Renegade on Kara: The Great Basin, Chapter 6, Taking a Job

As more time passes and he is exposed to more non-humans, and more lies, Roger begins to question more of his beliefs.

chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…7

The non-humans parted before him, making it easy to pass through the crowded street. But Roger began growing alarmed. These creatures gave him far more room than they gave each other.

Had he done something wrong already?

Then a human passed, heading in the opposite direction. He also had that same gap around him.

Another man approached, a rather large barrel over his shoulder.

That load gave Roger the clue he needed. Humans evolved in higher gravity than all of the races here in the market. Then mankind had used genetic engineering to improve on that. The three non-human races present gave humans extra space, just as they would any large, powerful beast of burden.

Yet that was in its way a problem, as watching that man carrying his barrel showed. He could and did ignore the non-humans in his way, forcing them to move and adjust to what he wanted to do. In other circumstances, and if humans were more plentiful, that would cause a lot of resentment. Just watching it, he knew many of his books on the subject were wrong. The physical differences played a far bigger role than they were being credited for in the problems of the Confederation.

It was a mistake that both the AIs and the advanced professors should have caught. Papers written about this place made up much of the research material his father’s team studied. If that was this inaccurate, did they have any real chance of arriving at a correct conclusion on why every society to reach Kara decays?

He put the idea aside and made his way further down the road.

Finally, he found a huge warehouse on one side with human men unloading large sacks from wagons. His mage sight showed each man had lifting spelled leather gloves.

He took off his backpack and pulled his combat gloves from the side pocket, and put them on. The style was far different from their smallish brown gloves, with his a deep polished black gauntlet style, reaching nearly to his elbows. He turned them a dirty brown, then camouflaged all the spells in them except the lifting one. The speed spell was hardest to hide, as it was the most powerful spell in the gloves. After that, hiding the other combat spells was easy.

Picking up his backpack, he made his way to the man directing the others.

“I need work,” he said, holding up his gauntleted hand.

“I’m Dock Supervisor. Check with the Monderin in the cage inside the door. He’s the manager. If he’ll hire you, I’ll put you to work.”

Roger smiled at the man, then stepped inside. He’d mostly gotten used to the massive creatures walking through that street market. He guessed he was now up to talking to one.

A human stood outside the ‘cage,’ exchanging papers through a slot with the big Monderin inside. When that man moved on, Roger stepped into his place.

“Chits,” the massive creature said without looking up, putting out his hand.

Roger had heard numerous recordings of them, yet the high squeaky voice was still a surprise.

“Looking for work. Need enough for a room and food.” He held up his gloved hand again.

The Monderin looked up from the ledger he was writing in. “Unloading pays one chit per sack. Thirty-two chits will get you a room upstairs for one of your human days. Eight chits gets you one pay voucher. Pay vouchers are good for thirty-six of your hours and are accepted by roughly half the merchants on the row, including most eateries. We are not responsible for making good on unused vouchers. The shift is nearly over, and the warehouse doors close then. You will have to work hard and fast to get enough for a room and food.”

Remembering to keep his teeth hidden, Roger smiled. “Then I better get to it.”

**

Roger only had twenty-eight chits when they started closing the warehouse doors and he went to the cage window. The Monderin gave him three vouchers for twenty-four of them.

“What do I do with these four?” he asked the large creature behind those bars.

A large man standing in line behind him said, “Just throw them away. They won’t accept them tomorrow, so they are no good once this exchange window closes. If you can’t do eight bags, then don’t pick up any near closing time.”

“Three vouchers won’t get me a place to sleep, or dinner.”

“You planning to be back tomorrow?” the man asked.

“If there is work enough,” Roger replied with caution.

“There will be, if you are here in nine hours. I’ll spot you the extra voucher and buy you a dinner if you pay me back tomorrow.”

Roger stuck out his hand. “Thanks. Name is Tim,” Roger told him using his middle name.

“Bean,” the man replied but instead of shaking Roger’s hand, he put a voucher in it. “Pay for your room and get your stuff stowed, then we’ll get dinner.”

Turning back to the Monderin in the cage, he said, “I would like that room I asked about.”