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Once again Tunie’s crew proved how awesome and best they were!

The port had lost the passengers. To be fair Tunie could kind of relate, she often lost things that were inside of herself. This is part of why a Ship had Crew.

Although precisely why the Port did not have their own crew was confusing.

After all were not Ports where crew came from? Should they not have plenty of crew to ask to look for the missing passengers?

Tunie mused on things and listened to reports on the port and crew morale.

Oh that was not a good thing. Apparently the passengers had attempted to have a silly crew thing with the port before Tunie’s Crew could get involved.

That was actually a bit rude of them, it interrupted her Crew’s Brushie time. And this was vexing.

Her Crew was making a lot of noise and they were all apparently on the way back to Tunie now having secured the passengers. The ports were making a lot of noise though!

The port did not appreciate the degree of damage that had been enacted. Apparently some of the local ecosphere were ill prepared for some kind of trade the passengers did and it made the whole thing very sick and imbalanced.

Tunie checked in with the other ships. Her many eyes selecting and transmitting the happenings with the port as they developed.

Orgah was big and heavy and a bit slower to reach the limits of speed compared to Tunie. But she also had a bit of a feisty feral streak that everyone agreed probably came from her father.

She was of a mind that once the passengers were aboard Tunie and she was fully fueled up she should spend a bit of that to make a full throttle pass of port and hit them with rocks.

If it came to that Orgah was one who would be in favor of aggression being just for Tunie and her crew if it came to a Trade Tribunal.

Her crew seemed to be more concerned with the loss of a lucrative grist and fuel source that had at least another two or three trade runs left in it on their schedule and probably would temper their ships malevolence but unless they were very mean they would not insist against Orgah’s wishes to actually press for sanctions if it came to a fight.

Actually the big hauler was so incensed over the treatment of her new favorite jokester that Tunie was pretty sure her crew was having to be very convincing to keep her from trying to do the same as soon as they finished their own business and refuel.

Lutish and Azure were both older male ships and seemed to share a lot of their opinions with one another. They might as well be brothers honestly even though their parents were hardly related at all. Although the precise focus was different.

Azure was of the opinion that any annoyances and quibbling over passengers was already pre-paid for in the form of the Port’s generosity. It was a good gig and the Ships and their crews should cultivate and encourage the behavior until Redweed collapse from starvation trying to meet their obligations of charity.

Even onto sacrificing the good will of a outreach contract by voiding it. Most of Azure’s crew were pretty fresh and there was a bit of a churn there. This put the ship nominally in charge of what the trade policy was in large scale, leaving the crew to just enact the desired outcomes from port stops.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

To be honest it seemed kind of thugish to Tunie to treat crew and ports like Azure seemed wont to do.

Lutish was in agreement of course with Azure, but tempered the barbaric intonation that the outreach contracts were less important with simply saying the passengers needed to be recovered and any damages to their contract compensated by Redweed. But that this should be offset by reparations for damages and losses incurred by the passenger’s activity that was far in excess of proper trader decorum.

The two of them got into a bit of a heavy argument over it and Lutish’ crew apparently had to intervene calm him down before he rattled their dock too badly.

Azure apparently was intent to try and get clear of this whole mess. Outbound as he was.

So if it became a tribunal of Tunie and her Crew vs the port of Redweed it would definitely not be in her favor that they voted. Sure Azure and his crew were not going to attend but he also had friends and contacts elsewhere and if the Tribunal was divided on proper recourse a great council might be declared and then Azure’s connections in the broader Trade ships would come to weigh more heavily then just whoever was locally available.

Tunie could relate, getting FULL bellies was a massive boon to be able to trust reliably from a port and if she had been in the reverse position with the other ships she would have probably been upset that this could jeopardize that. She might have even voted in a Tribunal against herself if it came to that.

That said she carefully memorized the relevant traits of Lutish and Azure. She was going to write explicitly in her future nesting contracts to forbid them or any like them from siring any of HER offspring even if they were the last Ships in the reef.

Yes it was kind of petty but it was her future eggs and she could decide who got to fertilize them out of spite if she wanted too.

Then there was Wiggles and Boojun who personally did not seem terribly invested in either direction but whose crews seemed gravely concerned. It was kind of funny to listen to the bored ships relay the well wishes and queries of their crews who were desperately trying to get enough details to know what was going on.

Considering how noncommittal the ships were Tunie had trouble judging which way those Traders would favor in a tribunal. She wished her crew would get back so they could confer on this.

Her Crew was much better at this kind of thing.

Tunie was just a ship and all this talking and arguing was exhausting her.

Also part of her (the aft most parts who were still waiting for their turn!) was still very upset and wanted to get back to brushies!

It was so complicated being a ship.

Her Crew and passengers had it so much easier.

They just had to run around, and their food was HUGE to them and everywhere and they didn't have to worry about pushy Ports upsetting contracts or violent friends that wanted to throw rocks at said ports who were also friendly and gave her so much good grist!

Well...

Tunie was a Ship and Crew and Passengers were Not-Ships.

No point crying over destabilized feathers.

You just shed them as quickly as possible and accelerated to minimum safe distance hoping no one else was in the blast radius.