Space Taxi Read online

  The map on my lap flattens with a faint whomp. All the spinning planets and fiery stars have become simple lines and dots again.

  “Um, Dad?” I ask. “Are you sure I’m not dreaming all this?”

  He shakes his head. “Nope. All real.”

  “But… all these years, why did you tell me you drove a taxi?”

  “I do drive a taxi,” he says. “It just happens to be a space taxi.” He leans over and pats the dashboard. “Top of the line, I might add. It only clunks and groans to blend in with regular taxis on Earth.”

  I stare at him as he keeps talking. “Our family has been in the space taxi business for five generations,” he says. “I’m a driver. I can take my fares anywhere in the universe and still get home in time for breakfast.” He clasps me on the shoulder. “And you’re a copilot, Archie! Being able to read a space map is a very special talent that runs in families. My father had it, so I’d hoped you’d get it, but I didn’t know for sure until today—when you turned eight years, eight months, and eight days old!”

  I shake my head. It all sounds too crazy. “But, Dad, what if choosing this wormhole was just a lucky guess? Maybe we’re really in the fourth one, or the second.”

  He shakes his head. “Trust me, we’d know by now. You’re a copilot, all right.”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “Does Mom know about this?”

  Dad laughs. “Of course. You know how hard it is to hide things from your mother.”

  It’s true. Mom can tell if one jelly bean is missing out of a whole bowl. And she always knows I’m the one who took it.

  “Look,” Dad says, pointing ahead of us. I can see two tiny dots of light far in the distance. As we get closer, they grow bigger and bigger. The dashboard springs to life again in a flash of color and sound. Dad takes hold of the wheel.

  “We’ll need the map,” he says. “We’re nearing the orbit of Delta Three.”

  “There’s a planet out there?” I ask, seeing nothing planetlike at all.

  “Yup. And we’re approaching its two suns.” Dad hands me a pair of sunglasses and I put them on just in time. We fly out of the wormhole and zip between two huge balls of bright yellowish-red flame. For a few seconds the air in the taxi grows superhot, before returning to normal.

  At that moment the high-pitched, squeaky voice crackles through the car again. I jump in my seat, surprised anything could still startle me.

  “Morningstar, this is Home Base. Please report your current location.”

  Dad turns the com line knob on. “We’re on approach to our pickup on Delta Three.”

  “Phew!” The voice sighs. “You made it into the right wormhole!”

  “Sure did. Thanks to my son, the copilot!”

  “Congratulations, young Morningstar,” the voice says.

  I smile weakly, still not totally convinced it wasn’t beginner’s luck. The map in my lap pops up again. I focus in on the tiny image of the yellow taxi hovering above my knee. It’s heading right toward a blue-green planet the size of a marble. I look out the windshield. Right in front of us is also a blue-green planet, but it’s MUCH bigger than a marble. This must be Delta Three. If it weren’t for the two suns, I’d think we were looking down at Earth. This is what the globe in my classroom looks like.

  “What do I do, Dad?”

  “I’ll need you to tell me when we’re about to enter the upper atmosphere. It should be around fifteen miles from the planet. Then I’ll reverse the thrusters to slow us down. Sound good?”

  “Um, sure,” I say, not sure at all. I know from school that the atmosphere surrounds a planet and protects it from the sun and maybe other stuff, but that doesn’t mean I know what it looks like.

  “And, Archie, I probably don’t need to tell you this, but if I don’t slow us down in time, well…” He trails off, but I get his message loud and clear.

  I gulp and touch the image of the little yellow taxi floating above the map. Lines instantly shoot out of it, with numbers running above them. I quickly realize the numbers are showing me how far we are from the objects around us. The closest is Delta Three, at only forty miles. I breathe a sigh of relief. Archie Morningstar, World’s Best Space Taxi Copilot, has done it again. “Reverse thrusters on the count of three… two… one… now!” I shout.

  The number on the map changes to fifteen miles. Dad grabs a red handle above his head and pulls it all the way down. The engine grinds and whirs and the taxi shakes, but we don’t seem to be losing any speed. The planet is getting closer and bigger by the second. I push my back into the seat, and my hands clamp down on the armrests. Did I mess up? Maybe the numbers mean something else? Maybe they mean how many feet away we are, not miles?

