Christopher Briggs stepped off of the shuttle and into the airlock of Trade Station Alpha. Its name came from the fact that it was the first space station built by humans for trade purposes. [i]My new home.[/i] he thought, [i]Too bad it's a piece felgrum.[/i] True, the station was massive, with a volume of almost a cubic kilometer, but with ships docking and undocking almost once a minute, the shear number of people kept most of it from being the pristine jewel of the solar system that the tourist adverts showed. The sunward top of the station, dubbed white sector, had a massive arboretum and flower garden, shopping centers, and all manor of goods and services. The next several layers, dubbed green sector, provided the foundation for the facade of perfection, recycling everything that was used, growing all of the food for the station, and providing most of the goods and services that the thousands of crew demanded. It was also home to the power systems, storing or utilizing the energy produce by the more a square kilometer of high-efficiency solar panels that surrounded the station. The layers below that were the Bazaar, a place where trade happened between the various worlds in the solar system and with other races. Below that, however, was the gray sector. Gray sector was where the salvage and refining took place. Chunks of asteroids and pieces of space debris would be hauled in and bid on. The winner would rent a smelter, if they didn't have one already, and would melt down the rock, hoping that it was worth what they had paid for it. The refined materials would usually work its way up to the bazaar, where it would be shipped to whoever was willing to pay the best rate for it. The rest would be put into storage, or would be sold to various businesses on the station to be made into any number of over-priced goods that the tourists just had to have. Gray sector was the lowest of the levels, in both the station's artificially created gravity well and in terms of its splendor. It was also where Christopher Briggs arrived, having booked passage on a salvage ship which brought fragments of a pirate ship in from a battle site near Earth. “Hey, you forgot something!” said one of the freighter's crew, then tossed a bag to him. [i]Don't want to forget that, thought Chris, It's pretty much all I have and I doubt I'll be able to replace it any time soon.[/i] “Thanks” he called, but the man was already going back to help unload the salvage. [i]Now, to find Julius and join his crew.[/i] He made his way up to the Bazzaar and started looking for docking bay 324, where his cousin's ship was supposed to be. While counting his way down the bays, he heard shouts coming from a local club. Well, you might as well call it that, as “drug den” didn't quite fit when virtually everything you could want could be legally purchased down here. A clearly intoxicated man came out of “Bacchus' Delight” and immediately started cursing at the passers-by. “Hey you, you spuz-sucking piece of felgrum, why are you looking at me? You wanna fight?” It took Christopher a few seconds to recognize the man that shouted at him. “Julius?” “Yeah, that's me, got a problemth with my name do you?” “It's me!” replied Christopher. “Yeah, of course you're you. Who else would you be?” “I'm Christopher.” Julius gave him a strange look, like he didn't understand. “Your cousin?” “Chris!” he said, when finally realized who he was talking to. “You came! Let me introduce someone to you!” he screamed something in a likely-slurred alien language, and a female Hibros walked out of the bar. Her species was mammalian, something that appeared to be between a cat and a dog, with a long nose, retractable claws, and whiskers. In fact, most carbon based sentient life (non-carbon based lifeforms rarely interacted with humans) fell into one of the classifications of life on earth, sometimes several. “Nice to meet you,” she said in heavily accented English, “My name is Griszma.” Her body language in a human could be interpreted as a romantic overture, but with an alien, you never knew until you had dealt with them for a while. “She's my first officer.” He wrapped his arm around her waste, pulling her closer. “And more." She purred. “So you two...?” Christopher left the question open, hoping that things didn't just get as weird as he thought they had. “First rule of being a Spacer little cuz, you're not really one of us until you've bedded an alien.” He patted Christoper on the arm. “Don't worry, I've been with a member of most of the species on this station. If you want, I'll introduce you to a few of my favorites.” Christopher reflexively took a step back. [i]What's gotten into him? He didn't used to be like this.[/i] “No, I think I'll stick with human women for now.” “Your loss.” Julius turned and walked towards his ship. “Come on, I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew.” ----------------------- You can be whatever species you want to be. I'll play as Christopher, with Julius being kind of an open character in case I want to move the story along with him.. It will be set on the station at first, but we can move it afterwards to Earth, where I'll introduce you to how screwed up everything is there. Species Overview sheet: Name: (self explanatory) Homeworld: (name, basic description) Similar non-intelligent lifeforms: (everyone evolves from something) Appearance: (description) Biological traits: (blowhole, claws, spit venom, etc.) Cultural traits: (Religion, customs, etc.) Specialization: (What niche does your species fulfill in the galaxy?) Tech: (Basic overview of you tech strengths and weaknesses) Character Sheet: Name: Age: Species: Appearance: Personality: Skills overview: Position on crew: Years on crew: Bio: [hider=Behold, the ship] [img=http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/a599/TheUnknowable/shipschematicTradestationalpha_zps51425980.png?t=1407971607] The K-3 Dwarf mining ship, Original concept schematic, 2087. Not shown are 16 lander legs for leveling ship and four 120mw mining lasers. [/hider]