Re: First Patron
The cargo has been quickly and hopefully correctly stowed aboard. There are mesh nets (included with the ship, naturally) that descend over pallets and boxes and secure everything tightly.
The Albatross is a good ship. The Penguins are tough, reliable, and once in space, quick. If they have a down side to their performance, it is in getting up there. Some corners had to be cut, the engines that launch and maneuver the ship are not that strong. (But it's still an improvement over the many ships that cannot land at all!)
At busy worlds, all departures and arrivals are watched and coordinated. This is not an intrusive thing, this is a necessity, to avoid messy collisions. A ship enters or leaves the Lyonesse system several times per hour and there are generally dozens of merchant ships in orbit, and some belonging to the Commonwealth Navy.
They pass by several vessels on their way out.
At this point, they have the first navigational choice to make.
The ship will need to refuel once along the way and refueling points are less common out on the frontier. There are two common routes to St. Brendan from Lyonesse. The standard route is by way of Deseret, a total trip of 51.3 Light Years, with a stopover at Deseret, which is an important colony planet. The shortcut stops at the outpost at Gideon instead, and is only 48.3 LY. Most traders choose to stop at higher population worlds to do more trading, pick up passengers, cargo, etc, so the Gideon route is much less traveled even though it is shorter.
Both routes are considered safe and are patrolled by the Commonwealth Navy, though the frequency of patrols drops off quickly after Deseret and Gideon. The trip to Deseret is so common that there are two daily large passenger transports going that way, the Ville De Cariveau having the previous evening, and the Ville De Regiomont being prepped for the morning departure. The route to Gideon is much more lonely.