A Starship Called Starsong

Chapter 53

I waved a farewell to David. "Take care and say hi to your wife for me."

He waved back as he paused outside of Tobias' main access door. "I will tell her. I am sure Tobias will keep me out of trouble. We will have to visit again one day."

I called back, "Send a video call if you want. Some days can get pretty boring."

"I will keep that in mind. Farewell, until we meet again!"

With a bowing flourish, he spun inside his ship. The door promptly closed the moment he was inside, probably Tobias' efforts to keep his Captain's terrible dancing moves from embarrassing him.

I shook my head in amusement as I turned and headed towards the Starsong. The other Starship, which had chosen the name Astra for herself, had just left the docking station. It had been fun to visit with David.

We had talked more about the mindlink and our reactions to it, and in the end, we were both a bit more at ease with it. I had compared it to an earpiece that kept me informed, while he had compared it to a prosthetic hand or limb that helped someone with daily tasks they would have otherwise struggled with. I didn't quite understand his logic, but I had never really met anyone with a prosthetic limb, so I couldn't really comment on it.

The small amount of trading we had arranged was already completed, so we would be leaving this planet as soon as I was inside and the ramp was removed. The docking staff were already starting to pull the ramp back from Tobias, and I knew that they would head in this direction the second they finished.

The main access door opened as I walked up the ramp. Ronan was outside by the door as he leaned against the Starship, pretending to be a security guard.

"He isn't exactly pretending. He does have the training, and he is quite capable of fulfilling that role. You were just walking between the Starships, so there wasn't much he could do on such a small and unoccupied docking station."

I nodded at Ronan before heading inside the Starship. I replied, 'Makes sense. Although it could have been amusing to see him try to follow me onto the other two Starships.'

"He is aware that you are safe on any Starship. Thus, there was no need for such an attempt."

I refrained from commenting that Ronan didn't stand a chance at succeeding, even if he tried. The Starships would be watching him before he so much as put a toe on that ramp. I was fully aware that Starsong often tapped into the local surveillance cameras when we were docked as he kept an eye on things. The cameras' video feed was supposedly impossible to hack into, but Starsong never let a minor detail like that stop him.

"Tobias is already taking off, and we are free to leave as soon as they leave the atmosphere."

There was a good chance of meeting David within a few months since both Tobias and Starsong planned to use a number of the same ports. They specialized in different cargo, so there wasn't any problem with us docking at the same time. Starsong seemed to favor fruits, spices, metal ores, and gems while Tobias preferred manufactured goods that were in high demand.

I headed back to the Bridge and pulled up a list of our next stops on my Guide. It would be two days before we got to a planet called Folkar, then another five days before we finally reached our main destination, Sceltar.

Sceltar was a huge port that specialized in trade and passenger commute. It had over twenty docking bays on its largest docking station. We had contacted the company that had been looking for the rare metal we were carrying. They were skeptical that we actually had as much as we said we did, but they had stated that they would purchase as much as we had if it was of a good quality.