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After dinner, Marina’s driver stops by to get a walkthrough of the rover from Cleve. Sandy is about fifty, a planetfaller but one of the younger ones. It’s been a while since she’s driven a car, and Cleve gets right to business. He tells her all he knows about the rover—including the lower gear he had to discover for himself. He also goes over the terrain in the Monsoon Jungle and the hills around Data Haven.
“Of course, of course. Thank you, young man,” she says pleasantly, clearly not as worried about the upcoming trip as Cleve is. “It’ll be fiiiiiine.” She sounds older than she looks, probably from all the miasma she’s breathed in over the years. “There won’t be any problems at all. We’re going to go help Marina here get where she needs to go. And we’ll take good care of it,” she says, patting the rover. “We’ll get it to your friends in Data Haven. I’ll have to show them how to—they probably don’t work with engines much, do they?”
“Actually, yeah, Tenoch does. When you get there, look them up.”
“I’m sure this Tenoch is a nice person,” Sandy says breezily. “I’ll talk with them, and we can swap stories. You know, I used to work on cars…”
Sandy rambles on, sharing an anecdote of very little concern to Cleve other than the key words that introduced it. “Wait, you used to work on cars?” he asks, thrilled at the prospect of entrusting the rover to someone with applicable training.
“Yeah, race cars, Formula 1, that sort of thing.”
With that new understanding of her foundation, Cleve gets more technical in the information he shares about the rover, including the modifications and repairs it has already undergone. Sandy half-listens to him as she walks around the vehicle, glances at the undercarriage, pops the hood to inspect the engine—does everything except kick the tires. At one point, she cuts him off with a highly-technical question on the rover’s specs. This is when Cleve learns about yet another drive mode the rover possesses for better traction. Sandy wasn’t part of the rover design team, but she knows the components inside and out. Cleve’s worries that Marina and Sandy are going to die fiery deaths in the rover decrease another notch.
With the new information about better traction control, Cleve approves Sandy’s ideas for modifying the rear to attach a hitch for towing. A trailer will allow them to transport Checkerboard back to the Garden of Chiron for further treatment if necessary. It will also mean more gear from the Garden of Chiron—food stuffs, farming supplies, research equipment, and so on—can accompany Dr. Citali back to Data Haven.
“And we’ll take good care of your friend Checkerboard, don’t worry. We have some of the best doctors here,” Sandy tells Cleve as they’re packing up the tools. “And Marina, I remember when she was little,” she goes on, glancing over through the sliding glass doors of the apartment. “She’s learned so much! You know, I didn’t think she was a medical doctor, but it turns out she is!”
“She is now,” Cleve mutters.
“Young people these days are so industrious,” Sandy says with a big smile.
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