The captain looked sternly at us. “What are you doing here?”

“Um,” I managed to say, “I don’t understand.”

“You’re heading to Eris V on my ship, you just got married after coming here on a blasted starliner and you two don’t have any real gear. I’ve half a mind to stop being nice and throw you out that airlock and save us both the trouble.”

“Ah,” Brenda spoke up. “It is you who don’t understand.”

I tried not to smile as Brenda stopped the captain in mid-rant.

“We’re teachers,” she went on. “Hired by the colony compact.”

“The colony’s too new and too scattered to really have any settlements. We’ll been working from the orbital platform for the first year,” I said.

“Then you’re not algae farmers?”

“No way,” I said.

The captain let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God. You cannot know how many idiots head for the stars unprepared.”

“I’m not sure I’d call us prepared,” I said. “But there are people who will take care of us.”

“Fair enough,” the captain said. “You two want a honeymoon?”