Chapter 3

When Ferro stepped into his usual bar, he was surprised to find the place nearly vacant. He was about to turn around and walk out when he remembered that his job was probably like his evac suit — disappeared. He needed a drink or three.

He placed an order at the bar and took a seat in the sea of empty tables. Skipping the sweet mixers, he gratefully accepted his double shot of vodka, or at least what the station called vodka, and a kru-berry chaser, which had a slightly bitter taste. Someone had told him once that kru-berry was rich in tannins and that tannins were good for him. Tannins cleaned out his blood or something like that.

In two swallows he had downed half of his vodka and he was appreciating the burn at the back of his throat. He was deliberately drinking on an empty stomach, hoping to get buzzed faster. Only when the liquor was gone would he worry about eating something solid.

He was about to take another gulp when someone blocked out the light on his left. He looked up from his glass into the face of a striking woman. She was about his age with a plain face and a short bob, the same haircut other women have who wear evac suits. Her hair was a pure blond, definitely natural but at the same time seemingly unreal. She was also thin with almost no chest. Something about her struck him as familiar but he couldn't seem to locate the connection.

"Can I help you?" he said.

"Perhaps. Are you Ferro the engineer?"

When Ferro nodded, she slid into the seat next to him.

"My name is Kay. Are you having a bad day?" she asked, pointing at his drinks.

"A bad one today and I'm going to have a worse one tomorrow. Thank you for asking," Ferro said.

"Your friend Dahyena suggested that I talk to you," Kay said.

Something in Ferro's brain clicked and he snapped his fingers. "You were in here last night talking to Dahyena. I was going to ask her about you but shit started hitting the fan just when I saw her this morning. Hang on."

Ferro whipped out his computer and dialed into his personal box. He brought up the unread message from Dahyena. As he read it, his eyebrows shot up.

"You want to offer me a job off station?" Ferro asked, looking up from his computer.

"Yes, I might," Kay said. "You studied at Sengzhou Tech, did you not? You majored in interstellar structural design."

"Yeah, for all the good that it did me. No one is building space stations and almost no one is building ships."

Kay nodded. "The shipyards are far from here. Why did you come out to Callisto?"

Ferro drank the rest of his vodka in one gulp and chased it with a swallow of kru-berry.

"The kru-berry is good. Would you like one?"

Kay gave the mug a moment's inspection before she spoke.

"Is it bitter or sweet?"

"Bitter like a space engineer's dashed dreams," Ferro said with a bit of a flourish. He signaled the waitress before speaking again. "When I graduated, there was a Business Futures Brief with an article that someone with deep pockets on Callisto was interested in re-starting the ship yard here. A century ago, this station turned out some impressive small and medium sized ships, all custom jobs. When I got here, I learned it was a classic bait and switch. There was no such person. There was no deep well of money, but there were plenty of pocked plates on the frame of the station that needed filling."

The waitress came with two mugs and set them down. Before Ferro could sit up, his drinking companion had placed a credit chip on her tray.

"Thanks," Ferro said before he continued with his story. "They lured me out here and now that the money has dried up, tomorrow I'll probably be stuck unemployed in the middle of nowhere unless you have something better to offer."

Kay took a tentative sip and then another. She ran her tongue across her lips while she made up her mind. She brought the mug to her lips and proceeded to chug down half of the contents. Placing the mug back on the table, she let slip a small burp.

Ferro wanted to say something smart or clever, but only crude or obnoxious replies popped into his head. He remained silent.

"Good choice," Kay said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "My company is interested in you because you were third in your class. Are your skills rusty?"

"Underappreciated and disregarded, yes; rusty, no. Without a great deal of entertainment on this station, everybody has to find something to keep their minds occupied. I still design ships that will never fly," Ferro said.

"Here is the deal: You come to work for us on our ship. There is no pension, no benefits other than what is on our ship, and the living quarters are crowded. The computers are state of the art. You will design ships for us that meet our specific needs. If these designs meet our stringent codes, then we will build them."

Ferro's heart was pounding.

"What kind of ships?"

"Small and medium size, I suppose," Kay said.

"That's not really an answer," Ferro pointed out.

Kay shrugged and signaled for another kru-berry. Apparently she wasn't going to talk about the type of ships she wanted any more. If Ferro wanted to know, he guessed he would have to sign up.

"Ah, do I get paid?" Ferro asked.

Kay hoisted her mug and drank the rest of the contents of her first glass in one swig. "We are operating with more than one currency: credits and power. Which one do you want?"