Chapter 25

"The Green Man" was reverberating with sound as Denny, Cowboy and McCock came down to the ground floor. It was emanating from the bar. The men had arrived late the previous evening; there had been numerous interruptions to their departure not least the arrival of the Galbraith barges and the need to coffer dam the inside of the yard wall to stop the spray of molten debris from the cutters outside working on the new locks. There would still be drops of slag solidified on unimportant surfaces to remove in their, oh so, abundant spare time. The barges couldn't be brought inside the dock until after the coffer dam was in place and by then the Flock were just on the edge of dog tiredness. McCock had made the decision to rest Polack and Slow before leaving. After that two were rested, the three going on leave called a shuttle to take them dirtside as they didn't trust themselves to take their flivver. They had grabbed some food and then into their suite. They hadn't stirred for twenty hours.

Walking into the bar was to be met by a wall of sound - music, clinking glass, voices. Cowboy nodded towards the food tables. A remembered voice behind them came,

"Hello sailor, buy a girl a drink?" accompanied by an outrageous giggle, "I've wanted to use that line for years". McCock turned and as he expected, there was Erin smiling cheerfully at him.

"You seem to be not needing one," nodding at her depleted glass.

"Well I've been waiting for hours for you to get out of bed. You were supposed to be up bright and early this morning and here it is nearly full night."

"How did you know when we were getting in?"

Erin took his arm leading him to the food and smiled archly at him,

"I have my spies."

"I certainly hope not" rejoined McCock.

They got their food and seeing Cowboy and Denny happily occupied in a group of laughing people, sought a quiet corner as friends(lovers?) do. They brought each other up to date with the recent events.

"Oh, perhaps I'll be able to spend a night or two in a spare cabin in private" Erin commented as the details of the "Trader" were passed. McCock let that one pass though to the catcher.

They danced intermittently, mingled with others, lightly looked from time to time upon the alcohol in the bottom of their glasses and then quietly went up to the suite. They enjoyed their company as only young persons attracted to each other can. Denny and Cowboy, not having any commitments gave them room. Erin had arranged her time off in consultation with Slow. So she said her goodbyes to McCock in the suite and departed with a promise from him to be in touch.

The men quietly collected their toiletries and stowed their gear in the drawers and closets or gave to Mine Host for cleaning, and walked to the shuttle ramp. They donned their skin suits and moved into the shuttle for the return trip to the orbiting space yards.

They selected a com freq and chatted during the trip. The need for a vehicle larger that the flivver but a bit more showy than the power barge which was not suborbital anyway was brought up. McCock flipped Polack and Slow into the conversation but no firm decision was made. Obtaining a space yacht and joining the local club was discussed. Somewhat tongue in cheek, Cowboy suggested it could be got as a legitimate budget item as advertising. This was met with strangled mirth from the yard occupants who refused to tell what was so funny. The travellers were told they'd just have to wait and see.

The shuttle let them off at No3 hatch and waited until the men were through the hatch before powering off. They cycled through to the Cabin where they found Slow supervising the cutter which was moving over a barge secured in the dock.

Slow explained that the Chief and Toby had cheated a bit and used their crew who would have been standing idle to assist Slow and Polack to bring the barges inside and rig the first in the dock. Barge 412 was in the dock and the rigs were already repairing it as per its log that Chief had brought over. Barge 413 was in A lower awaiting repairs and Polack was down there now giving it the once over. Slow and Polack had made the executive decision to keep atmosphere in the office in consultation with Toby and with Chief's comments accepted. The tunnel between hatch No4 and the "Trader's" passengers' access was upgraded to a permanent fixture retaining the security of the hatches. The Chief had also explained that even after providing atmosphere and gravity for the "Trader's" living areas and engine room plus atmosphere for the office, the excess standby power should be connected to the yard using the ship's external power connections. The Chief had greatly enjoyed himself, 'Haven't done this in years', working on the "Trader's" power boards and it would only require throwing a breaker in the engine room to put power out of the external power plug. Chief had advised putting another power board inside the yard so the yard could be isolated without having to get to the engine room. Using Toby's contacts, Slow had made enquiries. The Chief had signed off the radiation releases for the ships engines.