The room we were ushered into was fairly large. It had a gigantic screen that took up a wall that was at least three meters tall and nine meters wide. It was massive. The room had three comfy couches and tablets in the center, and one chair with a console on one of the arms that looked portable.
The manager quickly took the chair, and Ura took one couch to her left, and I moved to the one on her right. In the corner of my eye, I could see the look in the woman's eye, and her look toward us as we separated. Her eyes narrowed only for the slightest moment before they returned to normal as we finished sitting. I took off my assault rifle, laid it on the couch beside me, and placed my shotgun on my lap while I used the helmet feature to remove the mask off my face, but otherwise stayed on so that she could see my facial expressions.
"Okay, so I just want to go over the process here at Manpower," Kelly said with a small smile, "We first go over what you are looking for. We need to know what professionals you are looking for, right correctly?" Kelly said with a smile, and we both nodded, "Perfect. So we also would like to know the main job, or generally what they are doing, so we can find the right fit. I am not looking for exact details. If you want them to do research, I don't need to know exactly what they will be researching, but I will need to know what science it is in. I am not going to go looking for an engineer to do something a botanist is supposed to be doing, right?"
"I can see that," I replied, making Kelly look at me, and she smiled.
"Perfect, so let's start by finding what you first find and what you are looking for."
"We need Captains and various crew to make deliveries," Ura said, making Kelly smile, "We will mostly need a Slipstream Engineer, which we may already have a couple, and a captain." Ura began, "That is for the ship crew. We could also use one medical personnel member to start a ship and a crew member to complement the bounty hunters. I am thinking one to three per ship." Ura said, "For shipment delivery and protection. We are making an effort to provide fast, emergency transportation that protects their cargo."
Kelly looked at us, surprised, "Really, that sounds incredibly useful. We could use man transportation here at Manpower. We are looking for a fast passenger liner to deliver people to jobs quickly for emergency purposes." Kelly said, looking very interested.
"At this time, we are doing cargo," Ura said, shooting her down, "but maybe in the future." Ura said, "We are using Slipstream drives for our Corvettes, which specialize in fast, safe transportation." Ura told her, "The chances of being pulled over by Pirates are low in transit. S,o unless we are caught entering the system, we can escape without issue from Pirates, as you know."
"I do know, when it comes to spacers, everyone knows slipstream drives are the fastest and safest. I hope the technology gets to work on the larger ships, although the Military is already working on ways to counter that tech," Kelly ended with a sigh.
"Yup, but those are our starting criteria of high importance." Ura finished, and Kelly set to work. She hummed for a moment happily, then looked at me while she was working, and her expression turned curious.
"If you don't mind me asking," Kelly said, "Why not bodyguards to protect your cargo instead of bounty hunters? They would be cheaper," Kelly explained her thoughts.
"Bounty hunters would be able to make more money while on the planet if there are other things to be doing," Ura said with a grin, "Not all the time do ships travel, and during that time, the security becomes worthless. On tier-one planets, they can stop and bounty hunt while the ship undergoes repairs and various other things. There are other considerations as well, but you get my point."
She pursed her lips, typed something into the console of her chair, and then smiled. "Okay, the first criteria is going through our system now. Is there anything else that you are looking to work with?"
"Yes," Ura said and looked at me.
"Of course there is. We would like to set up a headquarters, but I'm not quite sure what planet yet," I began. Kelly looked intrigued, and the smile on her face looked very calculating for a moment before it changed. It had me paying closer attention as I continued, "We are thinking of a long-term image here. We have plenty of ships, and there are only so many times we can come to Manpower for the highest-end employees, right?" I said with a grin, and Kelly nodded.
"Of course, I can understand wanting to train up your own people as well."
"So we want to also establish a research and development team for weapons and bounty hunting supplies. Also, there is a training ground for new Bounty hunters on a planet where they can be put through the crucible of combat before being put on ships." I finished, and she looked thoughtful with a large smile growing. I could see the money in her eyes.
"So research and development teams are expensive," she said slowly. I could see her wanting to steer us toward something, but I put up a hand, stopping here.
"I am sorry, I should clarify something." I began, and she stopped with a small frown. "I am hoping to find your desperate people who could not get into other companies, the ones like outside," I said, pointing toward reception, "So that we can give more favorable contracts to us for research and development. The ones we can throw out after their contract if they are useless, and the ones that love us and are useful will stay with us when we offer much better full-time, long-term employment."
The frown grew, and I could see her thinking. "So you want the bottom of the trash heap graduates that most companies snub."
"Yes."
The word hung in the air, and Kelly looked in thought.
Minutes rolled by, and I heard a ding from her panel, but Kelly did not move. I could tell now that she was either thinking or conjuring with someone somehow. It seemed to finish up, though, as I thought that, and she looked at me. "I do have people we want to offload. In fact, Manpower takes in everyone and tries to find them a job. We work around the sector and are the best in the sector, but we always have people we cannot offload. It happens," She said with a shrug, "In fact, taking these people out of our roster of people is doing us a huge favor. Even if you toss them aside later, you bolster how useful they are because now they have experience, and we can more easily find them other work after." She grinned, "So you would be doing us a favor."
