After some short down-time organizing records in the office on Manhattan, I decided it was time to again upgrade our vessel to allow for more flexibility and increased profits made each contract we took.
The "Grouse" I'd been checking out lately that was also sold on Valley Forge was 50% more cargo - not really enough for greater passengers at the moment, but we could start speculating in some different packed cargo types such as Consumer Goods. Buy low, sell high! We grabbed a short haul passenger contract from the board that was waiting for next available craft and we headed to Pennsylvania for another profitable run and a new ship!
As the last passengers departed the ship at Interspace's Flight School, we headed over to their ship sales area and eyed up one of the floor models of the CT-100 - taking a few minutes to open every hatch and panel, pointing out even working systems to the salesperson as evidence that this wasn't the greatest deal... eventually settling on a more reasonable price than their posted. They even allowed a higher trade in for my current Gull even with the hours I'd logged on it and the asteroid impact marks. Never pay retail if you can help it!
Once the trade was complete and all paperwork signed - keeping the same ship name, of course - I thought a bit of a shake down was in order, so we checked out some of the nearby bases in Pennsylvania for merchandise and customer availability - Philadelphia Station, Harrisburg Station, and Planet Erie. Just as the last ship, I was able to find a few items to tweak to my liking... I guess not ALL the items noted during the sales negotiation were fiction!
There were several groups of Bretonian refugees on Erie looking to leave the system - they had their eyes set on Texas, possibly for work reasons but I didn't dig too deeply into the story - preferring to keep conversation light. Contracted signed, paid for, and off to Houston we went.
The passengers were pretty quiet and hushed - almost just thankful for my acceptance of their contract offer. It can't be easy constantly moving around looking for a new anchor point after being dislodged due to circumstances beyond your control. Hopefully better days ahead on Planet Houston for this group.
Texas and then Houston arrived before us and upon landing the passengers left for pre-determined locations.
Planet Houston is always full of arrivals and departures at the terminal - it wasn't long better a work group looking to go to the Hamburg Gate Reconstruction Site in Bering, just one hop over. It seemed simple enough, so I accepted and we went ahead on the trip.
It wasn't until arrival at the station that my heart sank - and I realized my mistake. The smaller station didn't have the mooring to accommodate our larger vessel, and my 'Camara' freighter thinking didn't take this into account, like I would have the border stations. My mentor on Denver said there would be days like this!
They turned us away and I had to think on my feet a bit - our only option was to keep going to Planet Hamburg and I would take it upon myself to find a freighter willing to take them back - my mistake, my expense. This helped with the frustration factor, at least a little bit, after they were told of the circumstances.
Once at Planet Hamburg, I made sure the passengers were squared away somewhere comfortable and set forth to find myself a freelancing freighter captain to undertake my obligation. Luckily I found several, who even bid down against each other a bit, eager for the simple contract. I settled with one, and made sure the passengers made the connection.
I watched their freighter depart from the terminal observation deck, then hit the bar with a few of the crew - to relax a bit before we sought our next adventure.
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