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abut these deals of yours.”
    So he spreads his pictures and his price list out on the dining-room table. And right away I see a system I like. It’s got good power, and the price looks okay to me. I call Debbie over to make sure I’m not getting us in too deep. She thinks for a minute. Then she says, “Yeah, we can swing that.”
    â€œWe will swing that,” I tell Eric. “How soon can you install it?”
    â€œWe’ve got a tech crew in the neighborhood,” he says. “We’ll start tomorrow morning. If it’s a straightforward job, we should be done by late afternoon. Any chance I can get up on your roof now so I can see what we’ll have to do in the replacement process?”
    I ask Debbie a question with my eyebrows. She goes, “I’ll turn supper down.”
    I lean the ladder against the side of the house. We both go up there (I check to see Eric’s insured first). He’s good and careful on the slope; it’s not like he’s never done this before. He steps over the oorts and kuipers out at the edge (smart—those little bastards’ll freeze your ankles off if you give ’em half a chance) and bends down to take a look at the power unit in the center of the system.
    He kinda grunts. “You could do with a new one, all right. This one here’s gotta be close to 5X10E9.”
    â€œI told you—this system was in place when we bought the house,” I say.
    â€œThey don’t usually last past 1X10E10, not ones this size. They blow up on you, make all kinds of trouble. You’re smart to replace while it’s still kinda working.” Eric takes out a loupe and inspects the sixth wanderer. “What happened here? What’s up with the ring?”
    â€œA couple of the outliers smashed together a while ago and broke up. Didn’t seem to hurt anything much, so I just left it alone.”
    â€œSloppy workmanship, though.” Eric switches to another loupe, one with a longer lens. “Same with this grit between Five and Four. We make ’em a lot better now, we really do. You’ll like your new one. It’s clean , man.”
    â€œCool,” I say. “Um, could you take a peek at Three? It’s been kinda funny-like for a while.”
    He does, with the strongest lens yet. He’s frowning when he looks up. “Hate to tell you, but I think it’s gone moldy.”
    â€œI was afraid of that. Now I’m extra glad we’re ripping this one out.”
    â€œYeah, that stuff can be nasty,” Eric agrees. “Sometimes it even spreads to systems up and down the block.” He writes on his clipboard. “Gotta make sure we sterilize it before we recycle.”
    I nod. “Sounds like a plan.” He fiddles around up there while I get hungrier. So I say, “You want to have dinner with us? Debbie always makes plenty.”
    That gets him moving. “No, thanks,” he says. “Still got more ground to cover today. Let’s go down, shall we?” And we do.
    I stow the ladder in the garage. We go into the house again. Debbie says, “I heard you guys clomping around up there. Everything all set?”
    â€œSure is,” Eric answers. “Good thing I went up. Wanderer Three’s got mold on it, and it’ll need steam cleaning before they can reuse it.”
    â€œEwww.” Debbie hates gross stuff. She asks, “No extra charge?” She hates that, too.
    But he says, “Nah—comes with the install. The crew’ll be here between nine and eleven tomorrow. It’ll be kinda noisy, but not too bad. Look, here’s my card.” He sets it on the table. “Any trouble at all, call me, hear? Now I’m gonna run. Thanks, folks.” And away Eric goes. He’s got more solar systems to sell.

ALTERNATE HISTORY:
THE HOW-TO OF WHAT
MIGHT HAVE BEEN
    When Michael Knost put together his Writers Workshop of Science Fiction & Fantasy