Eight.

They walked deep into the bowels of the maze-like Holosphere, occasionally doing local shifts in the artificial gravity so that they were walking on walls or ceilings. The Holosphere was designed to be navigated in this way, and it was a pretty dizzying experience if you weren't used to it: Maximus had no idea where they were, or in which direction they were going. Eventually, though, Selma reached a door, and pressed a button next to it.

“Sawyer? Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

The door slid open. Beyond it was a guy not much taller than Maximus, blond, wearing old-fashioned headphones. Maximus blinked a little as he saw what they were attached to: An antique gramophone, with an old vinyl record spinning in a glass container. As he saw Maximus and Selma, he lifted the needle from the record, removed the headphones, and shook out his long hair.

“Max! What a surprise! It's been a while.”

“Sure has.” Max responded, looking around inside the room which was full of antiquities. “What kind of place is this?”

“I keep some Old Earth artifacts in here. Mostly from the sixties and seventies.”

“This music player is from twenty-seventy? Wow.”

Sawyer smiled. “You're off by a century, Max. Anyway, what brings you to the Holosphere?”

“Our nav disc broke down. We need a new one, Andy thought Rita might be able to help us, but she isn't here, and now Andy's stuck debating with that Silver person.”

“I think we have some lying around, but I'm not sure I know how to install them...”

Selma coughed, bringing attention to herself for the first time. “If you need something installed... I work with tech support.” she said, striking a pose. “I'll fix it in no time. Are you in a hurry?”

Max considered. On the one hand, it wasn't a good idea to let too many people in on the secret of Christmas Planet... on the other hand, him and Sawyer were old friends – and as for Selma, well, they could use a technician.

He cleared his throat. “We kind of are. See, we picked up these coordinates...”