I helped Marcus wrap up his new treasures and put them into several cloth bags. I carried one bag while he carried the other two. He glanced back at my room as the door closed. "I thought the rooms on ships were normally much smaller?"

"All of the Bridge crew has a room with a sitting area. The other crew members just have one room, but they don't have to share unless they are a couple and wish to."

He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at me again. "If you don't mind me saying, you look a bit younger than what I expected of someone in that position."

My voice was a bit dry. "That is what I told the one who hired me, but he was quite adamant. None of the crew has ever complained."

He shrugged, dismissing any possible criticism. "As long as you do a good job, age doesn't really matter."

I smiled faintly. "That is what I have decided. It seems to be working so far."

"Well, you must be doing a good job if they are keeping you in that position. You can let them know that I will open up trades with them if I can negotiate through you. I am usually in the trading hall."

"Thank you."

He hefted one bag lightly. "If you find more such as these, please let me know. They will be going into my displays at the local geology gallery."

"I am glad to hear that they found a home that will value them. Only a handful of people have seen them so far and it kind of seems like a shame since they are such nice pieces."

I walked with him to the main access door and onto the ramp. I passed him the bag I was carrying. "Here you go. Do you need any help getting them the rest of the way?"

Marcus rolled his eyes as he responded, "I may be old, but I am not decrepit. They aren't that heavy. I will manage."

"Will you be around tomorrow morning to discuss potential trades?"

"Yep. Come by before ten though, since I have an auction starting then."

"Certainly, have a good evening."

I leaned on the railing as I watched him walk swiftly down the ramp, his excitement hastening his pace. 'That went well.'

"It did, and he even offered to be a go-between for some of his other contacts. We will likely have to order a dozen precious stones every time we stop. More may irritate him, but even a handful of the pieces he has access to will be quite profitable."

'Do you think he will figure out who I am?'

"Not likely. Most Captains flaunt their rank and prefer to avoid dealing with suppliers directly. He only trades with two other ships, so he doesn't really keep track of who the Captains are, nor does he care."

I went back inside the ship, pleased with the outcome of what we had managed.

* * *



My eyebrows crept up higher as my disbelief grew. I read the numbers again, but they didn't change. It shouldn't have surprised me that my paycheck would increase when I became Captain, but the numbers gazing back at me seemed far too high.

I did like money, but this was a bit ridiculous considering the ship was still in the process of getting stabilized. We hadn't even done an entire circuit of our trading route, nor were all of our crew positions filled.

'Uh, Starsong, I think someone misplaced a decimal in this payment...'

His voice had amusement laced into his words. "If that were true, then you would have been paid below minimum wage. The Starships all decided that the Captains would start at five times above whatever the minimum wage was in their main trading area and that the amount would slowly increase to a maximum of ten times."

That explained why I had five times as much as I was accustomed to seeing... It didn't overly surprise me that he had been observing my reaction to my suddenly-inflated bank account. I shook my head as I transferred my gaze to the ceiling of my room.

"Considering the ship provides everything I need, it really doesn't have to be so much. I know that a ship usually runs on a really tight budget the first few years."

I had been doing some reading up on the basics of spaceships when they were starting out, as well as the position and role of Captain. Some of the advice in those books had been useless considering it advised the Captains to spend most of their time with the Bridge crew. Generally speaking, wages to crew members were fairly low since the ship provided the food, clothing, and rooms free of charge.

Starsong responded aloud. "Finances are not a concern at this point. Our trades have been extraordinarily successful, and our expenses are almost nonexistent since there is no need for maintenance or upgrades."

I glanced back down at the numbers that still seemed too large. "That is an awful lot of pocket change..."

With all necessities being provided to the crew, the money the crew got was usually spent on retirement savings, gadgets, training, or items fancier than what was normally provided, such as my Analyzer or a preferred flavor of toothpaste. Considering my Guide had replaced most technical gadgets, that was one expense off my list. The basic supplies provided on the Starsong were better than most of what I had bought for myself previously. In short, I had nothing to really spend my money on.

"That is also why there is a maximum in place. There is a retirement saving plan in place for all crew members as well. A Starship Captain's maximum salary is much lower than the typical Captain's pay, but the average Captain is overly greedy considering that they do not require nearly so much to live in luxury."

