896 896 Big Business
The photos were a quick process, but the family photos were only the beginning of the formalities for the day. After they finished the photos, they began a meet and greet with Alliance dignitaries who had been doing business with the Terminus Trading Company or the Tarith Reavers and hadn’t had a chance to meet Max or Nico yet.
There were more than Max had suspected, and many of them on a much larger scale. To be fair, he didn’t pay much attention to the actual business side of things, as the Royalties and distribution were taken care of by various subordinates.
“This is Sector Governor Dudebro, current CEO of the Dudebro Planetary Resort Conglomerate. They have already purchased over a hundred Planetary scale Terraforming Arrays from us, and he wanted to come directly thank the one responsible for its development.” Mary Tarith explained.
Nico smiled at the four-armed Titan, a six-metre tall subspecies of Giants that they had first encountered on the Black Market station.
“It’s a pleasure to meet such a loyal customer. Tell me, have you had good customer reports from the newly developed world? The first few years are the most important to the customer referrals for a Terraforming Service.” Nico asked.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm
“Indeed we have. The arrays completed their work even faster than the estimated maximum time, which allowed us to get the staff situated well in advance of the official opening and even do a soft opening on many of the resorts to shake out the bugs in our expansion.
Originally we were like Terminus, a Colony Ship scale resort company, but with the financial backing of Archibald Finance Corporation, we managed to purchase the rights to a number of rural worlds and your new Terraforming Arrays. I admit, it was a gamble, but we have had over a billion tourists in the last year.”
Archibald Finance rang a bell with Max, and he wondered if it was related to the Black Market as well. They had been given the earliest leads on the Terraforming Arrays well before they were common knowledge in the Alliance, so it would make sense for them to be among the Terminus Trading Company’s best customers.
Nico was positively beaming with pride at the success of her development.
“That is excellent news. At that rate, you won’t even need an extension on your loans. Timely payment will also give you better rates on the next batch, should you choose to finance them through the same source.
If that isn’t possible, the Terminus Trading Company also offers financing with very reasonable rates.”
The Titan chuckled at Nico’s sales pitch. “Perhaps we will talk about that in a few years when this expansion is finished and stable. But for tonight, Happy Birthday to both yourself and Commander Max. It has been an honour to meet you.”
After he moved away, it was a constant stream of well-wishers interspersed with butlers bringing snacks and drinks.
That was a relief, as it gave Max a few seconds where he didn’t have to be talking or smiling for photos. But he eventually noticed that the focus of this event was mostly for the customers and friends of the Terminus Trading Company to network, as all major functions involving high-level businesspeople were.
The resort planets needed a lot of things, and the manufacturers were here, and the manufacturer’s suppliers were here, and so on, all over the room. But there was also a fair bit of brewing romance, possibly due to the copious consumption of Reaver Rum that the staff had carbonated like Champagne and served in wine glasses.
For some species, like humans, two of those were more than enough for a night. But for some species, that was way too much, and the staff had already discretely removed a few excessively intoxicated guests before they could embarrass their companies.
They were also down two Researchers, Max noticed. They weren’t with the group or with the main Research Team, so he sent a quick thought to find them.
They were upstairs in their room with an Innu businessman, so Max stopped searching. If he was good enough to distract them from research and Gravity Slides, he deserved to have an uninterrupted good night.
[Attention everyone, the outdoor portion of the event is now open. A portion of the private beach has been reserved for the use of hotel guests, while the remainder of the shoreline will be an open party area. All food and beverages in the resort area are compliments of the Terminus Trading Company until midnight Sunday night, so please feel free to enjoy your weekend.] Felicity announced all through the hotel and surrounding areas.
Max laughed at that announcement. Two hundred more serving staff for the tiki bar were not going to be anywhere near enough. Even if it was for every bar and fast food place on the shore, it wouldn’t be enough. There were hundreds of thousands of people in town and on the beach right now.
Their missing researchers came back down after the announcement, pretending that nothing had happened but wearing different outfits than they were earlier.
The main research team gathered them and their new friend right away and dragged them off to the Gravity Slides, hoping to get there before the lines got too long, while Max and Nico headed for the beach. The spot that Mary had chosen was a prime surfing spot, and the tide had just changed, creating a great swell with the artificial wind that blew through the level to keep the air properly circulating through the ship.
“Commanders, are you going to hang out on the beach for the day?” Someone asked as they passed.
“Later. First, we are going surfing. The swell is just right for us to go out at the cove.” Nico replied with a wink.
Max looked to the cove and noticed that the swell there was reaching three metres, with a nice curl when the waves broke on the shelf just offshore. It was definitely a good day to go surfing. He just had to hope that his coordination got him through it.