Alternatively, you could plug a pump in your belly, and use your arse as a vacuum cleaner, Ashly Hanson said. Suck it off. His cheeks caved in as he made a slurping sound.
The pilot was a tall sixty-seven-year-old, whom geneering had given a compact frame, floppy brown hair, and a ten-year-olds wonderstruck smile. The whole universe was a constant delight for him. He lived for his skill, moving tonnes of metal through any atmosphere with avian grace. His Confederation Astronautics Board licence said he was qualified for both air and space operations, but it was three hundred and twenty years out of date. Ashly Hanson was temporally displaced; born into reasonable wealth, he had signed over his trust fund to the Jovian Bank in 2229 in exchange for a secure zero-tau pod maintenance contract (even then the Edenists had been the obvious choice as custodians). He alternated fifty years in entropy-free stasis, and five years bumming round the Confederation.
Im a futurologist, he told Joshua the first time they met. On a one-way ride to eternity. I just get out of my time machine for a look round every now and then.
Joshua had signed him on as much for the tales he could tell as his piloting ability.
Well just remove the foam according to the manual, thanks, he told the bickering pair.
The vocal synthesizer diaphragm protruding from Warlows chest, just above his air-inlet gills, let out a metallic sigh. He shoved his squeezy bulb into his mouth and squirted some champagne into the valve. Drink was one thing he wasnt giving up, although with his blood filters he could sober up with astonishing speed if he had to.
Meyer leant across the table. Any word on Neeves and Sipika yet? he asked Joshua quietly.
Yeah. I forgot, you wouldnt know. They arrived back in port a couple of days after you left for Earth. They bloody nearly got lynched. The serjeants had to rescue them. Theyre in jail, waiting judicial pronouncement.
Meyer frowned. Why the wait? I thought Tranquillity processed the charges right away?
Theres a lot of bereaved relatives of scavengers who never came back who are claiming Neeves and Sipika are responsible. Then theres the question of compensation. The Madeeir is still worth a million and a half fuseodollars even after my axe work. I waived my claim, but I suppose the families are entitled.
Meyer took another sip. Nasty business.
Theres talk about fitting emergency beacons to all the scavenger craft, making it an official requirement.
Theyll never go for that, theyre too independent.
Yeah, well, Im out of it now.
Too true, Kelly Tirrel said. She was sitting pressed up next to Joshua, one leg hooked over his, arm draped around his shoulders.
It was a position he found extremely comfortable. Kelly was wearing an amethyst dress with a broad square-cut neckline which showed off her figure, especially from his angle. She was twenty-four, slightly shorter than medium build, with red-brown hair and a delicate face. For the last couple of years she had been a rover correspondent for Tranquillitys office of the Collins news group.
They had met eighteen months earlier when she was doing a piece on scavengers for distribution across the Confederation. He liked her for her independence, and the fact that she wasnt born rich.
Nice to know you worry about me, he said.
I dont, its the dataloss when you detonate your brain across the cosmos in that relic youre flying, thats what Im concerned over. She turned to Meyer. Do you know he wont give me the coordinates for this castle he found?
What castle? Meyer asked.
Where he found the Laymil electronics stack.
A smile spread across Meyers whole face. A castle. You didnt tell me that, Joshua. Did it have knights and wizards in it?
No, Joshua said firmly. It was a big cube structure. I called it a castle because of the weapons systems. It was tough work getting in, one wrong move and ... Grave lines scored his face.
Kelly squirmed a fraction closer.
It was operational? Meyer was enjoying himself.
No.
So why was it dangerous?
Some of the systems still had power in their storage cells. So given how much molecular decay theyve suffered out there in the Ring, just brushing against them could have triggered off a short circuit. They would have blown like a chain reaction.
Electronic stacks, and functional power cells. That really was a terrific find, Joshua.
Joshua glared at him.
And he wont tell me where it is, Kelly complained. Just think, something that big which survived the suicide could well hold the key to the whole Laymil secret. If I could capture that on a sensevise, Id be made. I could pick my own office with Collins, then. Hell, Id be in charge of my own office.
Ill sell you where it is, Joshua said, its all up here. He tapped his head. My neural nanonics have got its orbital parameters down to a metre. I can locate it any time in the next ten years for you.
How much are you asking? Meyer asked.
Ten million fuseodollars.
Thanks, Ill pass.
Doesnt it bother you, standing in the way of progress? Kelly asked.
No. Besides, what happens if the answer turns out to be something we dont particularly like?
Good point. Meyer raised his glass.
Joshua! People have a right to know. They are quite capable of making up their own minds, they dont need to be protected from facts by people like you. Secrets seed oppression.
Joshua rolled his eyes. Jesus. You just like to think reporters have a God-given right to stuff their noses in anywhere they want.
Kelly tipped a glass to his lips, encouraging him to sip the champagne. But we do.
Youll get it bitten off one day, you see. In any case, we will know what happened to the Laymil. With the size of the research team Tranquillity employs, results are inevitable.
Thats you, Joshua, the eternal optimist. Only an optimist would even think about going anywhere in that ship of yours.
Theres nothing wrong with the Lady Mac , Joshua bridled. You ask Meyer, those systems are the finest money can buy.
Kelly fluttered long dark lashes enquiringly at Meyer.
Oh, absolutely, he said.
I still dont want you to go, she said quietly. She kissed Joshuas cheek. They were good systems when your father was flying her, and they were newer then. Look what happened to him.
Thats different. Those orphans on the hospital station would never have made it back here without the Lady Mac . Dad had to jump while he was too close to that neutron star.
Meyer let out a distressed groan, and drained his glass.
Joshua was up at the bar when the woman approached him. He didnt even see her until she spoke, his attention was elsewhere. The barmaids name was Helen Vanham, she was nineteen, with a dress cut lower than Harkeys normal, and she seemed eager to serve Joshua Calvert, the starship captain. She said she finished work at two in the morning.
Captain Calvert?
He turned from the pleasing display of cleavage and thigh. Jesus, but that title felt good. You got me.
The woman was black, very black. There couldnt have been much geneering in her family, he decided, although he was suspicious about that deep pigmentation; she was fifty centimetres shorter than him, and her short beret of hair was frosted with strands of silver. He reckoned she was about sixty years old, and ageing naturally.
Im Dr Alkad Mzu, she said.