The light Hazel could see in her son’s eyes she judged to be love at first sight. She hung back and signaled the twins to keep quiet. The open airlock had let them into the living quarters; a galley-saloon, two little staterooms, and a bunkroom. The control room was separate, above them, and was a combined conn. & comm. Roger Stone immediately climbed into it.
Below the quarters was the cargo space and below that the power room. The little ship was a passenger-carrying freighter, conversely a passenger ship with cargo space; it was this dual nature which had landed her, an unwanted orphan, in Dealer Dan’s second-hand lot. Too slow when carrying cargo to compete with the express liners, she could carry too few passengers to make money without a load of freight, Although of sound construction she did not fit into the fiercely competitive business world.
The twins elected to go on down into the power room. Hazel poked around the living quarters, nodded approvingly at the galley, finally climbed up into the control room. There she found her son stretched out in the pilot’s couch and fingering the controls. Hazel promptly swung herself into the co-pilot’s couch, settled down in the bare rack — the pneumatic pads were missing — and turned her head toward Roger Stone. She called out ‘All stations manned and ready, Captain !’
He looked at her and grinned. ‘Stand by to raise ship!’
She answered, ‘Board green! Clear from tower! Ready for count off!’
‘Minus thirty! Twenty-nine — twenty-eight — ‘ He broke off and added sheepishly, ‘It does feel good.’
‘You’re dern tootin’ it does. Let’s grab ourselves a chunk of it before we’re too old. This city life is getting us covered with moss.’
Roger Stone swung his long legs out of the pilot’s couch. ‘Um, maybe we should. Yes, we really should.’
Hazel’s booted feet hit the deck plates by his. ‘That’s my boy! I’ll raise you up to man size yet. Let’s go see what the twins have taken apart.’
The twins were still in the power room. Roger went down first; he said to Castor, ‘Well, son, how does it look? Will she raise high enough to crash?’
Castor wrinkled his forehead. ‘We haven’t found anything wrong, exactly, but they’ve taken her boost units out. The pile is just a shell.’
Hazel said, ‘What do you expect? For ’em to leave “hot” stuff sitting in a decommissioned ship? In time the whole stern would be radioactive, even if somebody didn’t steal it.’
Her son answered, ‘Quit showing off, Hazel, Cas knows that. We’ll check the log data and get a metallurgical report later — if we ever talk business.’
Hazel answered, ‘King’s knight to queen bishop five. What’s the matter, Roger? Cold feet?’
‘No, I like this ship… but I don’t know that I can pay for her. And even if she were a gift, it will cost a fortune to overhaul her and get her ready for space.’
‘Pooh! I’ll run the overhaul myself, with Cas and Pol to do the dirty work. Won’t cost you anything but dockage. As for the price, we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.’
‘I’ll supervise the overhaul, myself.’
‘Want to fight? Let’s go down and find out just what inflated notions Dan Ekizian has this time. And remember — let me do the talking.’
‘Now wait a minute — I never said I was going to buy this bucket.’
‘Who said you were? But it doesn’t cost anything to dicker. I can make Dan see reason.’
Dealer Dan Ekizian was glad to see them, doubly so when he found that they were interested, not in the Detroiter VII, but in a larger, more expensive ship. At Hazel’s insistence she and Ekizian went into his inner office alone to discuss prices. Mr Stone let her get away with it, knowing that his mother drove a merciless bargain. The twins and he waited outside for quite a while; presently Mr Ekizian called his office girl in.
She came out a few minutes later, to be followed shortly by Ekizian and Hazel. ‘It’s all settled,’ she announced, looking smug.
The dealer smiled grudgingly around his cigar. ‘Your mother is a very smart woman, Mister Mayor.’