"Safe boarding badge?" I asked. That was the first time that I heard about that.
"Ships and crew can carry an infinite number of diseases from one stop to the next," Strawberry explained. "There are also hazardous substances and contraband that vary from one station to the next. Our usual route locations post those and are already in our database. Considering that Clark's is a new stop for us, and less reputable, we'll want to make sure we receive an accurate list to avoid problems."
"Vanilla is used to having all that stuff ready," Cinnamon informed me. "She's probably already taken care of everything needed in that regard. We can..."
"C17 Mavdaios," a young male voice came through the communications console. Cinnamon was wearing an earpiece but I told her to have the speaker on so I could hear everything conveyed. "This is Clark's receiving. Sending approach window instructions now. Unless you have something unusual, you can declare offboarding cargo in person after arrival. The same is true with ship registration. You'll be receiving our outgoing offers shortly. Those may adjust by the time that you dock, so don't make any decisions until you visit our market. If your docking apparatus has not been modified from standard C17, all we'll need is your safe boarding badge in advance. Thank you for choosing Clark's. We hope you enjoy your visit."
"That is all?" I asked after the speaker was silent for a few seconds.
"That is how it is done," Cinnamon replied. "You'll get the approach data when it comes in so you can adjust our course and speed. I see the safe boarding badge automatically loaded from the doctor's records as soon as the request came in. Once I get the outgoing offers list I'll trim it down to things that you will be interested in. That was always part of my job as cargo specialist."
"Trim down the list?" I asked, trying not to sound too new to this.
"Sure," my spice girl replied. "There are things we are not set up to carry like unpackaged ore and fluids. Those require specific holds that only larger vessels possess. They'll also list short runs to nearby outposts and planets that don't typically pay all that well. There may also be contracts for long hauls to star systems that we are not familiar. I'd assume we are avoiding that scenario."
"I'd like to see some of these short runs," I told her. "Especially to a planet's surface."
"Ugh!" Honeysuckle moaned. "Not another planet already."
"Hey," I turned to face the crew. "Half of us aboard are used to solid ground beneath our feet. Let us stretch our legs occasionally until we have grown accustomed to space life. Especially the dragons."
"Yes, captain," Honeysuckle replied, trying to sound professional. "I apologize for my outburst."
Then Strawberry said under her breath, "We just need to make sure we don't crash or break down on the next planet we visit."
I stared right at Honeysuckle and shook my head to ward off any response. I personally didn't take Strawberry's comment as a jab at the mechanic's competency, but I knew from experience that it could easily be received that way.
When the station approach instructions came in, Nav-Berry programmed the course for me with speed reductions along the way. I simply needed to hit the button to approve. Piloting a spaceship was much easier than I ever could have imagined. They were just starting to come out with self-driving cars when I left Earth, but they weren't very reliable. Certainly busy street traffic was more difficult to program for than the huge vacuum of space.
The Teegarden system had one hundred and seventeen vessels in motion at the time, not including those in orbit or within the restricted zones of the other stations. Only a fraction of those were interstellar crafts. Clark's station had two departing and one approaching, and twenty-five currently docked. Again, many of those were not capable of rip-jumping. The small outpost mostly handled trade within the system, to the other stations and a couple of colonized planets.
When the contract and purchase offers came in, they reflected that fact. There were only three contracts for transporting goods to other star systems. Two for Vega, the system where my two favorite humans had been born, and one for Procyon. All three were lucrative according to Strawberry.
There were a variety of other goods that could be purchased and taken anywhere we liked. Clark's advertised selling prices for those items in nearby systems, but Cinnamon said those were exaggerated to promote sales. As far as interstellar economy went, it wasn't incredibly hard to figure out. If a star system had an abundance of something, you could buy it cheap. If they were short on something, you could sell it at a high price. Our ship's computer had a record of prices for hundreds of items over the last few years. It could even estimate profitability on certain scenarios and recommend the best locations to sell. That took into consideration all expenses and time spent in transit as well.
Despite travelling through space, this wasn't rocket science. Computerized life had become way too easy, exponentially so since my departure from Earth. And I had thought dependency on electronics was particularly bad back then.
"What's the best option for trade with a planet with a breathable atmosphere?" I asked.
"Construction goods and air filters for Teegarden Dimo-First," Cinnamon answered. "That planet is also rich in a
