Her crew was amazing!

She already knew this of course but it definitely bore repeating!

When faced with the Port being all kinds of low morale over things that happened with the passengers her crew had swooped like some sleek dark no-see-predator out of nowhere that made all the other ships groan and gnash in frustration!

Tunie was very proud and smug at all of them, even the ones that were not proper Ships like herself!

Yeah sure Lutish had boasted that his was the most massive crew at port, but did all that bulky think stuff help win at strange crew thing contest?

Not when it insisted on sending the little sliver motiles out for discussing on its behalf!

No Tunie’s Crew was triumphant and best crew again!

She definitely was writing Lutish out of her reproductive contracts in future. Being mean was one thing, but being arrogant, incompetent and mean? That was definitely three strikes! She was even going to share the story of how stupid and dumb he was here with any other Ships that might accidentally fail to exclude him from a breeding contract!

Wait.

What was that? OH that was nasty and devious of him!

Apparently his crew was not ‘trying’ for the thing they had been saying, but had wanted to take on some extra goods that the port now had a terrible ruinous surplus of! It was like throwing ones feathers out like they were about to juke then flipping and shoving the opposite way.

That was actually pretty clever! They had wanted to take up the ‘burden’ of the goods to make it look like good will port morale boosting all along?

And then with the goods gotten for a steal (practically being paid to take on a trade good his crew wanted in the first place?!) his crew could process the goods into even more profitable trade at the end of the journey somehow?

Tunie was left a little perplexed. How did they do that?

Make one trade good into another?

Hum?

Something about how their crew have some kind of in in-transit crafts they did to process goods for more refined sale?

Weird.

Whatever!

Her crew was happy over the resolution too so maybe that was best for all?

Of course it was because Tunie’s crew was the best!

Although given he was actually clever she supposed she would not spread bad rumors about Lutish over the whole affair after all. Still he was mean and sneaky and old so she was not going to let him sire any of her eggs on that principle.

Creepy weird old ship with weird over-massed crew and creepy weird transit ‘crafts’.

Tunie liked how light and efficient her crew was.

It was part of why her crew was the best!

Tunie fluffed all her feathers a bit in her port as she suckled up rich delicious grist. Not enough to shove herself out and away of course, but it made her shift a bit in her cradle.

This was really good Grist! She loved hardly having to upspin the fuel at all into proper feather potencies!

Rich Grist was so refreshing. Such a great treat, she was glad her crew had worked to protect the port. This port was nice on reflection. Just needed a little bit of morale boosting sense from Tunie’s wonderful crew to set things straight.

And maybe a bit of excited rumbling from the trade fleets in a tribunal.

Proper Ships and otherwise.

Still apparently her crew was going to be agreeing to load up more bulk mass to push than originally anticipated?

Ah it was more of that super surplus, well if it helped with the port morale Tunie supposed she could accept the extra mass to haul.

Even if taking up more than they planned was a bit itchy.

Oh wait what was that?

No set delivery drop off required!?

Well that was pleasing! So long as they sold them off at good ports soon they could churn that mass into profitable and delicious good eats along the way!

She might even get to stay semi full for a full loop back to here!

That would be so nice, not being hungry and worried about running out of potency mid transit!

So many fewer nightmares of crashing into the reef in a bright searing splash to be seen from all over.

She was going to be FULL for the first time in so long.

Tunie was going to be all a buzz and tingly after this. Just waiting to shove to a proper full speed transit to stretch after having to spend so long in slow-slow-slow-grueling nudges in dirty cloudy unpleasant hollows.

She was so glad her next leap was a proper one!

She said as much to her Crew and was delighted to hear that maybe they would be several a swooping to catch a few extra stops along the way at full speed to more exotic and fun places with their overabundance.

That was always nice, far flung stops off the main fueling transits could yield exotic and fun delights!

That was after all how her Crew had managed to grab the decadent and wonderful brushie!

Oh yeah!

Her crew was finally returning to brushies!

This was truly the best of times again!

Tunie purred and hummed happy feelings and smugest of smugs at all the other ships who lacked the wonder and delight of brushies.

Yes Tunie’s crew was absolutely the best!

She liked her passengers too.

Oh what was that?

She would get more too?

How nice!

She just knew she would enjoy them. Because her crew was the best.

Now it was Brushie Time!

Every eye of Tunie sang in delight! This was truly the best possible life for a ship!

Oh and her friend the passenger had a new joke too!

She had to resist the urge to spin in laughter. As that would be embarrassing to spill the raw grist all over the port cradle like that one time.

Which she would never admit was not utterly ancient forgotten history to her crew.

They were the best but even Tunie had her pride.