"You're right," I said with a grin, leaning forward. So I was thinking something," I said, and her eyes narrowed as I thought I would shoot my shot. You help us with a bit of payroll, and we boost your numbers majorly," I said.
The woman looked surprised. "You're saying you want us to pay you to take them off our hands?" She asked.
"Of course I am," I said with a chuckle, "think about it like this," I said slowly, "You can start making guarantees that you can absolutely find them employment over a certain period of time. Something may be in their field, and we will sift through them. If they are useless, a waste of resources, we kick them out of their ass, make it part of the contract. But!" I paused, "If they are useful, we both win! You can even take them as success cases in the future to advertise how great your services are!"
My exclamations were bright and cheerful, and she frowned. "There is no way you have enough for all our trash cases," Kelly said.
"Not now," I said with a grin, "But what about in the future?" I finished.
The woman looked thoughtful, "Maybe, but not now; we need to see if you can even handle that much trash," Kelly said, "Seriously, you at least have to show that you can sift through the trash to find the good shit. We don't want to send you to a place that cannot stand on its own."
"That makes sense. We still need a weapons development research team that is more focused on engineered traps," I said bluntly, "that and drones."
"Perfect, that is a good start," Kelly said, starting to type things in and then turning to Ura." Now, we have a showing of captains with experience."
"I would love to see them," Ura replied.
"Okay, first, we have someone with twenty-five years of experience looking for a quiet job," Kelly began, and the stats for the person came up. It was a human with a white beard who clearly looked experienced in a military uniform of some type. I looked at the potential wage and scoffed as Ura held up her hand.
"That is too much," Ura said. That is something major shipping lines can look for. I am looking for someone who is not ready to take my ships into pirate fleets like this old man is."
"Okay, focusing," Kelly said, and the man disappeared from the screen. Suddenly, a Dog Man showed up on screen. Much younger and with a nice smile, "This is a pilot from the Federation forces, served five years with the Federation and has seen some combat; he has a dishonorable discharge for assault on a superior officer, but has solid commendations for piloting."
Ura looked much more intrigued, and so did I. "Is there a reason for the assault?" I asked.
"There is not. That is something you can ask in an interview if you wish," Kelly said. I looked at the profile, and the credentials looked solid.
"An Interview with this candidate is needed," Ura said. "Please put him on a list as we go through things. "
"Perfect, then let us continue," Kelly said, and we started to go through more and more names. Men and women of various species came across with solid profiles who had at least two years of piloting experience. One thing in common with them all was that they were military, which I thought was odd.
"I have to ask, why are all the choices so far from the military?" I asked, "No, Civilian pilots."
"That is because they are not very common and usually are from Major shipping companies, which," She smiled, "Pawn each other pilots off each other. All those pilots have to do is send a peep to the other transportation companies, and they are taken. It is part of the eternal warfare, and many civilian pilots are very, very good, or very dead. They are extremely uncommon for that reason."
I could not help but think there was more to this, and Ura turned to me. "It is because the military trains pilots and then throws them away after their service. They usually get snatched up quickly or just burn in no-job limbo. Once we are taken in and prove ourselves to be good, we don't have to worry about work because companies try to steal each other's pilots to learn their transportation routes to sell to the pirates so that they can hurt the other companies and get a larger customer share. Ninety percent of all pilots are military, and the last ten percent typically become the same as military pilots because of it. Civilian ones are really sought after for passenger liners, though. Honestly, it is weird that piloting college in the federation is extremely expensive for the wages they get afterward. So you may as well go to the military and learn there for free instead of leaving in debt. Yeah, there is usually a two to five-year service requirement. But you learn more of the things needed while piloting. It's the reason I joined the military." Ura finished, and Kelly nodded.
"That—" I paused, "is kind of stupid, but I guess I should shut up about it," I said, and the list went on until Ura had Kelly stop.
It was a woman with B-cup breasts and two large horns coming from her temples into the air, at least six inches long. Like the others, she was a military pilot with three years of experience. "Dishonorable discharge for unknown reasons, but has the Federation Star of Pilots?" Ura exclaimed.
"Yeah, but they took away her medal in the end for whatever she was doing," Kelly said, "She is actually one of the people I brought up since you said that you do not mind trash," Kelly sighed, "I have been trying to get this woman a job for three years now, and she might be a little rusty. But I think if you can get over the crimes, which you will have to ask in an interview to learn about, then she is a Slipstream Pilot for Corvette class ships, which did at one point have one of the highest levels of commendations for Piloting you can get in under ten years."
"Put her on the list. I think these two can be our first interviews," Ura said with a nod. I want to start with these two tomorrow, and if we don't find them a good fit, we can find more and bring them in for an interview. How about something for bounty hunters?" Ura said finally, and Kelly looked a little thrown off by the change so quickly.
