Bad Memory Memory by Patrick Faehi

X Vector Commander Jim Channing strode purposefully to the reception desk of Planet Enterprises Inc.

I want, he told the well-built blonde who was making an interested survey of his

lean features to buy a planet.

Yes, sir.

Her interest evaporated.

She took a card from a filing cabinet and handed it to him.

If you will just fill this out.

It was a simple questionnaire.

Type, location, size, and Channing's Stiloh moved rapidly over it.

He hesitated only at the last stark question,

How much are you prepared to pay? Then he wrote neatly in the space

provided 100,000 credits. That was exactly the amount of his signing off bonus. It also represented his total finances.

The unimaginative minds that calculated the pay of a red-blooded space officer didn't take into account all the attractive ways of spending

it that a rumbustious pioneer vector provided.

He gave the blonde the card, and she wrote a name on it. The smile she gave him was altogether impersonal.

She liked the look of the big gangling fellow with space written all over his bronzed face and crinkled blue eyes, but she said,

will you come this way, please?

The name on the desk identified him as Mr. Folan and he was a tall affable man.

I think we can suit you commander of Mr. Channing, he said though what we have in mind

mightn't be quite as large as you wish.

Earth-type planets come rather high, you know.

...