That made perfect sense to me. I was making more now than I ever would have in any of the Cargo Hold positions. I shrugged slightly. "I am actually kind of glad there is a maximum. If you don't mind me asking, what are the plans for the money from our profits? I know some will be reinvested, but from the few papers I saw, we are making a rather large profit margin."

"For money coming in, we remove the original cost of the item to calculate a profit and place the funds in an account. Once the wages are paid, we then remove any other costs such as docking fees, trade levies, purchase of other goods, and such. The remaining true profit for that month is moved to a different account. Most of this money goes into a joint account held in common by all of the Starships. This helps fund the ships that are starting up or if they require more money than what they have on hand."

I inquired, "And the money left in the account?"

"It is our float and is there in case we need it. As was the case with the purchase of those rare metals from those two traders."

I considered it, but couldn't think of any questions. I didn't see anything to object to either. No one got filthy rich nor did anyone go without. There was no wide inequality gap, and it was another measure that would bind the crew together. It was so different from the typical spaceship mentality that it made my head spin.

I didn't need to be filthy rich. Money often caused trouble to come knocking, and I already had my hands full trying to convince outsiders that I was a Captain. I had previously planned to save most of my pay for retirement if I could. I eyed up the numbers and did some quick mental math. I will be able to have a very impressive retirement...

Starsong spoke again, "There are provisions in place to allow the Captain to retire on board the Starship if they wish. There is also a discussion currently circulating among the Starships about building a small city just for Starship crew members, both active and retired individuals, as well as their families."

I was taken aback by that statement. I had never heard of a spaceship or spaceship company that gave its previous crew members any sort of attention. Once they were no longer on board, they were old history and quickly forgotten. Nor had I ever heard of a spaceship keeping a retired member on board either.

"This will be a Starship-controlled city with only those who served on a Starship. Any who cause trouble will be forced to leave, but considering how carefully we choose our current crew, that isn't much of a concern."

The idea caught my fascination in a rather odd way. I was far from retirement, but this vision held a level of hope and promise that I just couldn't shake from my mind.

Starsong elaborated, "We, the Starships, do not wish our retired crew members to be vulnerable, and they do have knowledge that some may wish to exploit. This will allow them to have a place to retire without worry, although they will be free to choose where they will retire."

I could see most retiring to this city simply because they would have a lot in common with their neighbors – as well as an almost non-existent crime rate that would be a given if the Starships were monitoring it. If regular crew members had enough knowledge about a Starship to cause the Starships to build a city just for them, then I could see why there were plans to allow a Captain to retire on a Starship.

I wasn't entirely sure if remaining on a ship was the type of retirement I wanted, but the city the Starships were planning to build did intrigue me, although I was a very long time away from retirement. I huffed lightly in amusement as I shook my head to bring myself back to reality. I am looking way too far ahead of myself; the fact that I have been Captain for this long is something I can't wrap my head around. I can't see myself still being Captain twenty years from now, let alone when I reach retirement age...

Starsong said, "With a large number of our crew being less than a decade from retirement, it is a high priority, and we should have something in place within four or five years. This is just one plan out of many we are working on. We are looking after the crew once they are retired, but we also have plans to allow the crew to raise their children on board. It will be quite a few years to smoothly integrate the changes to accommodate that though."

I was once more shocked by the plans I was just learning about. There were a small number of so-called 'family ships' out there. The crew members were allowed to marry and have their family on board. Both spouses would work on the ship, and the 'school' for kids leaned heavily towards a space career. Often, the kids took a position on the very ship they grew up on. The few times those teenagers applied for a job or university degree elsewhere, they were almost instantly accepted due to their upbringing and wide knowledge of how a spaceship worked.

Most Captains couldn't be bothered with the complex family dynamics while ensuring that both spouses contributed to the ship sufficiently. Having children on a ship was an entirely new level of drama as well. The passenger ships had enough problems with children getting into innocent mischief during a space flight – and a child could get into a lot of mischief even on a child-proofed shuttle.

On traditional spaceships, a spaceship was for work while planets were for families. Sometimes one parent worked on a spaceship and saw their family whenever the ship stopped at that port, but such long-distance relationships usually didn't work well.

The things Starsong was describing seemed almost too good to be true, but I was fairly confident that if anyone could manage such a future, it was the Starships.