The next morning, they met up with their team in their apartment and gave a quick recap. Shalt had already returned. They would spend three days hunting here and then head back as a team. Midas would go out today while Shalt would stay in the shelter with Minx.
They all went to the daily briefing. Once everyone was gone, they went to see Blip and invited Nate and Sam to come along for this meeting.
Minx knocked on Blip's door. He looked fed up, like he was getting ready to throw something against the wall.
"Do you have a few minutes?" Minx asked. The door was open, so she was able to just ask.
"For you? Of course." He waved his hand for them all to enter.
Minx took the liberty of sitting in the chair opposite his desk. "What I'm getting ready to discuss and ask could get me in trouble with you or the Graylashes so please hear me out before getting angry, okay?"
Blip looked at her and he really didn't have much of a choice, so he just nodded.
"Okay, I just returned from a 4-day trip to my planet." Minx paused there waiting for realization to hit.
"How did you get there?"
"In my ship, in stealth mode…"
Blip looked at her. "Is this the part I'm not going to like?"
Minx nodded.
"Did you land it right here in the shelter to get on it?"
She nodded, "after hours."
"Why didn't you just ask me about it?"
"Because you keep all the ships locked up when they get here. I need to be able to get to my planet. Which means, I need access to my ship."
Blip nodded. "The chains are the Graylash's doing. I don't mind what you're doing as long as it stays quiet. If it gets out, I'll have to put an end to it."
Minx nodded. "I was wondering if I could get your help. I need to hire about 8 earth users. But I need them to be discreet. I don't want this getting out."
Blip chimed in, "neither do I."
Minx nodded and continued, "The task is actually dangerous, so I'll be bringing my whole team with me from now on. Midas was working by himself and got attacked. The fight was won but he was injured. I was wondering if I could borrow Sam or Nate or maybe both for this next trip. I would like Sam to advise me a small bit. The beasts in the caverns should be advanced or lower but Quinn fought a king-tier down there."
"If the workers are working, I need to make sure the security team is strong enough to handle what's going on. I spent my time building the shelter and will continue to do so. I have housing though the workers will need to share a house for now. I'm willing to pay 50 credits per day per worker."
"Since my faction is not set up yet, I'll need to give you the money and have you pay them. You can choose to give them the whole 50 or take some as a fee and pay them what you think is fair. I'll need your help in worker selection as well since I don't know who is an earth user, much less trust worthy."
"In addition, and I've already started this, if your faction has goods we need, I prefer to buy them here and bring them with us. I forgot about blankets before leaving last time so I plan to buy a whole bunch as well as a whole bunch of prepared foods. It saves me some time on cooking and adds variety to our diet. Not to mention, those caramelized carrots are to die for." She smiled.
Sam asked, "Won't your team be split between protecting you and the workers in the tunnel?"
Minx shook her head. "I have Caser and Shalt will be with me from now on. That's plenty on the surface. The danger is below."
"Understand this is going to take a while. The caverns are very open. We have these beasts that eat anything when it rains whether it can digest it or not. Beasts are then dropped below. It's a very long drop but sometimes they survive. Over time, these beasts that have survived appear to have evolved into something else or they simply have always been and just don't come to the surface. Much has to be learned on this topic. The settlements that were there didn't explore down there. The planet is not even fully explored."
"What the earth users will be doing, specifically, is closing off the caverns in a way that the emergency shelter I plan to build will be Protected. I don't want any beasts that my be down there having access to my new settlement. This is about safeguarding life."
Blip then asked, "Do you have a teleporter yet?"
"Yes, but it's not set up yet. Also, due to the nature of the planet, I can't just allow anyone access. My teleporter needs to be linked to my faction system which is not even up yet. I will be able to access it but no one else until my system is set up. To do that, I need to be ready to transfer myself over to my faction and I don't feel I'm done here yet. As I said, I want B-rank before moving but I can split my time and get everything ready."
"I also need to build a hanger to park my ship in with docking stations for visiting ships. I have the money, just need the people. I do have two ships so we can bring an additional 15 people in but I don't have room to house 15 more people yet."
Blip nodded, "Once you have the housing, let me know and we will help with the manpower. If you're paying that much, I know people will help and keep quiet about it as is needed here. And I do thank you for wanting to hire people from here rather than from elsewhere. The people here could use the financial help. So could the faction. This alliance with the Graylash is not good for us."
Minx nodded, "being in civil war is very limiting on such things. Are there any other questions? I was thinking of going shopping."
Sam had one. "Minx, how much money have you spent so far getting set up?"
She shrugged, "With everything it's over 2 million credits. I spent over 1 million just this last week, but I had to buy the market system for a faction and my faction system. The two-bedroom houses aren't bad. Essentially, I spent the amount I would get from my commercial payments on furniture and such for the new houses. Right now, I have the money coming in that I shouldn't get into the red. I still have over a million on my card. I have a feeling I'll need it."
Sam nodded. "Sounds like you have the assets to make this happen. I can go with you but I'm not speaking for Nate."
Nate got excited. "Are you kidding? I'm going! Of course, my work here will pile up but I will take care of it when we get back. Extra hands will make the work go faster."
Sam asked, "One more question. It sounded like you used "the other shelters" in past tense. What are you not telling us?"
Minx sighed. "The planet was changed from orange planet designation to red when we were there as students. The shelters that were there were abandoned when the designation changed. The correct term for that should be, the Bree, military and the other faction left. The civilians in the military shelter were abandoned there. It should be red based on the dangers there, but I'm not worried about the dangers. We will be fine. Any other questions?"
There were none.
Minx smiled, "thank you everyone. This will also make Quinn feel better when I update him this evening. He looked so relieved when he saw me in the morning meeting."
Minx giggled. "It's nice to be cared about but it's also frustrating to be treated like a princess."
She got up from her seat, "time to go shopping. If anyone asks you, I'm buying so much because I'm sending the items to the underprivileged."
She giggled like a schoolgirl as she walked out of the office with Shalt and Caser in tow. She felt like she was finally accomplishing a small bit toward her goals. Exploring this planet became a very important goal to her. She'd be able to do it soon.
They stopped by the apartment and got an empty trunk. They went to the market and visited a whole bunch of stalls, every single one that sold clothing made by the seamstresses in the shelter. They brought the full one back then did the same thing with blankets. Minx had trouble saying no and she bought way more than would fit in the trunk.
They next went out for rugs because hard floors were not fun. She bought almost the entire stock of both stalls. Minx gave the shopkeepers a tip for being so nice and helpful in helping them bring the rugs back to the apartment.
They got something to eat in the travelers hall and they waited for the team to return. She wanted to see if the advanced tier they got while on her planet would count. It did. When Midas came back, he was shocked at how full the apartment was. Some of those rugs were quite big. All would fit in the cargo bay.
The team in her absence was getting single-digit crystals each day. The spawn rate on the advanced tier seemed to be longer than the intermediate tier so there were not as many to kill. Minx felt a little bad but she now wondered if they needed to do a bit of hunting on her planet or if she was just being greedy. Either way, she was looking forward to blowing off some steam on beasts tomorrow. Dinner with friends and it was off to sleep, dreaming of that next rank and a beautiful shelter.