“As collateral,” Alzigo stressed. “I’m sorry, that word must not exist in your vocabulary. You see, the idea is that you loan someone money and they give you back an object of similar or greater value to hold until they pay you back.”

“I know what collateral means,” Bulco growled. “There’s no way you’re getting our shuttle.”

Lana looked at Nori, and her eyes darted toward the angry man. Nori nodded and grabbed the Engineer by his elbow, turning him around. “Come on, big boy, let’s go for another walk.”

Lana turned back to the tall alien and gave him her most charming smile. “Let’s talk about that loan thing.”

***

The shuttle left the station, heading back to the planet.

“I still can’t believe you agreed to give him the shuttle as collateral,” Bulco grumbled.

“It was the only option,” Lana answered. “We couldn't afford all that stuff otherwise.”

Nori took in the pile of equipment they carried. A box of ammo containing a thousand rounds sat atop the large core casing that took up most of the shuttle’s floor.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing at a large bundle next to the ammo.

“That’s a sealing kit. Alzigo said it could be used to make almost anything spaceworthy.”

Bulco frowned at her. “And why would we need that?”

“Well, you remember he mentioned we should have a vehicle to move around? I thought he had a point. Your Hummer should have no problem fitting inside the cargo hold, right? So I thought if we seal it up …”

Bulco chuckled. “You wanna take my Hummer for a spin on the moon? Ha! Good one, girl.”

Lana looked at him with a serious face. “I mean it. You mentioned before that you replaced the engine with something that’s Tec-based, right? So it can run in an environment without oxygen.”

Bulco stopped chuckling and furrowed his brow. “You might have a point there, kid.” He chuckled again. “I’ll be the first black man to drive a Hummer on the moon. I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere. Huh, probably going to be pulled over by some hillbilly moon-cop. Anyway, what’s that blinking panel below the kit?”

Lana smiled. “That’s an anti-grav carrier. Sort of like a futuristic wheelbarrow. I thought it would come in handy, seeing as we’re looking to move around a large volume of resources.”

The large man nodded approvingly. “Good thinking. I’m a little surprised that’s all you bought. I was sure you were going to leverage that loan for all it was worth.”

“But I did,” Lana flashed a smile at him. “It will take Alzigo a little while to collect everything, so I arranged for us to pick it up on our way to the moon.”

“Really? Huh, good thinking, kid. So what will be waiting for us when we get back?”