[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 118: First Employee

The next day, Ves stared at a glowing blue ball. He remembered that Lucky settled into his bed here. Overnight, he somehow turned into a dangerous-looking ball of energy. After stretching out his hand, he noted that the ball did not emit any kind of heat.

"Lucky should have warned me if he was up to something dangerous. I'd better leave this ball alone for now."

He remembered that he promised Lucky a million credits worth of minerals. Despite his apprehension at spending so much money, Ves still wanted to keep his promise. He went to his terminal and opened the MTA's internal market. After ordering a bunch of shiny-looking ores, he confirmed his order. He expected Lucky's present to arrive within the week.

He walked to his backyard and stared at the large containers that arrived in the morning. Ves summoned up his workshop's cargo bots and brought its contents to a secure storage room. He handled the boxes of Dortmund parts carefully.

As Ves did not plan to reconstruct the Dortmund immediately, he left the boxes unopened. Before he started work on reconstructing the industrial-scale 3D printer, he wanted to accumulate more skills. It would be foolish to ruin the reconstructed printer due to underestimating the difficulty involved in putting it back together.

"It's all about the skills." He said ruefully. "I'm never ready to do anything if I constantly chase after upgrades."

He couldn't help it. Reconstructing the Dortmund and updating the Marc Antony variant both required him to exert his utmost. Both were critical projects that Ves could not afford to screw up.

The extra office equipment he ordered yesterday arrived as well. Ves received the extra terminal, chair, drinks dispenser and other amenities and set them up in his workspace.

He reconfigured the workroom into an office space that complied with the local codes. He installed several privacy screens into basic cubicles that ensured a worker's privacy without isolating them completely.

Ves also activated the setting that prevented sounds from spreading. He had a tendency to talk to himself, and didn't want to bother Carlos with his ramblings.

Some of the work might not be entirely necessary at the moment. Ves wanted to prepare for the future.

"Speaking of expansion, I don't think I've thought up a proper name for my business yet. It's still registered as a sole proprietorship. That's fine when I'm just starting out, but now that I'm thinking of increasing my scale, I really should get around to registering a corporation."

A sole proprietorship basically meant that Ves and his business were one and the same. Any losses the business made reflected directly on him. This might be fine for small-time street corner stores, but for a company that dealt with goods worth millions of credits, it was wholly inadequate.

A limited liability corporation was a separate legal entity in the eyes of the Bright Republic and most other states. If his business somehow screwed up and incurred a loss of a billion credits, then Ves wouldn't be liable if it the company declared bankruptcy. Naturally, things weren't so simple, and Ves still had to deal with some of the consequences.

Registering a corporation was not a simple task at all. He had to set up a charter and enumerate everyone's rights.

"Ah, I'll take care of it later." Ves waved his hand, adding it to his increasingly growing to-do list. "First, I'll have to bring in Carlos to the fold."

His friend arrived at his doorstep at noon. Ves met him outside and hailed a high-speed aircar for them both. After boarding the vehicle, they were on their way to Orinoco, the planetary capital on the other side of the planet.