Walking through the station's central trade hub made Willa uneasy. She had never liked crowds, and now even less. Although Luse was not a particularly crowded station there where always several thousand in the main business section of the station. She was also uneasy about her destination today. She had been putting it off for several days, telling herself she needed a few days to settle in before reporting for her new job. Mostly she had sat in her new apartment watching holo-reels and drinking.
She was happy with her new place. She had decided to take some of the isk Ash had given her and rented a mid-sized apartment. With three rooms, it was more than ample for Willa's needs. Even though she was still getting use to the Gallente appliances and technology, she had managed to burn her breakfast again this morning, which had put her in a cross mood. If it wasn't for the crowds she would have preferred to eat at one of the many restaurants on the station.
Taking the lift to the third level she got off and walked towards a row of small offices that circled the atrium of the business center. About halfway around she came to a door where a maintenance man was painting a sign MC KENNAN CLAN on the glass door. "Well this is it." she thought. The sign painter moved to let her enter, she stepped inside.
The front office wasn't much to look at, just a desk and a few used chairs along one wall. While she stood there looking around a Caldari woman came through a door at the back of the office.
"Hello" she said in a flat tone.
"I'm Willa, Jaxx sent me." Willa stated.
"Figured as much." she said under her breath, holding out her hand. "I'm Asa Silas, the junior accountant for the corporation."
"Nice to meet you Asa." Willa replied, She was trying to keep this little woman from pissing her off.
Asa wasn't a small woman from a Caldari point of view, standing about 170 centimeters tall, but to Willa's 190 centimeters, she had to look up at the towering Willa. Asa was a very attractive woman, even with a shaved head. She had pale silver-blue eyes, a shapely body and always dressed in professional clothes. Asa managed to turn heads when she was in public.
Asa had heard a little about Willa in the week, after the CEO had announced that there was a new corporation member that would be arriving soon. Minmatar were not Asa's favorite race, and Brutors the least of all, even though she did support the Republic's cause. Willa's arrival had been known to the corporation, yet Asa couldn't understand why Willa didn't report the next day to headquarters, now it was three days later. Willa had the smell of liquor on her breath at this early hour, and looked like she had been a bar room brawl recently. Not exactly the kind of person Asa would hire for the corporation's security section. Even though the other security personal were Minmatar, they seemed more responsible than the woman standing before Asa.
"Well, since you are here you will need to fill out some forms first. Then you need to talk to the boss" Asa informed Willa in a all business manner. "After that we can go over the corporation's policies and let you meet everyone." Asa turned, went to a drawer in the desk, pulled out a writing tablet that contained several forms, and handed it to Willa. Asa pointed to the used chairs along the wall, then seated herself behind the desk and turned on the com terminal, ignoring Willa.
"Bitch." Thought Willa as she sat down. She sat filling out the forms, looking up several times at Asa, who seemed to be ignoring her. Willa had never been fond of the Caldari, since her recent incident she had a deep seated hatred for them. If it weren't for Jaxx basically ordering her here, she would have already walked out. Willa finished filling in the forms, stepped up to the desk and dropped it in front of Asa. Asa picked up the pad and went to the door to the back offices, Willa followed her. Passed the door was a large central room with offices around the outside. Several were empty and some had people sitting at desk. Asa went to the first one on left side.
Through the glass Willa could see a rather over weight older man sitting behind his desk. He looked up from his terminal and waved them in. Asa opened the door, motioning Willa to go in. After Willa entering Asa shut the door with a slam behind her as she walked to one of the other offices. Willa took a seat in one of the chairs nearby, waiting for the man to finish his conversation.
"... I know you were making money Jack but when you go to low sec in an un-escorted ship you are bound to get blown up." The man listened to the person he was talking to on his ear piece. "I know it pisses you off, go buy a shuttle and get back here and we can talk, I think help just arrived, have to go." With that he disconnected and looked at Willa. "Expected to see you sooner." he said to her.
Willa started to answer, he interrupted her. "Don't want any explanation or excuses, you are here now, are you ready to go to work?" he asked.
Willa looked him in the eye and said, "Yes!"
"That's all I need to know," he said. He stood and reached across the desk offering Willa his hand. "Name's Howard Taft, I'm the boss around here till I can train someone to take over."
Willa stood and shook his hand, "Willa Murdoc, I'm glad to have a job."
Howard sat back in his high backed office chair, "We are family here, in fact I believe that some of your kin all ready work here. So rule number one, protect your family and rule number two, make money for the family. You think you can live with that Willa?" he asked.
"Yes, I can Mr. Taft." she answered.
"No, mister please just call me Howard, you will learn that we are not a very formal organization here, so no formalities." he told Willa. She nodded that she understood and smiled. Howard activated the com system, through the walls she could hear his voice filling the outer offices. "She's here folks, come up to the conference room, and met our newest member." Howard then rose from his chair and lead Willa out of the office to the large central room.
