Fixer Omar Rifi /// Last Stop Executive Bar

“....And that's not including the damages to the ship, its ruined totalled, this isn't the job I hired you for…” the Neotyph on the otherside of the screen from Omar continued to scream.

Not paying any real attention to the client, attempting to back out of a deal was something he had plenty of experience with, and this Neotyph really had nothing special about it.

“Mr. Xwre’thi, as you are aware we had you sign and agree to our terms of service before we agreed to the job, during which process you agreed to let me see here…” Omar interjected the raging Neotyph calmly and with purpose.

The Neotyph, Mr. Xwre’thi, looked shocked as he was interrupted and inhaled only for a moment before gearing up to begin shouting again. “T-t-that is irrelevant if i had known…”

“Agreement 14, the crew will under every circumstance follow and expose those thieves and their retainers, regardless of expense or damages, you initiated here following this agreement.” Omar said looking up, and meeting the odd cross between a bovine and a bat, eye to eye. It made their species extremely uncomfortable as its a primordial challenge in their culture to maintain eye contact, and Omar knew that. The Neotyph stumbled and sputtered before Omar lept on the loss of momentum “agreement 17, if any unforeseen costs damages or criminal charges are levied against the crew in question the employer shall undertake all relevant charges, financial, social or criminal, and take upon themselves the entirety of the cost. Or to put it simply, you signed the document that said no matter what the crew did you were responsible, and if memory serves the lawyer even told you to read and understand what your agreeing to too which you said some rather derogatory things, we have the scribes notes to check if you would like official recounting.”

The Neotyph ears dropped and pinned to the side of the creature's skull, a sign of submission. Omar stifled a chuckle in his throat before continuing. “ So while yes they did scuttle a heavy transport ship, destroyed 12 security droids, and destroyed a life sized golden replica of the now deceased emperor..” Omar paused as his brain attempted to compute that object. Shaking his head instead of letting his mind wander he focused back to the client who was slowly turning shades of pink “while they did do these things, you agreed to pay for them, and pay us. So while I understand and appreciate your frustration, my crew did their job to the T, next time you should really read what you're signing. Now if you have a legitimate breach of contract we would happily discuss that, otherwise payment is due at the latest in 3 cycles if we do not receive it by then we will contact the Watchers and the Guild of Law. have a wonderful day.”

Closing the holographic call, Omar leaned back in his seat almost folding into the leather. As he did one of the waitresses walked over and put a drink down in front of him. “Here you are Mr. Shiekh, and we received a request while you were on call, Max Donnahue wants to have a sit down with you, and a new client, a walk-in , is waiting for you downstairs.

Omar could feel the mounting progression of time coming down on him as he straightened up and sipped at the ice tea. Looking up at the waitress he read the name tag “kelly” with the Y ending in a heart, he smiled and said “ who took the call, Kelly?”

“Uh…i-i did.” she said, while the staff was well trained you can still catch them off guard.

“Excellent, well let me ask you then was Mr. Donnahue upset?” Omar said before taking another sip from his ice tea.

“Upset, i dont think so.” she replied.

“Oh, could you describe his demeanor then, and please think on it, was he calm, cold, emotional, energetic, please any description could make a difference?” asked Omar prying the young women's memory

“Uh im not really sure, is this really important sir… i do have other messages..” she seemed to almost be melting under the questioning

“Kelly, relax, Breath, im not asking to put you in a bind, im asking to make sure your a good choice for your position.” Omar said his inner manager started to poke through.

“My position of pouring drinks, and serving them?” the young woman asked, the confusion evident.

“No, thats the pretense of your job…let me ask you Kelly, who do you serve and pour drinks for?” Omar clarified

“F-Fixers….” she said letting the word start and finish with elongated vowels

“Correct, and are you aware of what fixers do?”

“Your salesmen of humanity, making all the dreams amongst the stars come true.” Kelly spouted in a slightly sultry voice.

“That's the PR pitch, so no, what fixers do is we make sure two parties are happy. One party the clients need work done and they have things, the other the crews need work and things. So we put these two together, but keeping both sides happy is important, almost critical to our work. So when a waitress says one of my captains has called wanting a sit down, I and many other members of this club would expect a little more information, as it could mean what I should, or need to do ahead of time.”

“I- uh-i” she stammered

“Again you're new for the most part right? So you have nothing to worry about yet, but this is a skill I would recommend learning, and as it turns out this is great practice. Now again how was Mr. Donnahue?”

“Calm, I think, I don't really know him, but he seemed in control. He just said “tell the Sheikh I need a meet” and then hung up. I didnt think…” she stammered she looked panicked now.

“excellent , and again you have nothing to worry about…yet. So please take a moment to compose yourself.” the Sheikh said as he lifted himself off of the black leather chair he had been sitting in.

“I need to go and contact Mr. Donahue, oh and when you return to work please tell the front desk ill make introductions to the clients personally. So just keep them happy until then.” Omar fixed his tie before finishing his tea, then walked out towards the Captains lounge.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Out one door take the elevator down to the second floor then walking 800 feet around twists and turns a trip he had made many times. Loud obnoxious music metal, rap, rock, jazz, and whatever else the crews were trying to listen to echoed down the halls. The muted yellow-pink coloration reminded Omar of hotels from Earth, even down to the graffiti and bullet holes. The crews of the free navies all had their own ways and traditions, and this made living amongst them an “experience”. Between Aberrant-humans and Humans living together, droid service units, music, drugs, and guns… alot of guns, made this hallway rather precarious for someone not acknowledged as a member of the tribe. Omar remembered back to a time when An Alliance supervisor had been assigned to quarters here once while writing a report on the free navies. By the end the officer had barricaded himself in his room with a rifle leveled at the door, it took three hours to talk him down.

