Space Station Rat Read Online Free Page A

zero-g room all day, but NO, that’s not allowed. Too much fun!
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: scientists are not nice
    Scientists are not nice. I speak from experience.
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: Re: scientists are not nice
    I agree ! I was trying to play chess (do you?) with my dad today. Mom kept bothering him with p factors and 1q angles, then he moved his knight wrong! He thought I cheated!
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: knights
    I never move my knight wrong.
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: let’s play!
    Let’s set up a remote game! That’d be fun. Of course, best fun if you visited.
    We could have fun here, I think. This is an old space station. It is like a big house with dozens and dozens of rooms. Bits stick way out from center, like towers.
    I’m not allowed to go exploring. Many places have not been used, like forever. The lights don’t work. Some don’t have air anymore. I just know it would be fun to go exploring. Maybe if you came, they’d let us go together.
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: things we could do
    We could find where the food is grown. Maybe there would be grass.
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: no grass
    We don’t grow food here. I’m not sure where it comes from, but it is not grown. I will find out for you. Sorry about the grass.
    Rat pressed her eye more tightly to the telescope. The tip of her tail quivered. The boy sent his e-mail, then called up the study program. At last! The secrets of the food machines appeared on the screen.

C HAPTER F IVE
    R AT M AKES A M ISTAKE
    Rat was fat. She could not reach an itch at the bottom of her tail. She rubbed the itchy spot against the warm pipe, then sat down to groom her big, round belly. There were crumbs scattered around Rat. Imagine! Too full to eat every crumb! Rat liked that.
    Rat was in her nest in one of the forgotten parts of the space station. It was dim and musty-smelling and safe. There was the nice warm pipe, and even some dust. Every once in a while, something made a sound. Pffss-sit! It sounded just like when the scientists opened a bottle of fizzy water. But otherwise, it was quiet. Rat did not like the sound. However, she appreciated it. It reminded her—stay alert.
    Rat had worked hard for three days, sneaking back and forth from the food machines on Ring 9 to her nest on Ring 5. What a long trip! Rat did not like the lightness as the fake gravity weakened. The weaker gravity was about the only thing she did not like about her nest. It made her feel less connected to the space station, less able to escape danger. So on each trip for food, Rat practiced. She practiced running and climbing and dodging until she could move as easily anywhere on the space station as she did on Earth.
    One nice thing—the food got lighter as she carried it in . Rat looked at the packages of food piled around her like a fortress wall. Up close to her bed lay her special prize: three rolls of liverwurst.
    Silly boy, not liking liverwurst.
    Rat stopped writing to the boy once she got what she wanted. She concentrated on food gathering. Now Rat wondered: What did his last e-mail say? She missed knowing. She liked the way the boy talked to her. Not like the scientists: They just ordered Rat to do things. The boy was different. He wanted something from Rat, too. It was not the same thing the scientists wanted. She did not understand exactly what it was. She guessed, though, that SORRY, NO MAIL would make him unhappy.
    Rat smoothed the last tangled bit of her lavender coat just right. She looked at her supplies. They would keep her fat for a long time! That made her very happy. The boy should be happy, too.
    Rat went quickly through small air shafts. They were cozy and quiet. Her whiskers touched the sides. Then she