[Second part of chapter 10]

'I’ve got some ice for your,’ Dasel-pots hesitated, ’…your satchel area.’
Stuart took the cold bag and put it on his butt. ‘Thanks a lot! Sorry for that little misunderstanding. But that sure is one vicious robot you got there.’
Dasel-pots gave genuine ‘that’s fine’ smile.
‘Thanks for picking up my ship slowly enough for us to get aboard in time,’ Stuart said rather cynically.
‘What, wait, that was your ship? But my instructions here claim that the ship was the property of XLM. Unless I’m greatly mistaken, its name is ‘Nietzsche’s Sock’. It landed on Carrotus for flight tests under gravity, but its crew disappeared after reporting a giant white thing on the horizon. That’s why we’re here to tow it back to Orbitus.’
‘Xtreme Level Makers? I’ve never heard of them. Who…’ gasped Stuart.
‘Who are they? They’re nothing but the XLM,’ replied Dasel-pots with a ‘don’t worry’ smile and a wink. ‘Why do you say that it’s your ship? Are you one of the crew? Because if you are, I’m going to have to fire you.’
‘No, I’m not. I just happened to be in the general vicinity of the ship when the giant white rabbit came. I didn’t have much choice.’
‘Are you wondering why we’re going to Orbitus?’
‘More than I wonder about life, the universe and everything.’
‘Times have changed since Jazz Jackrabbit graced that planet. In the end, its natural gravitational fields just couldn’t keep the core of the planet from expanding outwards. In fact, I think it’s because of its gravitational fields that the planet is slowly expanding and dissolving into space. We’ve stopped that, but there’s absolutely no way to shrink Orbitus back into its original size.’
‘So now the very low gravity of the planet gives ideal spaceship construction environment! But what about the beholders?’
‘They beheld our coming. That’s it. They beheld our coming, realized that we were here to help and have agreed to leave us alone if we leave them alone.’
Stuart found the idea of a purple-silver kaleidoscope welcoming a fleet of Anti-Gravito-Gravy suckertubes rather amusing. He, despite only having his Guide for less than an hour, instinctively looked up ‘XLM’.
‘Put that down. J2LC has decided to only make bad information about their competitors available on their silly guides,’ said Dasel-pots and decided that it would be more helpful to reassure Stuart of Unigma’s safety, because Stuart hadn’t thought about Unigma at all, and tell him all about XLM, it’s history and it’s recent move to Orbitus.