“Well, that is annoying, what is this thing?” I asked as I turned, looking around myself.
I spotted the kiosk by the door and walked over to it. It looked like a pedestal, so I placed my hand on top of it and as I did, it flashed a white light for a second then a metallic Silver card half slid out the Top into my hand. I pulled the card out and turned it over a few times between my fingers as I looked the kiosk over again. I turned and headed towards the door next to the one Ashley used. I looked down at the card as I walked, and it had the words ‘Guild Image Here’ on one side and the other had ‘Inactive Game Card’ it was the same as Ashley's card before I activated it. As I was looking at the inactive game card side, a little screen appeared next to it. ‘Activate card. Y/N’ I mentally clicked yes and watched the surface of the card ripple as it changed from metallic silver to a pitch black. I raised an eyebrow as I thought, ‘that is not the gold colour of Ashley’s active card’. I pushed the door open as I reached it and looked inside to see a small room with an arm reaching down from the ceiling.
“Interesting, what do you do?” I mumbled as I walked around the arm to see the plate on the other side, with the small slot in it. “Yea, I'm not touching that” I muttered as I turned around only to hear an alarm blaring around the room as speakers located who knows where started screaming “Alert!” over and over again. Ashley's door suddenly changed as she was thrown out of it by some sort of force.
“What do they mean? Imminent danger detected?”
“Ashley?”
“Kenna? Did you kick me out of the game server?”
“No? What game server?
“Uh, I'm not sure, but it was really cool, I got to play as an elf. Can you believe that? I was a member of a mythical race. It seemed like it was very realistic and definitely felt like I was actually there. Oh, and I was on some Galactic Federation Carrier. I actually had a conversation with a NPC. It blew my mind how good the AI for that game was. Anyway, the welcome guy said I was on some ship called the Terance and I could walk around, learn to use weapons and train to fight. I could even join a company and fight for merit and renown. Or start my own company if I wanted to, but I would need a guild to back my company with resources and credits.”
“What do you mean by company? And what benefits would it bring the guild?”
“I'm not sure, I got booted out before I could investigate it properly, but I think it's some sort of mercenary company, maybe?”
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“Oookay, we will have to circle back to that later, but first we should probably find out what that alarm is about”
She nodded to me as we started walking towards the exit. I smiled softly as I thought about what she had said for a few seconds before hurrying over to the command table, noticing we had reached the command room. I glanced at the resource list on the table under the huge holographic image of the station and surrounding solar system. I was a little surprised to see there were three times more resources than I expected to be in my warehouse. That was when I noticed the six large freight ships heading away from the orbital station.
“Ah, that make sense, leaving their agreed upon amount of resources behind on their way out. But I doubt that was the alert…”
I looked around the hologram, trying to find something that would cause an alert big enough to shut down the rigs. It took me a bit, but I did find the four carriers floating on the perimeter of the solar system.
“What's going on out there?” I asked the table curiously.
I of course was not expecting a response, so the ping alert I got from the table informing me someone was trying to call took me by surprise. I was about to reach out and answer it when the table seemed to answer it for me. The hologram of the solar system vanished and was replaced be a woman in uniform standing on my command table.
“Guild Mistress Kenna Mackenzie, I captain Jessica Biko humbly and respectfully request immediate permission to come aboard and set up the Galactic Federation office. We have already departed the carrier, and are currently waiting in orbit around the station. Please give permission immediately!”
“Oh, uh, yes, of course.” I tried to smile as I looked at the pushy woman who nodded to me and then disconnected the call from her end.
The station reappeared, and I noticed a small ship near it starting to head towards a docking bay. I watched it enter the dock before the table pinged again with another call. I frowned, muttering something about being popular today. I sighed and pressed the answer button. The hologram of the solar system vanished again and was replaced be a man in a navy uniform standing on my command table.
“I am Commander Leositori Twiddles, I am the selected spoke person for the other three Carriers entering this solar system, to whom have I established contact with and under what authority do you prohibit our entry to this solar system?”
*******
Captain Jessica Biko let out a sigh of relief as the C250 skiff landed on the decking in the hanger. She smiled softly, they were finally at the orbital station and could get to work, the sitting around and waiting was over! She turned to look at the cargo hold of the skiff. There she saw her husband and the guild members he had formed into a new company in order to take up the position of Galactic Federation Law Enforcement and Orbital Station Security. She stood and moved towards the exit as the company quickly disembarked, she spotted them outside a port window running across the hanger hurrying to the Orbital Stations Guild Hall. Furthermore, she knew they needed to set up a guild hall for their own guild to bring in more members. Her husband, as the Guild Master, would need to establish a proper and authentic contract with the young Miss Kenna Mackenzie for their company to establish themselves as the official Law enforcement and Security of this Orbital Station. She let out a loud sigh as an alarm started blaring. She turned and ran across the hanger, the other captain running behind her, a look of confusion on his face.
“Jess, why would four carriers arrive at this solar system at its four cardinal directions?”
“If you are going to ask me, then who am I going to ask?”
“Uh-”
“Exactly, now, shut up and run!”
She nearly tripped over in shock when she saw the city missing from the habitat, only a couple of buildings were there, but on the bright side it looked like one was being built. She turned her attention to the guild hall in the middle and focused on getting to the young guild mistress, as she ran across the empty city.