Chapter 22: 22. Shopping

"Almost everyone takes ecks," Piper explained as the three of us emerged from the money-changers, "But not everyone wants cash. Especially on a tech-world like Rolandan-2, most of the places that take cash are centred around the port and the shipyards. They cater to off-worlders and they charge accordingly. And the two-percent conversion fee is worth it when you'll be saving up to twenty-five percent by dealing with local shops on local terms."

I nodded slowly as I looked at the sleek grey plastic token I was clutching tightly in my hand.

She continued, "Those tokens will be good any time you visit this world, so obviously don't lose them. As you get familiar with our regular ports you'll get the hang of all this. That token's good here. Most other worlds in this sector will take cash, the mining colony prefers cash as does Ecclestone's World of course. As for my other regular stop... We'll talk about that some other time."

On the way here our captain gave me and Sarah each two bars, as an advance on our first pay. My mind was still reeling over that. She gave us the equivalent of twenty-five thousand credits, that was more than eighteen months salary for me in the Navy. As an advance. My actual first pay would probably be more than I'd earn if I spent a decade or two with the Navy.

Now the three of us were going to do some shopping. It was an activity I dreaded for most of my life, but now I was actually excited at the prospect.

I had just shy of ten thousand ecks stored digitally in my little grey token, and Piper was going to take Sarah and I to a few places where we could get all the clothes we needed, and whatever other necessities we required. We'd also get something to eat while we were in the city.

Sarah asked, "Did we really need that much money though? I mean, how much do you expect us to spend here?"

Piper shrugged, "No idea, but this way if you do get the itch to buy something costly we don't have to run back to the ship to get more money. And if you get itchy about having so much cash tied up electronically, you can always get it converted back into coin. I'd suggest getting yourself a purse or something first though. That's the other reason the tokens are more convenient? Bars are a good way to carry high-denomination cash, but most places won't be happy if you try and pay a twenty-eck bill with a five-thousand-eck bar. And carrying that much coin is bulky."

After a moment the captain added, "Also, I'm not going to pester either of you about going a little crazy if you do want to splurge? But I'll remind you just once, this is going to be a massive payday but this kind of jackpot is really rare. Most trips the pay's going to be a whole lot less."

"What would an average payday be like?" I asked as the three of us continued walking along a busy pedestrian-only avenue.

My ears and tail were attracting a fair number of stares, but I was already starting to get used to that. At least nobody made a scene or a fuss, I didn't have strangers trying to talk to me about them. Or worse, grabbing at my tail. Sarah seemed to be the only one I had to be careful of in that regard.

"About a thousand ecks," Piper replied. "In all my years with the Demeter, there's been good days and bad. I've seen dozens of days go by without a single coin come in. We're doing ok right now with customer I'm working for, but the Demeter's also spent a few years as a tramp freighter and that can be rough."

Sarah spoke up, "I've heard that term before. Tramp freighter? The way you say it makes me think there's a specific meaning to it?"

Our captain nodded, "A tramp is a ship that doesn't follow a fixed course or schedule. You fly to a port and hope to find cargo, then you go where the cargo's going. It's a trade-off, you're kind of free in not having schedules and no expectations for where you go next, but it can be stressful if you're low on funds. Not knowing whether you can afford fuel or food, and hoping to make it to a busy port where you'll have a better chance of picking up work... Takes a certain kind of mentality I guess."

"So where are we heading right now?" I asked. "I mean, you seem to know where we're going?"

"Like I said, clothes shopping." She gave me a smile. "There's a place I know that should work for both of you? Prices are good and they'll turn out a whole custom wardrobe for you if you like. You pick the style, material, colour, they scan in your size, then crank out whatever you want."

Sarah gave our captain a worried look, "A custom-tailored wardrobe sounds luxurious, and expensive. And will we even have time for that? We've only got just over two days before we have to lift off to make your next stop on time."

I was anxious as well, but for a completely different reason.

This would basically be the first chance I'd ever had to pick my own clothes, to come up with my own style. Growing up on my home-world I wore whatever my parents gave me. Then in the Navy, I wore whatever was issued to me. Since joining the Demeter's crew I wore what Piper gave me. For the first time in my life I'd get to wear something I picked out myself, and it was equal parts exciting and scary.

Meanwhile Piper laughed slightly as she replied to Sarah, "High-tech world, remember? You'll spend more time choosing your colours than they'll spend printing the clothes."

"Right," Sarah grinned. "Guess I've been in the Navy too long. On the other hand, I'm going to take that as a challenge. I might be cute but I'm still an engineer. Bet I can pick colours quicker than they can crank out an outfit."

That was the end of the banter for now as the three of us arrived.

It was the most modern clothing store I could imagine. There were a couple holograms in the front windows that shifted through different models and different styles and outfits. That was it as far as displays though. There weren't any clothes inside, no racks, nothing 'off the shelf'. No shelves even. There were two employees, each had a desk with a computer terminal, and a few thick books which contained dozens of fabric and colour samples.

In a corner was what looked like a single change-room, a door that led to some back room, and in the other corner was a slot in the wall with a tray beneath.

After some pleasantries and introductions, I found myself seated at one of the desks with a non-binary sales assistant named Atni, while Sarah was at the other desk talking to a young woman named Maia. And Piper just sort of stood off to one side leaning against the wall while she watched me and Sarah try and navigate a very unique clothes-shopping experience.

