Leo slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes to a view of a room full of bunks, one of which he was laying on. He was dressed in a black nanomesh bodysuit and a pair of black boots. Not knowing where he was or how he had gotten there, he swung his legs to the floor and looked around the bland room. Forty military style bunks were arrayed neatly along the grey walls. It reminded him of his time in the military, minus the jibing bunkmates and barking CO. Deciding that the utterly bland barracks had nothing more to offer him, he made his way through the door and out into a long corridor. The corridor was long, and doors similar to the one he had just exited lined both sides. On the floor, outlined in a fluorescent glowing green were a number of arrows pointing along the corridor.

Lacking any other ideas, he walked towards the end of the corridor and emerged into a room filled with desks and accompanying holoscreens. He sat down at the closest desk and watched as the holoscreen flashed the Contact logo for a couple seconds before a warm voice was projected to his comm chip. On the screen appeared a feminine face with silver skin sporting a friendly smile.

"Welcome to the Sol GateHub Leo. The Gate network is a constantly expanding web of travel portals that allows for instantaneous travel between linked Gates. Each Gate is accompanied by a GateHub that serves as a population center, trade hub, and security checkpoint when traveling between systems. Earth is the most recent system to receive a Gate and you are currently located on the Sol GateHub. I am the Artificial Intelligence core responsible for the management of this GateHub and will answer any questions you may have."

He pondered for a second before realizing that it had spoken to him through his commchip. He mentally called up his commchip menu and was greeted with two options:

DataLink:

UFS HoloNet

GATE WebLink

He selected the second option and was greeted with an introductory message. He quickly skimmed it and realized that many of the commchip functions carried over within Contact. First and foremost he needed a ship and an idea of his options for earning some quick money. Closing out the menu he turned back to the AI.

"What trade services does this station offer? I would like to purchase a ship and some necessities."

"This station is equipped with a trading zone for physical transactions in addition to a WebLink tradehub and auction house. All transactions are carried out using Gate Credits. You may also pay for the use of a NanoFab to design items that require customization. As a new member of the gate network, 750GC has been deposited into your account."

Out of curiosity, he asked "How many systems does the Gate network cover?"

"157,382 Systems are currently accessible via Gate transport. The Sol system is the 422nd species to join the gate network."

At least he wouldn't get bored, he thought.

Shaking his head, he decided to start small. Accessing the WebLink he quickly found a map of the GateHub and located his current position. The map helpfully notified him that intrastation transport took place via a network of transport pods. How big was this station exactly? He adjusted the scale of the map and realized that the hub formed a 20 kilometer long hollow cylinder that was slowly rotating in space near the edge of the solar system. He grinned subconsciously, this game was shaping up to be quite the experience.

Leaving the desk he headed to the nearest pod and transferred the location of the shipyard from his commchip. A small sensation of motion carried through the pod's inertial dampeners and he watched glowing dot representing his current location travel down station towards one of the main commercial docks. Stepping out of the pod, he stopped short and gaped in wonder.

Ships of all shapes, sizes, and makes were visible through viewports all along the promenade. Drones moved cargo and passengers stepped off freshly landed transports, heat visibly venting from cooling exhaust ports. Taking in the bustling scene, he was struck by the distinctly non-human appearances of the people entering the station. He saw fins, fur, scales, skin, and feathers all mingling within the diverse crowd. In fact, he stood out as being the only human present in the docking bay and several nearby people looked at him with interest.

Stolen story; please report.

As he stood in place, experiencing a double take quickly followed by a triple take, his reverie was interrupted by a friendly sounding voice.

"Greetings. You are a human, yes?"

He turned to find a jovial alien looking at him. The alien stood at 1.7 meters tall and sported small blue and black mottled fins on his forearms and the back of his head. Leo found him rather reminiscent of earth's oceanic sharks and was rather curious what he wanted.

