HE WAS A TINKERER REALLY. He knew some called him a nerd, but he felt he did not really belong in that category either. He was good looking he knew; with his broad shoulders and shiny smooth brown hair, he was too lazy to go in each month for a trim so it was always falling into his eyes. The thing of it was though, the thing of it was . . . was that he was far too shy. He lived alone in the large home his parents’ had left to him. He did not know for certain that they were dead, but the fact that they were gone was just the same. They had taken most of their vast wealth, and had bought their way onto the exploratory deep space vessel, Maritania-11, which was headed for sector 549. Contact ended the previous year after they had been gone for five years.
“I don’t suppose it helps to dwell
