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