materials here?”
The other chick was an engineer. She said, “Mostly. Just occasional shortages on fasteners and welding wire. Especially since the fusion welders need very specific wire. I hate those Allah-blessed things. The old style wire feeds can take almost anything in an emergency, even strapping wire. These things, one gauge, specific heat and freq for each alloy, no mixing because of vapor danger, even in a freaking vacuum. The safety guys are as bad as Log.”
The first girl said, “Just remember when you want to bash Admin, we’re right here.”
“No, I like you guys. You make sure I get paid.”
“Damn straight. A lot of boots don’t appreciate that.”
They all paused for a moment, and I wanted to offer just a little to be friendly.
I said, “I wasn’t there at the time, but we get light cargotainers on trampers sometimes. You know from the bill of lading it’s got to be a twenty K unit, but it masses in at sixteen K. The stuff never got in there. They’re sealed, so we can’t screw with them.”
“Yeah, but this stuff was definitely being sold in-system. They made a bunch of arrests and there were troopies running for holes. I have to wonder how many were actually guilty. It wouldn’t take many if they were on the right shift. Most of them are probably just boots who got hosed by the Justies.”
“I believe you,” I said.
“Still,” he said with his eyes staring at nothing, “stuff could go missing en route as well. We’d never know.”
I asked, “When’s the terminal going to be functional?”
The woman engineer said, “It’s functional now, for combat use, which doesn’t apply, even in combat with the way the safety managers are. It will be safe in a few weeks. It’ll be signed off some time after that. Then they’ll start cramming so much unauthed crap in there it’ll overload life support and gen, and we’ll get blamed for not anticipating, even though we’re not allowed to. Jackbags.”
I learned quite a bit I thought would be useful for planning my routes.
I figured it wouldn’t be safe to spread with any of them, in case some UN cop thought I was trying to spy for someone, especially since I’d just come from NovRos. So I finished my glass, and stood.
“I have schedule to manage, but keep the rest and be safe. Good luck.”
“Hey, and you, spacer. Thanks very much.”
“Thanks, definitely.”
I said, “You’re welcome. Safe flight.”
I went back to my room. Since I had plenty of space and a wide bed, I plugged in my Body Buzz and ran a program. Tactile pads all over my neck and torso, 3D vid and two vibes and fingers on my lips wasn’t as good as real sex, but sometimes I like just how much overload it can offer all at once. I came hard enough for green sparkles behind my eyelids. I knew I’d hit a good release. I managed purple sparkles once. Green is really good.
CHAPTER 9
I managed to book on a mid-size slow tug that was going through Meiji and around, to Earth and around, and back to Caledonia. They hired me for the duration up front.
The slow tugs take more work and carry more sensitive cargo, but the flights are longer. The per-day rate wasn’t quite as high and meant a little more work, but I’d have a nice chunk at the end.
There are people rich enough to ship exotic wood between systems.
There are people rich enough to ship finished furniture between systems.
The stuff was packed in hermetic wrap, inside aerogel, inside custom cases, inside crush foam, inside crates, inside spring padding, inside cargotainers, inside pods. It had to be bonded through Earth, because they consider it some sort of environmental sin. So those pods had to be separated, and cargo had to be planned around it because we legally couldn’t open those pods in Earth space.
In Meiji we dropped cargo and picked up handmade artifacts in precious alloys. I saw attached images. The stuff was gorgeous. We also picked up high-nitrogen gas in containers, and fairly
The other chick was an engineer. She said, “Mostly. Just occasional shortages on fasteners and welding wire. Especially since the fusion welders need very specific wire. I hate those Allah-blessed things. The old style wire feeds can take almost anything in an emergency, even strapping wire. These things, one gauge, specific heat and freq for each alloy, no mixing because of vapor danger, even in a freaking vacuum. The safety guys are as bad as Log.”
The first girl said, “Just remember when you want to bash Admin, we’re right here.”
“No, I like you guys. You make sure I get paid.”
“Damn straight. A lot of boots don’t appreciate that.”
They all paused for a moment, and I wanted to offer just a little to be friendly.
I said, “I wasn’t there at the time, but we get light cargotainers on trampers sometimes. You know from the bill of lading it’s got to be a twenty K unit, but it masses in at sixteen K. The stuff never got in there. They’re sealed, so we can’t screw with them.”
“Yeah, but this stuff was definitely being sold in-system. They made a bunch of arrests and there were troopies running for holes. I have to wonder how many were actually guilty. It wouldn’t take many if they were on the right shift. Most of them are probably just boots who got hosed by the Justies.”
“I believe you,” I said.
“Still,” he said with his eyes staring at nothing, “stuff could go missing en route as well. We’d never know.”
I asked, “When’s the terminal going to be functional?”
The woman engineer said, “It’s functional now, for combat use, which doesn’t apply, even in combat with the way the safety managers are. It will be safe in a few weeks. It’ll be signed off some time after that. Then they’ll start cramming so much unauthed crap in there it’ll overload life support and gen, and we’ll get blamed for not anticipating, even though we’re not allowed to. Jackbags.”
I learned quite a bit I thought would be useful for planning my routes.
I figured it wouldn’t be safe to spread with any of them, in case some UN cop thought I was trying to spy for someone, especially since I’d just come from NovRos. So I finished my glass, and stood.
“I have schedule to manage, but keep the rest and be safe. Good luck.”
“Hey, and you, spacer. Thanks very much.”
“Thanks, definitely.”
I said, “You’re welcome. Safe flight.”
I went back to my room. Since I had plenty of space and a wide bed, I plugged in my Body Buzz and ran a program. Tactile pads all over my neck and torso, 3D vid and two vibes and fingers on my lips wasn’t as good as real sex, but sometimes I like just how much overload it can offer all at once. I came hard enough for green sparkles behind my eyelids. I knew I’d hit a good release. I managed purple sparkles once. Green is really good.
CHAPTER 9
I managed to book on a mid-size slow tug that was going through Meiji and around, to Earth and around, and back to Caledonia. They hired me for the duration up front.
The slow tugs take more work and carry more sensitive cargo, but the flights are longer. The per-day rate wasn’t quite as high and meant a little more work, but I’d have a nice chunk at the end.
There are people rich enough to ship exotic wood between systems.
There are people rich enough to ship finished furniture between systems.
The stuff was packed in hermetic wrap, inside aerogel, inside custom cases, inside crush foam, inside crates, inside spring padding, inside cargotainers, inside pods. It had to be bonded through Earth, because they consider it some sort of environmental sin. So those pods had to be separated, and cargo had to be planned around it because we legally couldn’t open those pods in Earth space.
In Meiji we dropped cargo and picked up handmade artifacts in precious alloys. I saw attached images. The stuff was gorgeous. We also picked up high-nitrogen gas in containers, and fairly
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