The shipping station looked like a giant coin slowly spinning on its axis. Around the rim of the coin were shipping bays, a lot of them. The normal operations were that a ship docked at a bay and unloaded, the cargo was shipped to a bay directly opposite it where it was loaded onto another ship. The rule was always cross-docking to reduce possible problems with cargo circling back to the ship it had been unloaded from. The incoming and outgoing were coordinated from the centre where the coin bulged slightly top and bottom to house operations centre and the living quarters for the organic staff. The station operated 24 hours a day. The organic staff worked 12-hour shifts for 8 weeks before being rotated planetside for 4 weeks off shift.
As we waited, Akion informed us that they had been ab