"I thought you had more ships?" Kelly said.
"We do, but we will come back later for those," Ura said. "For now," she pointed at the screen, "If these two work, I can find more when we need them."
"Okay, moving on then."
"Nah," I said, cutting in, much to Kelly's surprise, as she looked at me. I saw the way Ura looked at me." Show me a couple of more. I think we should have a little extra, just in case. Let's find two more."
Ura tried hard not to smile, but that wannabe smile turned into a frown, and she turned to Kelly. "Show us more, then," Ura said.
So we looked through a dozen more, and one jumped out at me, and Kelly was explaining them. "This is a rookie pilot with a couple of commendations and a dishonorable discharge because you don't mind the trash, but with a couple of letters of recommendation from the military officers he was around. They basically all say that he was a great pilot." Kelly explained, and I looked at the young man in the picture. He was wearing a scroll but was one of the few humans that I had seen among pilots so far. It was odd that there were so few, but something about this guy hit me somewhere.
"This guy, I think, is a masochist," I said, "Move on, put him on the backup of the backup," I told her, and Kelly looked at me, surprised.
"Um, you know we do have a Human Resources policy," Kelly said.
"I never said I was going to do something. He just rings me as a Masochist, and I am going to call it out. In fact, with all the letters of recommendation, I would not be surprised that the reason for his dishonorable discharge, which you're showing us a lot of, by the way, is because he followed sadist orders and refused to give their master or Mistress away, which shows loyalty." I finished, and I pressed, "Move on." I finished, but the look on Kelly's face told me that I was absolutely correct.
"Y- Yeah, moving on, the next is a rare Cat-kin Pilot, but she is on a dishonorable discharge that I am allowed to say because she does not want to talk to people who care about it and waste her time. In fact, with some of the things that you are looking for, she might be someone you really want from this trash heap. I caution you, though, she has a temper." I paused at what she said, but Kelly continued, "This Cat-kin is a rare Air Force pilot from a military that still does starfighters." Ura gasped in surprise, and Kelly continued, "She was discharged because she put a grenade in the toilet of one of her officers, which she said was because, and I quote, "the fucking asshole sent me on one too many suicide missions," End quote." Kelly said, turning to look at me, "She does know how to fly a starship, though. She also has combat training and has a mark for heavy weapons on her resume. She has a medal for being injured in the line of duty and an ambusher's medal for ground warfare, although she says she cannot talk about the reason for that." Kelly then looked at us both slowly. "She has been looking for a job for quite a long time; you can probably get her for very cheap after housing her at this point. I am scared that this girl is going to go pirating if she stays unemployed for much longer. Sure as shit has the temperament for one."
"I like her; put her on the list of interviews, although you suck at selling her," I said with a grin thinking about everything. This girl was a perfect candidate for one of our smuggling vessels. With that heavy weapons combat, too, it was an asset for us. I could not believe what Kelly's dumpster diving was coming up with.
"You really don't mind the dishonorable discharge?" Ura asked with a frown.
"The others, it doesn't matter and," I shrugged, "Who cares," I continued making Kelly surprised, "Everyone does shit, and if we can get them on the cheap and they do good, I don't see why they would leave with what we are planning. So let's move on." I finished, and Ura nodded.
"Okay, let's continue," Ura said, and more and more profiles were up on the screen.
Some were vile, some were pirates who took a turn and were looking to integrate into society more, but Ura would not want those people, end of story. She could take the dishonorable discharge, but not be a pirate after what she went through.
"This is a Hextar," Kelly began, and Ura put up her hand.
"I have a bit of trauma with Hextars; next, please," Ura said, and Kelly nodded.
"Okay, next we have a rare High Elf boy that went to the federation and became a pilot, reached the rank of captain, and then got himself dishonorably discharged, yes, another one." Kelly took a deep breath, "He had combat experience and has high ratings in piloting, but that dishonorable discharge really gets to people, and his homeworld refused to let him back for the next hundred years, so he has a no-fly to any elven world at this point which might be a problem with the local elf worlds if you need to make deliveries." Kelly said, "He is also a Mage, although I am not sure of the specifics of his magic."
"I think I want to hear the reasons for his discharge for this one. He fits what we want in many ways, and a mage in our midst would not be a bad idea."
"Okay, that's the pilots, then," Ura said. "I want to move on to see some engineers just to see what dumpster diving with them looks like for slipstream operators."
"Agreed," I replied.
Kelly smiled, "Perfect, then moving on to that short list."
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Hey Everyone,
Week 8 of Life of a Dominant Futanari has been released on Amazon, I hope you will all go check it out if you want. I will also be bringing out some new short stories on Amazon in the coming weeks. If you want to read them before i put them on Amazon, you can by going to my Patreon.
I Thank you all for reading and I hope you all continue to enjoy my works.