The Factory of God: Hard Science Fiction by Brandon Q. Morris

Author:Brandon Q. Morris [Morris, Brandon Q.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hard-SF.com
Published: 2023-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

"What about our crew and our ship now?" asked Celia.

Paul's rosary was in front of them on the small table, which was not quite clean. But they had only been able to find a place in this somewhat run-down bar. Apparently a transport to another reef was running late, so many passengers were stuck here.

"I'm working on it," Alexa said. "Unfortunately, it looks like everyone's on the clock right now. The OOS must have just increased the rewards for salvage again, and private collectors are increasingly getting into the business, too."

"Can't we just pay them more?"

"If they don't fulfill their contracts, they get penalties. Most importantly, the OOS then classifies them as unreliable, and they get less lucrative contracts."

"Then maybe we should look for crews that are considered unreliable."

The thought popped into her head quite spontaneously, but of course it had some reasoning behind it. After all, why could she not get observation time? Because she made a mistake long ago and had been considered a fraud ever since.

"Are you serious, Celia?" asked Alexa.

"Yes, or I wouldn't say it."

"I wasn't sure I detected irony. Well, I haven't included crews with bad ratings in my search yet. If you want, I'll change that."

"Yes, I do."

"Celia, are you sure?" asked Paul. "We need someone we can rely on, don't we?"

"Oh, who knows why they're considered unreliable?"

"Well, there are no justifications in the ratings," said Alexa, "but I can reconstruct the history of each one."

"Let's give it a try, then," Celia said.

"All right, excuse me for a moment," Alexa said.

The cross on the rosary flashed red, presumably because Alexa had withdrawn from it. Celia waved to the waiter.

"Another beer," she said.

"For Father, too?" the waiter asked.

Paul nodded. The waiter smiled at them and winked.

"Coming right away," he said.

"I should hope not," she said.

The waiter laughed. Celia's face became hot. It was from the beer. She had just ordered her third. Somehow she seemed to have good luck with waiters. She reached into her pocket. On the bill from the bar in Castel Gandolfo was the number of the waiter there, which he wrote down for her when she was paying at the counter. With his short red hair, this one looked pretty cute too, even though he was a few years younger than her. She had always wanted to know what sex felt like in zero gravity.

"Celia?"

Paul's hand was on her forearm. Apparently she had been absent for a moment. Alexa must be back.

"I'm listening," she said.

"There's only one crew that's resulted from my search so far," Alexa said.

"It took you a long time to figure that out," Celia said.

"That's true, and it's because of the extensive backstory. But I don't think we need to deal with that. The crew has a minus one rating average."

"Minus one? That's odd. What's the rating system?"

"From zero to five. So you're absolutely right, Celia. There's a lot wrong with that. The minus one comes about because the crew is currently in custody for smuggling."

Oh. They really could not give this task to criminals.

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