Now that Milanor thought about it, he never actually saw what the professor looked like. Naya hadn't shown him any image of her, and Miledi was the one who searched for the info on the net.
'So that's what she looks like. Oh wait, looked like. That was her six years ago.'
Some portion of the populace had the luck of their slow aging starting as early as their late teens. Meaning that they would look that young for much of the next hundred years.
Professor Newmann though, even if you consider her face a bit babyish, was unmistakably an adult. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't part of that portion.
What about Milanor? He was a fetching young man indulging in his long-lasting youth, so there you go.
'Quite a pretty woman, nonetheless,' the freelancer thought as he scrutinized the hologram.
He imagined what she would look like today, six years later. Her flowing chestnut-brown hair fit perfectly with her charming face. A mature beauty, for sure.
"You met her before, boss?" Milanor shook off his daydreams and questioned the director.
"Ya bet. Bit of a strange woman, comin' all the way here. She didn't look like a spacer either. I addressed 'er thinkin' she might be in trouble. Said she was fine, that she had something to do in this place."
'Huh, never thought this fraudulent guy would ever approach someone with good intentions. Wait, maybe that was just a ruse. I shouldn't trust what he says as soon as it came out of his mouth.'
"I suggested she come to see me or the officers I knew of that I could trust if she ever approached by any trouble. Lots of shady good-for-nothins' around this part, as you already guessed.
"She said 'sure,' and crouched on the ground playin' around with some technical stuff I couldn't understand. Said she was fascinated by the different gravity here. Heard lots of newbie spacers experienced that. Well, I would never understand it, unlike 'er. Then after she was done, headed off to the main yard just off the central port."
Boss Hein recounted what he remembered of his encounter with the professor. It was hard to believe he remembered all of this considering how long ago it was.
Probably had something to do with how out-of-place the professor was.
"Was that the last time you saw her?" This time it was Naya who enquired.
"Nah. A few days later she came by my office. Said she wanted to entrust somethin'. Gave me this small package there. Said that maybe sometimes in the future someone would ask around 'bout 'er. I guessed she was right then, as you both are here now interrogatin' me 'bout 'er."
'What…? Does that mean the professor was anticipating that Naya would come to look for her?'
That meant that package might tell them something about whatever she had been doing here on this planet!
"You wanna go get that package? It's in the storage room inside the central port unless somebody took it out without me knowin' 'bout it," he said.
"Yeah, of course we want to…" Milanor offhandedly replied. Then it came to him that this bloke knew of the professor even before they asked him. "Wait, why didn't you tell us this in the first place, you crack bumpkin!"
'What did I bribe him with silver cards for!?'
"Don't be ridiculous, lad. I would never remember anythin' about it if you didn't say 'professor' this and 'professor' that. I only remember it just now. That woman introduced herself as Professor Lavi, ya get it?" The bastard actually put forth a convincing excuse.
"Milanor, that package," Naya reminded him by tugging at his sleeve.
Right, got to keep focusing on the matter that was important. He needed to make a mental note to someday get back at this con man, however…
"Alright, Bossman. We're going to go get whatever that package is. How are we going to pick it up?" The director mentioned a storage room or something, probably not somewhere they could just waltz in and pluck one or two things off the shelves and then be on their way.
"Hmm… Ye, my old key card should still do the trick," he stated.
"Old…? I don't get it. Why is it stored there?"
Now wait, the professor's liner landed in the central port. That meant she would have met the bloke around there. Milanor guessed the correct question was more like: "Why are you in this East Port now, blockhead?"
"Hmph. I was the central's director at that time. Those nutcases in the government office pushed me out way over here in this waste hole. They only do shits once every few months and one of those times it was to rearrange personnel allocation…"
"Pfft… You got demoted, did you, boss man?"
"Shut yer trap, brat. My successor's one of that blasted president relatives. Can't do anythin' 'bout that. Now if you wanna get in there, follow me."
With Boss Hein leading the way, they left the archive room. It seemed that his office was on the first floor, and so they descended again.
Just as they reached the bottom of the staircase, the group stumbled upon Miledi.
"Captain, sir. I have already finished all the procedures for the ship."
Wearing her default maid uniform as always, she carried with her a sizeable case slung over her back. Must be filled with stuff from the armory… Things that were better hidden, unseen from public eyes.
"Yo, Miledi. How are things in the ship… er, I mean, Fia?"
"She still feels disappointed, but eventually relented. We can assuredly trust the ship to her hand, Captain."
"Alright… Well, wait for a bit. We're going to the city center after this," he told her.
"Understood."
Milanor caught up with Boss Hein after ordering Miledi to stand by a bit more. "Another pretty woman followin' you around, kid? That pisses me off a bit."
"…Now that I can't relate to." Explaining who they were would be too much trouble and effort so he would just go along with whatever he assumed.
"Mr. Hein, did the Professor ever tell you anything about what she was doing here?" Naya who was following them threw out this question.
"Nay, not much. I knew she had somethin' goin' on in the yard. My friends there told me they saw her coming and going for a few days."
"The yard, as in, shipyard right?" Milanor asked and he answered yes.
What would a good professor like her be doing in a place like that?
"Oh, that reminds me. The last I saw her, she mentioned someone. A ship captain operatin' around here, she told me. Maybe you can find somethin' out if you ask around while mentionin' that name?"
"A ship captain? One of the locals? I see, maybe that person could tell us what she'd been up to."
"Aye. His name is Karl, she told me. If you lads go to the yard later on, perhaps you could catch him there."
'Karl, huh?' Milanor was pretty apprehensive ever since morning about this whole endeavor, but against my prediction, all of this had gone surprisingly well.
Except for that three silver cards he forked into this bloke, it was quite smooth sailing. Truly, this towering mass of jerkiness was both a blessing and a curse.
"Here we are. Let's see 'ere… Where did I put it…?" Boss Hein walked over to some drawers beside his desk.
He stood around just looking at it up and down, crossing his arms. 'How do you expect to find anything if you just stand silently like that?'
Milanor could see a sizeable pile of alcoholic drinks in the corner of the room. It was apparent that he was also a habitual drinker, though you wouldn't be able to tell from just his looks.
Over his work desk was a clutter of office gadgets, but strangely none of them were online.
The most ubiquitous things inside his office were stack upon stack of papers scattered around the whole freaking room, though.
They were literally everywhere. Over his desk, the drawers, the shelves, even by the door. It was amazing if he could make sense of which was which with this kind of disorganization. But even without that…
'Really? Physical papers? How primitive.'
Boss Hein himself was still just standing around staring at one of the drawers like he was waiting for something to happen.
"Uh, Bossman? Do you need help searching for it or something?"
He couldn't help but feel that maybe this bloke was a frequent on-the-job drunkard. Milanor was sure he was pretty much sober at the moment, but maybe he was mistaken.
"Nah, nah. I was sure there were some of those shiny white cards like the ones you have earlier lyin' around on top of this drawer. Ya see 'ere? Nothin' on it, as you can see. S'pose if I can find them first I could maybe use them to track that old key, you know what I mean?"
"…"
'Someday, Milanor... Someday. Hold your hands just for now, it's okay. You'll get back at this oversized rotten bumpkin sooner or later…'