  Just when the planet seems close enough to reach out and touch, the front of the taxi tilts up, and we finally slow down. Instead of flying headfirst toward the ground, we’re now flying parallel to it, so that’s a lot less scary. A loud rumbling sound fills the car.

  “Landing gear,” Dad explains before I can ask.

  We weave past buildings (all painted pink for some reason) and houses (also pink) and trees (still green) until we circle above a landing field that looks just like the one on Earth. For a split second I wonder if Dad’s been playing some crazy trick on me and we’re actually back home. “Morningstar and son, coming in for a landing,” Dad says, and sets us down so gently I don’t realize we’re on the ground until he says it.

  We roll to a stop at the end of a runway. The car shudders back to its original taxi-like state, and Dad drives us out to the road. I had expected aliens to have green skin and tentacles, or maybe scales and five legs. But the people we pass on the street look human, only everyone is really tall, with short hair and long arms and legs, and they kind of glide when they walk.

  They must have some really good basketball games here.

  A few minutes later we pull up in front of an ordinary-looking apartment building, not much different from our own. Besides the pinkness, I mean.

  Dad turns off the car, which gives one last sputter and clunk before going quiet. “We’re here!” he says with a grin. “Your first visit to another planet!” As though he’s reading my mind, he says, “I know it looks a lot like home. Planets need to follow the same sort of rules in order for life to exist. Wait till you see the Gamma Quadrant, though. Man, the planets in those galaxies are downright weird!”

  I grin. “Does that mean you’ll take me to work again someday?”

  He laughs and undoes his straps. “Let’s get through today first, and then we’ll see. Ready?”

  I nod. I’m about to step onto another planet! I take a deep breath, step out of the car, and instantly begin rising up into the air.

  I repeat, I AM FLOATING IN THE AIR. Like a BALLOON! Soon I’m almost as high as the trees lining the street. I should be freaking out, but once you’ve loop-de-looped through a wormhole and almost plunged headfirst into a planet, this doesn’t seem so scary.

  Still, a little warning might have been nice.

  Chapter Five:

  The Fare

  Dad freaks out enough for both of us. “Archie!” he yells, running around underneath me. “Grab on to a branch! Quick, before you get higher than the trees!”

  I reach out with both arms and legs until I’m able to grab the top branch of the closest tree. The trees on this planet are very tall, much taller than on Earth. I wrap myself around the trunk and hold tight. The suns are pretty bright up here, but luckily I still have my sunglasses on.

  “Great job, Archie!” Dad calls, running over to my tree. “Can you climb down?”

  I nod. The bark is kind of rough, but when I loosen my grip, I can feel myself start to float again. So I hang on tight and begin climbing down. Around halfway to the ground I’m feeling pretty good about my climbing abilities. A city kid like me doesn’t get many chances to climb trees. I should go to the park more often.

  “That’s it, Archie,” Dad calls up. “Keep going.”

  Still gri
pping tight with my hands and feet, I lower myself one more branch. Whoa! I suck in my breath. Six inches away from my face is a large white ball of fur. The ball of fur’s belly is rising and falling with each breath. I don’t dare move. Who knows what a space animal could do to a kid? Drag me back to its cave? Swallow me in one gulp?

  The branch creaks. I wince as the creature lifts his head and looks right at me. He has long whiskers, triangle-shaped ears, and bright green eyes.

  “Meow,” he says, lazily cleaning a paw with his tongue. As he rolls to the side, I can see a few gray patches of fur on his belly. I had been afraid of a cat! A cat that pretty much looks exactly like a cat from Earth. Bigger and fluffier, but not a scary eat-my-brains-for-breakfast kind of alien by any means.

  I inch closer. The cat swishes his tail but doesn’t back away. His tail has an odd green circle around the tip, like someone drew a ring around it with a green marker. He isn’t wearing a collar, so I can’t tell if he belongs to anyone. Holding on tight to the tree with one hand, I reach out the other so he can sniff it. He must not think I’m much of a threat because he lowers his head and lets me pet him. “How’d you get stuck in this tree?” I murmur as I scratch under his neck. He just purrs happily. Cats have always liked me. I should ask for one as a pet.

