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fixed your nose and your ribs, though he couldn’t completely eliminate the discomfort you are obviously feeling, especially now the pain relief he gave you is wearing off.”
    “I suppose I should be grateful you had your doctor fix me up.” Carboni dismissed the gratitude with a wave of his hand. “You said my brother’s death has left us both in a predicament.” He prompted the older man, after taking a second sip of his drink.
    “That’s correct. My sources informed me that you have been to see Bund Fret, which means you are now aware of the debt your brother owed to the station when he died.” Step nodded unhappily. “I assume she also told you what would happen if you don’t repay the debt.”
    “I have one week to come up with the money, if I can’t then the station will sell all of my belongings. If that isn’t enough to cover the debt they will sell me to the Kargan mines, which Bund Fret assured me is perfectly legal.”
    “It is. All of the systems in this region use the Kargan mines as a means of recouping money owed to them. Even private individuals have been known to sell people who owe them money to the mines.” Though neither his face nor his voice gave any indication of it, Step had no doubts that Carboni was one of those private individuals. “And that brings me to the problem I mentioned earlier.”
    “If the station sells me to the Kargan mines I can’t repay the money my brother owed you.”
    “Correct. Your brother owed me a considerable sum, significantly more than he owed the station, and with him now dead, it falls to you to repay the debt.”
    “How much is the debt?” Step asked, concerned to hear that his brother’s debt to Carboni was a lot more than his debt to the station, which he had thought was bad enough.
    “One hundred and forty eight thousand, five hundred credits.”
    It was several long moments before Step regained the ability to speak. “How the hell did Andrei get himself almost a hundred and fifty thousand credits in debt?!” He demanded to know. “I can just about understand how he got himself so much in debt to the station, but I can’t imagine how he could possibly have owed so much money to someone like you.”
    “Debts have a habit of mounting up, especially when they aren’t repaid quickly. Your brother was a bad gambler, and a bad business man. I loaned him the money to buy his ship when he first came to the station, and at first he made his repayments without any problems. It wasn’t long however before his drinking and gambling became a problem and the debt started to climb.
    “I was perhaps more lenient with your brother than I would have been with someone else, but he did me a favour when he first came here.
    “In the end I offered your brother an opportunity to repay the debt and he took my money and tried to cheat me. That was just a couple of weeks before he died.”
    “Leaving me with a large debt to the station, and an even larger one to you.”
    “Correct. I had no interest in the debt your brother owed to the station while he was alive, though no doubt it would have become a problem eventually. Now, however, I am forced to give consideration to that debt because it is in the way of you repaying what is owed me.
    “I have decided to buy your debt from the station and add it to what is already owed me.”
    “I can’t afford to pay the station, how do you expect me to pay you what my brother owed you plus what he owed the station? Or do you plan on selling me to the Kargan mines yourself to get the money back?”
    “It is unlikely the Kargans would pay me one hundred and eighty thousand credits, even for someone in as good condition as yourself. You would never live long enough to work off that kind of debt, and they always want the best value they can get. I would probably be lucky to get fifty thousand for you, that’s the most I’ve ever heard of them paying for a single person.” All Step could do was sit there and listen as