People were filing into the room, some Minmatar some Gallente, and Asa was standing along the wall away from the gathering. One that Willa noticed right away was a very tall Brutor male, that was in a mechanic jumpsuit and covered in coolant and grease. He was wiping his hands on a rag and stuffed it in a pocket.
"Dunein!" Willa said as she walked rapidly across the room. Willa wrapped her arms around him and give him a huge and peck on the check.
"Willa, nice to see you again. Welcome to The Clan." He said hugging her back and smiling. Dunein was one of Willa's kinsmen from the Mc Kennan side of the family, they were either third or fourth cousins, depending on whom one asked. When Willa was little, she and Dunein would often play together when there were family gatherings.
"Willa, I want you to met my fiancée" Dunein said as Willa let go of him. Standing next to him was a beautiful Brutor woman. "Willa this is Trinity Ann." "Nice to meet you." Willa and Trinity greeted each other, with a hug.
"I will introduce you to the others." Dunein said. He took her around the room and made the introductions. There was Sunshine Sally, a miner barge pilot. Baylen, Dunein's brother that was raised in the Amarrian Throne worlds in slavery, he had recently escaped and was now hiding in Federation territory. The bouncy red headed Gallente mining and refining foreman Urbana Felicia. Asa kept her distance, and Willa was relieved for small favors.
"I see you and Asa have already met" Dunein said with a small smile, like it was and inside joke with Willa. "Yup, jury is still out." Willa replied.
"She isn't as bad as she seems at first." Dunein joked with Willa. "She actually reminds me of you a little bit." he said ribbing Willa further. "Oh I hope not!" Willa frowned at Dunein. "There is one corp member not here." Dunein said changing the subject, "Happyjack, I hear he wandered in to low sec and got another cargo ship blown out from under him." Dunein said chuckling. "He is our manufacturing specialist, and Asa's boyfriend." He finished.
After visiting with the her new corp mates, Howard came to his office door, in a booming voice that didn't need an intercom to be heard, "The isk don't make themselves, Dunein why don't you show Willa the hanger and warehouse. The rest of you, don't you have a mining mission to get ready for?" Howard finished looking straight at Willa "Glad to have you on board, be here 08:00 tomorrow, and be sober!" With that he returned to his office. Willa nodded in his direction in acknowledgment and agreement.
Down in the corp hanger Dunein showed her around, there were several ships, Reapers, a Burst, several Gallente frigates, some Gallente destroyers fitted as poor man's mining vessels, Dunein's Amarrian battle cruiser and a sole Rifter. Willa was too much of a nationalist to fly anything other than the Minmatar ships, and didn't like seeing her brother and sister Matari flying the demon Amarr ships. However she was willing to cut Dunein some slack, because he was raised in Ammatar space and they were the ships he first learned to fly. Wandering over to the Rifter she ran her hand along the long lines and looked at it with the look of a long lost love. "Who's is this?" she asked Dunein.
"Well, it is yours, we found out that there was a ship in your name at the station so we moved it here." Dunein stated. "Yes of course." Willa had forgotten about the gift, from Ash. She might have remembered if she hadn't been drunk for the last three days trying to drown the faces and rage that kept invading her thoughts.
Suddenly Willa had an intense need to be flying again. She quickly looked around the hanger, then she saw Dunein pointing at a door in the back "There are jumpsuits and tools in there, and the modules are in the warehouse." "Kinda figured you would want to put it together when you got here." he said with a smile. Willa quickly walked into the room, donned a set of red coverall and grabbed a tool case.
Several hours later, Trinity came in with some food and drink and the three of them sat and had a picnic in the hanger, laughing and joking about the fact they were all working for a Gallente corp and tales of home. After finishing off the last of the food, as Dunein always did. He hopped up and motioned for Willa to follow. She followed him, he jumped on the crate lift and she climbed on beside him, they took off for another part of the station.
Down a long wide alley, the rode the lift till they came to a large door. Dunein hopped down and swiped his card key. The door rose and the lights flickered on. He motioned Willa to drive the lift into the large cavernous room and walked over to a row of stacked up ship parts. Willa stopped the lift and climbed down, she had never seen an inventory of spare ship parts like this in her life. There were guns, shield modules, frigate armor, mining lasers, overdrives, afterburners and a number of things she couldn't identify. There was Gallente, Caldari, Amarrian and Minmatar technology all mixed together. Dunein started walking down the row and looking at a data pad. "Where did this all come from Dunein" she asked.
"Here and there. Some from trade, some is loot, from belt pirates." He said with a grin.
