The rest of the trip out of Denibi was uneventful at least.

That is… If you count the fact that Amber and I were still having sex every night despite the fact that Lea was in the same room as us.

It's scary to admit this but I've actually gotten used to it.

At least we didn't all sleep in the same room at the same time since one of us would always be at the cockpit afterwards and we're only together to have our meals while Bimic kept watch.

No, I wasn't allowing any of us to be asleep and leaving Bimic as the only one awake to watch the ship since I didn't trust him completely.

That's why so far, it was either Amber and myself sleeping or it would be Lea and me while the other one was manning the cockpit.

And right now, I was just getting ready for bed after getting out of the shower with Lea already seated on her own bed.

I stretched my arms over my head, letting out a yawn before noticing that Lea was watching me with a silent gaze.

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Is there something on my face?"

Lea shook her head, "Not at all, Captain."

"Hmm… Then did you want to tell me something?"

"Yes, I wish to talk, Captain."

Oh… I didn't think she would actually say yes to that. I legitimately thought she was just looking in my direction while lost in thought and I just happened to be there.

I went over and sat on the bed, "What do you want to talk about?"

I had assumed she might want to talk about our relationship or something after what had been happening the past few nights.

"I wanted to talk about Captain's plans for the new ship."

Oh? That was not what I expected, but ok.

I nodded at her to go ahead, wondering what she might have in mind.

"Captain, you have been looking at ships made by the human corporations so far. May I suggest to consider an Alvan made ship as well?"

Ah… I actually never thought about that.

I didn't even realise that I was looking at specifically human made ships all this while.

I mean… To be fair… We've only gone to human occupied systems so far and I don't even know how far away the closest alien system is.

According to what I learned from Amber and my own searches on the GalNet, there's many other alien civilisations that are a part of the alliance that humanity made if I'm not wrong.

And so far, the only alien I've met is Lea who is an Alv.

I wonder if it's because the sectors we have visited so far are on the opposite end of where the borders between humans and the other civilisations meet?

I guess that's something I should find out later.

First things first though…

"What's the difference between human ships and Alvan ships?" I asked.

Lea straightened herself, "All Alvan ships above B Class would have a room dedicated for hydroponics farming unless the buyer repurposes it. That would save us the cost of refurbishing one of the rooms for such a role."

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I tilted my head, "Eh? So if someone were to go and buy a ship from an Alvan manufacturer… Won't they be able to learn about hydroponics and spread that around?"

Lea shook her head, "If it's a non-Alvan Captain buying the ship, they will always strip out the parts first before selling it. And if someone captures an Alvan ship with the intention of stealing the technology, we have protocols to handle such cases as well."

"Are you allowed to tell me about those protocols?"

"For example, the gardens do come with a self-destruct sequence that can be initiated remotely to completely wipe out all traces of the tech."

What the heck? They would really go this far just to keep that technology a secret?

Then again… I suppose it's something that their entire civilisation is specialised on so of course they would make sure that this tech doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

I'm assuming that the humans also guard the tech for their Warp Gates very closely as well and most likely have various kinds of security on the Warp Gates themselves to prevent the tech from being stolen too.

I then turned to her, "But… I'm the Captain though? So they would strip it before selling it to us anyway, right?"

Lea hesitated for a moment, "I could explain to them about our situation to stop that… But even if they do, we would at least already have a room that was meant for that so our cost for setting up the farm would be lower as compared to a human made ship."

Hmm…

I booted up my Codex and navigated to the GalNet, doing a search for Alvan ships that were on sale.

A quick glance through the list for C Class and D Class ships and…

I lowered my Codex and gave her a pointed look, "Lea…"

"Yes, Captain?"

"Why are Alvan ships one point five times more expensive than Human made ships?"

She blinked at me, "They… They are?"

I waved my hand at the holographic screen to turn it around, allowing the Alv to see the prices for Alvan ships with roughly the same specifications as Human ships arranged side by side. Beside each of the ships were their price tags and they were pretty much consistently one point five times more expensive than a human ship with the same specs.

Lea actually looked surprised, "I… I did not know they cost that much, Captain… Even the ship that I was on did not cost that much according to the owner of that ship… It was designated as a D Class but it only cost around three million to four million Credits, less than that of the human ships in the same category."

I pushed the screen towards her, "Could you do a search on that ship?"

She obeyed and started tapping on the screen, bringing up information on the ship as well as a site that was selling it at the same time.

Lea then pushed the screen back to me and I took a look at what the ship's specs were.

Comparing it to another similar D Class ship on the human side, it does look like this one was less expensive so why were the other Alvan ships I found that much more expensive? They couldn't have made a site that was accessible only for Alvs, right?

Oh what am I talking about? They most definitely could have done so.

I was just about to ask Lea to search for some of the Alvan ships to double check their prices when I finally realised one very crucial difference between this Alvan ship and the rest. One very important factor that completely explained why this one was cheaper than the others.

"Lea… This ship does not have a Travel Drive… It is incapable of Travel speeds…" I pointed out.

She blinked at me, before her eyes widened in realisation.

Yep… If those Alvan ships were outfitted with a Travel Drive, that would bump up the price to be more expensive than the huma made ones.

For a ship to not have a travel drive, it will take a really long time for you to go anywhere.

Just take our trip out of Denibi for example… A ship with a Travel Drive might take two or three days to travel from the station itself to the Warp Gate. Without one, you might be looking at a two week travel time at the very least.

Then again… From what I know about Alvs, they do live long lives so a travel time like that to them isn't a problem for them.

Lea must have overlooked that since she forgot her companions aren't Alvs.

"My apologies, Captain…"

I chuckled, "Ahahaha~ It's ok. I'm flattered that you're comfortable enough to consider us as one of your own."

"That's… Ahem… Thank you, Captain."

Obviously that wasn't the real reason why she thought about it but I just decided to give her a way out of that awkwardness.

I then looked back down at my Codex again, "I suppose it's true that we would be able to save on the cost of setting up a farm with Alvan made ships, but the cost of entry for these ships are quite high and out of our budget right now. Anyway, it's not like we're in a rush anyway and I already discussed this with Amber two days ago. We might not even get a new ship yet since it might require selling one of our ships."

Lea nodded, "So we might be selling Amber's ship then?"

"Huh… Even you think that selling my ship is not a possibility?" I asked, wondering if she also watched the movie Amber told me about.

Lea looked away, "It's… It's the first ship that I have served on board with Captain… I do not wish this ship to go to someone else…"

…

I see… I guess with two votes against mine, that means we're not selling any ships yet then~