John and Katrina made their way up to the top level of the Atrium, and arrived at the doors of a nondescript looking establishment. Once inside, a man in a fancy looking red suit, introduced himself as Jaune, and led them along a hallway, passing many closed doors along the way. Finally, he let them into a room near the end of the hall, opening the door for them and bowing a little.

“Please feel free to use the room as long as you want my Lady, it has been set aside for your personal use today.” He said, eyes on the floor with his free hand clasped to his chest.”

“Thank you Jaune, please be at ease.” She said, in a regal tone which she didn’t use earlier with John. “I will summon you if we require anything further.”

“As you will, my Lady.” He said again with another bow, and then departed back to where they came from. Katrina entered first, and John followed, then stopped in the doorway, gasping a little bit at the sight in front of him.

The room was fairly spartan, with banded white metal walls on three sides, with a single band of blue at about eye level. It was what was on the last wall, that really made him pause. Gigantic windows overlooked the port of the station, with many ships of varying sizes moving to and from the docking area. The edge of the planet Parrax III was just coming into view, the giant ball of green gas reflecting light off the nearby sun. All this combined to give the room a completely sci-fi vibe for John.

Their were several seating areas in the room, and Katrina made her way over to the windows and sat down on a comfortable looking stool. John joined her and they watched outside for a moment, John enjoying the the novel view, Katrina watching with a proud expression on her face.

Eventually she turned her head towards him. “So how is your head? Have any of your memories returned?”

“Not yet, though I will say I do sense I am here to do something. I’m just not sure what.” John said. It wasn’t a lie, he was here to change the lore of these stories, but he had no idea of what that was.

“I see. That is too bad. Shall we eat?” 

“Of course. How do we order? Is there a menu or something?” He looked around, not seeing anything.

She laughed “Of course! Here.” She said, then tapped a button he didn’t notice at the end of the table. A holographic display popped up, similar to the one on his ship, though the menu somehow looked fancier. He filled through the menu and chose something that appeared to be a steak and potatoes option, though it did look fairly fancy. No options were given for how to cook the steak however, nor were the prices listed.

“Umm, I know you know my current finances, but what is the cost of this meal? I would like to treat the lady but I have no clue what things cost here.” He said earnestly. 

She laughed again. “Oh John, don’t worry about that, I am writing this off as a business expense today. As I said before, we have a few things to discuss and I have an offer for you. If it goes well, you can treat me another time if you want.” She replied smiling at him, her red eyes almost twinkling mischievously.

“I see, well in that case, I will enjoy myself and not think too deeply about it. Thank you.” He replied. He would definitely be coming back and asking that Jaune guy what a meal here costs.

They placed their order, and within moments, their meals arrived on hovering trays with little arms that served their food and drinks. John had added a glass of what appeared to be whiskey to his meal. Katrina had a burger and poutine of all things, and a large glass of some dark bubbly liquid he assumed was pop. 

Who goes to a fancy place dressed up like that to have fast food?

They started in on their food, and John was surprised at the taste. Not that it was bad, but this wasn’t a steak at all. It looked like a steak, smelled like a steak, tasted like a stick of honey garlic peperoni. He tried the mashed potatoes with gravy and those tasted normal, so he wasn’t sure what was up with the food in this world.

Least the whiskey taste like whiskey.

They had a light conversation, mostly led by her, talking about Parrax and the surrounding regions. They were essentially on what would be considered a border town, one rich in resources the Empire needed. She talked about her work in the military, where she was training to one day lead the Western region of the Empire, though she didn’t provide many details about that.

The topic then changed to their neighbours, which dampened the mood a bit. Their neighbours were not humanoid, but insectoids, a race that had a hive mind and worked towards expansion of their territory. They had a tentative peace for decades, but something had happened within the Javarian Collective recently, and now the bugs were all agitated. 

After the meal was finished, they topped up their drinks and moved to a nearby lounge area. She sat across from him, crossing her legs and providing him a good view of her sculpted body.

She looks like she is in incredible shape. 

She smiled but switched to business mode fairly quickly. She went over the local customs for refugees here in Kestrel, which basically said they were not citizens but were taxed like them. They had fewer rights, needed to pay to use the court system, and didn’t have a lord they could petition to for problems. They could earn their citizenship rights within a year of gainful employment through one of the guilds though, so it wasn’t a difficult problem for them to overcome. If they could not find a way to support themselves within three years however, the government would seize them and employ them as an IDS.

“Lords you say? I know you said you were a lady and would run this area of space in a few years, but I assumed it was more of an honorary title. You still operate in a feudal society?” He asked.

“Yes we do, though technically it is called Neo-Feudal. We tried maintaining a democracy centuries ago, but it collapsed in on it self several times. Eventually, our Emperor came into power, and subdued the surrounding regions. We have been in relative peace ever since, other than some feuding with the Javarians anyways. With their threat always looming over different regions, most humanoid empires have no interest in expanding into someone else’s territory. We still have plenty of unexplored space on our southern borders, away from the insectoid threats.”

“I see, so you pretty much run the place with an iron fist?”

“No, we have rules and laws to follow as well. A noble…well a noble who does things properly has many expectations placed on them, and is expected to rout out any corruption in their ranks. We are also on the frontlines protecting the people if the need arises. We get a lot of perks but the job is demanding.” She said, a strange, almost zealous look forming in her eyes.

