Page 8 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

“Of course.” She smiled again. “I’m here to make this process as easy as possible.

So, if you ever have any questions or concerns, you can always contact me.

Once we have you connected to the tunnel, you and your crew are free to come into the station.

There is a blue line on the path that will guide anyone who wishes to go to the lift that will bring you to the station proper.

I do, however, need at least one member of the crew to stay behind so we can do the initial inspection together. ”

“ That will be me. I’ll be supervising all the work. My captain, the owner of the ship, is Tanin A’Faar. He will be going with his mate into the station. If you need his authority for anything, I can get in contact with him. He has also told me where he’ll be staying if I have to find him. ”

“Perfect.” She said, approving the tunnel connection when it popped up on her display.

“I’ll be sending you a list of the dock crew members who will be working on your ship.

However, no one will step foot inside until after the initial inspection and the finalized agreement for approved upgrades and repairs, and, of course, only with your full permission.

Shall I put you down as the primary contact? ”

“ That will… be fine. ”

“Great. That is updated in your file. The docking tunnel is connected and secured. As are the life support and energy cables. You can begin powering down your ship now. Your crew is free to come and go. I will be down shortly so that you and I can do the inspection together.”

“ Alright. ”

“Do you need anything from me for now, Sway?”

“ Er, do you… ”

“Hm?” She cocked her head when his voice trailed off. But he didn’t continue.

“ Never mind. I will see you soon. ”

“See you soon,” she agreed before cutting the comm.

Strange guy. Was he nervous? That was fine.

Being friendly and personable was a trait she’d been trained in since birth.

Never dominate a conversation, Grace, but never let it lag either – as her mother would say.

A properly bred and trained lady should always know the difference.

Even if you are trapped in a conversation with a statue, it should still flow smoothly.

It was annoying how often those lessons she hated as a child proved useful as an adult. Though, she did take some satisfaction in knowing her mother definitely didn’t intend for her to use them the way she did.

Before leaving her desk, Grace went through one last check of all her docks, making sure that everything was in order.

Dock Three hadn’t vacated yet, Dock Ten was empty, the exterminator for Twenty-three messaged back saying she was on her way, Eleven was docked now and waiting.

Dock Twenty-four had started cleaning. Dock Twenty-five and Twenty-six had were both hard at work doing the scheduled repairs for the day.

Satisfied that everything was going well, and no one needed her immediately, she grabbed her tablet off the table and turned in her chair-

Only to cry out in scared shock at the huge male standing behind her. She let out a quick breath, covering her racing heart as her boss laughed at her.

He was a baemoth male, which meant he was massive.

Baemoth males and females both were huge, though in very different ways.

The females were extremely skinny, but very tall.

The males were tall in comparison to her, though not as much as their females, but their real size came from their huge bodies.

They had four arms and more muscles than really necessary.

Their skin was beige, and they all had large horns on their heads, sweeping back from their forehead and pointing behind them.

They also had black and teal scales, but they were sparingly dotted across their bodies.

The fewer scales they had, the more attractive the males were considered to be.

If her boss had any, she’d never seen them.

However, Grace didn’t consider him to be attractive.

Her boss, Covor, had a very blocky face.

To the point that he looked like he’d been roughly hewn from a rock with an inexpert hand.

She didn’t know if his lack of visible scales would be enough to make up for that to a lady baemoth, but it didn’t do anything for Grace.

His eyes were solid in color, a sickly sort of yellow green. His mouth was a crude slash under his box shaped nose. He dressed in clothes that were too tight for his large frame. Which had to be a deliberate choice, because he certainly had the credz to afford properly fitting clothing.

He also had this unnerving habit of watching her. Sneaking up behind her. Hovering over her. Grace could never accuse him of anything directly, but it made her uncomfortable. And she was too well trained by her mother to bring it up to him.

Men will stare, her mother would say. Stop making a big deal over nothing, and if they stare, use their attention to get your way. An obsessed man would do anything for you.

Her mother said it like it was a good thing.

It never felt like one to Grace.

“Where are you going?” Covor asked, crossing two of his four arms over his large chest. He always managed to sound grumpy and suspicious whenever she did something. At this point, she was pretty sure that’s just how he was and it wasn’t personal against her. At least, she hoped so.

