Project Charon 2 by Patty Jansen (brene brown rising strong .TXT) 📗

not evident in any of the units around them.

He opened the door.

Tina half expected to go into a dark apartment with a few blinking lights and electronics spread all over the floor and tables, but the apartment was clean and light-filled.

“Hi Dad, I’ve brought them,” Jens said.

They went into the room. At the dining table sat a man who was almost a copy of his son, except a number of years older. He wore very dark glasses that made it impossible to see his eyes.

“This is my father, Thor.”

For a man called Thor Olafsen, this man looked as unlike a Norse god as one could imagine. He was as tall and thin as his son, he looked very frail, and Tina was quite sure that behind his dark glasses his eyes would be clouded with white, most likely through laser damage.

And he fixed equipment?

“Sit down,” he said, his voice surprisingly warm.

Tina and Rex sat and the man got up, found his way unerringly across the room, and poured some cups of boiling water. Also without searching he found some tea powder, put the lot onto a tray and brought it to the table.

Maybe he wasn’t blind after all.

“My son tells me you want something fixed.”

“That’s true. We need the main inverter fixed on the ship. We have continuous power problems. I’m not sure what sort of payment you expect in return. Unfortunately, I can’t offer a lot of money.”

“Hmmm. Thank you for being up-front about that. Money is not terribly useful here. Everyone has buckets of it, but there is not much to buy. Maybe you can offer some useful items, like more interesting food than the station stores give us?”

“We’ve also come to buy supplies. Ours have run down, because we started our journey with more people than we anticipated. We’ve only got curry.”

He pulled a face and everyone laughed.

Then Tina said, “I may have some things on board the ship to interest you.”

“Oh? Do you think this could be interesting?” The latter to his son. He didn’t turn his head, which convinced Tina that he was, indeed, almost completely blind.

“I think so,” Jens said.

“And it’s something that isn’t going to get you into trouble with authorities, like that weapon of yours?”

“The catapult?” Jens laughed. “That’s only a toy, remember?”

“Right. A toy that can precisely fire magnets attached to a string through a metal barrier so you can pilfer electronic parts from the station stores.”

“They wouldn’t sell us the connectors.”

“Because you’re not licensed mechanics. You’re boys who can get into a lot of trouble using serious equipment.”

“Hmph.”

Tina bit her lip. This reminded her so much of the discussions between herself and Rex.

Thor turned back to her. “All right. Let’s talk about the money later. My son tells me you’ve come from Kelso Station.”

“We have.”

“I've heard they were free until recently.”

“Kelso was taken by pirates but has come back to Federacy rule.”

“I heard this, too. Are you with pirates, or are you with the Federacy?”

Tina wasn’t sure what to say, the way that question was framed. Was she supposed to be with pirates, or was she supposed to hate the pirates?

“We’re just commercial traders. I don’t really care terribly much about the Federacy or pirates. We just want to complete our job. I’m carrying a passenger to Olympus, but we had some unexpected trouble and needed to stop to have our ship fixed.”

He gave a small snort. “If you were a normal business, you would know all the normal procedures for getting your ship fixed on Aurora, and also that it takes a long time.”

“I’ve never been here before,” Tina said.

But she also knew that was not a very satisfactory answer.

In fact, he started laughing loudly.

“Do you know that you are terrible liars? Just normal business.” He clapped his hand on his knee. “You’re about as regular as Fearnley’s Comet: comes around every hundred years. Everyone thinks it’s something new every visit. Come on then, let me know what needs fixing. Give me some details about the problems you’ve been having with the ship.”

She and Rex explained the problem as much as they were able. He nodded throughout their story.

“That’s a known problem with those ships. Take me out there, and I’ll be able to fix it. You said you had an engineer? He should have been able to fix this.”

“He worked on large ships.”

“Hmph. They know everything about nothing. You ask them what they do, and they come up with a fancy name that means they take care of the engine that produces the fart that stops the ship bumping into the docking boom. But only the one on the left-hand of the ship, not the right.”

He got up, leaving half of his tea, and started collecting his tools.

He asked his son to get all manner of things, and collected them into a pair of backpacks that looked predesigned for the purpose of carrying their tools. There were a number of hooks on the outside and each held a tool.

Tina looked around the meticulous apartment. Not a thing was out of place. She concluded that his blindness accounted for why everything was so neat.

She sent Finn a small warning message that if he didn’t want to be seen by a local, he had better hide in one of the cabins. Was there a chance that Jens had contact with the Partlow family? Who knew?

Tina was happy that at least this part of the mission was going well.

Chapter Eleven

Tina led the way back to the ship. She walked at the front while Rex alternated between walking next to her or with his friend Jens who assisted his father by occasionally touching his elbow to warn of obstacles ahead.

It was busy in the passages, with people milling about outside shops and offices, and harassing passersby for money, food or jobs. Jens was busy steering them away from his father and protecting his tool bag, which little urchins insisted they wanted to carry in exchange for money