The Plight of the Bumblebee: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

David Foster, Mark Seaton, and Joe Taylor had been enjoying a late-afternoon meal in an obscure restaurant in Amundsen City when Richard called. They had spent the day discussing their upcoming mission to Europa, and were just finishing dinner when Zip answered his compad. After Zip hung up he briefed his friends on what had happened.

“It sounds urgent,” Joe said, “and I don’t have any of my equipment with me.”

“I’m sure that Richard will have everything prepared for us by the time we get to the spaceport,” Mark said, as he paid for their meal. “I just wonder what’s going on.”

“We’ll soon find out,” Zip said. The three of them walked out of the restaurant and began hurrying down the sidewalk. Joe was heading for their car when Zip stopped him.

“There’s too much traffic to drive,” he said. “The subway would be much faster than trying to fight rush-hour traffic.”

The three Starmen rushed over to the nearest subway stop, where they boarded an underground high-speed monorail. They had to change trains twice, but within twenty minutes they were at the spaceport.

“I wish we could take the Star Ranger,” Zip said wistfully as they began jogging through the spaceport terminals. The Starlight Enterprise section of the spaceport was almost within sight.

“I’m sure we can, Zip, if Richard doesn’t mind our waiting for – oh, another ten years,” Joe replied. “After all, there were probably a few parts to our ship that they were able to salvage. Doorknobs, for instance.”

“To be honest I’m surprised they decided to fix her at all,” Mark replied. “There really wasn’t a lot left of her after Zip fought off the Ban Zhou Men’s attack – especially after you reversed the thrust in mid-air, Zip, and clipped off the tail of the attacker – ”

” – thus neatly grounding the attacking ship without damaging it,” Zip replied, fondly remembering the incident. “I really didn’t think she had it in her. When they get done with the repairs, though, she’ll be a new ship, and the fastest one in space at that! The antimatter drive alone give us more power than even the Spud Peeler did.”

“Which was another fine craft that got obliterated in the line of duty,” Joe said. “Maybe we’re not just reading the owner’s manual closely enough.”

By this time the three Starmen had reached the Starlight Enterprise wing of the spaceport, where a uniformed SE officer was ready and waiting.

“Starman Zip Foster?” she asked uncertainly.

“Yes, ma’am,” Zip said, stepping forward to shake her hand. “I’m sorry,” he said, eyeing the jeans and T-shirts that the three of them were wearing, “we were out, and didn’t have time to stop and change into our red uniforms. We were hoping – ”

“Right this way,” she said, turning around and walking down a hallway. “The craft is here, in Hangar 9. It is fueled and ready to go. Your departure time is in five minutes. Please be ready for takeoff.” With that, she turned around and walked off down the hall.

The three Starmen entered the hangar, boarded the ship, and prepared for takeoff. Joe sat in the pilot’s seat and the other two Starmen took up seats directly behind him. The craft was a small, sleek passenger shuttle that was designed to transport up to four people to and from any location in the Earth-Moon system within a few hours.

“The Red Tiger,” Joe said aloud. “I’ve never flown this craft before, but she looks pretty fast. You just don’t see too many shuttles with antimatter drives – the technology is just too new.”

“How fast?” Zip asked. Joe was silent for a few minutes as he opened the hangar door, taxied the shuttle out onto the runway, and prepared for takeoff.

“Oh, we’ll probably be there in about an hour or so.”

The takeoff went very smoothly and before ten minutes had passed the craft had left the moon and was streaking through space on a course to L5. After making sure that everything was operating normally Joe set the craft on auto-pilot and settled back into the pilot’s chair.

“I wonder what’s going on, anyway?” Joe asked. “I’ve never heard of anything going wrong at L5 before.”

“Why don’t you call them up and ask?” Mark replied, motioning toward the ship’s communicator. “I’m sure that Alfred Nelson would love to know that we are en-route.”

“Good idea,” Joe said approvingly. He was able to contact the station and speak directly to the station director, letting them know that they would be there in about 45 minutes. The director curtly acknowledged Joe’s message and then abruptly signed off.

“Um.” Joe said. “Well, I guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

* * * *

Forty minutes later the ship was within visual range of the giant L5 space station. Mark had seen it many times before but it never failed to fill him with awe. The station was the most massive structure in space; it was home to 30,000 people and bustled with the activity of countless spaceships going about their business all hours of the day and night. L5, so named because it was located at LaGrange Point 5, was composed of two giant wheels, each connected to the other by means of a cylinder that ran between the middle of the two wheels. The station did not spin but instead used an artificial gravity grid to provide Earth-like gravity to its residents. Mark reflected that it must be nearly fifty years old, but Alfred Nelson was still its director. That was a long time to spend running a space station, he thought.

As the Red Tiger approached the station Joe contacted it once more and requested permission to dock. “Look at all those ships!” Joe enthused. “Now there is some variety for you.”

“No kidding,” Zip said. “Is that an Ares-class ship over there? I didn’t realize any of those were still flying. It can’t possibly land on a planet, can it?”

“I don’t think so,” Mark said. “Those ships were built to travel solely in space, carrying cargo from one space station to another. It’s probably just come back from the asteroid belt with a cargo full of processed ore and is dropping it off at the L5, where some other ship will carry it down to Earth. It’ll probably return with a cargo of food and other perishable goods for lonely asteroid miners.”

“I’m sure George St George will appreciate that,” Zip remarked, thinking of the eccentric asteroid miner that they had met a few years ago. “He’s still prospecting out there, isn’t he?”

“Last I heard,” Mark said affirmatively.

Joe received clearance from the automated docking system and turned over the Red Tiger‘s navigation to the station computer, which robotically guided it into a hangar. “Looks as though we’ve got ourselves a reception crew,” Zip muttered as Joe powered down the ship and opened the doors. Standing just outside were three armed guards.

The Starmen exited the craft and walked forward to meet them, eying them warily. “I’m David Foster, and this is Joe Taylor and Mark Seaton,” he said, introducing his friends. “We’ve come -”

The largest guard interrupted them. “Howard, Fine, and Howard, at your service,” he said curtly. “Right this way.” He opened a door leading into the station and stepped through it, while the other two guards beckoned the three Starmen to follow him. They did so, and the two guards followed them in the rear.

“We were told that there was a serious problem here,” Zip began again, “and Richard sent us to help. Do you know what is going on?”

“Right this way,” the lead guard repeated, walking on down the hall. The three Starmen followed them. What, Zip wondered, was the nature of their emergency?