He turned to Betty. "Where's the rest of the crew?"
"There aren't any more. There's just the two of us." Good girl. She was going to back my play. If I had any play. I was trying, but looking at that face slowed my mind down into first gear.
Back to me again. "Where's your ship?"
"Ship?" I asked. The innocent line. "We don't have a ship."
He looked toward the rest of his gang. Two of them came up alongside of me and grabbed my elbows.
"Do you hear that?" he complained. "They don't have any ship. They walked all the way out here." He moved in close to me. His face wasn't really rock or I could have seen the moss on it.
"Look, chum," he said. "Do you have to get wise? This ain't no game of marbles. I'm telling you."
"Take it or leave it," I cracked. "What would we want with a ship? They bring us out here and leave us, and a year later they come back to get us and drop off the new crew." It sounded like a good way to run an asteroid station at that.
He cursed. It had a horrible sound, in that muted rocky voice of his. He faced Betty again. "That true?"
"Of course it's true!" The contempt in her voice would have withered him, only stones don't wither.