The coffee shop that Sill, the Black Market store clerk, found for them was a luxurious and quiet place, far nicer than Max had expected from the lower levels of a production megacity. That likely meant that they were in the tourist areas, where visitors were brought to see the "Real Sights" of the planet, but all Max could see and sense nearby were locals.
He looked around in appreciation, and Nala chuckled. "Think of this more like a high-class red-light district. Nobody comes here during the daytime. Once it gets evening up above, the lights here will be dimmed and the shops will really start doing business.
About this time of day, everyone is just waking up and getting things ready, most of the shops aren't even open here unless they cater to the workers."
Max laughed. "So they really do think that you struck it big if I'm still here in the morning. Hopefully, the coffee is good."
Sill beamed with pride. "I will have you know that my family has it imported directly from the source. It's one of only six coffee shops on the whole planet, and I can personally guarantee the freshness. Innu visitors go insane for it, I'm told, but it's some other alien species that grows it."
Now it was Nico's turn to chuckle in amusement. "Coffee is native to the human worlds. We, as in our Terminus Trading Company, are the ones who introduced it to the Innu, and sold them licenses to replicate their own on a limited number of ships. It's quite possible that the coffee here actually comes from us, but through a relay from one of our Black Market suppliers."
Sill froze in her seat and stared back and forth between the two humans.
"Seriously? You both work for the Reavers? That is so cool." She whispered.
Nico shook her head and smiled. "You're not quite there. You see, we don't work for the Reavers, we ARE the Reavers. That is Commander Keres Max, and I am Commander Nico Tarith of the Terminus Trading Company. Terminus, the Colony Ship after which we named the Reaver Company, is in orbit over the planet right now, while our guests vacation on this world."
"You've got to be kidding me." Sill gasped.
Nico brought up the Alliance identification hologram from her watch, which showed her to be a foreign Emissary, along with her name and affiliation. Max thought that the young woman was going to have a heart attack, but she managed to get it together when a finely dressed server brought them their drinks.
"Sir and madams, your beverages. I can assure you that these are the finest of roasts sourced by our in house barista, directly from the importing agents, ensuring that you will enjoy the freshest blend of coffee available anywhere on the planet." The server assured them.
"Thank you very much. I am certain that such a fine establishment will do justice to a good cup of coffee." Max replied with a smile that made the server blush.
"It's completely unfair how good-looking humans are. They don't even look much like us, but somehow, everyone is just weak to them." Nala muttered under her breath.
Nico wrapped a consoling arm around their guide for the day. "Count yourself lucky. Most species think that it's absolutely terrifying when humans smile at them. So, even if the humans try to be friendly, they only frighten people even more. It's an odd sensation to be able to freely interact without others having to hide their fear and put on a fake smile."
Sill could see how this species would be considered terrifying, but she realized that she might have been biased when they contemplated whether to pretend to be tourists or to take on the planetary police with body armour and Plasma Cannons.
Nico smiled as she sipped the coffee. "Yep, this is ours. It's got the replicator signature from Absolution."
Max nodded. "The taste told me right away that it wasn't a counterfeit. There are plenty of planets that are trying to brew a tea with the same flavour since they don't want to pay the licensing fees to get real coffee."
Sill was beaming in pride as the few other patrons heard the human verify that the product here was genuine. They were all workers in the area, but it would help their reputation and would encourage them to bring wealthy guests here if they could be guaranteed that the product wouldn't be called out as a counterfeit.
They had the bags of coffee beans in the back to verify, but most of the guests wouldn't know what they were actually supposed to smell or taste like anyhow, they would have just heard about them from Innu podcasts.
"How about this, we will give you a certificate of origin for the bags that you have in the back, and you can put it up behind the bar to verify that as of today, your coffee was verified by us? That should go a long way to help your legitimacy as more than a well decorated shop." Max offered.
"You can do that?" Sill and Nala asked in unison.
"Of course we can, we're the ones who make and sell it in the first place. If we had come in here, and it had been some knockoff product they were selling, this conversation would have gone very differently." Nico laughed, and Sill was forced to remember that the small woman had a Plasma Cannon hidden away.
"In that case, let me call on my Uncle and he will welcome you properly. This shop is run by him." Sill announced in a very formal tone, and took out her phone to make a call.
"There's no need for that, he's in the back room right now, taking calls about the chaos in the market." Max informed her, and pointed to the back of the coffee shop.
"Again, how do you do that? But if he's here, that makes things much easier. I will be right back."
