Page 7 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

Grace frowned. That wasn’t the voice of the dock leader who controlled Twenty-three. The hissing, sibilant accent was actually more similar to Reetak, but masculine. The dock leader wasn’t a ratchi; he wasn’t even reptilian.

The owner of the ship docked there was though.

“I am,” she said, connecting to the dock cameras, making sure her voice stayed pleasant despite her confusion. “Who is this?”

“ This is Loyalty, ” he said, confirming her suspicion. “ I own the ship docked here. The Starship Theelaay? ”

“Right, of course. How can I help you?” She asked as she swiped through the cameras until she caught one that showed the comm station within the dock.

Sure enough, there was a ratchi male there. And she started in surprise, because the male on the vid feed had dark violet scales and bright purple quills. It must be a rare coloration, because every ratchi she’d ever known only had scales in green or blue tones. It was strange but beautiful.

However, he shouldn’t be using the dock’s comm station.

Or even be in the work area. Ship crewmembers were either supposed to stay in their ship or take the lifts down into the station proper.

The public areas of Hir-Fallow would be the bud and stem of the flower shape, and that was where non-employees belonged.

Sure, they had to walk through the repair docks to get to those lifts, but the dock comm station wasn’t near that path.

Where the heck was the crew? Why weren’t they there working?

She was already bringing up the job list for that ship and she nearly cursed when she saw that not a single thing had been checked off of it yet.

This was the second day that ship had been in dock.

It was here because the engine was not keeping power and kept turning off without warning.

By now, at the barest minimum, the engine compartment should already be opened and diagnostics completed.

But even those basic steps weren’t checked off the list yet.

Yeah, she had just been begging for a problem like this by thinking such positive thoughts.

Any hope that maybe the dock team just hadn’t updated the list was dashed when the ratchi male said, “ I came to check on my ship, and it doesn’t appear anything has been done yet. ”

She quickly fixed a smile on her face, though he couldn’t see her. It made maintaining her apologetic, customer service voice easier.

“I am so sorry about that. There seemed to have been a miscommunication with your dock team.”

He made a sound on the other end that was somewhere between a chuckle of disbelief and a simply grunt of acknowledgment. “ Yes. A miscommunication. ”

“I am truly sorry. I will contact your team immediately, and I will set up a meeting with you to go over what happened in a few days.”

There was a moment of surprised silence. “ You will ?”

“Of course. Just give me some time to figure out what happened and get everything started properly. I’ll get to work on that right now and set up a meeting time with you once I have more information. Can I help you with anything else in the meantime?”

“ Er, no. No, I just want my ship fixed, please. ”

“Of course. I’ll contact your team right away.” Switching off the channel, she brought up the comm patch signature for the dock team leader. He picked up quickly.

“ Hey, Grace. What you need? ”

“Er, for you to do your job? You have a ship in dock. Why has no work been done yet?”

He didn’t respond immediately. Which made her eye twitch.

Finally, after a long moment, he said uncomfortably, “ Er… parasites. ”

“Para…” She cut herself off, taking in a deep breath and praying for patience. “There were no pests found during initial inspection.”

The team lead scoffed. “ Don’t know how you missed it. ”

“Then, I’ll comm the exterminator! Why didn’t you do that?

Or alert me so I could?!” She let out a short breath, trying to control her temper.

“Forget it. I’m comming them now. Get back in there, and get to work, or I swear, I am putting you and your crew on ancillary duty, and I will be having you mucking grease for the next tenday! ”

Ending the comm, she looked back at the cameras.

The ratchi – Loyalty of the Line Grass his file identified him as – had gone already, otherwise she would have commed the dock station back.

She really needed to ask Reetak what Line Grass meant because Reetak had a second name, but it was Assalass.

However, Grace kept forgetting to do so.

Even now, it slipped from her mind as she wrote out a quick message alerting the ratchi male that the crew found a pest problem, but she was dealing with it and the extermination would be done at no extra charge for his inconvenience.

