Stranded: Initiation

Chapter 1

Part 2 of Spring trilogy.

"I need you here for at least a week—maybe two. Day-around presence."

"Understood. I should have the manpower—"

"You and your cousins. Anyone else you trust explicitly." Maenar Situous Rather looked out across the bazaar. There was a multitude of Obsolus that gathered and worked here, receiving the scrap and other materials that scavengers brought in on an hourly basis. Trade kept the lifeblood of Promethean flowing. "Can you do that?"

Prinz looked thoughtful for a moment, a strange cross between a porcupine and a wolf, he always appeared puffed up under his plated uniform. The Atar stood on a booster chair, as did all Obsolus when dealing with humans to give them almost eye level capability. His eyes had drifted away and then he turned them back and gave a quick nod. "The big score, Situous?"

"Something like that." Rather didn't want to go into it. Theft wasn't a big problem for most scavengers because what they were hauling back wasn't worth the effort, but what he had in their hold was meriting potentially getting spaced for.

"I might need some time to shift people around to get my cousins back out here—"

"Twice the usual pay if you can have them here within the hour."

Prinz once again looked thoughtful, but this time had a greedy grin on his face. "All right. They'll be here. Must be something big if you really need all of us."

"I don't want anyone near the Shifter unless they are explicitly authorized," Rather said.

The grin became plastered on. "I know our duties. Your ship will be secured for the duration of your visit."

Reputation was everything. If Prinz failed here word would spread and very quickly he would find himself back with the bottom-feeders of the mega-station. That made trust easier because there were always consequences and Prinz's people were known to shoot first when their spaces were violated, which played to everyone's best interest as few were likely to move against him or his people.

Rather held out his credstick. There wasn't much left in the entirety of his account, but enough to get Prinz's cousins here. "This should cover today. I'll have the rest after I have spent some time at the bazaar."

The Atar took the credstick and placed his handheld next to it. "Not a problem, Situous. You're actually good for your promises, unlike a few of these scrap merchants."

He appreciated that Prinz didn't need to make the usual threat about what consequences would happen if Rather couldn't pay him tomorrow after juggling his people around. Rather knew about that and Prinz knew that he knew it.

The spiny wolf-like jumped off the booster chair and motioned for his mixed Obsolus team. Several of them raced off after a word, while two Bertania stood guard with him, likely waiting to be relieved by Prinz's cousins.

Ref Andra appeared at the entrance, her tall ears pivoting towards the security and her nose twitching with what must be a very obvious smell. She crossed the deck towards him, as small as Prinz in size, but with rabbit-like features. The Ghirp were the most common Obsolus species on Promethean, which housed a good twenty percent of the entire population as Ghirp. Though not as imposing as Prinz was, Andra was still in her uniform and had a sidearm.

"Are we set?" she asked, eyes never leaving the trio of guards.

"Yeah. About an hour. Prinz's cousins will be here with him on a permanent basis."

Ref shook her head. "Are they going to harass us like last time?"

The incident had taken on legendary proportions because Rather hadn't been there for the event. He wanted to both ensure nothing like that happened again, but also that none of his crew made any problems with the Atar. "I'm paying them twice the usual fee. If there are any problems make sure to tell either me or Prinz immediately."