Leo grinned, and considered that train of wealth gliding through space. No doubt about it, the Cay Habitat, fascinating as it was, was just the tail of the dog to the whole of GalacTech’s Rodeo operation. That single thruster-load of pods being bundled now could maintain a whole town full of stockholding widows and orphans in style for a year, and it was just one of an apparently endless string. Base production was like an inverted pyramid, those at the bottom apex supporting a broadening mountain of ten-percenters, a fact which usually gave Leo more secret pride than irritation.

“Mr. Graf?” an alto voice interrupted his thoughts. “I’m Dr. Sondra Yei. I head up the psychology and training department for the Cay Habitat.”

The woman hovering in the door wore pale green company coveralls. Pleasantly ugly, pushing middle-aged, she had the bright mongolian eyes, broad nose and lips and coffee-and-cream skin of her mixed racial heritage. She pushed herself through the aperture with the concise relaxed movements of one accustomed to free fall.

“Ah, yes, they told me you’d be wanting to talk to me.” Leo courteously waited for her to anchor herself before attempting to shake hands.

Leo gestured at the televiewer. “Got a nice view of the orbital cargo marshalling here. Seems to me that might be another job for your quaddies.”

“Indeed. They’ve been doing it for almost a year now.” Yei smiled satisfaction. “So, you don’t find adjusting to the quaddies too difficult? So your psyche profile suggested. Good.”

“Oh, the quaddies are all right.” Leo stopped short of expanding on his unease. He was not sure he could put it into words anyway. “I was just surprised, at first.”