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Miss Amoto, there are rules and procedures here.’ The Sergeant held out a clipboard in front of him. Every now and then, as he spoke, he’d let it drop down to his side and tap it against his thigh, so Kim could see a couple of shiny plastic sheets with a really bad photo of her attached. ‘You must be aware of this.’
    ‘I am, Sergeant.’
    ‘Hm.’ He nodded and looked over at Pierce, her lawyer – everybody’s lawyer here on the Kasper Angel Station. He was also Earth’s ambassador to Kasper, except of course the Kaspians didn’t know that fact. He was further, by virtue of a strange public relations sleight of hand, the Station’s Mayor. Apparently it had been decided that in order to foster a real sense of community amongst the Station’s non-military personnel, they should have their own Mayor. It was, by Pierce’s own admission, one of the stupidest ideas around. She knew he was also a pretty mean cook when it came to Mexican food, which came in handy because he really didn’t get much else to do out here. Kim had been to a couple of his barbecues.
    ‘Well, at the risk of telling you something you already know, this Station – this entire system, as a matter of fact – is under military jurisdiction until any possible further threat is checked or identified. Now, the man in the docking control room at the time you were coming in would have had every right to fire upon you after you failed to identify yourself.’
    ‘My ship was on autopilot, Sergeant. I’ve had a look at the ship myself, and there were some problems with the atmosphere control. My oxygen levels were too low, so I passed out. It happens, especially when you’re out solo for long periods of time.’
    ‘But you then carried out those repairs before an official inspection team could take a look at your craft.’
    ‘Yes, because they were necessary.’
    The Sergeant pursed his lips until he almost looked like he was pouting. Kim had a feeling he didn’t have much to do with his days either. ‘Miss Amoto, there are specific clauses in your contract to do with our rules and procedures. There are ways of dealing with situations such as this, and you didn’t follow them.’
    Pierce looked away from the blank wall he’d been gazing at for several minutes. ‘The contract is thirty pages in length, Sergeant, and in very small type. People don’t have time to read thirty pages of small type when they’re dealing with potentially life-threatening situations.’
    Kim willed her cheeks not to burn; she had never considered herself a good liar. Before she had finally docked, she had deliberately damaged a small valve to the rear of the craft, and then fixed it with the repair kit. She had come up with a story and started telling it to Pierce as soon as she’d found him. Pierce had just looked at her with a weary expression; he wasn’t going to buy it.
    ‘Whatever you say, Kim,’ he’d sighed. ‘Just make sure you get your story straight before we go in, all right?’
    The Sergeant glanced at Pierce. ‘She was right next to the Station then. How long would it have taken before we could pick her up from one of the navy ships?’
    ‘I don’t know, Sergeant. How long does it take someone to suffocate in a ship without a functioning oxygen supply?’ Pierce asked dryly. He leaned back in his seat. ‘There’s really no need for this, Sergeant. The only reason we have these procedures in the first place is because of what happened – whatever happened – to the original occupants of this Station. But you well know there’s no immediate threat to anybody here, and hasn’t been for a very long time. If there was ever anything here, the danger is gone. One lone prospector falling asleep doesn’t constitute a crisis.’
    ‘Mr Pierce, I follow the set procedures laid down by my superiors, otherwise I have to answer to them.’
    ‘Yeah, and this is a farce,’ said Pierce. ‘You don’t have the legislative power to make any decisions