Starquake.pdf

"Qui-Qui here," she said. After two long grethturns there was an eager reply.
"Lieutenant Shannon-Capacity here, Qui-Qui. Are you all right? I'm switching you right over to the
admiral."
The harsh voice came rasping through the deck. The admiral sounded even more harassed than the first
time.
"Your behavior is inexcusable!" said Admiral Hohmann-Transfer. "From now on I want you to make
contact every turnfeast and midturn. Do you understand? Where have you been?"
"I was trying to find somebody else," said Qui-Qui. "I was not successful. Were you?" She then went
through another long wait.
"No," said Hohmann-Transfer. "What am I going to do? We are doomed!" There was another long
pause. "If only we had someone else than astupid entertainer."
The link to the admiral clicked off. Qui-Qui was about to turn off the power when she heard
Shannon-Capacity again.
"There is someone else who wants to talk to you," he said.
"... Hello? ... is this Qui-Qui? ..." came the voice. "I ... ah ... I met you some time ago . .. didn't really
meet you really ... I saw you when you were going through the Rejuvenation Center ... my name's
Cliff-Web ... run a construction company ... or used to."
Qui-Qui had been through this before. Another male overflustered by her large eyeflaps.
"I rememberyou" she said in her best stage tread. "The doctor said you needed to do some extra
exercises. I didn't think so. You looked fine to me." After another long wait, Cliff-Web replied. He had
regained his composure.
"You looked fine to me, too," he said. "And I bet you're looking even better now after rejuvenation."
"... I wish we had video," Shannon-Capacity interjected.
"It's been twenty turns since the starquake," Cliff-Web continued. "And you're the only one we've been
able to contact. I've talked to the few people here on the space station who know you and I've done
some research in our library, limited as it is. You produce your own performances, manage your own
finances, control dozens of personal staff including a dozen robots, and pilot you own flyer. You arenot
stupid."
He hesitated before continuing, "Do you think you can become an engineer?"
"Sure," she replied. "With the right teacher and enough time. Why?" The answer from Cliff-Web came
two grethturns later.
"The admiral is basically right. We're stuck up here. We don't have any spacecraft that can land on Egg
under its own power without crashing. We can't build a lander because we have no tools and no raw
materials to work with. We need something to 'catch' one of the spacecraft we have. The jump loops are
down, but it might be possible to reactivate one of the gravity catapults if they aren't too badly damaged.