John and Niki arrived at the mercenary guild without incident. The burger vendor, who was normally set up outside of the guild, was nowhere to be seen, but Niki said he usually opened up ter in the afternoon. John was hopeful they could grab some food to go after they finished up with getting Niki signed up as a merc. It tasted much better than the food on board his ship.

  As they were about to enter the guild, someone called out his name behind him. He turned around, and there was Ash, just coming off the conveyor belt that ran through the middle of the corridor.

  "Afternoon, Ash." He called back to her. He stopped by the door and waited for her to catch up to them.

  "It is morning for a mercenary, John. Didn't we teach you that we don't usually get up before noon?" She replied, a small smile forming on her lips.

  "What? No, no one mentioned that to me." He replied. "Why would you get up so te in the day?"

  "Most of our actual work is done at night, so new jobs are not even posted until mid-afternoon. We adapted our sleep schedule to accommodate this fact." She said, then looked over at Niki for a moment. "So hey, who is the short stack?"

  "Ahh." He said and introduced them. "Niki is my first crewmember. She is a newbie, so we are here just getting her signed up. Niki, Ash is a mercenary pilot that I have worked with before. She is quite possibly the best fighter pilot I have ever seen."

  "H-Hello, Miss Ash. I-I-I am Niki... John's new crewmember... that feels weird saying that. A-Anyways, it is nice to meet you." Niki said nervously, her stutter returning under the intense gaze Ash was giving her. The tension didn't st too long as Ash broke out into a grin and smiled at Niki.

  "Miss? Oh, darling, don't do that to me. Ash is fine. It is nice to meet you, too." Ash replied, then turned to John. "Where did you find her? She is adorable!" She said, then reached out and ruffled Niki's hair. Niki just giggled and seemed to appreciate Ash's gesture.

  "Well, it is a long-" John started, but Ash cut him off.

  "Wait, let me guess. You got involved in some shady business, shot a few dudes, and then ended up with an IDS. Sound about right?"

  "That is surprisingly accurate. How did you figure that out?" John said, wondering if Ash already knew what happened to him when he had left the guild yesterday.

  "Who do you think discovered the bodies? When I was walking back to my apartment st night, I stumbled onto three corpses. I saw what gang they belonged to, and thought to myself, 'Who would be dumb enough to mess with this gang?' This led me to think it had to be someone who didn't know who they were. Since you are the only new guy at the guild recently, I guessed it might have been you. So I did some digging, and it turns out that you are not just a good pilot, but a hell of a shot." She replied. She then quickly id out what she saw in the cameras.

  "You were pretty lucky. Shortly after you left, Timur showed up with a dozen of his bitches to investigate their disappearance. It isn't every day that three men get gunned down in gang violence anymore. You'll probably want to watch your back for the next few months." She said.

  Great, apparently I made some enemies st night.

  "Well, it was a snap decision. I couldn't just let them kidnap Niki... or worse." He replied, defending his actions.

  "Well, we can talk about that ter. Niki, do you have any experience working on spaceships or anything?" Ash asked the catgirl.

  "No... Before all this happened, I was in university studying logistics and business management. I was hoping to become a merchant or work for a mining company in an administrative role. I never really considered leaving the station." She replied.

  Crap, I never even thought of asking her about that part of her past. Not that we have had a lot of time to talk casually.

  "Well, that could be useful if John were running a mercenary company. For now, I would suggest learning how to be a general operator. You will learn about all the operations that happen on board a ship and be able to assist in managing them. You might not be great at everything, but you can at least learn how things work so you can take a load off your Master. Later, you could specialize in something more interesting to you, or that he needs you to do. Jahred should be able to give you training materials to help you learn that." Ash said, ying out her thoughts on what he needed. She then paused and looked at John. "Sorry if I overstepped, John. It is just that you are new to this, so I felt the need to give you both my advice."

  "Haha, don't worry about it, Ash. I really have no idea what I need for crew members. I would love an engineer and someone to operate my weapons, but other than that, I have no idea about what else I need to run my ship efficiently." John replied. He watched some sci-fi shows on TV back on Earth, but he had no idea what he needed to operate a ship like his effectively.

  With that, they entered the guild. There were already a few people milling about in front of the reception desk, so they got in line. Ash and Niki continued to chat, with the Elf giving the younger woman advice on how to run a few different things onboard a ship. John stayed quiet and just listened to the conversation, learning nearly as much as Niki did from the more senior mercenary.

  Eventually, they made it up to the counter. Jahred greeted them. "Good Afternoon, Ash. Are you looking for a job today?"

  "Not yet, I actually came to use the Sims. John here, however, has a new crewmember he needs to sign up, and I decided I would help her out a bit."

  Jahred looked over at John, then at Niki. "Very good. Welcome to the mercenary guild, Miss. My name is Jahred, one of the administrators here. Would you like to sign up?"

  "H-Hi, I-I'm Niki. This is all very new to me, but I am excited to learn." Niki said, her nerves returning.

  "Good. Here, take this pad and fill out your information. When you are done, we can move forward. Just use the booth over there." Jahred said, handing Niki a tablet and directing her to a booth beside the reception desk.

  "Sure, be right back, Master," Niki said, taking the tablet. Ash followed her, the older woman helping her fill out the documentation.

  "Jahred, a word," John said, and leaned in close. There were only a few people in the guild, but he didn't want say anything too loud. "Niki's got a bit of a special circumstance I need to expin."

  He expined the situation to Jahred, from the fact that she is an IDS, the issues with the gang, and that Katrina told them to come here. "I hope that isn't an issue."

  "Hmm... Normally, yes, it would be, but since you took out that asshole, a lot of our members will be quietly celebrating tonight. So yeah, we can make this work. Just be aware when it comes out that you killed those gang members, his family might try and take their revenge on you, in ways we cannot protect you from if you catch my drift." He said quietly.