He nodded in the affirmative, before realizing that the gesture might not translate across cultures. Thankfully, his response appeared to have had the desired effect.

"My name is Gelt Phinis. I am a merchant, and would like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind."

Leo pondered for a second. He wanted to find a ship, but he wasn't in a rush and getting some information on species and situations he was bound to run into could be very helpful. He decided to see what Gelt had to offer.

"Sure, I'm Leo. So long as you don't mind answering a few of my own questions, I'd be happy to answer yours. I'm still trying to get my bearings here."

Gelt Nodded, "In that case, why don't we head to the lounge. I've only just disembarked and a drink sounds wonderful right about now."

The two walked in the direction of what appeared to be a food court, complete with tables of various heights and chairs that appeared to modify themselves according to the species using them.

As they walked Leo turned to Gelt, "Forgive me if this is a rude question, but what exactly are you?"

Gelt let off a chuckle, exposing a formidable set of pointed teeth. "I'm an Elasmo. We are an aquatic species evolved from primordial predators in the oceans of our homeworld. The datapak on your species that the AI sent out when you were added to the gate network mentioned that you have some similar, albeit less evolved, species present in the oceans of your own homeworld."

Leo nodded, "We call them sharks. Apex predators of Earth's oceans in one form or another for hundreds of millions of years. Not a bad thing to be associated with, all things considered."

They reached the food court and sat down, the chairs conforming to their varying physiologies. Leo swiped through the holomenu of available options built in to the table, browsing by species until he found the Human category. He quickly navigated to the option for Coffee and spent 2GC on a cup as strong and black as the menu allowed. He had plenty of time to try the more alien options, but even virtual caffeine would help his overloaded brain to deal with all the new sensations.

After he and Gelt had ordered their drinks, Gelt turned to Leo.

"You may have noticed that the majority of the ships in the dock were arriving, rather than leaving. Whenever a new species is inducted into the gate network, they are provided with a GateHub in their home system. A new species often has much to offer and many in the galactic community seek these new hubs out as fresh territory on which to establish businesses and trade with the native population. The station AI provides a basic culture, history, and translation package for each species that joins, however; more detailed information has to be acquired along more traditional lines."

A metaphorical lightbulb dinged into existence above Leo's head as he realized what Gelt was angling for. He had seen no other humans on the station as of yet. Either they hadn't logged in yet or were still familiarizing themselves with the system. He guessed that as the game only came out that day, he was likely one of the first to log in as his pod was delivered in the morning. Gelt was making good use of the opportunity to get ahead of the competition and figure out what humans had to offer.

"I see. So, what would you like to know?"

"Well, technology is one of the most lucrative sectors but unfortunately your species is rather young for your technology to be of much use on the galactic market apart from novelty value."

Leo was slightly nonplussed at that, but supposed it made sense.

"Before a new species is properly established on the gate network the most popular items are usually novel foods, entertainment products, and cultural items. When my own species was inducted most of our GC came from seafood, tourism, and submarine architecture."

"Straightforward enough. For the moment I would like to see about purchasing a ship for myself, along with some other necessary items."

He gestured to the bodysuit which, while comfortable, wasn't exactly a fashionable clothing option.

"You have a point. The small items can be acquired on the trade deck, or fabricated if necessary. A ship will be slightly more troublesome. The cheapest options will cost at least 2000GC. A custom job will cost around double that, but might get you a better fit options-wise. As you're new to the gate system, you won't have the GC for that yet."

Leo frowned. He had hoped to acquire a ship right off the bat, now he either had to earn enough money for a proper vessel or buy passage on a passenger craft. He put that thought on hold for the moment as a small drone was making its way towards the table.

The drone maneuvered over carefully before setting the mug of steaming black coffee in front of Leo and a glass of something blue in front of Gelt. Gelt picked up his glass and took a drink with obvious relish before sniffing quizzically at the air.

"Leo, what is that you're drinking?"

"This? This is coffee."

"What's coffee?"