Free Vacation on Union Station (EarthCent Ambassador Book 7) by E. M. Foner

tossing a coin to each of his children. They eagerly caught the money and ran off without saying where they were going. “I hope my son didn’t scare you with his driving, but I thought it would be a more important use of my time to talk a couple of other mayors into coming. They should be arriving any minute.”
    “I’m Pyun Woojin and this is my wife, Lynx. Please call me Wooj.” The two men shook hands.
    “Lynx Edgehouse,” Lynx said, shaking Bob’s hand.
    “You’re married but you use different names?” Bob asked.
    “I’m keeping my options open, just in case,” Lynx replied. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice. We were originally planning to contact you from at least a day out, but the tunnel controller dumped us in such a low orbit that landing immediately was the only thing that made sense.”
    “The Dollnicks prefer it that way,” Bob said. He ushered them into the house through an odd double-door and led them into a sunken living room, indicating that they should seat themselves. “Very efficient people, might have something to do with the four arms. Of course, I’ve never been off Chianga myself, so I’m not familiar with planetary approach methodologies.”
    “You were born here, Mayor?” Lynx inquired.
    “Born and raised,” the mayor responded proudly. “My parents came out in the first wave from Earth and never went back. I grew up on the main continent, but when the Dollnicks declared Chianga an open world and offered financing to humans willing to colonize the outlying land masses, I signed up immediately.”
    “You’ve certainly done a lot in a short time,” Woojin said, looking around the well-appointed home. “Are these structures manufactured by the Dollnicks?”
    “Everything you see in my home was made by human hands, though we use a lot of Dollnick equipment in the factories,” Bob said. “The mayor of Houses will be here tonight, so you can ask her about the process yourself.”
    “You named a town Houses?” Lynx asked.
    “All of our towns are named for their factories,” the mayor replied, making it sound like the only logical possibility. “Is there some other way of doing it?”
    “On Earth, cities and towns are named after local geological features, or the place the settlers came from, or for the people themselves,” Lynx said. “In fact, the two times I visited Earth, it seemed that half of the places I went had a prefix, as if they ran out of ideas.”
    “Like New Houses, or West Houses, or North…”
    “He gets the idea,” Lynx interrupted her husband.
    “Nope, makes no sense to me,” Bob said, shaking his head. “We live in Floaters because the factory makes floaters. That’s how the Dollnicks name their towns and it’s good enough for us. But where are my manners?” he cut himself off and rose. “What can I get you to drink?”
    “Anything distilled is fine by me,” Woojin said.
    “Make mine with plenty of water,” Lynx added.
    “Best water on Chianga comes from our deep wells,” the mayor boasted. “You’ve made a wise choice.”
    There was a loud hiss and a skittering sound from the other room which made Lynx’s hair stand up on the back of her neck. She turned to Woojin to see if he was preparing to fend off an attack of giant insects, but he looked completely relaxed.
    “Could you trigger the door, Martha?” the mayor called. He turned back to his guests with a conspiratorial grin. “My wife is in the kitchen trying to make take-out look home-made. She commutes to Furniture, which is down south a ways, and she got home from work later than me today.”
    The front door opened and two women entered.
    “So the two of you came in one floater,” Bob commented. “What can I fix you for drinks?”
    “You’d ask ME that question?” said the taller of the pair. She carried what appeared to be a doctor’s bag, and when she pressed a hidden button on the handle, the sides flopped down, exposing a