The Black

Three

THREE

The corridor in front of the Guild Offices were non-descript on Space Stations, it was wide, as most were, it was Yellow, as that was the Section of the Station, which would be normal as most were in those sections. The door had the sign, "Guild Representative", so did not look odd.

Guild Representatives in the fringes had it hard. Their job was to test all children for Guild Talent. In the fringes of human space not all governments or families wanted it done. So they tested all that they could, some wee missed, but this was a small amount compared to the entire area of Human Space. This did not translate into Federation Space, the Federation was the largest of the Nation States that were active at this point. But it controlled in one way or the other only about 80% of Human Space, and even less of Non-Human which also had the Guild.

The Guild Representatives out this way were the very young, or very old, someone who had need of the bonus' that were given for this work. However, this was not a normal Guild Office. Suddenly outside the door the man appeared. He was not dressed nicely, the clothing he had on was worn, not dirty, but clearly old and out of date, and wrinkled from his sitting in the Commander's chair for too long.

He took a deep breath, air would be different, he knew that. The smells of the local system trapped in the Station, and that of the many ships that came. It was very different from his ship, without a large crew or stopping at stations regularly. One could not tell he was not a tall man, not massively built, he was of upper middle height, he has muscles, not anything out of the ordinary. He had the balding hair, that was odd, and he wore the glasses, which was beyond odd. He turned to his left and was at the door to the Guild, it had a red light on it, this meant that it had been locked from the inside. The man knew that this was normal, he only said, "Waiting." The light went from red to green, and the door slid open. He walked into a waiting room that looked more like it was for a system official who was very important and wanted to show it. The rooms walls were done in wood, real wood, the floor had a fake grass carpet, but it felt better than grass if you took off your shoes, there were along the walls beside the door two dozen seats, all comfortable an covered in actual leather. Across the room was a desk, it was full wood, behind the desk was a young woman, or one that looked young. She looked about 20ish, blond hair, with very pale skin, all in fashion the man knew. She wore the little nothing that women wore for the High Ranking Federation members, he hair piled up on her head, revealed her neck and down father. She had been doing something, the man did not care, but she looked up in shock. The door had been locked, as it was at this time of day every day. It was early, but the Boss always had this time set aside for his personal entertainment. She started to talk, then sat down, the look of the man was enough.

The man walked straight to the door to the Boss's room, it opened, which it should not have done, and he entered, it shut behind him.

In the room, the Guild Official for the system sat. He had just sat in fact. The truly young lady who, was all but naked, was walking for the rear exit from the room. She clearly had just finished and the man was glad she had. The Official was at first upset that the Secretary would interrupt at this point. She knew what he was doing, he did not make it a secret with her. Instead he saw a somewhat shabby man walking in. He had not sign of rank or what he was there for. He tried to read him, and there was nothing. It was not a good feeling, he could not feel anything with him. He then stood up to order him out and was shoved back onto the chair and he knew it was by he force of this man. He suddenly was very scared.

The man then said, out loud, "Guild Member, 17,944,633 O-7, you are charged with Dereliction of Duty, knowingly allowing a non-Treaty System to gain Guild members, training said Guild Members, and confining a High Level Guild Talent. How do you plead?"