“Initial inspection,” she said, smiling despite her unease as she held up the tablet. “New cargo ship in Dock Eleven.”

His eyes moved over her head to her holo displays. He sneered. “That hunk of trash? Does it even still fly?”

“Didn’t need a tow to get in, so I’d say yes.

” She chuckled, getting to her feet. She straightened her skirt with her spare hand as she did.

The blue and white uniform was very pretty.

It had a collar but no sleeves, and a layered, pleated skirt that she liked to swish sometimes when no one was looking.

Grace, as a dock master, didn’t need to wear the uniform of Uver Prime.

Her uniform could technically be anything suitably professional and well groomed, but she liked the uniform the rest of the staff wore.

Besides, she was too well trained not to.

The common man likes to think they’re our equal, her mother would say. Indulge them a bit and it makes them easier to control.

Grace didn’t feel that way. She didn’t. It was just so hard to get her mother’s voice out of her head. The one that constantly criticized her. The one that had trained her all her life. The one that had literally beaten those lessons into her head until following them was second nature.

No matter how far from home she got, it was never far enough to escape that voice.

“Fine. You can go,” Covor said, like she required his permission to do her job. He was her boss, of course, and station master of Hir-Fallow – but the guy didn’t own Uver Prime or anything. He managed one station. A massive station for sure, but still just one station.

Grace didn’t say anything about it though. She fixed a bright smile on her face as she said, “Thanks so much. I’ll be back soon.”

She skirted around him, giving herself plenty of room to get past his hulking body.

As she crossed Reetak’s workstation, her friend gave her a look that spoke volumes.

Her gleaming purple eyes moved from Grace to Covor back to Grace.

The question was obvious. Grace just smiled, assuring her silently that it was okay.

A necessary promise. It wouldn’t be the first time Reetak had offered to fight Covor for her. His tone was insulting, she’d remark, hissing and growling, her tail thumping on the ground. Such insults were paid back in violence on her home planet.

But Grace would much rather take the non-violent route. And if pampering her boss’ ego and letting him give her permission for things she was going to do anyway made him feel better, then it was no skin off her bones.

Walking from the office, she went to the lift that would take her down through her section of the repair docks.

The dock master offices were beneath the absolutely massive Dock One.

It was a dock overseen by Covor himself, and it serviced the largest starships in existence.

Ones that rivaled cities. Ones that couldn’t even get near planets for concern of disrupting their gravity.

Managing Dock One was a task so large and demanding, it outweighed the seven docks she had to oversee combined.

Immediately under Dock One was Covor’s office. He had a lift in the center that let down into the dock master offices underneath him. Their office was a circular room, with their six workstations all evenly spaced within it.

Leaving the circular room through the doors on the sides let out into a ring-shaped room. That room had six lifts in it, evenly spaced along the outside, that all led down though the six sections of the remaining forty-three docks.

Grace’s was lift number two, and it opened automatically as she approached, reacting to her combot signature. The little floating device had a permanent home on her belt, as she preferred it there rather than flitting about her head.

She stepped into the lift and turned, bringing her tablet to life with a swipe of the screen.

From the tablet, she connected to the scanning robot waiting in the dock down below.

It was similar to her combot, but it was much bigger, and it would have to come with her during the inspection.

Part of its job wasn’t just to identify problem areas that needed to be fixed, but to record everything for documentation purposes so no one could say afterwards that something had been damaged during repairs.

Even this far from Earth, a company had to protect itself from litigious scammers, just as surely as customers had to protect themselves from seedy companies.

While Grace could say that she felt like, out here, things were better, safer, greedy buttheads were something that was, apparently, universal.

Humming to herself as the lift took her down, she began bringing up her lists, her notes, everything she would need for the inspection.

This was Grace’s life. It definitely wasn’t what she hoped for when she first took the chance to abandon Earth and come to space.

There was no adventure, no great romance, no sense of purpose finally fulfilling her in a way she could only have dreamed about in her terrestrial life.

But it was still hers. Nothing could be perfect, right?

This was good enough.