Chapter 491 491 Popularity Matters
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Once all of the tourists were safely back aboard the ship, Max contacted the Mercenaries to make the payment for their work getting the Moon Base ready for the tour. It was a huge hit with everyone who went. Even the Shin enjoyed the tour of the exotic underground minerals, and they generally weren't fond of underground spaces.
[Thank you for your prompt payment, Terminus. Would you like to dock with our vessel or send a runabout to us with the product?] The Mercenary leader asked.
Normally Mercenaries would be much less accommodating about getting their payment, especially in payment after services rendered situations, but with the reputation of the Reavers, it was not a big concern. They knew that they would get paid sooner or later.
[Please proceed to Bay E7, and we will transfer your goods.] Max confirmed, leading them to the storage bay where the product was prepared for pickup.
The great advantage of a Colony Ship was that they could easily dock with other vessels, thanks to their immense bulk, keeping them stable enough that a small misjudgment wouldn't knock them off course and prevent successful latching of the docking rings.
The Mercenary vessel was an ancient and decrepit cruiser, barely serviceable anymore, with centuries of battle and debris damage left unrepaired. It wasn't hard to guess that the Stardusters were not a well off Mercenary Group and had only formed to bring in some sort of income when it was no longer viable to remain a self-contained colony due to the harsh conditions of the poorly terraformed planets in the Death Wind Territory.
Not for lack of trying, of course. The planets in the region were simply missing too many elements for the very limited terraforming technology of the time to successfully remake them to the preprogrammed standards.
That gave Max another great idea. They were working on more advanced Materials Printers technology, more in line with the state-of-the-art machines that research labs had available than the Military units that they had been basing all of their products on so far.
Nico had, predictably, pilfered the schematics when they went to the Alliance Museum, so they had something to work with. They just needed to find a way around the Alliance copyright laws or integrate the human technologies, including atom reorganization, which were far too unstable for general-purpose usage.
The advanced technology had existed for thousands of years already, but with little advancement, as perpetual war and the abundant supply of raw materials from asteroid fields made them more of a niche technology than a mainstream necessity.
It reminded Max of a story from ancient humanity's history in his past life. A great Empire had fallen back when humans were only on a single planet, and with it, the schools that had taught its technology to the world.
For the first generation, all was fine as those with the knowledge taught their apprentices. But as time passed, the knowledge became more precious, and those who had it hoarded it. One by one, they died out, still holding their secrets, in whole or part, and by the time the fourth generation was born, almost all of the advancements had been lost, throwing the species over a thousand years back in development until a more enlightened time came and the old ways were slowly rediscovered.
[Nico, what do you think about hanging out here for a while? I have an idea that I want to try.] Max asked.
[Sure, what's up, boss?]
[I want you and the design team to develop a whole new generation of Terraforming technology based on the atom-altering materials printers technologies. Find a way to make it pass Alliance standards, but I want a new toy before we leave here.
[Oh, that sounds fun. Are we going to start offering terraforming technology? I'm almost totally certain that that is going to be out of everyone's budget.] Nico replied.
[No, once it is ready, we are going to downscale it and start using it off-brand as a Materials Printer. I've been studying the various technologies that we have come across, and I think that starting from the most advanced forms of terraforming is going to be the key to making a breakthrough in Materials technology.
Well, either that or we will develop a new planet-killing weapon, but that's not the goal.]
Max could sense Nico's amusement even from halfway across the ship. [Yeah, not the goal. But if we happen to recombine their biomass into grass for the renovated world, that's totally cool, right?]
Max wasn't sure where Nico was going with this, since she was out of range of his ability to clearly sense her thoughts, but he was certain that it was nowhere good and involved inhabited worlds.
[Is this about the Klem again?] Max asked, just to be sure.
[Totally. If we build Replicator Technology into the device and then modify it to also recombine inorganic elements, I think we can do wonderful things for the Klem worlds.]
[And who might you think would be willing to live in a renovated Klem world?] Max asked.
[The Hunters? Probably some military outposts or something. I just want to recombine the Klem into something less bitey.]
[Fine. But only since your plan to expand the replicator technology is the best one that we have come across so far.]
With that, Max let Nico get to work, and started to focus on a new task, optimizing Cleansing Light. His skill was getting better with use, and Max could sense that a breakthrough was on the way if he could just find the inspiration to guide the System toward a new way to use the skill that it had given him.
That was one of the peculiarities of the System, it improved your strengths, so if he worked on trying to optimize Cleansing Light for long enough, it might decide that he was on to something and improve his own capabilities instead of simply referring him to Nico to make mechanical modifications like she was an extension of his own body or a tool in his kit.
Chapter 492 492 Cleansing Light Optimized
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Max sat in the cockpit of his Mecha and stared at the schematic in front of him. He had a replay of all of his previous battles in front of him and a log of every time that he had taken shield damage since nothing had yet managed to take down the might barrier around the Titan class Mecha.
