We walked to the front of the truck and Sunny rolled over to our pile of surplus. “Umm Gabby, what did you actually buy? A broken hoverbike, a broken light post, and a broken toilet!? What are you thinking Gabby?” His smile took a bit of the bite from his words.

  Never one to turn down extra junk and supplies, I had plans for everything. “Well, the hoverbike is toast, but the jet turbine underneath it is brand new, idiot pawn shop owner, all they could see was the cracked frame, smashed body work, and blood, well still a fair amount of blood on the seat. The light post is actually made of supersteel for whatever crazy reason, and the toilet, well it's obvious. I will install that in Gretta.”

  Sunny tut-tutted at me, “Gabby that’s garbage, actually garbage, and a broken toilet, that isn't sanitary, lady. I know you play fast and lose with most things but not that!”

  “Uh the whole point of the toilet is to be sanitary, duh?” I wasn't sure of Sunny’s point about any of it. “Plus I got everything for less than 10,000 creds. The communication wire alone will be worth that, plus the extra duracrete and supersteel I can repurpose for repairs. Everything else on top of that is preem.” Shaking his head he let it go.

  I couldn't help but grin at Sunny. “Well I don't feel eight million richer but given how expensive the costs for all the various equipment, weapons, and repairs were I could use every cred we could get. Need more junkyard specials.”

  Sunny sighed and returned my smile, “Easy come easy go. Course I cannot say the trip into town that we had was easy at all. I really hope we never repeat that business again. But Gabby given that we all sustained damage the least we can do is share the costs of repairs. The vehicles and our RV’s and even the Synths are communal. We all need them to do our jobs. Let’s split those costs at least.”

  He did have a point, and I could use the money, he wasn't trying to pay off my loan this time. “Alright, that seems fair Sunny. We can figure out the damage, and the financial damage and settle before we leave. I wanted to talk to you about heading back over. I am done with the city for now. I want to get started on repairs and maintenance before we hit the trial. Oh and do you know where we are going or do you want me to find a spot?”

  “Thanks for being reasonable about the repair bills Gabby. And yeah, it makes sense to start working on the Roundabout ASAP. Alexandria and I will stay here one more night at least, depending on when the rest of our gear gets here. Speaking of which, I am going to head back now. We can talk about potential new sites tomorrow.” With a grin and a wave Sunny rolled off back to join Alexandria.

  I knew that RGE?/ T-D-B? was going to drop off the three trailers I had purchased this afternoon, and the BDwerks? purchase wouldn't be ready until tomorrow at some point. I turned to Squad Leader and we began to figure out how to load up the pawn shop scrap we had ordered. I turned the truck around so we could have an easier time loading. It was nice to be able to drive around the building rather than attempt a three point turn in this giant Kombi-Max. I parked the tail end of the cargo bay right next to the piles of scrap and surplus. I tried to help Squad Leader transfer the scrap and material. The mangled hover cycle was over 500 kilograms in and of itself. I was glad I had a synth to help with the heavy lifting. It took a bit of grunting and swearing, by me, but we transferred everything from the two pallets on the ground into the back of the Kombi-Max. When the other three trailers showed up, I could daisy chain them to get back to our campsite. I would have to figure out a more permanent distribution of cargo trailers eventually.

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  It was nearing dinner time, but I was tired from my poor sleep last night. I decided to check out for a little bit and take a nap in the Kombi-Max bunk bed. I remotely programmed the thermostat to cool down the cab and I crawled into the bottom bunk.

  A knock on the window woke me with a start. “Prime, your trailers are here…. Prime, please wake yourself up.” I sat upright quickly, and managed to avoid braining myself on the upper bunk. I really wasn't used to Squad Leader talking out loud. I jumped out of the cab and ran to the 3 trailers that were parked outside the fence of the storage yard.

  “Woo hoo!” I pumped my fist in the air and got a few sideways glances from the storage guards at the gate. But I didn't care, I finally had a home for Big Fe, the additional compute resources, and more armor for the rest of our repairs. I walked over to the crew disconnecting the trailers.

  The three trailers looked very similar on the outside. Each was 15 meters long, 3 meters wide and tall, with a side door and a larger door at the rear. They rode on reinforced all terrain wheels, 2 axles in the rear with one steerable axle in the front. A truck or tractor fifth-wheel or pintle hitch would attach in front of the steering axle. The first trailer had considerably thicker walls, a nuclear power source, and a refrigeration system built into the front. The other two trailers were dinged up a bit, but quite serviceable. I signed for the cargo from the delivery crew and walked over to the sky ferry terminal. I would need to arrange for major transportation to get my 4 vehicles and trailers across the 12 kilometer canyon.

  I entered the ferry terminal building and walked up to the cargo desk of the Grand Canyon Ferry Service. After a quick chat, and a more hefty fee, I was able to reserve space on the next ferry across. I mentally reached out to Squad Leader and had him bring the Kombi-Max to the ferry terminal. I then had the tenders pull my three trailers in behind the large truck. We took up half a ferry with just our four rigs! I was glad they were running enough ferries across to be able to handle our empty trailers. I joined Squad Leader in the cab and one hour later, as the sun was starting to set across the Grand Canyon we began our 20 minute ride over. The red and orange colors painted the entire sky a glorious panorama of color.

  I really felt lucky to be able to live in a beautiful place like this, minus all the monsters and aliens that would kill you in your sleep.

  As we docked on the other side, we waited for the rest of the smaller vehicles to disembark before we hitched the Kombi-Max up to the three trailers. Not sure that it would be legal back east in the glorious American Empire, but there were no laws around these parts. I had Squad Leader carefully connect the trailers and we drove slowly toward our convoy campground. We had selected a spot at the edge of the staging area on the southern rim of the Canyon. It felt great to be back at our campsite with Gretta, the synths on guard and the familiar vehicles.

  >>Right, and the people too, Fe.>>

  We quickly parked and blocked the trailers around the perimeter and got the vehicles settled in. It looked like Miles and Estéril were talking around the campfire. I grabbed my backpack and dismounted the truck cab. I send Squad Leader back to his family of synths on the bus. Family? Mates? Batchlings? Was that the right word? I dunno.

  I waved at Miles but headed straight for Gretta. I couldn't wait to hit the sack and start repairs tomorrow morning.