The stalls either side of them were almost buried beneath piles of scrap metal, pipework and cables. It looked like someone had torn apart some huge machine and left the pieces where they fell.

Malachi poked around for anything he thought might be useful while Ellie settled herself beside Tila.

Ellie ate her portion delicately, one piece at a time.

Tila wolfed hers down, then checked the stallholder was looking the other way. ‘Is he looking for new tech?’ she asked Ellie as she surreptitiously wiped her fingers on the cloth draped over the table.

‘You mean old tech,’ said Ellie.

‘What’s new in this place?’ said Malachi. He had finished his segments too and was using both hands to look for buried treasure. He seemed fascinated by everything on offer, but as far as Ellie and Tila were concerned it was still only junk.

Ellie delicately sucked orange juice from her fingertips. She hated getting her hands sticky. ‘I don’t know what you expect to find,’ she said to Malachi. ‘Nothing that old is going to work, anyway.’

‘What if I told you that I was looking for something for your racer?’

‘Oh, then please carry on!’

‘Anyway, Tila’s staff is old and works fine,’ Malachi replied without looking up. ‘It’s paleotech for sure.’

‘So you keep saying, but we don’t know if it’s paleotech,’ said Tila, dismissing his opinion with a wave of her hand. ‘We don’t even know what it’s made of.’

‘All the more reason,’ Malachi said as if this were obvious. ‘You have to admit that it checks all the right boxes.’ He counted off fingers. ‘One, we don’t know where it comes from. Two, we don’t know what it’s made of and three, we don’t know what it’s for or how it works. Uh, four. So it must predate the war.’

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‘So how do you know it works properly if you don’t know what it does?’ said Ellie.

‘I know how it works, and I know it’s a weapon. And I know without it I wouldn’t be here now,’ Tila said. ‘I don’t need to know any more than that.’

‘Maybe you should find out what it’s worth,’ urged Ellie. ‘Then we can buy our way out of here.’

‘I’m not selling it. Ever. We’ve come a long way together. It’s worth too much to me.’

‘But how much is it worth to me?’ Ellie said with a grin.

There was a cough behind them. ‘Excuse me, ladies, did one of you mention paleotech?’ His eyes darted to the short staff on Tila’s back, evidence enough he had overheard their conversation.

‘It’s not for sale,’ Tila said quickly.

‘Oh, I understand! Really, I do. But items like this don’t pass through here every day. Could I at least look at it? Maybe I can tell you what it’s worth?’

‘It’s not for sale, there’s no point. I don’t care what it’s worth,’ repeated Tila.

‘You don’t care what it’s worth?’ He sounded appalled at the idea. ‘But it could be ancient tech, before we lost contact with Earth. It could even be from Earth! How can you not want to know?’

‘Because none of that matters to me. I don’t care where it came from, or how old it might be. It’s mine now.’

‘But…’

‘It’s not for sale, and no, you can’t touch it.’ Tila said firmly to stop him leading the conversation where she knew it was going. ‘And stop romanticising everything, you too, Malachi. It was barely a hundred years ago we lost contact with Earth. It’s hardly ancient technology.’

He grumbled something, realised there was no profit to be made and vanished behind his stall, muttering to himself. A few seconds later he reappeared with a broom. This time he was brusque and demanding. ‘You can’t sit there.’

The girls looked up into a scowl that resembled a face.

‘You can’t sit there. You have to move,’ he repeated.

‘We’re not in the way,’ protested Ellie.

‘You can’t sit there. This is my space for my trade. Clear off. You want to sit there you can rent the space.’

Ellie tried again. ‘We weren’t in the way a moment ago. We’re not stopping anyone. Tila?’

‘Come on, Ellie. Not today. I’m trying to be less confrontational, remember?’

They gathered their things. Malachi reluctantly tore himself away from the parts on offer. Tila held her staff close to her body to ward off curious hands. Ellie continued to grumble, and together they dived back into the fast-flowing waters of the market.