  “How’s it coming, Archie?” Dad calls up between the branches.

  I say a fast good-bye to the cat and keep scrambling down the tree.

  Once I get low enough, Dad grabs me and lowers me to the ground. I’m finally standing on another planet! Pushing down gently, but firmly, on the top of my head to keep me from lifting off again, Dad stuffs what look like yellow marbles into each of my pockets. I can feel them tugging me toward the ground.

  “Sorry, son,” he says, lifting his hand from my head. “I forgot to give you these gravity balls before we left the car. On Earth each of those would weigh a hundred pounds. You’ll need them to stay on the ground. There is slightly less gravity here.”

  “I think I just found that out.”

  He laughs. “Indeed you did! Now let’s go pick up Mr. Fitch. We’re a little behind schedule.”

  I’m sure it’s my fault that Dad’s late. What if his fare is really mad? What if my trouble figuring out the map gets Dad fired?

  But when we ring the bell, a man with tan skin and very white teeth opens the door with a smile and a cheerful “Good day!” I wonder if this is Mr. Fitch. He doesn’t look like the other people we’ve passed. This guy is large. Like, superlarge. Like, pro-wrestler large. The business suit he’s wearing looks like it’s about to split wide open.

  “Are you ready, sir?” my dad asks.

  Mr. Fitch nods and steps out onto the porch beside us. He’s carrying a long coat in one hand and a brown briefcase in the other. Except for his size, he could be any regular businessman from Earth. He whistles as he follows us out to the taxi.

  “Mr. Fitch?” I ask. “There’s a cat stuck up a tree. Is he yours?”

  Mr. Fitch stops walking. His smile vanishes. “A cat?” he asks. “I’m allergic to cats. You saw one?”

  I nod and point up at the tree. “On that branch. He was white, mostly.”

  Mr. Fitch reaches up and pushes aside the leaves, but the branch is empty.

  “We’d better go, sir,” Dad says. “I don’t want you to be late for your meeting.”

  Mr. Fitch takes one more peek into the tree, then shrugs. His smile reappears. “If it was there, it’s gone now.”

  Mr. Fitch is so wide he fills up nearly all of the backseat. Dad calls Home Base on the com line and tells them we’re on our way to the drop-off.

  Zooming into outer space is easier once you’ve done it already. Dad explains that Mr. Fitch’s business meeting is on Delta Nine, which is in this same solar system, so we won’t need the wormhole. He leans over and presses a small blue button in front of me. A keypad springs out of the dashboard. “All you have to do this time, Archie, is map out the most direct route, then program it in with the keypad.”

  “No problem,” I tell him, trying to sound confident so Mr. Fitch won’t know I’ve never done this before. I lean over the map and whisper, “Map, show me Delta Nine.” And just like that, the map springs to life. I can see not only Delta Nine but the whole route between it and us. I hadn’t really expected that to work!

  Apparently, we will have to avoid two solar storms, three asteroid belts, and what looks like a bus full of tourists, but other than that, it’s a straight shot. I use the keypad to type in the quickest and safest route. I’m amazed that I can do what I’m doing. I bet I totally ace my next math test.

  “Can’t we go any faster?” Mr. Fitch asks. His smile is fully gone now. He sneezes three times in a row, blows his nose loudly, then he sneezes some more.

  Uh-oh, I must be the reason he’s sneezing! I slowly slide down in my seat. Hopefully he won’t notice I have a few stray cat hairs on me. I look down at my pants. Okay, more than a few. I pull off one particularly puffy ball of fur and toss it to the floor. That cat sure sheds a lot!

  Dad pulls a box of tissues from a hidden storage compartment between our seats. He closes the lid before I can see what else is in there. This car has so many secrets! I hope I get to see more of them soon.

  Mr. Fitch scowls and grabs the tissues. The sneezing lasts the entire way to Delta Nine.

