The Invictus followed the course laid in by Alyssa, making quick and determined progress towards Port Heracles. The communications officer who contacted them sounded surprised that the Assault Cruiser was a civilian vessel, but such things were not totally unheard of. He granted them docking clearance for docking bay four.

The Invictus stalked closer, before gliding into the docking bay under Alyssa's careful hand. It was a tight fit, but with her skilful guidance they avoided any mishaps. Lateral thrusters fired as their ship eased up to the docking gantry, and once they had finally made gentle contact, docking clamps locked them securely into place.

"Nice job," John said, admiring her handiwork. "Thanks," she said, smiling up at him.

“Flying something this huge is so much fun!"

They headed out of the ship across the docking gantry, and then up an elevator into the Spaceport proper. Although not on anywhere near the same physical scale as Olympus Shipyard, this spaceport had a large retail and trading emporium, so saw a lot of traffic from independent traders. Those traders included a broad selection of space-faring aliens, which had Alyssa whirling around wide eyed to take them all in. She gawped at the exotic creatures, marvelling at their bizarre shapes and colouring.

John leaned over to the gawking teen.

“Try not to be too obvious,” he whispered into her ear quietly.

“Some of these species don't like to be stared at."

He smiled as he watched the curious young woman darting furtive glances at the various different aliens, whilst trying to be discreet. He looked around himself, and noted that the Kintark were conspicuously absent.

Excuse me, young one,* a melodic voice sounded in Alyssa's head. She whirled to see a dark green, solid Looking, gelatinous blob stopped at her side, waiting to pass by.

“Oh pardon me!" she exclaimed, before stepping out of the way. The creature squelched past, followed by a pair of robotic humanoid porters that were loaded down with boxes.

*It is of no consequence. Be well, young one,* the kind melodic voice chimed again.

“What was that?" she asked John quietly, as soon as the creature was out of earshot. It had no ears, so she hoped it couldn't overhear.

"That was a Bolon," John explained. "They are a friendly species, but communicating with them is very difficult as they can't speak. They use the robots as interpreters when trading."

“Ah ok, thanks," Alyssa mumbled distractedly. "How very interesting..." she thought to herself.

John led Alyssa to the Terran Federation medical facility where Calara was recuperating. John nodded courteously to a couple of soldiers standing guard outside, and they were ushered into the reception area of the facility. The walls and floor in the facility were blindingly white, which took a little getting used to.

The receptionist was a middle aged woman, who Looked up from her work at her console, and smiled at them in welcome.

"Hello, can I help you?" she asked the smartly dressed visitors courteously.

“We're here to see Calara Fernandez," John replied, bracing himself for questions if it turned out that she had been hauled off to the brig.

“Certainly sir, one moment," the receptionist replied, before scanning through a List of names on the console.

“Ah yes," she said, finding Calara amongst the list.

“May I see your identification please?" she requested politely. John and Alyssa handed over their IDs’, which were scanned by a nearby reader, Logging them as visitors.