Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel by George Ellis

Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel by George Ellis

Author:George Ellis [Ellis, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zero Atmo Publishing
Published: 2021-03-07T22:00:00+00:00


Chapter 12

Phobos was home to the most expansive junkyard and parts exchange in the solar system. As a wrecker, it’s important to keep enough parts on hand to fix the most common ship problems. While towing a troubled ship is always an option, it’s much easier to just fix the issue on the spot and let the ship be on its way.

Located on the larger of Mars’ two moons, about 3,400 miles off the planet’s surface, Sal’s Parts Depot took up most of the 5-mile-wide Stickney Crater. From above, the yard looked like the final resting place of every kind of ship you could imagine, rising from the dusty moon like gravestones.

Nobody knew why it was called Sal’s Parts Depot. The guy who owned it was named Mike. Maybe he just liked the sound of Sal’s. Anyway, the process was pretty efficient. Incoming ships waited in a queue to head down to the moon’s surface, where one of five rovers would meet you and follow you around as you retrieved parts from various ships.

I didn’t figure I was taking too much of a risk stopping at Sal’s right after my escape from Port Lauderdale. The feds on the barge weren’t there on official business, meaning they likely wouldn’t put out a bounty on me or the Stang. And even if they did, I’d be out of the neighborhood soon enough. As I waited for my number to be called so I could head to the yard and pick up a few things, I scanned the inventory available. First priority was to acquire some backup filters for the Stang’s air system. Those could be purchased from Sal’s stock. The rest of the items on my list were likely to come from the ships on the lot.

“I’m no genius – well, actually I am – but do you think we should maybe not stop right now?” Gary asked. “Kind of ruins the idea of a getaway when you go shopping right around the corner.

“Relax, those guys are morons and on top of that, they won’t be following us anytime soon,” I said. “I may or may not have unplugged a thing or two when I left the 405 unsupervised.”

Gary said my uncle would have got a kick out of that. As much as I liked my uncle and learned a lot in the brief time we spent together, I took Gary’s word for it, as he would always know my uncle better than I did.

“Mustang 1, you’re cleared to enter the depot,” an automated voice informed me. I selected the area I’d be landing in, then took the Stang down to the moon’s surface.

An hour later, I walked down the gangway in my space suit. The rover driver was waiting for me at the bottom, standing next to his vehicle, which had a medium-sized cargo bed in the back for moving parts around the lot. The tag on the guy’s suit said “Egon.” Once we were in the cab of the rover, I asked him if the name had any connection to the old movie about ghosts.



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