Hope and discover aliens. How could we walk away from that?" I asked.
"Be at this warehouse, 1000 tomorrow. And you're just in time, Jonathan, as usual." Anino turned away, picked up his current project and worked on fusing blocks of components together with bright lights.
"I assume you've come to an arrangement." Jonathan said. "I've taken the liberty of preparing the shuttle. If you'll follow me."
We followed him out to the shuttle.
"I've called the chandler and set in supplies for four weeks," Marny said to Nick. "Did Anino say how long we'd be gone?"
"If you'll pardon my eavesdropping, young miss," Jonathan said. "Our current plan calls for no more than three weeks."
"I'll adjust to six, in that case," Marny said, giving me a wry grin.
I looked to Jonathan. "Are you coming?"
"I am. As brilliant as Master Anino is, he requires a certain amount of support staff," he said. "Where would you like me to take you?"
"How much time do you have?" I asked.
"I am at your disposal."
"Don't you need to get back to Anino, to help him get ready?" Ada asked.
"My colleagues are seeing to preparations as we speak."
"Shipyard on Irène, if you don't mind," I said.
"There are three such yards. I assume you are referring to the Menard shipyard where you are to meet Captain Charles Norris?"
"That's a pretty good guess. Were you also eavesdropping on our conversation in the dome?" I asked.
"No, Captain. I was able to locate Captain Norris's ship for sale by searching for available cargo ships and I simply correlated it to your stated need."
"My apologies."
"None necessary."
***
The Menard shipyard on Curie's moon, Irène, turned out to be nothing more than a ten square kilometer bare patch on the otherwise verdant surface. Jonathan set the shuttle down next to a dilapidated building that was the only break in a four meter high fence. I wasn't sure of the purpose of the fence as at .15g clearing it would take no effort.
"I'm not sure how long this'll take," I said and closed the helmet of my vac-suit. Irène's atmosphere was good to breath, but the temperature was a negative five degrees.
"Hey, wait for me," Ada called and closed her suit.
Her action spurred the rest of the crew to follow suit and we exited the shuttle, walking down the retractable ramp.
I wasn't completely sure where to go, as all I knew was that Norris was waiting for us somewhere on the property. The most obvious location was the building we'd parked next to and I walked up and rapped on the door.
"Coming," I heard a voice say from behind the door, just before it slid open. "Charles Norris," he said extending his hand. "You brought quite a crew with you. Hoffen, is it?"
"It is," I said and shook his extended hand, introducing him to the rest of the crew.
"You're interested in my old bird, are you?" he asked, a twinkle in his eye. "What are you looking to haul?"
"Mostly ore," I said.
"Don't look like miners to me."
"It's a long story."
"Always is. No matter. She's served me well. Figure she's got plenty of life left in her," he said. "No need to stand around talking, though. Let's take a look."
"Captain, any chance you still have your bond in place?" Nick asked.
"That's a peculiar question for someone looking to buy a ship - not that I haven't been asked stranger things than that," he said. "Reminds me of a time…"
As we walked, he regaled us with a story of how he'd been asked to deliver a load of glass marbles. Apparently, one of the containers had broken mid-trip, spilling marbles out into local space at a station he'd stopped at along the way.
"I'll tell you… they wouldn't let me stop in there again for almost a decade. And here we are," he said. "She's not much to look at, but she's got it where it counts, kid. These Kestrel-1000s were built for the long haul."
The ship in front of us was old, but in better shape than I'd expected. Nick and I spent the next twenty minutes crawling around and inspecting its single deck