"Using a line-throwing gun? I'll send someone out to pick it up."
"No gun, worse luck. With the best of intentions I forgot to stock one."
Fries hesitated. "Uh, Captain, pardon me, but are you in good practice for free-fall suit work?"
"Truthfully, no."
"Then let me send a boy across to put a line on you. No, no! I insist"
Hazel, the Captain, and the twins suited up, went outside, and waited. They could make out a small figure on the ship across from them; the ship itself looked larger now, larger than the Stone. City Hall was an obsolete space-to-space vessel, globular, and perhaps thirty years old. Roger Stone surmised correctly that she had made a one-way freighter trip after she was retired from a regular run.
In close company with City Hall was a stubby cylinder; it was either smaller than the spherical ship or farther away. Near it was an irregular mass impossible to make out; the sunlight on it was bright enough but the unfilled black shadows gave no clear clues. All around them were other ships or shapes close enough to be distinguished from the stars; Pollux estimated that there must be two dozen within as many miles. While he watched a scooter left a ship a mile or more away and headed toward City Hall.
The figure they had seen launched himself across the gap. He seemed to swell; in half a minute he was close by, checking himself by the line he carried. He dropped to an easy landing near the bow of the Stone; they went to meet him.
"Howdy, Captain. I'm Don Whitsitt, Mr. Fries' bookkeeper."
"Howdy, Don." He introduced the others; the twins helped haul in the light messenger line and coil it; it was followed by a steel line which Don Whitsitt shackled to the ship.
"See you at the store," he said. "So long." He launched himself back the way he came, carrying the coiled messenger line and not bothering with the line he had rigged.
Pollux watched him draw away. "I think I could do that"
"Just keep on thinking it," his father said, "and loop yourself to that guide line."
One leap took them easily across the abyss, provided one did not let one's loop twist around the guide line. Castor's loop did so; it braked him to a stop. He had to unsnarl it, then gain momentum again by swarming along the line hand over hand
Whitsitt had gone inside but he had recycled the lock and left it open for them. They went on in, to be met there by the Honorable Jonathan Fries, Mayor of Rock City. He was a small, bald, pot-bellied man with a sharp, merry look in his eye and a stylus tucked back of his ear. He shook hands with Roger Stone enthusiastically. "Welcome, welcome! We're honored to have you with us, Mister Mayor. I ought to have a key to the city, or some such, for you. Dancing girls and brass bands."
Roger shook his head. "I'm an ex-mayor and a private traveller. Never mind the brass bands."
"But you'll take the dancing girls?"
"I'm a married man. Thanks anyhow."
"If we had any dancing girls I'd keep 'em for myself. And I'm a married man, too."
"You certainly are!" A plump, plain but very jolly woman had floated up behind them.
Yes, Martha." They completed the rest of the introductions; Mrs Fries took Hazel in tow; the twins trailed along with the two men, into the forward half of the globe. It was a storeroom and a shop; racks had been fitted to the struts and thrust members; goods and provisions of every sort were lashed or netted to them. Don Whitsitt clung with his knees to a saddle in the middle of the room with a desk folded into his lap. In his reach were ledgers on lazy tongs and a rack of clips holding several hundred small account books. A miner floated in front of him. Several more were burrowing through the racks of merchandise.
Seeing the display of everything a meteor miner could conceivably need, Pollux was glad that they had concentrated on luxury goods then remembered with regret that they had precious little left to sell; the flat cats, before they were placed in freeze, had eaten so much that the family had been delving into their trade goods, from caviar to Chicago sausage. He whispered to Castor, "I had no idea the competition would be so stiff."
"Neither did I."
A miner slithered up to Mr. Fries. "One-Price, about that centrifuge -"
"Later, Sandy. I'm busy."
Captain Stone protested, "Don't let me keep you from your customers."
"Oh, Sandy hasn't got anything to do but wait. Right, Sandy? Shake hands with Captain Stone - it was his wife who fixed up old Jocko."
"It was? Say, I'm mighty proud to know you, Captain! You're the best news we've had in quite a while." Sandy turned to Fries. "You better put him right on the Committee."
"I shall. I'm going to call a phone meeting this evening."
"Just a moment!" objected Roger Stone. "I'm just a visitor. I don't belong on your Citizens' Committee."
Fries shook his head. "You don't know what it means to our people to have a medical doctor with us again. The Committee ain't any work, really. It's just to let you know we're glad you've joined us. And we'll make Mrs Stone - I mean Doctor Stone - a member if she wants it. She won't have time for it, though."
Captain Stone was beginning to feel hemmed in. "Slow down! We expect to be leaving here come next Earth departure - and my wife is not now engaged in regular practice, anyhow. We're on a pleasure trip."
Fries looked worried. "You mean she won't attend the sick? But she operated on Jock Donaher."
Stone was about to say that she positively would not under any circumstances take over a regular practice when he realized that he had very little voice in the matter. "She'll attend the sick. She's a doctor."
"Good!"
"But, confound it, man! We didn't come here for that She's on a vacation."
Fries nodded. "We'll see what we can work out to make it easy on her. We won't expect the lady to go hopping rocks the way Doc Schultz did. Get that, Sandy? We can't have every rock-happy rat in the swarm hollering for the doctor every time he gets a sore finger. We want to get the word around that if a man gets sick or gets hurt it's up to him and his neighbours to drag him in to City Hall if he can possibly wear a suit. Tell Don to draft me a proclamation."
The miner nodded solemnly. "That's right, One-Price."
Sandy moved away; Fries went on, "Let's go back into the restaurant and see if Martha has some fresh coffee. I'd like to get your opinion on several civic matters"
"Frankly, I couldn't possibly have opinions on your public affairs here. Things are so different"
"Oh, why don't I be truthful and admit I want to gossip about politics with another pro. I don't meet one every day. First, though, did you have any shopping in mind today? Anything you need? Tools? Oxy? Catalysts? Planning on doing any prospecting and if so, do you have your gear?"
"Nothing especial today - except one thing: we need to buy, or by preference rent, a scooter. We'd like to explore a bit"
Fries shook his head. "Friend, I wish you hadn't asked me that. That's one thing I haven't got All these sand rats booming in here from Mars, and even from Luna, half of 'em with no equipment They lease a scooter and a patent igloo and away they go, red hot to make their fortunes. Tell you what I can do, though - I've got more rocket motors and tanks coming in from Ceres two months from now. Don and I can weld you up one and have it ready to slap the motor in when the Firefly gets here."
Roger Stone frowned, "With Earth departure only five months away that's a long time to wait"
"Well, we'll just have to see what we can scare up. Certainly the new doctor is entitled to the best - and the doctor's family. Say -''.
A miner tapped him on the shoulder. "Say, storekeeper, I -"
Fries' face darkened. "You can address me as "Mr. Mayor!"'