"She didn't know either, but she knew the right person to find out."

And he describes the princess's miniature and amusingly sidetracked quest to find a good librarian for about five minutes.

Once she meets one, "The librarian was interested in the Moonbeam too, but she wanted all the books its computer surely had stored. They had the same goal for different reasons, so they could work together. The librarian found old stories about a piece of lost technology that could find the Moonbeam, and the princess set out to find the man who had it. This man turned out to be a retired captain. He was much too old to go off on an adventure, but when the princess explained her quest he was happy to sell her the scanner that could do it."

"Why he not already find it before that?"

"The princess wondered that too, and she asked, and he said 'I tried to, but my ship wasn't nearly good enough. It couldn't go as high, or as low, and it was slow. Eventually I just gave up.' The princess asked, why not sell it, or make a deal with someone with a better ship? The old captain said that he was maybe a little suspicious of everyone when he was younger, but there's no good reason to hold on to it now that he's old. So the princess got the tracking device, but the old captain stayed behind."

"Okay."

The story goes on to find a ship and a bold captain who's in it for the adventure and glory, a genius engineer to help them run it who wants to have a look at the Moonbeam's engines, and a strong and reliable brother and sister who come along when the princess promises to pay them well for their help. Six people are not a lot to run a whole ship, especially if it's going to go to dangerous places looking for the Moonbeam, but they manage it and have lots of various adventures. From rescuing slaves to negotiating with pirates to distracting a herd of puffers so a stranded ship can get away safely...

...The end of the story has them return home with no Moonbeam, though they did get close once, but having learned a lot about each other and friendship and other positive aesops, and the group parts on good terms.

"Is Moonbeam even really real."

"I think it really is. There's a few pictures and videos of a mystery ship doing Moonbeam-like things here and there, and lots of stories by people who think they actually saw it. Plus, you can see large ships in orbit with good enough telescopes. Some of these are satellites we know about, or the stargate which is a dead station, but some of the things we see in orbit nobody knows what they are, and they move around. If the Moonbeam does exist, it's a good explanation for the occasional mystery dot."

"Okay. Pity is not a person."

"Yeah... I should probably go get that extra large hammock for you now. Want to follow me or just stay here?"

"...is anything to do here?"

"Books? I have a computer, music and more books and a few movies on it but not many games. You'd better not go into my workshop - could break something or get hurt."

"Books and computer and music and movies is good. Can't get hurt am safe."

"Let me show you the computer real quick then..."

This is the computer, this is how to keyboard and mouse, he does something complicated which will prevent her from breaking anything on it by accident, here is a menu of available books and music and movies. And the real physical books are on that bookshelf. "Anything else I should look for while I'm out?"

"...If find a door Milliways don't letting it close just brainphone me where. Or brainphone Jane that I here."

"Right. See you later, then."

"See you."

And Pen amuses herself on the computer, singing to herself.

Maybe twenty minutes later, someone knocks on his door. Pretty loudly. "Hey smarty pants! I'm here with the... Thing you wanted! What is this anyway?!"

Pen goes and answers the door. "He gone off to get a hammock," she says.

"...Uh, who are you and why are you in Terence's house?"

"Am Pen, am lost, he helping."

"Does sound like him. Wings? Super jealous." She waves what is probably some complicated machine part in their general direction.

"Am angel."

"Isn't that a thing that lives in space? Or something? And do you know when he'll be back? This - transformer I think - 's heavy."

"Dunno. Could put down? Or I hold for you? I live in mountain on other planet in other world."

"I'd put it in his workshop but he locks it. Probably not good for the table. Floor will have to do. But if he's not gonna work on stuff I can't watch him and ask questions, maybe oughta just go home, except you're strange and interesting so maybe not."