FuturAstrorama
V.
Lunar Orbit
The Starship Nimbus was in Lunar orbit, having been summoned from its previous mission by D.O.O.P. due to a distress call from the lunar base. Rear Brigadier Zapp Brannigan stood in the bridge studying the transcriptions of the distress signal that had reached the D.O.O.P. monitoring post.
"This is very queer, Kif," Zapp told his second in command. "We've had no reports of any alien invasion threats for over a year now, and no ships from outside our system have been spotted anywhere near the Earth-Moon area. Try contacting the Moon base on all channels."
"Yes sir." Kif moaned as he walked over to the communications panel on the bridge. "Lunar City, this is the Nimbus." Kif spoke into the microphone. "Is anybody there?"
Unexpectedly, a response came over the orbital navigation channel.
"Nimbus, this is Lunar City approach. We were expecting you. You can stand down from red, yellow, or whatever color alert you are probably on at the moment. We much apologize for our distress signal earlier, that was sent by mistake. All is well."
Zapp Brannigan grabbed the microphone from Kif. "That makes perfect sense." He said. "Since we had no indication of any alien ships in the area."
Kif shut down the communications channel.
"Didn't you read the transcript?" he asked Zapp. "It was clear and direct. They warned us of captives being taken, and booby traps set all over the base. They even warned us to keep away, but you insisted to D.O.O.P. control that you could quickly clean up the situation."
"Come on Kif, it was obviously a practical joke on the part of the Lunar City commander." Zapp said. "He must get pretty bored in his job and needed to give me an excuse to come and visit. We might as well take advantage of the situation and allow shore leave for the crew."
"Don't you think we should make sure that all is in order first?" Kif said.
"Excellent idea!" Brannigan said. "You and I will beam down with a small contingent of the crew and observe the situation while taking our shore leave. If we are having a good time, we will invite the rest of the crew to join us."
"That's not exactly what I meant." Kif said.
Planet Express, New New York City
Astro woke up to the sound of Chi-tan playing with some toys that the professor had left in the corner of the room. Uran and Cobalt were still asleep. Astro had flown back to the Planet Express building after exploring NNYC for a few hours. He'd managed to get a few hours rest, but was now wide awake. He quietly left the room and mounted the stairs to the buildings main level where he found the employee lounge occupied by the Planet Express staff. Leela and Fry were having their morning coffee. Amy Wong was reading the China-town news paper, while Hermes Conrad sat with a calculator doing the books. Bender was drinking a beer while smoking a cigar. A few seconds after Astro walked into the room, Professor Farnsworth made his entrance.
"Good News everyone!" Farnsworth said. "I have another milk run for you guys to make. This trip will be to Lunar City to make a delivery of green cheese."
"I thought the moon was supposed to be made of green cheese." Fry laughed.
"Is that what people believed in the 20th century?" Farnsworth asked.
"No not really." Fry said. "Actually, that was just a common joke."
"Oh I see." the professor said. "Now a days we joke that the moon is made of Limburger."
"Anyway." he added, "You can take some shore leave at the Lunar City Disneyland after you make your delivery. Spend a few days there if you like."
Leela noticed Astro standing near the door way. "Hello, who are you?"
Professor Farnsworth turned around and saw Astro standing behind him.
"Everyone, I'd like your to meet Astro Boy. He's a robot from twenty first century Japan." He said. "Astro and three other robots were brought back from New Tokyo by Bender."
"Oh, so THAT's what Bender was stealing from the Ministry of Science building." Leela said.
"Hey!" Bender said walking over to Astro and putting his hand on Astro's shoulder. "This bot is a long lost cousin of mine!"
"Well now that he's here, what is he going to do with himself?" Leela asked.
Astro removed the card from his internal storage pocket that he'd gotten from the robot Don. "Well I did get a job offer from some robot I met last night." he said
"Let me see that!" Bender said grabbing the computer card from Astro.
"Oh, oh. You might want to keep away from this guy." Bender said. "He's the head of the NNYC robot crime mob. I've had dealings with that guy and his henchman Clamps."
"Yeah, I remember." Fry said. "That almost didn't end too well."
"Thanks for the warning." Astro said taking the card back and tearing it up.
"Well, I suppose he could join the delivery crew." Leela said. "Providing he's strong enough and not a lazy bum like you Bender."
"Don't worry." Astro said. "I can handle the work."
Lunar City moon base
Zapp, Kif, and most of the Nimbus's brass beamed down to the middle of the Lunar City grand concourse to find the place empty.
"This is strange." Kif said. "Normally, this area is crowded with people. Where is everyone?"
"Must be siesta time." Zapp guessed.
Before any of the Nimbus crew could react by drawing a weapon, they were surrounded by a mob of can shaped robots with claw hands.
"Drop your weapons!" the robots ordered, as they pointed their own ray guns at the men of the Nimbus.
Zapp and his officers complied, seeing that they had little choice.
"Where did you guys come from?" Zapp demanded. "We monitored no alien space traffic approaching the moon."
"Maybe that's because we've been here all the time."
The voice came from a larger version of the robots that had made the ambush. It was a large can shaped machine with two claw like arms. It had two large square red eyes and a huge mouth.
"I was asleep in my laboratory for over a thousand years." The large robot said. "I woke up to find that my home had been invaded by a civilization of humans who had come here uninvited. I built myself an army, and I am now going to take over the Moon, and then the Earth."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Zapp said.
"You mean you don't remember me? He asked. "I guess that's because my teacher is long dead. I'm known as the Master Cylinder!"