many junked ships seemed to stretch for some miles away from them, toward the horizon where (it being clear for a change) the dim shapes of distant mountains were visible.
'This is going to take us a while, isn't it?' Gabriel asked.
'At least twenty minutes to walk to the next place,' Enda answered.
'No, I mean to get off here.'
She looked at him wryly but with understanding. 'Your life has been lived very fast, I think,' Enda said. 'Now you feel a different pace and are uncertain whether you like it.' 'No, I'm certain,' Gabriel said. 'I don't like it.'
Enda chuckled. 'We will see how long that lasts. Meantime, there will be time for the people back at Joris's Used Ship Heaven to make some commcalls.'
'Warning every other founder's in the area that there are a couple of hot ones coming.'
'And what we are looking for. We have just saved ourselves some time, I think.'
At first Gabriel was not so sure. The next lot was almost identical to the first one except that its ships were older, and the woman who came out to meet them was in a slightly tidier coverall. The main problem from Gabriel's point of view was that almost all those ships were too small. Some of them had been runabouts, just pleasure craft, and while they were drive-capable, they either weren't roomy enough or well enough shielded. It was much on Gabriel's mind that stars with good asteroid belts had a tendency to flare. The nearest good mining system, Corrivale, had problems of this kind. A ship without enough shielding would cook all its contents during a flare. Your remains would be sterile, but that would be all that could be said for them.
Enda noticed the lack of shielding and the size problem, and once again they thanked the woman and moved on down the road to the next founder's yard. Rather to Gabriel's astonishment, the sun actually came out as they reached its gates. He looked up, half tantalized and half saddened by the memory of the first sight of that pale sunlight through the tall windows of the courtroom, then he shook his head and went in after Enda.
This founder's was, if anything, dirtier and more chaotic than the first two had been. But the man who came out to meet them, rather to Gabriel's surprise, was clean or cleanish. At least his coverall seemed to have been in contact with some washing surfactant in the recent past. He actually took Enda's hand, which neither of the other founders' people had when it was offered, and shook Gabriel's as well. 'Heard about you,' the man said. 'I'm Gol Leiysin. Come in and see if we have something that fits you.' They followed him into the big yard, weaving their way around the piles of conduits and scrap metal that seemed to be piled every which way with no sense or solution to it. 'Spring cleaning,' Leiysin said. 'Don't let it frighten you.'
'You do this every spring?' Gabriel said, just avoiding tripping over some more conduit.
'Spring on Lecterion, sure,' Leiysin said and laughed between his teeth. 'We're not fanatics. What are you looking for?'
This time Enda began the recital while Gabriel tried to remember how long Lecterion's year was. It was a gas giant in orbit around Corrivale, that much he remembered, and that Omega Station, a Concord base, orbited one of the planet's moons. If he and Enda were indeed going to Corrivale in search of work, they would have to steer clear of Lecterion simply to prevent him from being arrested. But the planet's gas-giant status suggested that it was a good way out in its system and should therefore be easily avoidable.
'Got some older Delgakises,' said Leiysin. 'We don't get much call for the Lanierins; parts are too hard to get out here. There's no source for them much closer than Aegis system. Delgakis has a service depot on Grith, though. Handy. Take a look here.'
The ships he showed them were old workhorses, not one of them much less than a decade in age, some pushing two. The age itself was not that much an issue. Delgakis was one of those makes of ship known to be 'long runners,' with thousands of starfalls in them if their service history was good. These, though, were far enough along in their lives to make you think. Gabriel put that matter aside and just examined the ships for a few minutes. They were all the right size for mining work-about sixty meters long, ample space for crew quarters-meaning room for the crew to get away from each other. All of them had good hold space. One of them even had clamps for an extra hold. It was the oldest of the lot, a D80. It amazed Gabriel that they had even been building this ship that long ago. Its lines were surprisingly clean looking, its hull was in fair shape, and the drive bay had held a good-sized stardrive in its time. 'Family ship,' said Leiysin when he saw Gabriel looking at it. Enda was busy with one of the others.
