572 572 Goodbye and Good Riddance
“I am afraid that I have other business to attend to than the aquatic pastimes of an emerging species, so I will excuse myself and return back to my vessel.” The Volga envoy informed them in a dignified voice.
“But of course. I do hope that the next time we meet, we might come to an understanding, but such things cannot be rushed. In the grand scheme of things, even a few centuries is not such a long time if it leads to the outcome that is best for everyone involved.” Max agreed.
The colour guard was still stationed all down the hallway as Max escorted him back to the Alliance shuttle that had brought everyone here. They had clearly been informed of the situation, as they were waiting outside the doors of the shuttle with only the Volga flag hung for the envoy’s arrival, and he entered without any fanfare or even another word to Max.
Once the shuttle was back out of the bay, Max could finally breathe a sigh of relief that the one annoyance of the day was gone and focus on building up the relationship with their new allies. Just being able to purchase goods from the Alliance would be a huge change for humanity, which was still far behind them in many ways, but he didn’t want to stifle innovation, so the first few orders would be for Rae 5, to give to the researchers so that they could try to engineer something totally new out of them that the Humans could call their own.
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With that in mind, Max forwarded the Agreement to a supply house in Innu space, verifying that Humans were now allowed access to technology not restricted for military or police use, and ordered fifteen thousand copies of the learning headsets for the Academy, the crew and some for Uncle Lu and his team.
He wasn’t sure if it was just a programming issue, where they could potentially add the learning applications to their existing virtual reality technology, or if they would need major changes, but Uncle Lu could figure it out once he had a copy of his own.
[How would you like those delivered?] The retailer asked once the payment from their Alliance reserves was confirmed.
[Do you have a designated location for precision portals? Or should I send a Shuttle?] Max replied.
He had no idea that his response would create chaos among the Innu of the design department of that company. He only wanted to get his goods, but the thought of opening a small intergalactic portal, then sending a precision portal through it to pick up goods was a totally alien concept to them and not compatible with the way that their transport devices operated.
As such, they believed, somewhat correctly, that humans could precision portal across Galaxies with only a few minutes’ notice, and the thirst for knowledge was driving them into a frenzy of development and theoretical talks.
[A shuttle is fine. We have sufficient inventory at our orbital warehouse to fill your order right now, so you may arrive whenever you like.] The customer service representative responded, just as confused about the question but less eager to find the answer since she had no idea how the portals worked to begin with, only that they did. Her interests lay in the field of communications.
[Who is on duty? Send a shuttle to this location and pick up our order of fifteen thousand learning headsets. They should be preloaded with the full Innu course guide up through university, and we need them for basically everyone.] Max asked the pilot’s dispatch.
[First Battalion is on right now. I will have them send out a vessel right away. We will be ready to open the portal in thirty seconds.]
The warning of a portal opening was broadcast to all the vessels in the area and immediately responded to by the Volga vessel requesting to piggyback and use it to get to Alliance space. That wasn’t a problem, as they would be keeping it open until the shuttle returned with their goods, and it would both get the Volga out of their hair and save them the energy cost of getting most of the way home.
One of these days he would sell more human vessels to the Alliance, with the energy capacity to portal themselves around the Universe. Their line of Luxury Yachts could already do it, but they were still in the final stages of approval for public use in the Alliance and couldn’t be resold by their initial buyers, so very few actually had access to them yet, except the few customers who had purchased them directly from the Reavers, and no shipyard was approved to make them on their behalf.
The owners seemed very happy with them though, and Max had noticed a few came back to them during the student enrollment day, proving that they were functional enough that the owners had made them their primary vessel unless they were just showing off by bringing it for that specific occasion, which was quite possible as well.
[Are you about done in there? The Huntress wants a proper drinking partner, and I don’t count.] Nico asked as Max watched the portal open and a large cargo shuttle dip through, followed by the Volga ship.
[Just making sure our least favourite new friends have left the area. I will be back in just a few seconds. Where are you?]
[The tiki bars on level three. Bring a swimsuit, we’ve got the spray cranked to the max, and it’s basically raining in here. Surprisingly, the Valkia love it. They’re huge clean freaks, and they say it’s like a constant freshwater shower while they drink and relax.]
Max laughed at the thought of a whole group of dignitaries drinking in the shower together and stepped back out into the hall to dismiss the guards.
“That’s everyone who is leaving today. Good work everyone, enjoy your evening.”