Alice brought her up on a small holographic projector. She was wearing a heavy vacsuit without the headpiece. Her round face was split by a great big smile. “Sasha! How are you?”
“Pretty good, how about you?” Alice answered.
“Great, just brought in our first really good salvage in weeks. What brings you back this way?”
“I'm headed spinward on personal business. I'm a little low on fuel and have been cooped up for weeks.”
“If I had my own Arcyn Starskipper I wouldn't mind being cooped up for weeks.”
“It's not as much fun without a crew.”
“Still solo? We'll have to talk about that. I'll have the company set you up with a place to park.”
“Thanks Wendy, see you on base.”
“She seemed very happy to see you,” Lewis commented after the channel closed.
“Yup. That probably means I figure into a plan she's been cooking,” the trajectory and landing instructions came up on Alice's console and she unlocked the pilot controls.
“Are you sure she wasn't just glad to see you?”
“Well, Wendy and I did have a lot of fun for a couple months here,” Alice started piloting the ship along the trajectory she had been given. “Not that much fun though. Hopefully whatever it is means enough work to get our tanks full.”
The landing bays for the Mark and Catch Salvage Company included two levels. One was a larger open bay for medium sized vessels and the other was a closed, compressed bay for smaller ships like the Clever Dream. To her surprise Alice was instructed to wait until Captain Lecteur met her at her ship before disembarking.
It didn't bother her, Alice was eager to look for any reports of the Samson or Jake Valance's activities. The only lead she had was that his new home port was most likely in or near the Enreega system, the home of the Aucharians. She wanted nothing more than to just take off and make her best speed there, but even if she started selling furniture and the few other luxuries she had she wouldn't make it.
The only options she had were to find work that might lead her in that direction and provide enough cash for fuel or sell the Clever Dream and make her way via standard transport. Selling her ship was out of the question.
Time passed quickly as she browsed news reports and ran searches for Jake. Before she knew it forty minutes had passed and Wendy Lecteur was at her gangway. “How's it going Sasha? Or should I say Alice?” She asked as she walked up the ramp.
“Good. Drifting, but good,” Alice said as she met her with a hug.
“Drifting? You're out of work? There's got to be a story behind that.”
“Actually, Alice is my real name. I had to use Sasha my last time through.”
“Well, it didn't work for long. Someone came through looking for you in the worst way after you disappeared.”
Alice led the way back down the gangway with Wendy in tow. It closed behind them. “Did they get to anyone?”
“Well, everyone with M amp;S was fine. They couldn't get to us with corporate backing. Bruce disappeared along with a couple other freelancers for a few days though. We were worried until he turned up.”
“Oh no, how is he?”
“He's all right now I think. It's been a year or so but he still won't talk about it. He hasn't hooked up with anyone since either.”
“I wish I didn't have to disappear.”
“Don't worry, I get it. You didn't leave anyone here hangin' either. The Company doesn't much care. They just don't want you out there with a price on your head while you're working for them.”
“So Bruce is really okay now?” Alice asked quietly as they walked through the quiet hangar. The dimmed lights told her they were on night cycle.
“You mean could you walk up to the Blue Skipper and expect a warm welcome? I don't know, he doesn't talk about you, even if someone brings your name up in conversation. He just gets quiet.”
“I should have warned him they could come after him for being close to me. Maybe I should just stay away.”
“On the other hand he hasn't been with anyone I've seen since you disappeared. Go see him. Sure he'll be pissed at first, but it might help if he sees you're in one piece.”
“Maybe,” Alice said quietly.
“So, can I buy you a drink and hear all about your adventures across the stars? It's gotta be better than our salvage cruises.”
“Sure, but first, how have things been going for you and your crew?”
They walked down one of the long hallways within the section of port under the ownership of Mark and Salvage Company. The inner halls and chambers were simply passages that were dug out of hard black and white speckled stone, reinforced and polished. “It's gotten pretty lean. I'm lucky I've been here longer than most, otherwise we would have been laid off or reduced to hauling ore. The embargo here has colonists wondering if anything will ever be terraformed. Word through the Company is that there will be one planet and two moons ready for seeding within a year. I believe it.”
“They've been at it long enough.”
“You said it. They should have a couple planets and five moons almost ready for all the effort they've put in but supply shortages have caused problems. It's more like the old fashioned terraforming.”
“Old fashioned terraforming?” Alice asked as the mismatched pair walked into the cantina that featured an intermittent view of the main port through transparent portions of the outer wall. There were a couple dozen tables with a small stage at one end and a stone bar at the other.
“When humans were first edging out from the Sol system they couldn't bring much with them so they had to make sure that whatever they terraformed had enough water, minerals, fuels, and everything else they'd need. A lot of colony ships didn't make it. Mars took five tries and the better part of a two centuries. I'm surprised you don't know all this stuff, you're the one with Earth nostalgia.”
“I mostly like what's left of the twentieth to twenty first century histories.”
“Oh, I remember. You used to say how Bruce looked like Joaquin Phoenix. How anyone could sit through a non-interactive two dimensional movie is completely mystifying to me.”
“He does though. You can't tell me you don't see the resemblance, it's like he was reborn.”
“Well, they do look alike. What are you drinking?” Wendy asked.
“Nothing that's supposed to taste like fruit, unless you guys managed to figure out what oranges taste like.” Alice said. “Maybe a cream liqueur.”
“Hey there young fella. Fix this little lady a mint sarsaparilla,” Wendy ordered, leaning up against the bar rendering her best imitation of John Wayne.
Alice couldn't help but laugh as the bartender, a beat up robot with three arms pulled up a bottle of green liquid and a glass. “The closest match we have is Green Creeme Liqueur, I do not know how to make sarsaparilla.” It said flatly. One three centimetre circle adorned its rectangular head and it lit up with every syllable.
“Someone really has to upgrade you. Pour us two.” Wendy said dismissively, turning to Alice. “I miss having you around. You came in, got me hooked on old cowboy movies, converted to hologram, of course, and then took off. I do a good impression of Don Wayne-”
“John Wayne,” Alice corrected, taking the fluted glass from the bartender. It had mixed the Green Creeme with some kind of soda water and added crushed ice dispensed from an appendage that seemed to come out of nowhere.
“A good impression of John Wayne and no one here gets it. I'm ruined, no one else understands me.”
They took a seat a few meters away from the bar and Alice couldn't help but notice that a few of Wendy's crew were trying to look like they didn't notice her. “I'm sorry, I guess I just live the outlaw's life in a modern way,” Alice said with a smile. “Trust me, if I could have stuck around long enough to hook a few more people into mid twentieth century film I would have.”
“How is the outlaw's life treating you?”
“It's better in the movies.”
“Not from what I've seen. Most of those movies end with the sheriff shooting the outlaw and all his