  This planet is very far away from the two suns that were so bright on Delta Three. The dim reddish light makes the planet look kind of gloomy. The leaves on the thin trees are a gray silver, and the roads have deep cracks in them. Dad quickly drives us to a downtown area and pulls up to the curb in front of a row of gray, lopsided buildings. The people walking on the street wear gray clothes and gray hats, and have gray-colored skin. They don’t look unhappy, though. I guess they don’t know that their planet is kind of, well, gray. I won’t need my sunglasses here.

  “You’ll want to leave your gravity balls in the car,” Dad tells me. “Otherwise you’d step out and sink deep into the ground.”

  At least this time he warned me.

  With one last sneeze, Mr. Fitch grabs his briefcase and pushes open his door. “I will be back in ten minutes,” he barks at us. “You will wait here.”

  Mr. Fitch sure is bossy! He hurries out of the car and ducks into an alley between two buildings.

  Dad picks up the bags from Barney’s Bagels and Schmear. “Time to eat!” We sit on the curb and dig into our sandwiches. We get some curious looks, and an occasional tip of a hat in our direction, but the people on the street mostly ignore us as they pass.

  A glob of tuna falls out of my sandwich and onto the street. A second later a large cat appears out of nowhere and pounces on it. He scarfs it down in one bite. This cat is also white, like the one in the tree on the first planet. “You really do attract cats wherever you go!” Dad says, laughing.

  Before I can pet this one, he must smell something he likes even better than the tuna, because he takes off in the same direction as Mr. Fitch. I swear I see a blur of green around his tail as he turns the corner. Must be a space cat thing.

  Dad takes a swig from his coffee cup. “I have to check in with Home Base, Archie. Feel free to take a look around. Just make sure I can still see you, okay?”

  “Got it,” I say, gobbling down my pickle. Space travel makes a guy hungry. A shiny, round object lying on the street near the alley where Mr. Fitch went catches my eye. A large coin maybe? No one else has passed by that way. I wonder if he dropped it.

  I turn around to ask Dad what we should do, but he’s already in the taxi talking on the com line. He did say I could explore a little. With one last glance at the car, I step away from the curb and head toward the alley.

  The silver object turns out to be bigger than I thought, and heavier. I turn it over in my hand. It looks like a giant locket with the letters ISF etched onto one smooth side. A groove runs around the edge, but I can’t pry it open. Whatever it is, I bet Mr. Fitch would want it back.

  I peer into t
he alley but can’t see very far. It’s dark and even gloomier than out on the streets. A loud shuffling and crashing comes from the other end of the alley. Maybe that cat knocked over a garbage can?

  “Unhand me, you fool!” a man shouts. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with!”

  I know that bossy voice! Mr. Fitch is in trouble!

  Chapter Six:

  A Ratty Ball of Fur

  “Let me go, I say!” Mr. Fitch shouts. “Help me, someone, help!”

  It sounds like he’s being robbed! Maybe someone wants his briefcase! I have to help him. Especially after I made him sneeze by petting that cat near his house. Just as I think it, Mr. Fitch starts sneezing again.

  I don’t want to go down there, but I have to do something. Before I change my mind, I hurl the silver disk thingy as hard as I can. All my Little League training has given me a pretty good arm, and it goes deep into the darkness. I hold my breath, wondering if I just made a huge mistake. Then I hear the object clatter to the ground and break open. The alley is immediately filled with light.

  “So that’s where that went,” an unfamiliar voice says. I look around the alley, but the only person there besides me is Mr. Fitch. He’s standing next to a pile of old boxes, blinking in the sudden light and clutching his briefcase.

  “You!” he shouts, spotting me. “Space taxi kid!” He pauses to sneeze. “Get this thing off of me!”

  I back up a step. “Um… what thing?”

  He spins around and flails at something on his back.

  My eyes open wide when I see what’s actually on him. It’s the CAT! The white cat is hanging on to the back of Mr. Fitch’s suit with his claws! His tail is swishing back and forth, and I can clearly see the green circle around it. The cat sticks his head over Mr. Fitch’s shoulder to look at me.

  “Young sir,” he says in a calm, well-mannered voice. “Thank you for returning my Light Orb. I am an officer of the ISF—that’s the Intergalactic Security Force—and this man is my prisoner.”