Atni was polite and patient, and when I explained I'd never done this sort of shopping before they walked me through it and put a lot of my anxieties to rest. They weren't even the least-bit bothered about my ears and tail, and assured me they could accommodate those and any other special requirements I might have.

I found out one of the holographic models was tied to their terminal, so in addition to seeing styles and selections on their screen I could also view them life-size on a model. And that 'change room' in the corner was actually a scanning booth.

We had to go in there, strip naked and get scanned, then we could dress and come back out. That would give them all our exact measurements and everything, and after that they could even have the holographic models show our selections on our own bodies if we wanted.

Sarah went first, then when she was done I did it as well. It was kind of a non-event, despite some of my concerns. Just disrobe, put the clothes in a drawer to one side, then stand still for fifteen seconds. Then dress and come back out.

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And to nobody's surprise, Sarah was indeed very quick to choose her colours and style and start ordering clothes. It took me quite a bit longer, and I felt a little overwhelmed at having so many choices that I might have gone a bit overboard.

We never got to see the machine that was actually creating the clothing but one at a time vacu-sealed packages would drop out of the slot in the wall and accumulate on the tray beneath.

Once our purchases started to pile up on the tray, Piper suggested "If you two want to change into a new outfit right now, go for it. We can have everything else delivered to the ship, while we continue shopping."

As usual Sarah went first, she used the scanning both as a change room. Her loose grey trousers were replaced with a pair of rather tight black pants that showed off her legs, hips, and behind. Her white t-shirt was swapped for a bright yellow short-sleeve blouse.

It was hard hard not to stare, as once again I found myself surprised by how our engineer seemed to have adapted to and accepted her new circumstances. Her outfit wasn't overly revealing, but unlike the utilitarian clothes Piper got us at the mining colony the clothes Sarah was wearing now were undeniably feminine and definitely drew attention to her curves.

I wasn't the only one staring, as I realized our captain was giving the engineer an appraising look as well.

Sarah blushed and started idly fidgeting with her long hair when she realized we were both looking at her.

Then it was my turn to get changed, and I was blushing before I even got started.

I was still blushing a couple minutes later when I emerged from the change-room slash scanning booth, but I also had a wide smile on my face.

My first outfit wasn't that special in the grand scheme of things, but I liked it. I wore a short sleeve blouse in what Atni referred to as 'rose taupe', over a pair of dark blue-grey leggings. Both the top and leggings were in neutral colours, which I felt made my hair ears and tail all seem a little brighter and more colourful.

My blush grew brighter as both Piper and Sarah looked me over, and from their expressions I could tell they both liked what they saw.

At that point all Sarah's clothes had been produced, while mine were still coming out of the printer. I had a feeling I'd ordered a lot more than she did, but that was fine. Atni gestured to the payment terminal on their desk, and I tapped my little grey token against it. My new wardrobe cost me just over twelve hundred ecks, but I was happy.

Apart from the new outfits Sarah and I were wearing, everything else including the clothes we were wearing earlier would be delivered by drone to our ship at the Freeborn Shipyard. Probably before the three of us got back there later today.

And with that adventure behind us, Piper took me and Sarah on to our next port of call - a place that specialized in custom footwear.

The experience there was a lot like at the clothes store, and after an hour both Sarah and I had a small assortment of perfectly-fitted custom shoes and boots. We both took the opportunity to switch from the generic slip-ons to some of our new purchases while we were there.

Sarah went with a pair of comfortable-looking casual shoes in white with pink accents, while I opted for a pair of black leather ankle-boots with a bit of a heel on them. I loved what they did to my legs, and they also raised me up slightly so I wasn't so short compared to my crew-mates.

The rest of our purchases were drone-delivered back to the ship as the three of us continued on to our next stop.

We probably visited a half dozen places through the afternoon, and by the end of it I'd spent almost four thousand ecks, but I was incredibly happy. Clothes, shoes, cute undergarments and sleepwear, accessories, toiletries, I basically went from nothing to having everything I could want or need.

It wasn't all cute and fun, Sarah and I both got some clothes that were more like Piper's 'business outfit'. I figured there was a reason Piper dressed like that and I'd want to have some appropriate attire as well. But the fun sexy stuff was for times like this, when we were on shore leave and I could enjoy myself.

The expedition ended at what turned out to be a fancy restaurant. The three of us were seated in a small private room, they had real human staff to wait on us rather than drones, and the food was incredible. I was positive it came from an auto-chef, but it had to be the fanciest most high-tech auto-chef ever, and loaded with the best digitally-printed meals money could buy.

Sarah obviously felt the same way, after a bite of her steak she commented "Damn. I didn't know auto-chefs could do food like this. Hey boss, how come you haven't upgraded the unit on the Demeter? We could eat like this every day!"

Piper smiled, "It's an expensive luxury. That kind of machine isn't cheap, and neither is the software. And we'd get bored of it if we ate like this every day. Cheaper to get bored of low-end bargain food, then this sort of meal is even more enjoyable when we have it."

She glanced at me and added, "Anyways, you don't want to put Amanda out of a job do you?"

I blushed as Sarah teased, "She could always fall back on that ship's mascot thing. But yeah, you make some good points boss. Still, it wouldn't hurt to stock up on some quality ingredients right?"

"That we can do," our captain agreed.

As the meal wrapped up, Piper commented to me "Tomorrow we'll see about getting your new e-suit modified. That won't be quite as quick and easy as getting new clothes printed, but it shouldn't take too long."

Finally the three of us hired a grav sled to take us all back to the ship so we could unpack our new purchases then get some rest.