895 895 Surprise Guests
Max stopped the moment that he walked into his room and remembered that Mary Tarith had been in charge of the bookings. The room was incredible, a single bedroom suite, with soft white furniture everywhere, flowers in vases all over the room, comfortable robes hung by the shower door to change into as soon as they left the warm artificial sunshine outside, and finally, an enormous round bed, scattered with rose petals, and sporting soft red silk sheets under a thin white comforter.
There was no doubt about it. She had put him and Nico into the honeymoon suite.
“It looks like your mother isn’t going to be subtle about the desire for grandchildren anymore.” Max laughed as Nico walked into the room behind him.
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Max smirked. “As long as she doesn’t withhold the cake, I think that we can keep stringing her along. But the day that she starts sending biomechanical experts to you for some insane fertilization experiment, we might have to hold a meeting on the topic.”
“Like there is someone more skilled in the topic than I am. Don’t worry. I’ve already got answers prepared for her. But now that you tied Dad to the World Ship, she’s been able to bother him more, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more children on the way soon.
He might talk a big game, but I know that he’s actually a sucker for babies.”
Nico stripped as she talked and wandered into the shower to inspect the various scents that had been arranged for their use.
“What do you think? You can be coconut, and I can be citrus. Or do you want to be one of these pheromone-enhanced scents? They don’t work on me, but I bet that they will make the party WAY more fun.” She suggested.
“Coconut is fine. The party is going to be insane, to begin with, if they’ve assembled that many Alliance businesspeople in one spot, and you never know how a pheromone is going to affect an alien species. We wouldn’t want to cause an international incident.” Max joked.
Nico’s thoughts said that it might be more fun if they did, but it was also more paperwork, so she wasn’t certain that the cost-to-benefit ratio worked out in her favour.
Their outfits for the night had already been picked out for them and placed in the hanging closet by the shower. An elegant red dress for Nico that perfectly matched her cybernetic eyes, and a black suit for Max, with a shirt and kerchief that matched Nico’s dress.
“Well, that makes things much easier. Let’s get freshened up, and then we can have a short nap before the party.” Max suggested.
The short nap turned out to be a three-hour-long structural integrity test of the honeymoon suite’s custom bed, which left them just enough time to shower again and get dressed to go down to the meeting room where the main portion of the party would start.
Once that initial meet and greet was finished, they would move the birthday party outdoors so that everyone in the resort could join in on the festivities. This wasn’t the official party. That would be a more exclusive event held the next day on their actual birthday, involving family, friends and trusted subordinates. But it was the main event of the social calendar, and Max could see the transit pods headed this way were already packed two hours before the public portion of the party was set to begin.
“We will have to switch resorts every year so that the others don’t feel snubbed. They are going to get a huge amount of business at the bars and restaurants around here, and the beachfront tiki bar waitresses might need to be put on suicide watch.” Max whispered to Nico as they walked through the lobby.
“Don’t worry, Mother is on it, and they’ve brought in two hundred more staff to run drinks all over the beach and then a full cleanup crew for the morning to make sure everything is pristine again before the sun comes up and the tourist crowd wants to play in the water,” Nico whispered back.
The door to the event room was opened as they approached, and both Max and Nico were pulled into crushing hugs by the family members waiting at the door.
Nico by her mother, and Max by Dave and his little sisters, who had grown up so much since he had seen them last that he barely recognized them.
“Welcome home, Big Brother.” The girls cheered while the two youngest brothers waved at him from further back, where Molly was standing.
“It’s good to be home. How have you enjoyed your time here on Absolution? I wasn’t sure that I was going to see you today because you had school.” Max replied, then ducked down so he could hug them back properly.
“We got special treatment. The Admiral let us come along with her shuttle for the long weekend, but the girls have to go back on Monday for school.” Dave laughed while the girls pouted.
There were a lot of attractions on Terminus, but there wasn’t an entire ocean for them to explore or large forests.
“Everyone, pose for a picture, please. First by individual families, then as one large group. Mister Tarith, that means you too, no running away. It’s your wife’s orders.” A man with a fancy, Alliance-made, holographic camera system requested.
Nico laughed and pulled her dad in on one side, with her mother on the other, both dressed in light gray, which made the red of Nico’s dress seem even brighter.
Mary Tarith really had thought of everything, right down to how the family photo would turn out. Unfortunately, she hadn’t managed to bring the other children, as they were all busy in school, and this wasn’t a long weekend for anyone but the Terminus Trading Company.
Max could hear her making plans to get them all together for the next major holiday, though. She hadn’t managed to get a full family photo in years.