Rebirth Page 16

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  Lunchtime came and went, and Paul Divine decided it was time to question another of the families aboard the ship. The Hardwicke`s were berthed on deck A quite near to where the two agents slept so it was easy to strike up a conversation with them.

  "How are you getting along Mr Hardwicke, the trip not too boring for you?" Hardwicke looked up and smiled.

  "No we are fine thank you, you are one of the guys that boarded the ship at Ganymede aren`t you?"

  "Yes, Paul Divine is the name; I am one of the space geeks from Ganymede." Paul said using his worn and tired phrase. "We nearly missed the boat, we only got to Ganymede by the skin of our teeth, the shuttle from the Jupiter station broke down and they only repaired it with minutes to spare. How about you, your trip to the pickup point go ok?" Paul asked trying to find out why the Hardwicke`s were late coming aboard the Constellation.

  "Oh we would have been ok, but for my wife Melissa going and breaking her arm by tripping over the sidewalk in Cincinnati, had to take her to the hospital and after all the time it took signing their forms, we only had time to get to the pickup point. We had wanted to make a day of it and see the sights on the way down, but with all of the lost time and poor Melissa`s broken arm, we were just happy to get here in one piece, well almost in one piece that is." Hardwicke said and smiled as Melissa Hardwicke chose this moment to appear; having been to the ship`s clinic to have her arm checked out by Doctor Schwartz, the colonies doctor. She still looked a little tired after her accident, but she took the time to smile at Divine.

  "I have just been telling Paul here about your misfortunes Honey." Hardwicke said to his wife who smiled over at Paul Divine again.

  "Good afternoon Paul, I hope John hasn`t been boring you too much with all our tales of woe." Paul noticed that Melissa`s grey eyes smiled as well, adding to Paul Divine`s first impression of the couple, that these were two good people and not psychopathic alien spies.

  "No Mrs Hardwicke, we were both telling similar stories, we also nearly missed the boat, for we only got to Ganymede at the last possible moment." Paul said.

  "Why don`t you have a cup of tea with us, and maybe a cookie, we still have a few left and it would be nice to finish them off while passing the time of day with you?" Melissa asked Paul Divine.

  "John will you make us all a cup of tea while Paul tells me a little about his life?"

  The afternoon moved along and Paul Divine decided to let it as he talked to the couple from Cincinnati. They were very like his parents, decent people who worked for everything they had. His parents had died just five years ago, that was when he had decided to accept Tom Parkinson`s offer to come and work for him in the Interstellar Investigations Bureau. He had accepted immediately, for not only was he alone on the planet having no living relatives, but his employment with a small private investigations firm was not as glamorous as he had hoped that it would be, filled as it was with broken marriages and lost family pets.