469 469 Hectic Schedule
The portal was opened to welcome the delegations the moment that Terminus came to a halt in orbit around the planet where the meetings were taking place. The technology that they had wasn’t advanced enough to pull them aboard while the ship was traveling at faster-than-light speeds, so the negotiation teams had been waiting for multiple hours already, and they were eager to get checked into a room and settle down for a nap before the meetings started.
The Border Nations were also assembling, and they wouldn’t be ready for at least another day due to the traveling distance from one side of the Death Wind Territory to the other. That also meant that Max’s birthday party would take place before the negotiations began, or at least the start of it would.
Because Terminus was a Cruise Ship and was hosting dignitaries from multiple nations, a decision was made to extend the celebration to a whole week so that conflicting schedules wouldn’t interfere with the party.
One hour after they were in orbit, their location was confirmed by the first of the Alliance Jump Points in Innu space, and a portal was opened, delivering what Max took to be their equivalent of four busloads of tourists.
The Ship’s official itinerary said that they would get to watch a human negotiation between hostile nations, as well as celebrate the Commander’s birthday, and it had pulled in a huge number of guests for the week-long break.
They weren’t the only ones, though. A small vessel full of Shin arrived soon after, followed by two dozen private yachts from the Valkia and finally a shuttle from the Hunters, containing members of a Hunter team that they had yet to meet.
With everyone showing up at the same time, through multiple portals that the local forces had never seen before, the Border Nations were on high alert for an attack.
[Terminus to local defense. These vessels are not a threat. They are clients of our Cruise Ship service, here to experience the negotiations firsthand. Their vessels will remain in our dock until the meetings are over if they are not immediately departing the system.] Max informed them with the hope of calming down their panic.
[What nation are they representing? Are they also part of the Reavers Trade Group?] The Border Fleet Admiral asked.
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[I will have to report this to Central Command. Please Stand By.] The Admiral replied curtly.
[We’re here for a negotiation. We aren’t going anywhere.] Max sighed, then stepped away from the radio to make sure that their influx of guests was being handled efficiently.
The staff was running at full capacity, and there were some delays getting everyone checked in, but the hangars were efficiently docking all the ships as they arrived, and nobody was left exposed in space, so they weren’t doing too badly.
The decorations were already going up all over the ship, and the forest was being installed in the formerly unused portion of the ship, though the giant centerpiece tree was no more than a sapling at the moment, like most of the other plants.
The Shin were incredibly capable botanists, so Max had faith that they could do something about the bare ground in the forested areas, but growing that tree to thirty meters or more in height seemed like an impossible task, even for them.
The Valkia had taken the top floor where the Illithid had been housed during their visit, and they seemed to enjoy the ability to look down upon the rest of the people on the ship. Max suspected that their urge to control and the haughty nature were actually genetic traits of the species, as he hadn’t met any without them, but he would know for sure when he saw them up close again.
With the upgrades to his mind reading, it would be quite clear what everyone’s personality was like instead of having to cherry-pick who he wanted to listen to.
By his best estimate, they had taken in over five thousand guests in the past few hours, and the human delegations were beginning to look a bit overwhelmed with the influx of alien visitors and the barrage of questions about their technology and attire by the Innu guests.
[Nico, please save the negotiators. The Innu have found them, and they brought a lot of ceremonial weapons and devices with them to posture for the meetings.] Max informed his second in command.
[On it, boss. You will be needed at the main stage on the first floor in two hours. They will be expecting a short speech, and we will be holding the first celebration for your birthday there.] Nico replied as she ran through the ship, using a Tech Adept Harness for the Gravity Control to fly between floors.
She was being tailed by a number of young Innu, who hadn’t realized yet that the harness and its flexible arms weren’t part of Nico, but an accessory that she was wearing. They were quite excited to see what species she was, but she was moving too fast for them to catch up.
Max changed into Reaver attire suitable for a party, complete with a sidearm, and began making his way through the back passages toward the stage. If he went through the main corridors, he would never make it there on time.
He wasn’t alone in the cargo corridors. They had become the break place of choice for the staff, who had never worked this hard before, and the air filtration was struggling to keep up with the influx of smoke as the workers on break tried to regain some portion of their sanity before they went back to work.
“You’re all doing amazing. I know it’s the first real stress test for the crew, and we just got a lot of new employees, so don’t worry too much if things don’t feel perfect today. We’ve got a whole week at full capacity to adjust.” Max assured them.
“You say one week like that makes it better. I’m starting to envy the Princess of the Broken Blaster at this point.” One of the men laughed, referring to the bureaucrat’s daughter, who Max had reassigned after her arrival.
He would have to drop in and see how she was adjusting when he got a moment.