For the sane rational members of society the Free Navy had an unseen function. To protect them from the madness of Earthfall. These crews were all survivors and killers, and for the peace striving alliance a real threat. Despite being heroes who had sacrificed more than anyone should have asked, the Abberants being the most obvious example of that. Each crew was led by a captain, a member who embodied the crew as a whole and was able to lead the mad bastards in every situation. This made captains the most optimal focal point, but also generally the craziest member of each crew.

Captains came in all shapes, and eccentricities, the last war for earth had ensured that only the lucky, the smart, the cruel, or the unkillable, had actually managed to survive, and most captains embodied all of that to some degree. Most of these men and women were brothers and sisters, veterans all. The crews that served under them, their soldiers and surviving team members. A natural transition from the forsaken army told to hold even as a muta-genetic super weapon was dropped on the planet, they were told they had to hold.

Omar had thought if he could have ever held out on a doomed planet, and led a bunch of lunatics around, like the captains did, and when he was being honest with himself he knew he couldn't. It was the reason Omar did what he did, instead of joining up with the alliance. It was also why Omar was one of a handful of fixers that was willing to work with Ab’s, he saw them as heroes, not as horrors. Rubbing his temple he strode into the captains lounge, the bar loud and obnoxious the smell of fried foods, spices, and alcohol overwhelming the other senses. Looking around he spotted his man. Captain Max Donnahue, a Lt. during Earthfall, reaching his mid fifties if Omar remembered correctly. Omar strode forward, he only took a few steps before Max had looked up and locked eyes with him. He was pissed Omar wasn't sure about what but it didn't matter Max was a solid captain, and well respected amongst the other captains. He took a few morse steps. There were only a few things Omar couldnt agree to or find a way to do, so as long as he didn't ask for those, this meeting should be quick. Few more steps. Glass smashed across the room and shouting could be heard. He pulled out a chair, Omar was sweating, and he didn't know why. People were saying NO, or DON’T a lot. He met Max’s gaze.

“I have a problem.” Max said his mouth moving only as much as he needed to

A shot rang out from across the room, and screaming could be heard for a moment before it started to die down with calls of “he's alive don't worry”

“That's why I'm here Max, what can I do for you?” Omar said

“My last job, did you know the client was a squid?” Max’s voice was low and pointed

“I did, why?”

“Because I don't work for squid.” Max spat.

“Really ? since when Max cause this is news for me” Omar shot back calculating the risk before taking it

“Since i fucking said so. Since that last job had nothing to do with what they hired us to do. Since i fucking killed some poor wage farmer over a box.” Max said, his voice rising steadily.

Omar held up his hands in front of him “wait, what, what wage farmer?”

“The fucking wage farmer who got on the wrong side of a planet baron, guy basically lived as a slave and we were told to rob him of the only thing he cared about… you know what was in the box.”

Omar knew his last job was a smash and grab, and he knew the baron in question was a member of the guild of Manors, what he didn't know was why the baron would want one farmer's “box”.

“No, I have no idea Max.”

“I'll tell you, it was his family's ashes, his whole family, like 20 generations back or some bullshit, dude got shot because he didn't want to lose it. I just checked in with the doc he died, his family the ones still alive all sold to the baron to pay wages so their actual slaves now, and oh yea the baron destroyed the box soon as we handed it over.” Max was fuming, and in truth Omar couldn't really blame him, he may have been a businessman but he still had a heart, sadly this was business.

“I hate this job, I hate squids and I'm starting to hate you.” Max said his eyes never left Omars.

“Max, I'm sorry, I didn't know..” Omar started

“Well it's your job to know, your intel, im action what good are you if you don't have intel!” Max was drowning out the sound of the music with his voice.

“You're right, this is on me…” Omar said his eyes dropping to the table

Max seemed unsure of where to go from here, caught off guard by the sudden admission. He waited for Omar to break the silence but that didn't happen, so after a few more moments that felt like minor eternities Max spoke up. “Look i'm sorry i know you probably got fed a line just like me, but i need you to do better.”

“I will, and i'll try to buy the family, if that helps Max, I know it's small but maybe it's a start.” Omar said, adding the finishing touches to his performance.

“Y..yea that will work for me, but i'm serious about not working for the squids again.” Max says unsure of how to react, Omar taking the opportunity “Max i swear i will never make you do something like that and ill write into all future contracts you have the right to deny service based on moral obligations. It will make sure you are never put into this position again.”

Max nods solemnly as he takes a drink. “Will it though?” he asks

“As best as I can legally protect you… yea.”

“Alright, I guess… I guess I can live with it.” Max said his eyes softened just enough for Omar to know he had won.

Omar nods “I'll send you what I find then, I'm sorry Max, I'll do better.” before walking back towards the elevator.

His walk back was quickened by the fact the less time he was in range of max the less time Max had to figure out he was just played. Crossing Max off the high paying jobs was a problem, because max had a statistically high number of completions. Which meant for jobs that paid really well he only had one agent left, and he really didn't want to use him. Sighing at the hopes that he wouldnt have to call that lunatic he descended the elevator down to the first floor and made his way over to the reception hall.

Before Omar can Enter the reception area he spots a number of Watcher guards standing outside the door. One of the squids waved him over, based on insignia it was Sgt. Vruth. “Sheikh, glad you can see us.” the crustacean armored figure said.

“Vrtuh, good to see you, you are bringing me business now.” Omar asked

“Its a personal favor, won't happen often.” said the watcher

“Very well should we go in?” asked Omar, his curiosity rising.

“Of course.” he said as he opened the door with one of his manipulators. “May i introduce my uncle Minister Vduim Er Cluse”

Omars mind had only one thought… FUCK