"Willa what is you rating on warp drive operation?" he shouted at her. "I passed the level II test at the Academy." she shouted back. Willa could hear Dunein talking to himself, but couldn't make out what he was saying. After several minutes he turned and motioned for her to bring the lift down towards him. She did and they started loading assorted parts.
Taking it all back to her ship they began fitting the parts in place, some of Dunein's friends and Baylen wandered in and began helping them. Some one brought some beer, they kept working, joking and visiting. When they finished, it was nearly 01:00 and they were exhausted. "Well you better take it for a test run." Baylen said. Willa wasn't sure she was in any shape to fly, let alone do a maiden voyage in her new ship. "It'll be fine." was the answer she got from the crowd of other men, when she voiced her concerns. "What the hell" she thought. And started her pre-flight prep, climbed into her ship, striped her clothes off, sat in the podm attached her life support systems and ship communication lines into to her implants. Once the pod was sealed, the pod jell began to pump in around her and fill the pod she began to get nervous.
"Stay calm" she thought to herself trying to keep her hands from shaking as she reached for the controls. When her 360 degree display switched on in her ocular implant she could see Dunein's ship was already ready undocking. "Thank god" she thought, now if I have trouble he can at least tow me back. She took the controls in her hands and lifted off. Transmitted her signal for the launch controller and waited as the computer guided her to the exit port. She waited as the docking computer set Dunein up for launch, then it was her turn.
Willa felt the vibration of the engines firing and the thrust against the tractor beam that held her in place until her engine were up to launch speed. The jolt of being released from the tractor startled her, she lost concentration controlling the ships flight path, instead of the fast smooth shot down the exit, she veered left and hit the wall, she tried to correct her course, this Rifter's was more responsive than the one she flew at the academy, setting her on course for the wall on the other side. "Shit!" she thought, "I am going to die trying to get out of this bloody station." She managed to avoid the other wall, but instead clipped something at the end of the chute, throwing her into a flat spin as she exited the station, nearly hitting a mining barge as it was making it's approach to dock.
All she could hear over her com set was Dunein's roaring laughter. "I thought you said you could fly that thing?" he said laughing some more. "Willa, you have to switch to local channel. You are quite the topic of the evening." Dunein said in another round of laughter. Red faced she switched to the local channel, knowing full well, she deserved every barb and joke she was about to receive. One thing all pilots had in common was the inability to let any mistake go unnoticed or punished.
"Damn, I knew minnie ships were shit, now they are catching fire while launching" came the voice of one pilot.
"Where did you get your license there MCKEN, the top of a Quafe box?" said another.
"I thought the circus was in town and this was the trick flying act" came the voice of a third pilot.
Willa listened to the jokes at her expense, the laughter helped her settle her nerves enough to fly up along side Dunein's ship. He signaled her on the corp channel and she switched back.
"Let's do a quick run out to one of the belts and back." then we can call it a night, have to be up in 5 hours, anyway. Set their navigation computers to the nearest asteroid belt and jumped to warp. Willa tested her orbiting controls around a few asteroids then warped back to the station. When they transmitted the docking signal, she received an extra message, "Report to launch control immediately." Willa let the computer dock her and sat the ship down in the hanger. As the pod jell pumped back to the holding tank, she disconnected herself from the ship and life support, opened the pod hatch and reached for a coverall suit from a nearby locker. She had the suit halfway on when there was someone banging on the ship hatch. "What now?" she thought, she was still covered in pod goo and half dressed. She hit the hatch switch and it opened as she finished put the suit on.
A very angry Gallente in a Federation Customs uniform was standing in the hatch way when she looked up. "Pilot, I am Val Natar of the station controller office." "I need to see your pilot's credentials and need you to step out and take a blood test." "My life is turning in to a damn comic tragedy" she thought. Willa did the only thing she could, started laughing, by the time she was stand in the hanger again, she could barely breath. Dunein came over to see what all the laughter was about, and saw the customs officer.
"What's the problem officer?" He asked
"This pilot is obviously drunk, she has caused damage to the station, and nearly hit another ship with that launch of hers. I can not begin to count the number of CONCORD regulations she has broken, not to mention Federation laws." the officer said.
"Sir, can I speak with you in private?" Dunein asked and lead the officer away from where Willa was bent over trying to catch her breath and stop laughing. After a little while Dunein returned and the officer left looking over his shoulder at Willa. Dunein suggested she go clean up and then go to bed.
"What about that?" she said pointing at the officer.
"Don't worry, Howard will take care of it. Your MCKEN now." He said with a devilish grin.
Willa took his advice and went to the pilot's locker room which they shared with pilots from several other small corps. Willa was in regular good humor after cleaning up and receiving a few more jokes, about her "bad ass pilot skillz". Giggling to herself she left for her apartment, knowing that this day would be one she would never forget.