The Harrison Converter span up, taking Caspian by surprise. It had been a long time since he had seen one of them working; they had been superseded by the superior McKenzie Defibrillator at some time in the ‘30s. The Harrison Converter was a simple device, he remembered, for converting disrupted ions into the polar reverse; the upshot of this was that for the first time mankind had a usable anti-gravity device. Soon after it’s invention, humans had for the first time been able to colonise the solar system.

Caspian examined the Converter. “It’s working now,” he said.

Kelvin nodded. “Thanks, Caspian,” she said.

Kelvin was a woman of around 30. Caspian found her incredibly attractive, with long, blonde hair and stunning figure, he noted to himself. I heard that in the past they didn’t even let women be work in space let alone people’s bosses, he remembered, but I suppose if you’re going to give robots rights you might as well give them to women.

He advanced his Psy-Clasp to decrease the chances of his thoughts being read as they passed through the high altitude Raspian field. There had been plenty of tales, possibly apocryphal, of the Sol-Police using the brain wave distortion inherent in crossing the field to read the minds of passing individuals and Caspian was taking no chances.

“Hold my hand” he said to Kelvin. She nodded. They stepped into the Raspian field.

Suddenly the ship lurched to the left. “The Olmos!” she cried out, “they’ve found us!”

It had been a long time since The Olmos had been seen in remote space, let alone close space. Why would they have come here? Stupid! He took a Harrison Converter through a Raspian field. That was never going to work without creating some kind of Selz ripples throughout the galaxy – exactly the kind of Selz ripples the Olmos fed on. Coupling that with the magnification from the higher rating on the Psy-Clasp, it was inevitable. He swore loudly at his own idiocy. In the past, he remembered, it would have been really rude to swear when ladies were present. Now women were almost equal, it was the least of his worries.

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