  In ways they cannot protect me from? I assume he means they will attack me in the streets somewhere.

  "That won't be a problem. I've already gathered that they are operating in the grey areas of the w. I will watch out." He replied, patting the hilt of his sword.

  "Good enough," Jahred said, then looked over at Niki and Ash. "They will be done in a few minutes, but I assume she has no experience on board a ship. Do you know what you want her to learn to do?"

  "Ash mentioned something about being a general operator; she seems to have an interest in logistics and being a merchant," John said, reying what they were talking about earlier.

  "Easy enough. I will discuss the options with her then. We have our sims here at the guild, and I can also transfer a program you can run on your ship to allow her to practice with your equipment."

  After a few minutes, the women finished up and came back to the counter. Niki and Jahred started talking, discussing the rules and benefits of being part of the guild. Ash gestured to John to follow her, and they moved over to an empty table further into the guildhall.

  "Do you really have her calling you master?" She asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

  "No. At first, she started calling me Sir. I think that is the first time I heard her call me master." He replied.

  "Hmm... Well, if it were a different set of circumstances, I would say it’s kind of hot. You and your IDS on a ship, with her fawning over you, calling you Master, hanging off your every word and catering to every need. Hell, I might need to get a bigger ship now so I can justify getting my own short stack to do that." She replied, her smile growing at the idea.

  "Really? You make it sound like I intended to do this to begin with."

  "Oh, I am sure it wasn't your intent, but that's what everyone is going to think regardless." She replied pyfully.

  "Really? Well, people can think whatever they want, but I thought you would have known better. Speaking of, what is up with you today? You are talking to me differently than you normally do." John asked. She was normally more nervous around him.

  "Well, I didn't get groped yet or embarrassed by yet another accident, so you now get to see my normal attitude. Oh, Tanya said she would be showing you around the station soon. Are you pnning on hiring her as a fighter pilot?" She asked, changing the subject. She did sound genuinely curious about it, though.

  "I did say I was looking for a crew. I had thought to offer you all a job, though you indicated that you were not interested at all when it was brought up st night." He said, recalling her hysterics when he mentioned it before.

  "Well, I might be interested... I just didn't want to say anything in front of Tanya... she can be a bit extra when it comes to men. She loves her trashy romance novels and is always trying to set Chris and me up on dates so she can watch a forbidden romance in real life." She said, blushing a bit.

  Forbidden romance? I wonder what she means by that?

  "Well, I am hiring Ash. According to my boss, she won't need me for a week, so we can talk about it once I get Niki settled in. Speaking of, do you have some time today? Niki will need some clothing and stuff, and it might be easier for her to buy those kinds of things with a woman than a man." John asked. He didn't really want to go shopping for Niki's clothing and other feminine products if he could help it.

  I could just use the Link again to make purchases, but I’d bet she would rather go try the clothing on before she buys it.

  "Pffft. What am I? Your personal maid?"

  "Ahh. No. Nevermind then, forget I asked."

  "Rex. I'm kidding. I can do that, but you need to head over to the Dwarves' pce and expin why we are te."

  "Ahh... what?" John asked. He remembered he was supposed to go over there in a week or two for a race or something. He didn't know anything was happening today.

  "Oh, there is a preliminary race tonight. I thought they had already invited you. One sec." Ash said, and then tapped out a message on her Link. A response came rather quickly, and she nodded. "Yep. Tanya is excited to see you tonight. So how about it? I take your girl shopping, and you both come over for a little party tonight."

  "Well... I really have nothing else to do other than some training, but that can wait. Where am I going?"

  "Starlite Maintenance. It is beside the main docking area. I'll send the location to your Link." She replied, tapping a few things. John's Link beeped a moment ter, and the location was added to his map.

  "Got it. Well, let's let Niki finish up first, then we can let her know the pn."

  They talked for a few more minutes, mainly about his current contract with the INP. Niki finished up with Jahred, then joined them at the table.

  "I'm all done, Master! I am now a Copper Ranked Mercenary!" She said happily.

  "Awesome. Congratutions Niki." John and Ash replied. "Did you end up taking an operator job?"

  "Common Operations is what he called it, with a specialization in Logistics. Jahred was super helpful and even set me up with some training programs. They should be sent to your Link soon."

  "Perfect. Now, Ash has offered to take you shopping this afternoon to pick up a few things you might need. After you're done, she will bring you over to a friend's pce. We are having a small party, apparently."

  "Oh... Okay. I mean, yes, Sir." She replied, her nervousness returning.

  "Hey, it will be okay, and if you become uncomfortable, we can leave, okay?" John said, trying to reassure her.

  "It's not a huge party, it’s just us, Tanya, Chris, and Greg, who are all siblings," Ash added, easing Niki's fears.

  "Okay. That is good... I'm not a fan of rge parties."

  "It isn't. It's just a few friends having a drink and watching a race. Now, let's go shopping! The faster we get this done, the faster we can go and rex.” Ash said.

  "I thought you said you wanted to use the simutors today?" Niki asked her.

  "I was just killing time. This will be a much better use of my time."

  "How much money do you need, Ash? I can give you a 10000 GSC budget if you want."

  "What!?!" The pair of women said at the same time. Ash continued, "That is a bit excessive. We can probably get her set up with less than 2000 GSC. Just refund me ter. C'mon, Niki, let's go!"

  Ash grabbed her hand and dragged the cat girl out of the guild, barely letting her say goodbye to him.

  She seems excited to go out. Well, before I head over to the Dwarves' pce, I might as well talk to Jahred about the process of hiring other mercenaries first. I still don't know how much I should be paying them.

  John made his way over to reception and got back in line. He was determined to learn a bit more about this world before he got dragged into another event.