<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#00ff00">(Miren Baines post) </span><br/><br/>The ship landed and if Quinn was allowed to pay attention to the outside portal, she would have thought the massive space station floating within the natural protective barrier of a black hole cluster was an impressive structure for a clandestine and criminal operation.<br/><br/>The landing was smooth as was the debarking of the ship, with a clean up crew that had to board and retrieve the dead bodies that were stored away by medical droids as well as ship cleaners for the mess that was made. Dallas was dressed in a deep black pin stripe suit with a matching fedora, stepping by the main hatch way but made it his business to stop Quinn as she was a good few paces behind her.<br/><br/>" Well my bristled peach," he then commented, " Welcome to 'Transcendence' as Mr. Prentis would have us call it. Now I warn you that the market place and space hub is not for the fainthearted...there's some pretty bad players that arrive. There are some even wanted for genocidal crimes against their governments to pirates, outer galaxy slave traders,big intergalactic corporations and even warlords. ," he explained, " If you see something that turns your stomach I suggest to look away --- there's a lot of shit to get caught up in. Now that the warm and fuzzy introduction is done....how about we leave this tin can and you can meet the boss!'" As he opened the exit hatch and the world of ' Transcendence' unfolded before Quinn's eyes.<br/><br/>* * *<br/><br/>The inside certainly looked massive. There were multiple levels of ship docks with some that were engineered to even cater to full size military battle ship cruisers. The larger ones had pirate ships docked within them as Quinn would probably recall some of their coat-of-arms from her terrorist and international crime syndicate courses. There were crews walking and loitering about as a steel container was hoisted down onto the tarmac where the faces of frightened women could be seen through the viewing window. Quinn would not know it at the time but they were part of a passenger vessel that was captured and then had the males put to death, leaving the women to be sent to the reconfiguration pens. When Dallas told her about a market, he wasn't kidding in the least as Quinn would also notice a large floating platform with individuals both male and female of many races suspended in stasis pods with a bid war going on from the crowd gathered around it. The pods had 3D demonstrations and a personal video explaining who was inside the pod and what their talents and expertise was in graphic detail. There were several of these auction platforms with an entire system of vendors and support staff present to finalize sales and make deals. All along the space-port were bars, brothels, various food vendors, clubs, and ' love' hotels, high society places to stay that no doubt served as 'breaking in' rest points for newly purchased people and other humanoids.<br/><br/>The security apparatus was also intense with a large presence of both droids and cybernetic humans not really watching for the dealings or the crime, but keeping the collected barbaric element from attempting more ambitious ideas. The more upper class crime was done above the ground levels as Quinn would later note arms dealing, government operative dealings, and what would probably shock her even more were elements of her own side also partaking in the debauchry and illegal transactions.<br/><br/>There was one unnerving scene after the other as she followed Dallas who was whistling an old classic Jazz song while purposely taking his time and ' window shop' or that is what he said with a perverted wink of his left eye.<br/><br/>....A group of pirates had gotten a hold of an agency transport as Quinn saw the head operator have his left eye burnt out by a glowing metal piece of construction rebarb from a one eyed Pirate who was being chanted to by the name of " Jacks". There were two other female agents who were stripped of their uniforms and left in only their issued sports undergarments. The one whose name tag was Walters, had long blonde hair and was being roughly pressed against a metal support pole while a female pirate began to shave her head and laughed about it. The other agent had already received the rough treatment as small patches of her brown hair was all that was left, still fighting off the attempt from a male pirate to force her to perform fallacio before she was instantly executed with a random gun shot to the head...<br/><br/>.... in another section of the market some women and men were suspended in the air via their wrists being chained upon a yard arm while a sign was posted for individuals to pay for practicing how to flog. The deep red lashes seen upon their bodies and their unheard pleadings became drowned out by the lashings and cheering...<br/><br/>... an impromptu fight club was being held with males being thrown shirtless in a ring and forced to fight with weapons that were randomly thrown. There were a pile of dead competitors already with a cage filled with onlookers, probably their wives or someone that knew them personally wringing their hands upon the bars and screaming...<br/><br/>... finally an obese off world trader who had two females chained up around his fat pudgy feet. They were zombified within their faces as they were snagged and told to follow orders like pets. The fat man had a metal eye patch and smelled like a badly kept barn, and laughed in a perverted manner as Quinn and Dallas passes by....<br/><br/>It was an incredible orgy of mankind's worst and the only thing that saved Quinn from being attacked and assaulted was the insignia on her issued jacket with Gabriel Prentiss's insignia on it --- and that she was in the company of Dallas. Oh the irony. The long trek through decadence and criminality finally was coming to an end when they reached a barricaded area with high walls and gun turret emplacements. To get to where Prentiss was located, one had to get through the compound and check point before being allowed access to the main sky deck comprised of a large freight lift operated by low impulse engines. The ride was a few minutes into the upper levels of the station where you had to then pass a long sky-walk before getting access into ' Transcendence'.<br/><br/>To an observer this was all calculated and measured. If you had been taken into custody by Prentiss, the one thing that probably kept most in line was the threat of being released into the bottom level market savagery. If you attempted some law enforcement intervention, there were so many layers of highly wanted criminal operations and wanted individuals that it became a natural pay-off. If you were an organized crime element trying to get in, you would need a private army for the thousands of small gangs, pirate bands, and low level criminals that would get in the way.<br/><br/>Dallas turned and motioned for Quinn to take the final steps.<br/><br/>" Now that you seen the lovey neighbors of the Market...," he said," let's get back to the finer things in life. I hope you didn't get too worked up looking at the scenery or I'll have to call you the soggy bristles. ," as he stepped on the sky lift.