'You're kidding right?" replies Isabelle, hanging off every word. "I'm an engineer by trade (among a couple of other things), so this stuff is the right up my alley."

She shifts, motioning towards the spaceport.

"What fabbing capabilities did you have to make the dishes with that kind of precision when you first set out? Any imperfections would degrade signal quality, unless your receiver was sensitive enough to compensate. Did you use the Mark 4 Chrysanthemum machining set? Or ... let me think, maybe the Mark one Neoproptic? I think that had been released about thirty five years back."

For better or for worse, these were all models that were seldom seen off the Capitol worlds, or in the hands of big corporations.

"You said this was a mining settlement right? What was the parent company?"

She pauses, as her brain suddenly catches up to her ...

"Oh yeah, I'm uh ... call me 'Belle'" she says, awkwardly failing to think of a proper alias. "What was your name?"