“Marbury. You’re quite late,” said Balin.

“How cold, Lord Balin,” said the human as he leaned down to clear the doorway. There was a slight woosh as the automated door closed behind him. John Marbury, Camelonian Ambassador to the Dolek Clan, groaned a little as he took a slightly too low seat across from the young dwarf.

“A title for less than a week and you already drop Lord, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from my name. The orbits did not favor me, but I believe I have arrived within a reasonable time frame.”

“Several rotations after the ceremony. If father were here he would say that you should have better anticipated his death.”

“My political skill was always inferior to Fundin’s,” Lord Marbury exulted. “I should imagine that the Americans and Chinese were much more punctual. I hereby petition my Lord Balin to grant these old bones a mercy in the name of our long standing friendship.”

“Those old bones are the reason you’re late. If they had given you the treatment for high thrust travel you would have leaked medication and fluids like a sponge from Luna to Saturn. Not to worry, you will still be the first to hold council with me tomorrow.”

Lord Marbury chuckled lightly as they both watched the rotation of the asteroid station slowly bring the gate into view. Balin remembered the school holidays when his father would take him and his siblings out on the shuttlecraft to see the superstructure from up close. The children would float about the bay window, excitedly shouting out ship makes and models as the great mechanical titans breached through the liquid darkness of the wormhole. Balin could hear his father chuckling among the din and tossing out hints to keep the game going when they got stuck. That gate was his responsibility now.

“I hope I do right by him,” he whispered.