Jane said, “Whatever makes it work, we seem to be the folks on the scene, so I suppose we’re the ones who need to get it done.”
The Grannies came back over, leading Captain Dressi. Dee said, “We’ve settled up on the trade goods, but he wants a whole pallet for hauling the prisoners home.”
“He is taking a risk. What if he gets seen unloading them? He’s going to be answering questions for a long time.”
“You’re going to give him the remotely activated badges, aren’t you?”
“Some kid could catch him unloading. You do remember Charlie, don’t you?”
Grandma Cachi spoke up. “You sound like you want to give him a whole pallet for taking them back.”
“I want to give him what he thinks it’s worth, because he’s taking a big risk, for him and his crew. We take risks all the time, but we have Gene and all the bots backing us up. He has himself and his two, what, sons? Nephews?”
Captain Dressi said, “One of each, actually. How did you know?”
“You just don’t treat them like hired help.”
The Captain replied, “That’s funny, coming from you. You don’t treat anybody like ‘hired help’.”
Dee said, “He’s got you there, Captain.”
“I suppose he does, at that. So, we’re agreed, an extra pallet for dealing with the passengers?”
Captain Dressi stuck out his hand to shake, so I did. I said, “You have been to Earth. I’m a little surprised I’ve never heard stories of you folks.”
He said, “The people I deal with are making good money, they don’t want to spoil it.”
“Makes sense. How soon can we get some bots aboard to get you set up to carry those folks?”
“Bots?”
“Mechanical folks, like Shorty, here. They do most of the work around here.”
“You trust these ‘bots’?”
“Sure do. Not to say some of them aren’t ornery, if they get the chance, but I trust them to have my back, when I need it. Why else would I have them here for guards, in case you tried to pull something.”
He looked around, apparently just noticing the Marine guards standing around the bay. “You mean they are armed?”
“Show him, Andre.” They exposed their built-in stunners, and brought them to order arms. After a moment, they put them away. “I see. Those were stunners, weren’t they? What if I was the one in a thousand or so who is immune to them?”
I drew my pistol, and held it in front of me. “One of those primitive projectile weapons you were talking about. The girl who is working on building us your style of weapons has yet to decide she has enough testing to clear them for general issue.”
“You would have killed me?”
“I doubt it, unless you have some strange anatomy. There are plenty of places to shoot you where you’ll be pretty much incapacitated, without too much risk of you bleeding out.”
“You sound like you have experience.”
“One of the fellows we hauled back threatened to break my dog’s neck. I shot him in the arms, and stopped him from doing it.”
“You have autodoc codes for our people?”
Jane said, “We do, but we didn’t see the need to use them for him. Just patched him up and let him heal normally.”
Captain Dressi looked at me. “You like your dog quite a bit, don’t you?”
I replied, “You don’t understand. He’s my wife’s dog.”
“That explains a lot. I remember an Earth saying. ‘Happy wife, happy life’, I believe it goes?”
“Exactly right.”
Saucy spoke up. “Boss, we need to go aboard to start on those bunks. Sally needs Andre and the boys to go pick up this fella’s passengers, if you don’t need them here anymore.”
“I think we can get by without them. Andre, come here a minute before you head out, please.”
Andre came up. “Yes, Boss?”
“Be sure and wash those idiots, before you bring them aboard. We wouldn’t want to stink up Captain Dressi’s ship.”
“Wash the idiots, aye.”
“Be careful about dunking them in rivers. There are carnivores down there.”
“No fishing with the idiots for bait, yes, Boss.”
He took off. Captain Dressi asked, “You’re not sending a human to supervise him?”
“He can handle it. A supervisor would just get in the way and slow him down.”
“I thought humans were paranoid about letting bots work on their own?”
“Some are. I haven’t had any trouble.”
B-128 and his crew of old-timers came into the bay, pulling grav pallets full of material. He said, “Hi Boss, is this the ship that needs bunks installed?”
“Sure is. You fellas got the job ‘cause you’re built smaller?”
“Yep. The newer bots couldn’t get aboard this ship, not and have room to work.”
“Captain Dressi here can show you where he wants the bunks. You folks do all have nanny protocol up and running, right?”
“Yes, Boss. Scotti checked before she sent us in.”
Captain Dressi asked, “Nanny protocol?”
“It allows them to ignore orders from people outside their chain of command. So you can’t order them to help you take over the ship.”
“Do you ever miss a trick, Captain Wilson?”
“More often than I would like, I’m afraid.”
“I have trouble believing that.”
“Well, Captain, what you choose to believe or not is up to you. Do you need to stick around while they are getting you fixed up for passengers, or do you want a tour of the ship to pass the time?”
“Not that I don’t trust you, Captain, but if they are aboard, I better be here.”
“I understand. You have to set a good example for your helpers, if nothing else. Perhaps the next time you’re out this way.”
“I’ll look forward to that.”
Tikki came into the bay. She was carrying a module of some sort. She said, “Hi Boss. I brought a transponder
