Oli, A Very New Moon by Carl Derham
*
Robbie docked with Cranus and Oli boarded the little ship, where he found a slightly ruffled Pardy, standing on her perch.
“That was exciting,” she said, sounding slightly less than convincing. The blind terror that had overwhelmed her just a short time before was rapidly receding. Robbie took control of Cranus and flew it back to the crater on the far side of the Moon.
“Good to see you again guys,” said Oli, wanting desperately to give Robbie a big hug. But short of hugging the drone and asking it to pass it on, this was not possible.
“I really thought we'd lost you there for a minute.”
Robbie congratulated Oli on his fine shooting and explained that he’d calculated a sixty percent chance of surviving the explosion. He’d immediately checked the orbit of the sun in relation to the rest of the galaxy and calculated a 0.000000476 of a second of arc variation in the course of the star around the galaxy, which would probably correct itself over time. Oli held out his hands silently as if to say ‘and…?’
“No damage,” offered Robbie to a relieved Oli. After all, breaking windows, crashing bikes, or any of the other calamities that usually ensued in the presence of Oli, were insignificant when compared to pushing the sun off its course.
“Oli?” posed Robbie, bringing the air of celebration back to a work-like atmosphere, “when I regained control of Cranus, I was able to monitor a small craft in orbit around Earth. I didn’t want to mention it at the time, but it would appear that the curiosity has got the better of the bat.”
“Are you sure you’re okay Robbie?” enquired Oli. Robbie was well past the point where he made silly errors in Earth sayings.
“Fine thank you. I just think that on closer analysis of the proverb, a bat is a far more inquisitive creature than a cat.”
Oli smiled at Pardy, who was still looking a bit shell-shocked. Being attacked by a violent alien race, then being trapped inside an exploding ship and escaping through the corona of a star was, to all intents and purposes, outside the usual daily routine of a parrot.
“Where’s it heading?” asked Oli.
“The shuttle has remained in orbit, but a smaller craft has landed on the asteroid. They have discovered and removed the Graviton Generator.”
“Oops! Would I be correct in assuming that if they took it back to Earth and started prodding it with all manner of prodding implements, that all would not be well?”
“That would depend on whether you consider several billion people floating off into space to be a good or a bad thing I suppose.” Robbie put Cranus to bed and they left in the little ship with all due haste.