Star Force: Headstrong (SF72) by Aer-ki Jyr Read Free Book Online Page B

cultures that washed away the last bits of Veliquesh from her
system…though she’d always retain the memories of how they’d tried to kill her and
nearly succeeded.
    She never know who it was that had saved her, but what
she’d learned of Star Force told her that it had been an Archon, based on the
armor. She couldn’t for the life of her remember what color it had been, and
though she wanted to know she figured that was probably going to be one mystery
she carried with her for the rest of her life…which now that she’d attained
self-sufficiency could end up being a very long time.
    Rather than spending her days in the colony lingering
about as she had at first and many others did permanently, Naisha had trained
as a generic worker, though for Star Force that was a lot more complicated that
it sounded. It was the lowest paid position within the organization but one
that still required extensive training. She spent over 8 months going through
drills and procedures that expanded upon what she’d learned during her days in
the prison…which she eventually found out doubled for what others went through
in a maturia.
    The extra training ran her through all kinds of
variables and how to deal with them, giving her basic training in the food
supply division that was far more than she’d expected. Half of all Star Force
foodstuffs were prepackaged, with the rest requiring combination and prep
before being made available in the cafeterias. She began as a level 1 assistant
having had lessons in various allergies and the components that went into every
bit of food that Star Force provided free of charge.
    Other food items were available for sale by private
venders, but Naisha hadn’t been allowed to work in a cafeteria until she knew
every single item Star Force served and how to assemble each of those that were
not prepackaged. That included the foodstuffs for Protovic, Humans, Calavari,
and every other race within Star Force. The foodstuffs weren’t labeled as such,
for some were palatable by several races, but they weren’t going to let her do
so much as lay out the packages onto the display cases until she was able to
spot potential problems, such as the wrong items going in the vending lines.
    All the foodstuffs looked different, even if it was as
simple a thing as coloration, so people would know which ones were meant for
them and which were not, and it was the responsibility of every single person
on the staff to insure there were no mistakes made so the people coming in to
eat didn’t have to think about what they were grabbing off the racks.
    It was important, as were all Star Force positions,
and that was made clear from day 1 of training. When she began her work the
tasks were simple, with her taking certain items from place to place and other
menial tasks that could easily have been accomplished without any training required,
but the difference was she wasn’t just following orders. She understood
everything that she was doing and saw each item as a puzzle piece in a larger
system that was recognizable to her.
    Working in that position was her way of paying back
Star Force for saving her, though they in turn paid her a credit stipend for
doing so. She received an automatic 2.2 credits per day when she began and that
had risen to 2.9 by the time she’d petitioned and received permission to
transfer to the Protovic colony on Nym . After a month
of working in the cafeteria she had been given a quarters’ upgrade as default,
but she went ahead and purchased the next level up. That had cost her .7
credits per day and was deducted from her stipend automatically, which still
allowed her to accumulate a surplus to use on whatever she wanted.
    There were further quarters upgrades available, but the next one up cost 3.5 credits per day and was
therefore out of her pay range unless she wanted to save up and pay a year’s
advance. That hadn’t appealed to her and the three room quarters were much more
luxurious than