A wooden merchant boat with three iron sails came spinning backward out of the dark sky.
Its left wing was sliced clean off. Sparks shot out of its stern like a broken firework, and the hull scraped across the stone landing pad of Planet Ten’s main Star-Gate with a loud screech.
“Watch the curb! Watch the freshly painted yellow line!”
Su Suanpan—whom everyone in the ten worlds called Abacus Su—jumped out from behind his wooden booth, waving a thick brass ruler in one hand and a black ledger in the other. His spectacles slid down his nose as he chased the skidding ship across the granite tiles.
“Three hundred feet of black-iron stone tile!” Abacus Su shouted, his fingers clicking wildly on the beads of his golden abacus. “Two coats of luminous yellow road paint! Plus the labor fee for Old Wei’s security team to sweep up your rudder! Captain Zhao, don’t you dare faint until you put your thumbprint on this damage ticket!”
The cabin door of the merchant boat popped open with a puff of black smoke.
Captain Zhao, a fat merchant with a singed beard and soot all over his silk robe, tumbled out onto the stone floor. He didn’t even look at his broken ship. Instead, he grabbed Abacus Su’s hem and started howling.
