These boots will last you a lifetime."Īt the entrance of the shop, Kelly caught sight of himself in a full-length mirror. When the War came along, they dropped that reg, and a lot of quality, to cut costs.
They haven't used those plates in fifty years, but the Navy required that the mounts be left there in case of equipment failures. "See those little threaded holes? That's where they used to screw in the magnetic plates.
"How can you tell they're pre-War?" Kelly asked, sorting through the bin to find a pair that fit. "Genuine pre-War unissued Space Marine boots!" Aha, jackpot!" With that exclamation, he pulled a pair of boots from a bin. It's just something to get across to reach the planets, where the jobs are. "Besides," Torwald continued, "a spacer has very little to do with space, any more than a sailor has with water. That's because you never know when you may be set afoot, or in what terrain, or in what climate." Kelly didn't like the sound of the expression "set afoot." "You might not think so, kid, but boots are more important than any other item of a spacer's equipment. They rummaged around for a few minutes while Torwald gave him a running lecture on the virtues of good boots. Last of all, Torwald took Kelly to the rear of the shop, where the footwear was kept. Then Torwald selected cold-weather gear, a wrist chrono and calculator, work gloves, clothing-all the necessities for a spacer's bag. Besides which, if necessary, you can always stick people with them." I'll find you a better one." He checked the display case at the front of the shop, finally choosing a heavy-bladed sheath knife and a small folding pocket model with several tools in the handle besides the knife blade. Do you have a knife?" Kelly took one out of his pocket: a spring-blade model, cheaply produced. That's what the armor cloth is for, mainly. But, you'll be going places where thorns and fangs and stickers and stingers and the like are deadlier than any bullet. "Is that for stopping bullets?" Kelly asked. Torwald picked out a one-piece coverall of armor cloth. They went to a section where protective clothing was hung from racks or mounted on stands, everything from antipersonnel-missile-resistant vests to suits of articulated plates made from hardened ceramic fiber. "Now, some protective gear." He was enjoying this, and Kelly was delighted with the amassing of the specialized equipment of his new trade. Torwald's own bag was the more traditional dark blue. "First," Torwald said, "something to stash it all in." The proprietor brought a spacebag in the glossy gray-black favored by the Navy toward the end of the War.
Torwald headed toward the most reputable-looking of these establishments. Ideal places for a spacer to outfit himself cheaply. The end of the War had dumped millions of tons of surplus gear on the market, and the shops had sprung up overnight. Within a block of the spaceport dozens of surplus stores catered to spacers.
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