“Right,” Runstom said. “We’re going to have to do this the hard way. We canvas the ship. We talk to everybody.”

“Ugh,” Jax groaned. “Ask a cop how to find a needle in a haystack, and they’ll tell you: ‘One straw at a time.’”

Runstom grinned. It was the first time in the few days they’d known each other that Jax saw the officer actually look happy.

“Jack, this is Bob. And this is Karr, and this is Jainel.”

“Hey, everyone,” Jax said, reaching out to shake hands with the woman first, then the two men. The three of them were dressed in standard-issue Royal Starways maintenance jumpsuits, which were all gray with thin lines of reflective silver running along the sides and down the arms and legs. Like a lot of the working class on the superliner, they were obvious B-foureans, pale-skinned and tall. None of them stood up as he shook their hands; they barely looked up from their lunches.

There was a bit of an awkward silence and Runstom broke it by saying, “We work for the government.” He paused, as if trying to remember his line, then added, “The Barnard-4 Planetary Government.” The three maintenance workers ignored him, and he nudged Jax.

“Yeah, that’s right. We work for a division of Planetary Defense,” Jax said. This turned some heads, but also inspired some scoffing. Jax cleared his throat. “Nothing military or anything,” he said hastily. “We work for the Rogue Celestial Object Detection Center.”

“What the heck does that mean?” the worker called Bob asked with a tone of mild interest. He was the youngest of the three, with short, mousy, brown hair and a distinctly smooth chin.

“Means another way to waste money,” Jainel said after a grunt. She was a middle-aged woman with blond hair, cropped short above the ears. She didn’t look up from her lunch.

“Well, uh.” Jax struggled to remember Runstom’s instructions to just relax as he pretended to be someone else. He directed his answer at Bob, since he was the only one of the three not presently stuffing his face. “We look for celestial objects – uh, mostly asteroids – that are on a path that might intersect with Barnard-4.” Bob arched an eyebrow, so he added, “You know, we try to make sure there aren’t any asteroids out there that might hit B-4. Like that one in the holo-vid.”

“Oh yeah?” Bob said. “You mean like Day of the Asteroid?”

“Yee-ah,” Jax said, drawing the word out. That wasn’t the flick he was thinking of, but he decided it didn’t matter. “That’s it.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Runstom said. “The government is installing some – um – detectors …”

“Asteroid detectors,” Jax said.

“Right, asteroid detectors. On every superliner. Since uh – since they …”

“Since they regularly cover so much of the solar system,” Jax finished.

“Cool,” Bob said, his lunch now completely forgotten. “So what do you need from us?” he asked. Jainel looked at Karr and they both rolled their eyes.

“Uh,” Jax started, but he was at a loss for words.

“Well, the problem is, our man Jack here misplaced one of the detectors,” Runstom said, putting a hand on Jax’s shoulder. The three maintenance staff looked at Jax with mild disdain.

“I was drunk,” Jax admitted, forcefully curling his lip into a half frown, fighting the urge to smile.

“Yeah-ha,” Karr and Jainel said together, breaking into laughter. Karr pointed his sandwich at Jax. “Man, I’ve been there buddy.” He waggled the sandwich and for a flash Jax thought the stuff between the bread looked like another laughing mouth. “So drunk you don’t even know where you’ve been or how you got home, right?”

Jax nodded and the man and woman laughed again. Bob joined in with a silent, open-mouthed smile, but it didn’t last. “Hey,” he said, suddenly concerned. “Does this mean we’re not going to be able to detect any asteroids headed toward B-4?”

“Yes,” Runstom said.

“Well, maybe,” Jax added, seeing fear cross the young man’s face.

“Anyway, we’ll find the thing,” Runstom said. “If you guys could help us out, that would be – well, it would be very helpful.”

Jax watched their expressions carefully, wondering if they were buying any part of the story. The older man and the woman both narrowed their eyes and creased their brows. Jax took their expressions to mean they were actually paying attention, and he was glad enough for that.

“Of course,” Bob said anxiously. “We’d be happy to help!” He tried to pull his excitement back a little. “I mean, we’ve all got family back on B-4, and we’d want to make sure they’re safe.” He looked around the room. “Like, from asteroids, and stuff.”

“I thought you joined this crew to get away from your parents,” Jainel said with a sly smile. She was done eating and was neatly folding up the plastic wrappings of her lunch.

Bob frowned. “Yeah, I did. They were always trying to tell me what to do,” he said, lost in thought for a moment. “But that doesn’t mean I want anything bad to happen to them.”

“We can keep an eye out for your thing,” Karr said, finishing off his sandwich. With a mouthful of bread and something gooey, he said, “Whaff it wook wike?”

“Um, well.” Jax suddenly realized he wouldn’t be able to describe the portable sat-transmitter because he’d never actually seen one. “You’ll know it when you see it. It’s small enough to be portable, but not real small.” He gestured vaguely, hands going in and out indicating a variety of possible sizes. “And it’s heavy. With buttons on the outside.”

Karr huffed a half-laugh and crumpled up the wrappings of his lunch. “You got it, pal. And maybe if we find it, you can buy us a drink, eh?”

“Of course,” Runstom said.

“Hell yeah,” Jax said. “Thanks guys.”

Karr stood up and Jainel followed suit. “Come on, Bob,” she said as she and the older man walked out of the break room. Bob started to clean up his lunch slowly, still deep in thought.

After a moment, Jax said, “I took this job to get away from my parents too.” Bob looked up at him but didn’t speak. “They’re both engineers. They wanted me to be an engineer. I just wanted to do my own thing, you know?” He shook his head, thinking about his father and step-mother. Did they care what had happened to their son, or had they pretty much given up on him? As far as he knew, the last message they got was from Foster, his lawyer on B-4; a message that said Jax was going to be taken out to a ModPol outpost for trial. He knew Runstom wouldn’t want him to try to contact them. At the moment he didn’t feel much like checking in with them, even if he could without revealing his location. “I never see them anymore. I talk to them maybe once or twice a year.”

“Yeah,” Bob said, nodding. “My mom and dad wanted me to be a doctor. I can’t deal with it though. The blood and guts – that stuff just creeps me out.” He visibly shuddered. “Besides, I wanted to get out of the domes, you know? Get out and see the stars. The real stars.” He looked Runstom up and down. Like Jax, the officer was wearing a very nondescript outfit: brown pants and a white, long-sleeved shirt. The shirt made his olive hands and face seem even greener than usual. He looked like a smooth-barked tree sprouting a couple of large green leaves. “How about you? You’re not from B-4, are you?”

Runstom started to sigh, but tried to bite it back. “Nope,” he said, matter-of-fact. “Born on a space station. A way-point for asteroid miners.”

“And your parents?”

“My mother was killed in the line of—” he started. “Um, in her line of work. Which was asteroid mining. She was killed in a mining accident. It was a long time ago.” His lips pursed together as Bob looked at him expectantly. Finally he swallowed and said, “I never knew my father.”

“So, Bob, let me give you the number for the room we’re staying in,” Jax said, drawing the maintenance man’s attention away from Runstom. “That way you can reach us if you come across anything.”