The middle-aged man and the young lady were sitting at a table in the Luck of Jonas Cafe. The man studied the letter she had just handed him. He was pale white, grossly overweight by Earth standards and dressed in what looked like the oldest jumpsuit in the solar system, but it was clean. The lady was young, neat, lightly tanned, and dressed in a stylish new jumpsuit that made the most of her figure. She was nervous, he was looking studiously at her letter.
The letter said:
22 Aug 2132
Dear Mr. Burnmeshorts,
You may not remember me, but we met at the Space Supply 26 convention on Ceres.
This letter is to introduce my daughter, Kim Young-gai. She has expressed to me a strong desire to become a deep spacer. I support her in this, and I sent her to you because I feel you are one of the most dependable deep spacers I know.
Please give her any assistance you can in getting her started as a deep spacer.
Thanking you in advance, and hoping we get a chance to meet again.
Sincerely yours,
Kim Man-doo
The man read it and grunted. He looked at the paper the letter was written on.
"Nice bit of work, Miss ... " he looked at the paper again, “Kim Young-gai."
"Just call me Young-gai."
"Just call me Bull," The man, John “Bull” Burnmeshorts smiled slightly at the girl, and she smiled back in a big beauty queen way.
He pulled over his laptop and spoke to it, “Honey, give me a quick bio on Kim Young-gai."
The girl's expression didn't change. He looked at the screen briefly, “Very impressive, Miss Young-gai."
Then he asked, “Honey, when was this file first opened."
The girl's eyes widened for a moment, then she waited.
"As I was saying, Miss ... "
"Young-gai, you can call me Young-gai."
"This is a nice piece of work. A hard copy letter, on good Earth-origin paper, and a computer file. This took a fair amount of research, too. You're resourceful."
"Thank you."
"Your big problem is no parent ever recommends his child to become a deep spacer, and certainly not a Kim like you've described here. How many people have you done this for?"
"You're the first," she said.
"I can believe that. Now, this next part is important. Why did you pick me first?"
Young-gai thought for a while, looked at him, and said, “The whole story?"
"The whole story."
"I came up here to be a deep spacer. I'm an analyst on Earth, no one gives a damn about me, no one will give me a break. I want to be more, a lot more, but that's going to take money."
The man leaned back in mock amazement and said loudly, “Oh my gosh! It's a four-eyed analyst with ambition. Welcome to the party, girl--"
"I don't wear glasses," she snapped quietly, but he wasn't listening.
"But then again, you're here and the rest of the four-eyed ambitious analysts are still down there, aren't they? So, why are you here?"
She shrugged, “I've got bigger dreams, and less to lose, I guess."
"Now we're getting somewhere. How did you pick me?"
"Easy, I did my research. There are only three veteran, and still active, deep spacers in port right now. You, Van Cleeve, and Richards."
"Yes, yes, yes. We go way back. How about Don Henkley over there? He's been out ten times."
"Last time was over a year ago."
"Good. Continue."
"It's not on his resume, but it's sure all around this port that Van Cleeve is not someone you share a room with."
The man stirred his drink while he thought, “Good, you don't believe the whole world is on the computer screen. Continue."
"The rest is hunch. I looked at who's coming in the next sixty days, and no one looks better than you," she smiled, a more relaxed and natural looking smile, not the beauty queen smile.
"How about Richards?"
"He would do, and I'll go to him next."
"Not with this same story, I hope."
"Why not?"
"This is a small community up here, Young-gai, your escapade here with me will be all over community by the time we say good bye."
She glared at him, he raised his hands like she was holding a gun on him, “I won't have to say a thing! You see Ivan over there tending bar, Don over there. These people aren't strangers. If Richards chooses to ask, he'll know everything except what we've specifically said.
"If he asks me, he'll know everything that's relevant to him. I work with Richards, I don't work with you ... yet."
Young-gai stood up.
"Sit down! I said I don't work with you yet," she sat down.
The old man leaned forward and said quietly, “Girl--"
"Lady, or Young-gai," she corrected.
The man thought, “Young-gai, we do keep some secrets around here, but not many. My next expedition is one that could use a helping hand, but none of these space dogs here are interested."
"Why not?"
"Because it's a trip to the Kuiper Belt."
"Beyond Neptune?"
"Way beyond Neptune."
"That'll be a long, trip."
"Not that long, six years, I've got constant acceleration on my ship, but then you probably know that, don't you?"
"Yeah, point-one G from solar wind energy... all the way there and back. Ummm, it’s the hottest thing out here in the Belt. ... Why are you going there?"
"That's a long story that I'll tell you over dinner, should you decide to accept."
"You're offering?" her face filled with excitement.
"I'm offering."
"I'm accepting!" she held out her hand for the man to shake. The man felt it was a strong hand, and there was a roughness to it that said she did a lot more than push a mouse around. The man felt better.
He said, “Whoa, that's just for dinner! You haven't heard about why we're going, that could make a difference. But let’s talk about that over dinner, in, say, an hour?"