activate button for the GPG. Once again XL5 accelerated past the light barrier and popped out of hyperspace somewhere near the orbit of Mars.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The Deep Space Adventure

8.

About a week later Fireball XL5 landed at the Space City complex. Commander Zero and Lieutenant Ninety greeted the space travelers at the landing pad. “Welcome back home, and congratulations on a mission well done!” Zero said.

Suddenly, Dr. Schlemiel barged past the two high ranking officers and pushed his way into the spacecraft. He made a beeline for the engine room where Astro and Reno were busy with Matt and Robert downloading the last of the data from the mission. Dillon Schlemiel bend down and examined the Graviton Polarity Generator prototype, giving it the attention that a loving parent would to a child coming back home from summer camp.
“How did everything go?” he asked, “You've got to tell me all about it. What was it like traveling faster than light? Did you experience any space sickness?”

“Hold you questions till later, please!” Reno said. “We're all quite tired and in need of a good meal and a rest!”

“N-E-E-D A R-E-S-T” Robert said.

Commander Zero made his way into the engine room. “You'll get your debriefing report in due time, Dr. Schlemiel. “These brave hero's have earned some R and R.” he said. “That is after they have a quick debriefing session with Lieutenant Ninety and myself!”

Astro and Reno packed up the last of their personal items they had brought on board and headed down the access tube back to the main building of the Space City complex where they knew Professor Ochanomizu, Dr. Moss, and Dr. Von Wormer would be waiting for them.


Sure enough the three scientists were waiting for Astro and Reno in the conference room. "Welcome back Astro!" Professor Ochanomizu said. "Well done Reno. I'm very proud of you both!"

“I've read the report that you've transmitted,” Dr. Moss said. “This is amazing!”

“I wish we could have examined that Dyson Sphere more closely.” Dr. Von Wormer said. “Such technology! Light years ahead of us!”

“Well they had us going for a while.” Steve Zodiac said, as he walked into the room. “If it hadn't been for Astro and Robert, we might still be their captives, though I don't think they ever meant us any harm.”

Suddenly Astro remembered something. “Hey Steve, what about that gift the aliens beamed aboard the ship?”

“Oh yeah!” Zodiac said, scratching is chin. “We've been so occupied getting back home, I completely forgot about it.”

“I'll order a contingent of guards to keep watch of that thing aboard XL5 until we can send in a scanning crew to X-ray it.” Commander Zero said. “Can't take any chances, it might be some kind of Trojan horse.”

“Oh come on Commander!” Matt said. “Do you think that a civilization that was grateful to us for saving their collective rear ends would give us a bobby trap?”

“We've been hoodwinked before.” Zero said sternly. “I'm not taking any chances!”

“Let me examine this thing.” Astro said. “My senses can detect stuff that humans would miss.”

“Very well.” Zero said. “But I'm going to station some tanks around the ship just in case some monster gets loose.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Astro walked back into the ships cargo hold. The lighting was poor so he lit his eye's searchlights. There was a large crate sitting in the far corner where it had been beamed into the ship. Astro could see that the container was not completely solid, there were numerous ventilation holes in it. “It looks like some kind of packing crate for a live animal.” Astro radioed back to the Space City complex. “I think they may have sent us a pet.”

“Great. That's all we need around here.” Commander Zero muttered.

Astro put his hands up to his ears and turned his hearing up to 1000 times strength. “I can hear something breathing inside the crate,” he said. “It seems to be asleep. Should I open the crate and take a look?”

“Roger on that.” Zero radioed back. “But wait for Dr. Venus to come back on board.”

“OK.” Astro replied.

A few minutes later Dr. Venus entered the cargo hold. She was carrying a hypogun tranquilizer. “If the creature inside the crate is dangerous, or tries to attack us I'll stun it with this.” She said.

Astro nodded and started to pull the crated open. He quickly found a release lever that allowed the four sides of the container to detach. Inside the box was a cage with a sleeping animal about the size of a small chimpanzee. It had a large head with large ears, and eyes. Mostly hairless, it was clearly a biped that resembled a primate in some ways.

“Hey you stupid Lazoon, you can't go back to the ship, get back here!” Astro heard commander Zero over the intercom. Suddenly Zoonie ran into the cargo hold and stood next to Venus.

“Zoonie, what are you doing here?” Venus asked.

“Hey is that dumb pet of Dr. Venus in the ship with you?” Zero asked Astro over the radio.

“Yes commander.” Astro said, “He's not causing us any trouble.”

“Hello!” Zoonie yelled at the creature in the cage.

The animal stirred, and started to stand up. Dr. Venus had her tranquilizer gun ready, but the creature made no hostile moves. “Hello!” it yelled back to Zoonie, as it stood up.

“OH my god!” Venus face palmed. Zoonie ran over to the cage and unlocked it! He stood next to the animal, and then it was obvious. “Hey commander.” Astro radioed back. “It looks like the alien's present was a Lazoon relative. I think Zoonie has a cousin!”

“Yes, commander.” Venus replied. “It seems like Zoonie and the creature are already making friends.”

Sure enough, the two Lazoons were sitting on the floor and grooming each other. It was now apparent that the new one was a female, and that she and Zoonie were already becoming more than just friends.

Dr. Venus turned on the video intercom. “See commander. No danger.”

“NO danger!” commander Zero groaned. “It looks like we might soon have a Lazoon family here. That's all we need, a whole tribe of Lazoons running loose around here getting into everything!”


Professor Ochanomizu couldn't help laughing at the sight of the two Lazoons chasing each other around the Space City control room, as Commander Zero pulled his hair out. Lieutenant Ninety chased after them to no avail as they got into all the equipment.

Reno had finished talking with Dr. Schlemiel, who was now quite busy examining the many pages of data that had been printed out from the computer logs aboard XL5. Astro was giving Dr. Von Wormer an earful describing his experiences with the Aliens and answering questions about the Dyson Sphere. Finally, Dr. Moss approached Ochanomizu.

“It looks like I'm booked on the same flight back to Japan as you are.” the head of the JSA told the Professor.

“Yes, we have an early flight tomorrow,” Ochanomizu said, “I think maybe we'd better say our goodbye's and catch some sleep.”

“That's a good idea!” Dr. Moss agreed.

“It's been a pleasure working with you Astro” Steve said, shaking the boy robot's hand.

“Robert is going to miss you, I'm sure.” Matt said.

“G-O-O-D-B-Y-E F-R-I-E-N-D” Robert told Astro.

“Goodbye everyone!” Astro said waiving as they left the complex.

“Goodbye, Dr. Venus.” Reno said. Venus gave Reno a peck on the check. “Bye, Reno” she said.


After their plane took off and they were on their way back to Metro City, Astro turned to the professor. “You think we'll ever get a chance to return to Space City again, Hakase?”

“Maybe.” Ochanomizu said. “I know you've made a good impression on them, and so has Reno. But they seem to be a capable organization, and we have our own space fleet back home with the JSA.”

“Well I'd like to visit there again.” Reno said.

“Yeah, I can see you've got a crush on Dr. Venus.” Astro said.

“Do not!” Reno replied.

“Do too!” Astro returned.

“Take that back!” Reno replied, with nuggies!

Dr. Ochanomizu face palmed and changed seats to sit next to Dr. Moss.

“Boys will be boys!” the JSA director sighed.

“I suppose.” Professor Ochanomizu sighed. “Well I don't know about you, but it's a long flight back, I think I'll try to catch some shuteye.”

“Good idea,” Dr. Moss replied.

Ochanomizu turned to watch the two boys laughing. “Youth is wasted on the young!” he sighed drifting asleep.

The End