"Well that was productive," Rene said feeling positive as they stepped out of the shop and into the balmy afternoon air. It wasn't cold exactly but the large expanses of ocean meant that there was always at least a moderate wind blowing. Judging by their architecture, which was frequently open enough to permit breezes, the Kalderi preferred it that way. Some humans probably did too but Rene found that he preferred both the alpine cold of Capella and the tropical heat of New Concordia to Ranal Pindi's  slightly damp gusts. The Trading quarter was nestled at the foot of the rocky plateau upon which the Kalderi city stood. The shoulders of great cliffs protected the settlement from the periodic storms and sloped downwards into the arms of a natural embayment several hundred meters across. The two peninsulas had been joined by the construction of a sea wall and the resulting lagoon had been almost completely filled in with some sort of whitish concrete with perhaps a meter of water covering the surface. The resulting disc served as the starports landing surface, the water absorbing the heat and various unpleasant compounds a human starship made when it landed. The resulting system meant that water boiled upon landing and was then flushed with fresh seawater while the heated effluent was cooled in long column that sank into the ocean. Colorful tropical coral and fish species clustered around the ready source of heat, making the far side of the sea wall colorful and exotic whilst draining away chemicals that the Kalderi above the port would have found unpleasant. It did mean that the traders operating here had to run small raised walkways out to their vessels or risk it getting wet but trading here was a privilege and Rene seriously doubted it was too much of a problem. It wasn’t as though they were loading industrial equipment or other heavy cargo afterall.  The mole itself had been planted with trees that must have been a tropical variety. They were similar to Terran palms save for the fact that their leaves were long, slender crystalline needles. Rene made a mental note to walk along the mole with Solae when the sun got a little lower. 
 
The settlement itself was small consisting of three streets that climbed the steep rising rockface in terraces. Simple but pleasantly painted warehouses lined the shallow waterfront of the starport while more artfully appointed shops comprised the second and third rings. While the shops had probably started out as normal human architecture, they had been ‘improved’ over time so that they now looked to be a hybrid of human and Kalderi aesthetics. Access to the upper plateau was restricted to a single elevator which used static suspension rather than a traditional cable to slide up the side of a smoothed out section of stone. A small area, set off by intricately wrought stone fencing and guarded by a pair of Kalderi prevented humans, or at least most humans, from ascending to the city above.

“It shouldn’t be too difficult to compile a list of unsurveyed worlds within the jump range of whatever ship it was Bouradine was using,” Rene mused, figuring it unlikely that the trader’s source was too far beyond that. 

“Sir Rene, there are thirty one star systems that would be within the range of a Talian 121B class freighter,” Mia chirped over the communicator he wore on his epilauet. Rene frowned, something tickling his memory. Mia had been tasked with compiling a list of all human shipping during the period they were interested in and had evidently managed to break into the information without any assistance from her human patrons.

“Talian class?” he asked. It had been a fairly common ship at one point, but age and the increasing cost of maintenance had made them significantly rarer over the past decade.

“Master Gregorie Bouradine is the owner and captain of the Talian 121B Class, registry number 1923942-A, registry name Corsica,” Mia provided helpfully. Rene felt his stomach drop out from under him, remembering the derelict vessel they had come across during their flight from Zatis to Ranal Pindi.

“Stars above,” he cursed, trying to imagine how the Kalderi might take the news if Bel’sian had starved to death on a derelict human spacecraft. There might be nothing that would prove this hadn’t been an abduction. 
 
“They might both be dead,” he muttered grimly.