My breath caught. “Yes! I mean, yes sir! Of course. Um, I guess I should ask what a cabin girl gets paid?”
“Ah, I’m afraid there may be a bit of subterfuge in the details here. I think you’ve demonstrated that your abilities go considerably beyond general unskilled labor. But I suspect you would prefer to avoid having too many oddities in your records?”
“Um, yes sir. I think standing out too much would be a bad idea.”
“Well, then. Officially your job title will be cabin girl, at a pay rate of six hundred credits per month. Normally this would be a training position, so of course the pay is fairly minimal until you finish your certifications. Unofficially, however, your duties will include those of a troubleshooter.”
I could have looked it up, but I could tell he wanted to explain it himself. “What does a troubleshooter do, sir?”
“She keeps an eye out for trouble, Alice. And when she finds some, she shoots it.”
I grinned. “I’m pretty good at that, sir.”
“Indeed. Now, the pay scale for security professionals would normally run from three to six thousand credits per month, plus a share of any extraordinary windfalls the ship might receive. In your case we can contrive to keep the additional compensation off of your record…”
I found myself slowly relaxing as he went on, carefully explaining about Merchant Association rules and the loopholes in the system. He really didn’t care where I came from, or who had made me. He was going to help me. All I had to do was play along, and in a couple of years I’d have an exemplary record as a perfectly normal spacer. He was even setting things up so I’d get a cut of the gold, and the giant fees the Masu-kai were paying him for this job. A small cut, but even a tiny fraction of that giant vault full of gold would be a lot of money.
For the first time in my life, I had someone I could trust looking out for me. I had friends who accepted me, and a place where I fit in. I had a chance to learn whatever I wanted to, and time to think about what to do with my life.
I had a home. I resolved to enjoy it, for as long as I could make it last.