What was more confusing to me than the fact that this Lumrah clearly knew that I was capable of manipulating the Abyss Network was that a random slave envoy was carrying one of these keys. That shouldn’t have been possible, since most of these keys were safely stored within some of the most indestructible and most secretive bases in the galaxy. The incredibly small amount that weren’t protected like this were only owned by what were essentially multi-trillionaires, who would do anything to defend their image and most certainly wouldn’t risk partaking in a slave trade or anything of the sort.

The Lumrah, finally averting its gaze from my ship and looking back at me, stood silent for a moment, evidently waiting for me to reply.

“Before I do anything,” I said after thinking everything over, “What’s the pay like?”

Another pause, the Lumrah looked downwards and though its limited facial expressions would not show this, I’m certain it would have been furrowing its brow if it were human.

“By rough estimation… Around… Four-point-three billion te’vrei.”

For a moment, I, (despite being in a nicely temperature-controlled exosuit), froze up.

Four-point-three billion te’vrei. 

There are sentient beings who would spend their entire lives’ for no reason other than the unlikely hope that they would ever obtain such a large sum of money and here it was, being dangled in front of me like edible plant life on a stick, that too for a comparatively insignificant and simple job.

That would be enough to buy out an entire station and most likely live out the rest of my existence in peace, not that I intended to ever do that.

There was definitely something more to this job, no sane being would just give away so much money for something as simple as a slave. 

“That’s a ridiculous number.”

“I am well aware of that, Hollow, but are you willing to take the job?”

“I would be willing to take most jobs for four billion te’vrei, but are you serious about that amount of money?”

Another brief pause and I noticed the Lumrah tensing up, as if unsure about its next action.

“I understand your doubt, but I certainly am,” it finally answered, whipping out its MNID in a single smooth motion, (which would have been far more impressive if the Lumrah was capable of moving quickly), and transferring some data to me.

I took a moment to examine what it had sent me.

It was the Lumrah’s profile, displaying general information about it, including one thing I noticed immediately. 

A ‘confirmed balance’ of over twenty-four trillion te’vrei.

Four-point-six billion would mean close to nothing to this creature, so I immediately knew that it would probably be willing to actually hand that amount of money out to me.
There was still some doubt in my mind as to why it would do that, but I thought it best to play along, for now, anyway.

“Alright then, what should I do?” I asked the Lumrah after careful consideration.

“I will send you some coordinates, travel to them and await further instruction once you arrive.”

That seemed simple enough, so I bid the creature farewell, boarded Zero-Six and started the ship.

Of course, I was still suspicious of this job, but I figured, as long as I remained vigilant, I would be fine. Besides, I was more than confident that I could quite easily kill the Lumrah if need be.

The ship rose majestically into the air, as I pulled back so that its nose would face upwards and out of the hangar. Warping into the walls of Haven would not be ideal and would cause more damage to me and my ship than to Haven itself.

I had reconfigured the flight mechanism so it would work like a regular ‘human style’ interface, which was the interface I was best at using, coinciding with the fact that I was a human. 

I quickly punched in the coordinates into the ship computer and redirected most of the ship's energy to the engines and quantum drive.

I checked back on the ship computer, it had successfully plotted a route to my destination, all that was left now was to start the quantum warp.

Slamming down the throttle to maximum, I braced myself as the ship shot forward.

The whirring coming from the drive bay was all I could hear, drowning out even the sounds of the engines. 

As the quantum drive initiated, Zero-Six and I blinked away into the darkness of space, en route to… Kidnap a slave? Or would it be a rescue? It would depend on what the Lumrah wanted the slave for, I suppose.

Who knows? I was only in it for the money anyway.