'They had it from new, apparently, to go by the service record. They did cargo at first, then went for mining afterward. Then they changed again and used the augmented hold for data. A lot of hauls out by Aegis and back into the Verge just after the new drivecomm relay went in to replace the old one lost during the war. By then half the planets in the Corrivale neighborhood were setting up their new Grids now that there was something to link through. Finally the owners did something unusual: they retired. Sold out, went somewhere in-world, found themselves a little cottage up a mountain, and didn't go to space no more.'
Gabriel nodded. 'They retired the drive too, though.'
Leiysin shrugged. 'No matter how kindly you treat a drive, twenty years is too long. We've got some here that will fit this module. A Speramundi, a Bricht. The Bricht wouldn't be a perfect fit, though.' Gabriel shook his head. The Bricht would be less expensive, but a jury-rigged stardrive was nightmarish to maintain. That much he knew from many late-night horror stories from Hal. 'Let's see the inside,' he said.
Leiysin took him through. It was a surprisingly roomy ship, especially as regarded the sanitary fittings. This occurred to him as a possible reason why a family who had blasted in this ship for twenty years were able to retire, all alive, rather than having murdered one another for reasons having to do with hygiene. Gabriel knew a lot of people joked about such things, but marines knew better than most how important it was to successful human function when cooped up in a small tin can to be scrupulously clean about it. There was a tiny 'sitting room' with a couple of surprisingly comfortable-looking fold- down chairs. Next to the chairs was a modular built-in Grid and entertainment access, possibly another reason the family had not killed one another. The living quarters consisted of three quarters-cubbies, two convertible for storage, and a well-equipped pilot's cabin with room for two to be there without having to be stuffed down one another's jumpsuits.
He came out of the ship to find Enda peering into the main hold. 'Commodious,' she said. 'Should I look inside?'
'Do,' Gabriel said, and Enda slipped up the steps and vanished. Gabriel walked around the ship, trying to do the kind of walk-about that Hal used to tell him about, looking for scratches, strange welds, riveted patches that changed color within the patch, other peculiarities. The problem is that I'm not absolutely sure what I'm looking for yet, he thought. I know the symptoms, but not what they mean. But he kept at it anyway.
The ship was shaped like a long, moderately wide box with various sensor relays and system drive equipment extending out of the main hull. Triangular wings jutted out from the rear of the craft. They were obviously intended to stabilize the craft in atmospheric flight, but they also seemed thick enough to be able to accommodate at least one weapons bay in each wing. The command compartment that housed the cockpit was a ten-meter-long cylinder that extended from the front of the ship and tapered into a round nose. Two rectangular bays jutted out from each side of the command compartment. Both of them had been gutted for salvage but could easily be refitted to house either a sensor bay or even a small weapons compartment. The ship's escape pod had also been salvaged, but its housing bay seemed in good shape. Like all of the ships in the yard, the craft's dusky cerametal skin was in desperate need of a good cleaning, but Gabriel could find no exterior damage or unexplained patch work. By the rime he had come all the way around the ship, Enda was coming down the stairs and looking severely at Leiysin, who was watching this whole performance with interest.
'It badly needs a cleaning,' she said. 'I wonder that with so much attention to the technical end, you had not seen to that by now.'
'Detailing,' Leiysin said and shrugged, 'usually comes last.' He gave Enda a thoughtful look. 'Well,' Enda said after a look of her own at Gabriel, 'your decision.'
He stood there with his mouth hanging open. Marines were not used to being given decisions of such stature, at least not marines of his rank.
Then Gabriel realized that he was not a marine any more, of any rank, and that other people, normal people, did get to make such decisions ... and maybe it was time he started. Both Enda and Leiysin were standing there staring at him, awaiting his decision. 'What the drik,' he said. 'Let's do it.'
They turned together to Leiysin, who nodded, looking satisfied. 'Then let's go into the office and start the process. Sir, honored madam, will that be cash, or shall we investigate other payment options?' 'That depends,' Enda said mildly. 'How much of a discount do you offer for cash?' Cash? Gabriel was thinking while concentrating
