A Starship Called Starsong

Chapter 58

Cynthia examined me with bright eyes as I ate my breakfast. She said, "I hear there was a pretty good party in the lower levels yesterday."

I pretended to not understand her hint. "The peace negotiations went very well. I also heard that the surplus of appetizers appeared in both dining areas and were very rapidly consumed."

The distraction seemed to work, and her eyes tracked over to the empty counter beside the breakfast food. "Those things were really good. We will have to see if the cook will make them occasionally."

Starsong spoke very quietly, "She ate eighteen of those pastel balls. Oddly enough, she only ate the pink ones while ignoring the blue and purple colors even though she knows that they all taste the same."

His soft words still had a slightly echoing ring to them, proof that even if I couldn't really feel my hangover, some of the alcohol's legacy was still lingering.

With a faint smirk at Cynthia, I replied, "We may be able to have a small party with them after supper every few months. I will have to see if the cook is willing to consider it. Out of curiosity, why did you only eat the pink ones?"

Logan started snickering as Cynthia's jaw dropped. She sputtered, "What- How- You weren't even on this level!"

I merely grinned at her, quite enjoying her disbelief. She clapped her hand to her forehead as she groaned. "Right, right. Not much happens on this ship that you don't know about. I thought you were supposed to be helping create peace? Not listening to idle gossip."

I responded, "If Starsong hadn't been telling me about every halfway interesting thing happening, then I probably would have died from boredom."

She shook her head. "Better you than me, although I am glad to be on the move again. Just sitting in space is boring. Five days until we reach Sceltar, right? We purchased some seeds for a few new types of plants that I am looking forward to getting my hands on."

"We have a lot of trades occurring at that stop. We have booked a docking space for three days."

That surprised Logan, causing him to inquire, "Three days? The longest we have stayed in port so far is two days. How much trading are we doing?"

I had looked at the list earlier, and there was no way I was going to recite the long document, so I pulled out my Guide and opened up the screen before showing him. I swiped the screen to scroll through the hundreds of lines. "This is a huge port. It is one of the biggest in this part of the galaxy. We have arranged to sell almost all of our cargo, and I have quite a few meetings lined up for more purchases. Procurement has managed to arrange most of the trades without me, but that is still a lot of cargo to move and we only have five loading bay doors."

Logan looked perplexed as he scratched his head. "The Tyndel only had three loading doors, but even five loading bays still seems insufficient for that kind of transfer. I wish the Cargo Bay crew luck, because I have no idea how they are going to move that much stuff in three days."

I shrugged. "They say they can do it, and they have left some leeway time in case any of the machines break down. If worse comes to worst, we pay for another day in port."

Cynthia winced. "I hear those last-second bookings cost at least three times the amount you pay when requesting in advance."

Starsong confirmed that she was correct. I nodded as I replied, "In a port like this, yes. The Cargo Bay crew is already organizing things for when we dock, and then they will be going flat out. We only need to get the crates out onto the loading platform, so it isn't that bad. Ensuring that the different groups show up at the right time to collect them will be the harder part."