She also kept her word and scheduled a meeting for later.

It was probably pointless since she had an answer, but customers liked the personal touch and attention.

It soothed hurt egos and anger quite well.

Then, she put in a request for the exterminator team to come inspect and treat the ship.

As she was wrapping up that business, her proximity alarm on Dock Eleven went off. She brought up the cameras in time to see her new ship – named Humility – maneuvering backwards into position.

Docks Ten and Eleven were her medium sized docks. Honestly, this ship was small enough that it could have been serviced by her small docks, but they were all in use.

The small docks, Docks Twenty-Three through Twenty-Six, were completely enclosed at all times.

Ships that came into them were totally encased in a full atmosphere environment.

The middle docks, Ten and Eleven, serviced mid-sized ships and could do both fully eclosed repairs or fully open ones.

Those docks had the ability to be totally sealed and atmosphere pumped in to surround the entire ship, unlike her largest dock, dock three, which serviced large ships and was incapable of enclosing a ship so all repairs had to be open ones.

The Humility was small enough that she could use the enclosed dock features if she wished, but she didn’t think that would be necessary for this job.

Though, if any ship needed a total overhaul, it would be this one.

The ship pulling into the dock was old, literally centuries, and it looked every year of it.

She couldn’t tell what the original paint color was, if it ever had one, because it had been either bleached to white, burned to black, or scraped off entirely.

It was nothing special shape wise – just a standard, boxy cargo style ship.

It seemed to have some credz put into the defense systems, because those looked new.

However, everything else had clearly been pieced together, repaired, and re-repaired over the decades.

Like a threadbare patchwork quilt of metal.

The bright lights of Dock Eleven were harsh on the old, beat up body as the ship came into position.

Stabilizing columns, meant to anchor ships against the dock, came out to attach to anchor points all around the outside.

Those would hold it securely in place while work was being done.

That ship was almost too small for Dock Eleven, but it was still too large to be allowed to go planetside.

Therefore, it had no stable base upon which it could rest. Since the ship’s engine would be completely turned off for repairs, including the feature that would usually keep it stable and unmoving in relation to Hir-Fallow, it had to be stabilized externally.

Hence the columns that were locking it in place.

It moved well, she could admit. No stuttering, no over corrections.

Smooth and graceful, like she would expect from a modern ship.

While she watched, the docking tunnel extended out, going to meet up with the large, rear stowage door.

Using that door would allow them to do whatever work they might need easily without needing to worry about size restrictions.

The ship was surrounded on both sides by the rest of the dock, but those walls made no attempt to close around it.

If exterior repairs needed to be done, suited and tethered workers would use those outer walls as a base.

For now though, they were empty and quiet as the team gathered at the indoor section of the docks.

Pulling up the ship’s contact information, she got ready for her usual welcoming spiel as she commed their bridge.

The smooth, pleasantly humming tone that answered her said, “ This is Sway, navigator of the Humility. ”

She smiled. “Greetings, Sway. This is Grace. I will be the dock master for your time here while under the care of Uver Prime. Welcome to Dock Eleven. We are currently securing your rear stowage door to the docking tunnel, as well as the power and life support ports. The moment they’re secured, we will be taking over those operations during the length of your stay.

If you’ve followed the instructions we sent ahead, your ship should already be ready for a full connection, but if you have not, I’m happy to walk you through the steps you need to take. ”

Grace paused then, waiting for a response.

Silence. Absolutely nothing. Not even the sound of breathing. She kept waiting for a reply, but when one didn’t come, she frowned. It couldn’t be heard in her voice, however, as she asked-

“Hello? Are you still there?”

“ Er… yes… ” Came the hesitant reply. He sounded stunned.

“Is there a problem?”

“ Er… I mean, no. No. There’s no problem. I’m sorry. ” She heard him clear his throat and could practically see him straightening in his chair. “ Thank you for your care, Grace. ”