Wages

"Um, excuse me?"

In less than a microsecond, Voxine was aware that a fleshbag had addressed her. In less than a second, she had turned to face said fleshbag and realized that he was a male Cassian. Given his heart-rate, perspiration, and the amount of adrenalin coursing through him, she concluded that she would be able to deal with the lower lifeform in less than a minute.

"Proceed," the mechari agent stated, scanning the fleshbag further, his ident tags registering him as Otho Vitellius, warrior, assigned to making the drop to Nexus once the Ares emerged from hyperspace.

"Um, yeah," the Cassian said. "Thing is, I've been looking at my bank account…I mean, it's held on Cassus and whatnot, so it's off-planet…still legal though…"

Voxine kept staring. Attentively.

"Anyway," the fleshbag continued, getting the hint that his one minute was nearing its end. "Thing is, the account's set to pay the Dominion in monthly instalments. I mean, I'm risking my life and limb for the Dominion, shouldn't I be the one being agh!"

The fleshling squirmed as Voxine grabbed him by the head. She marched over towards one of the battlecruiser's windows. Like a child might a doll, she held the lower lifeform up to see the display.

"Query – what do you see?" she asked.

"I…I don't…"

"Query – what do you see?" Voxine repeated.

"Hyperspace!" the Cassian exclaimed. "That's all there is around us!"

"And once we exit hyperspace, what will we see instead?"

"Nexus!"

"Correct. And it is at Nexus, you shall earn your keep."

The mechari dropped the Cassian down with a thud. Her sensor array indicated that there were other fleshings in the room, of all shapes, sizes, and species. All of them more intelligent than the one she'd beaten down, she concluded.

"As per our emperor's will, your service to the Dominion is a privilege," the mechari said, watching as the Cassian scrambled to his feet. "You shall pay us for the honour of that privilege. And in return, you will take what is yours at Nexus. Surely a monthly fee is quite…acceptable, wouldn't you say?"

"And if I don't find anything?" the Cassian whispered.

"Then you fail. Miserably. And no-one will miss you."

The Cassian cast out his eyes across the deck. Voxine did as well. Acting like nothing had happened, some draken continued their arm wrestle, chua continued discussing weapons of mass destruction, and other mechari agents stood to attention. Even the Cassians weren't rushing to their comrade's aid.

"So, have I answered your query?" Voxine asked. "If not, there is another payment option available."

"There is?!" The fleshbag's eyes lit up, or at least lit as much as an organic's could. "Tell me!"

Voxine drew her pistol.

"On second thoughts…I'll stick with the current option."

"Good," Voxine sneered. "I'm glad we had this conversation."

Slowly, the Cassian began to back away. With a bit more haste, he turned around. And then, trying to give the illusion of normality, he walked away as if nothing had happened.

And in a sense, Voxine reflected, nothing had. Such blips in the Dominion's ethos would not be tolerated.

That was why, when the chua began laughing more obnoxiously than usual, she walked over to deal with it.

In style.

A/N

So, it was announced recently that WildStar would have a subscription model. For some reason, I never saw any protest against this, unlike the backlash for The Elder Scrolls Online for also using such a model. Maybe it's because of the alternative CREDD system, maybe because WildStar's more obscure, maybe because of its similarities with World of Warcraft which also uses said model. Not that I'm complaining actually. F2P has its advantages, but a more traditional model is one I'd support at least being an option.

Anyway, came up with this as a result.