“We have the power to enact justice without waiting for the court systems if needed as well. If I find a corrupt noble or commoner doing something they shouldn’t be, I can execute them immediately if it is for the good of the Empire. I can also be held accountable for those actions by the imperials if I am out of line, either by execution or by being turned into an IDS. The power we weld is a double edged sword and must be handled carefully.” She finished, the intensity in her voice increasing near the end.  

A Sword of Damocles hovering above her head at all times it seems. No wonder she prefers to be flying, sounds like a simpler life.

He took a swig of his drink, the whiskey going down nearly as smoothly as that drink Alec fed him. He needed to be careful with this, else he might make another rash decision. The Javarians sound like they could be like the Zergs, but with spaceships. Wait, didn’t the Zerg have spaceships too? God, he didn’t want to have to face off with bloody knock off Zergs here too. He might need to take off to another world and get stronger first. 

“What are you thinking John?” She asked, her voice back to that smooth jazzy voice she used during their dinner.

“Many things, but you keep bringing up this IDS. What is an IDS?” He asked, biting onto the first thing he could think of. 

“IDS? Indentured Servants. The short explanation is that they are mainly criminals or people who have found themselves in too much debt. They become property of the government, and do a bunch of jobs that others do not want to do.  Criminals who have done something violent or heinous usually get sent to a mining colony to do hard labour for ten to twenty years before they are released, if they survive. Debt IDS usually become janitorial staff or get hired out at certain guilds, from mercenaries to merchants, or even the pleasure districts.

Basically, they are supported by the government until they can work off their debt, and the government can sell those contracts to private people who then need to support the IDS while they work for them.  It is all monitored, so the IDS are kept in relative safety while they pay their debts off. Do you not have IDS where you came from?

That sounds like another word for slave. 

“No, it has been illegal for over a century where I am from, though there is illegal slavery around the world from what I recall.” He said, a note of disgust in his voice.

“They are not Slaves! Technically, if they were part of the Empire before becoming a IDS, they have more rights than a refugee. Just not the freedom you have. They are allowed anywhere on the third ring, in fact a large portion of the population you saw today fall under the IDS category.  Did you see anyone walking around in chains today?”

“Well there was that one woman with…right, no I didn’t ” He started to make a quip about a weird dress choice one woman had, but stopped himself when she let loose a glare at him.

“That’s because we treat our ‘Slaves’ decently as long as they are not a danger to society. Many end up working for their employers once their contracts are up, already trained in the position they were filling. Is the system perfect? No but nothing ever is. My father taught me that eighty percent of a solution is good enough usually, that last twenty percent can get handled locally by giving powers to the people who need it to make changes.” She said, defending the IDS system vehemently.

John wasn’t trying to attack it by calling them slaves, but now found himself on his back foot. Apparently this was a sore spot for the violet haired goddess in front of him. He decided to move the conversation along, not really needing to know more about this weird system of theirs. He didn’t plan on killing anyone anytime soon, so it should be a problem.

“So what was the offer you had for me today?”

Katrina glared at him for a few more moments, then composed herself. “Right. So we went to the co-ordinates where you engaged those pirates and found a wreck there. You managed to core out his ships power core with those two shots. Nice work” She complimented him again on his work on defending himself against the pirates. 

“Thanks, they did catch me by surprise. I am just lucky I happened to be in the cockpit at the time.”

“Well luck plays a factor in many things. Like when we searched their navigational data, we found a pirate hideout and are scouting it out now. With our capital ships mostly in for repairs or refits from our recent conflicts with the Javarians, we don’t have quite the hitting power we normally have, but if we could hire you and a handful of mercenaries, we could take down their base of operations in this system. With that ship of yours, I am sure you could fit at least eight fighters on board, if not more.”  

She leaned over to him then, exposing her generous cleavage to him, batted her eyelashes a few times, putting a seductive look on her face.

In a sultry voice, she said to him. “What do you think about becoming an exclusive contractor to the Imperial Naval Police John? I will…make it worth your while.” smiling innocently at him.

“God damn it I fell for it. It was a god damn ‘Honey Trap’ the whole time wasn’t it!” John said to himself, making his way down the conveyer belts to somewhere called the Mercenary Guild. It was late afternoon by the time Katrina was done with him, and he was like putty in her hands.

In his Link, he had a signed contract with the INP, where he would work exclusively with them or mercenaries under their employ for the next year.  Rather work exclusively with her in particular as she was his liaison with the INP. He just needed to go and join the mercenary guild first to get it ratified by them. 

He had no idea if the pay was good or not, or what all the terms meant. All he knew was that he melted for that witches voice, and her advances she took with his body. It wasn’t like anything improper happened, just light touches on his hands and shoulders, a whisper in his ear and leaning on his back with her breasts as she read over his shoulder and pointed out certain clauses in the contract. 

“It had to be the Whiskey, I can’t be this dumb just to sign a contract without knowing all the information.” He sighed. He wasn’t even remotely drunk. He knew it wasn’t the drinking.

He was an old man, and this was worse then when Nanaella gave him that massage. He was still rock hard even though they had finally separated twenty minutes ago. She had a ‘Shift in the operations room she needed to take’ she said, and he needed to go sign up with the mercs. She showed him on his Link where he needed to go and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before boarding a conveyer belt going back in the opposite direction. 

I need to be more careful, this more energetic body is going to get me in a lot of trouble. I almost feel like a teenager again, thinking with my dick first.

With that thought, he stepped off the conveyer belt, arriving at the Parrax Mercenary Guild. He walked up to it and stepped inside, making plans in his head to avoid falling for anymore of that sexy woman’s charms.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep