Benson would have sworn that nobody could have been more infuriating than Jorgensen, with his old ship the Ariadne.  He had lost count of the times that Jorgo had snatched a prize right out of the reach of the Envy's grapples, against the rules of the Solar System salvage trade.  Jorgo's enhanced engines had made it easy to beat the Envy to a floating space ship or runaway asteroid after the Envy had been commissioned to collect it.

So you can imagine how Benson's heart sank as he heard Smith call out that there was a ship on the long range scanners.  'Sorry Boss, but its the Ariadne!'

Benson spoke a few words rarely heard outside the sleazy dives that abounded in the asteroid belt.

'Hey, don't set fire to my ears!' protested Smith.  'It's not my fault Jorgo's hanging around like a Martian cling flea.  I thought the days of killing the messenger were centuries behind us!'

'I'm your captain.  I can revive old traditions if I want.  Do you prefer to walk the plank or be keelhauled?'

'I vote we make him walk home,' came the drawl of the second in command, Snodgrass.

'Kiss my asteroid!' riposted Smithy.

Benson was about to put an end to their heavy handed humour, when they were rudely interrupted by the computer announcing that somebody was hailing the Envy.  Instead of squelching his crew's levity, he settled at the communications panel and pressed a few buttons.  For a change, the view-screen was working, and rewarded Benson with a sight he would have walked barefoot across Mercury to avoid.

The thin lips, piercing blue eyes, high cheekbones and tangled badly dyed black hair centred on the screen were the stuff of nightmares.  A man would have to be in space, alone for many years, before fancying that!

'What ship is that?' came a voice reminiscent of fingernails scratching a blackboard.

'This is Captain Benson of the Envy.  May I ask who's that?  That is the Ariadne, isnt it?'

'I'm Val Jorgensen, in command while my husband is recovering from a dose of radiation sickness.  The Envy, eh?'  Her voice rose a couple of notches.  'Why, you're the bastard who forced him too close to the sun when you stole the Mercury landing craft from him last month.  You're responsible for him being in hospital!'

'Now, hold on a minute,' said Benson.  'We had registered our claim for that Lander with Titan Base, and your husband tried to take it from us.  If he hadn't tangled with our grapple beams, he wouldn't have gone spinning out of control towards the sun.  If you recall, we saved his chestnuts from a roasting when we got our grapples on him and pulled him to safety.'

'You put him in danger, then had the nerve to charge him for rescuing him from it!  He's told me all about you.  Stealing salvage right from under his nose, lying about him to Titan Base, making fun of him with the other salvage crews.  Your crew even stole his personal mug from that café on Ganymede, the one that the Mayor of Io gave him.  We're making an official complaint as soon as he's fit to move.'

Her diatribe grew louder, forcing Benson to lower the volume on the control panel.

'She's bloody crackers!' muttered Snodgrass,  not quietly enough.

'What's that?' screeched the image on the screen.

'He said your broadcast is cracking up.  We can hardly hear you,' replied Benson, glaring at Snotty.

As she opened her mouth to fire another salvo, an emergency alarm went off, and a voice broke in, overriding both their transmissions.

'Titan Base calling Envy.  Come in Envy.'

'Envy  here, Titan, what's the problem?'

'Hi, Benny.  We just picked up a distress call from the space yacht Tough Cheese.  They've been hit by a meteor and need towing to the nearest base for urgent repairs.  They're round the dark side of Tethys, so you can be there in a couple of days.  Normal towing rates apply.'  This was followed by a stream of numbers giving the exact coordinates of the Tough Cheese.

Val Jorgensen's creaky voice broke in.  'Now just hold your horses, Titan Base.  The Ariadne is closer to Tethys than the Envy.  We should get the job.'

'According to our information, the Ariadne isn't supposed to be in that sector.  That's Envys patrol this month.'  The controller on Titan sounded calm.  Benson wished he felt the same. 

Regardless of Head Office's decision to hand the job to the Envy, he knew that the Ariadne would be racing them to the target.  That meant two whole days of listening to that harridan screaming abuse at them, while trying to steal their job.  'Come back Jorgo, all is forgiven,' he prayed silently, as he handed over the comm. panel to Smithy, and went in search of a Valium.

He wished Jorgo a speedy recovery.