Most of the incidents were due to him relying on the shield while he waded into melee combat, but some were clear limitations on the design.
For one, he could only move the body so fast, but against shielded enemies. He was also limited when they rotated their shield frequencies, preventing his Disruptors from punching straight through to the armor or to the pilots inside the armor.
Max was certain that there was something that could improve that issue, so he dug up all of the weapon data and brought up a maintenance simulation to make changes to the system without immediately activating them.
Over and over, Max tried to find a way around the problem, using Shattered Pride as a target since it was the second most individually powerful Mecha that he had ever personally seen.
Max had run the simulation over fifty times without any major gains when a thought came to him. The Disruptor didn't have to be just a Disruptor. The weapons emitted a particle beam of sorts that generated the radiation. What if he optimized the beam itself to do damage instead of relying on the primary function?
Max started the simulation again and activated [Optimize], which took far longer this time as the system tried to determine what he was going for with the changes he was making to the weapon parameters himself.
Max felt it take hold and waited as the System did the work for him, wondering what it could do with the data that they had available on such an obscure weapon as the stabilized Disruptors that Cleansing Light used. There literally weren't any more of them in the known universe, and the System needed data to work with.
The simulation flashed in front of his eyes thousands of times in a second before he got the mental notification.
[Optimization Complete]
Max ran it again to see for himself and got an incredible shock. The beam had been changed in a parasitic way. Any solid matter that it encountered would be left with a stabilized bit of its energy, like electricity, after a lightning strike.
When the beam hit the shield of Shattered Pride in the simulation, the whole shield absorbed the properties of the Disruptor, sending out a pulse of energy and radiation as it broke. That still left the inner layers the same as before, but it was better, and staggering the six Disruptors would let him blast right through in an instant.
Max set the simulation to a Fortress City on par with a planetary Captial of a major Star System and tried again, but this time from an orbital distance with the beams combined.
[Optimization Complete]
Max unleashed the blast and watched in horror as the entire upper layer of the city vaporized in front of his eyes, destroyed by the altered energy of their own shield.
Forget using multiple shots to take down a Fortress City's shielding. The data said that he had killed nearly a billion residents without breaking the shield, with the complete destruction of the city likely after the next blast.
That was definitely an Optimization worthy of the name.
Max mentally congratulated the System and looked at the rest of the issues with the performance standards he had found.
The defensive Lasers were working exactly as designed and hadn't let him down, but there was still a bit of lag in the thrusters. Not enough that it would be noticeable to most pilots, but Max wasn't most pilots.
[Mechanical Upgrades needed. Summon Technician?]
"No, can't we make this modification ourselves? Maybe just show me how to do it?" Max requested. he was certain that was what Nico's System had done at the start, just given her directions for mechanical upgrades.
The system was silent for a while, then gave Max an update.
[Unit Optimization 2] Active.
[Updated Schematics available]
Now he was in business. He could now see both what he could do with the optimization of existing parts and what he was likely to do with replacement parts that it recommended or that he tried to insert into the design software.
Max entered the proposed part into the design and then ran the simulation again. The thrusters activated three milliseconds faster and came up to full output nearly twice as fast, with just that one small change.
Max checked it for a while to see if there was a good reason not to use this new part, then found a note in the design logs relating to it. The previous part had been designed with a slower reaction rate to prevent catastrophic failure if the thruster was damaged.
That wasn't an issue. The new part could react at the previous speeds, giving the safety features time to activate during normal operation while allowing him to overclock it during intense battle if he should choose to.
One more minor annoyance down. Only a few more to go.
The next few that Max came across simply didn't have a solution. They were ones that Uncle Lu had come across during design, and the materials that could withstand the forces he wanted to apply to them simply didn't exist, not even in his System's catalog of structural alloys.
That was a shame, but the new weapons would be a huge improvement for the Mecha at the very least, and they could be achieved without physical modification of the Mecha itself.
[Finalize Proposed Weapon Modifications] Max instructed the System once he left the simulations and returned his mind to the physical cockpit.
[Optimization Complete. Test Fire now?]
No, definitely no firing the Orbital Lance inside the ship.
Perhaps he could improve the comfort of the cockpit a little bit. He hadn't really personalized Cleansing Light since he got her, and for some reason, it was feeling a little bland at the moment.
Max had the replicator make him a new photo for his lucky pocket on the console of Nico in the gown she wore to her birthday party, and then ordered a new set of bedding and updated the virtual view out of the artificial window.
That should be better once the bedding was in. But it wasn't the thought of Nico's outfit during the party that the photo was reminding him of.
Chapter 493 493 Downtime
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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Waiting at the moon base was no great loss to the residents of Terminus, and over the next few days, many of the guests chose to return to the moon base to explore the caves further or enjoy parts that they felt that they didn't spend enough time on the first time.
Now that it wasn't so crowded, they could see much more and truly take their time to enjoy, with the tour guides being quite relaxed on the schedule as long as they made it back to the ship on time.
The Mercenaries down on the planet were glad for the delay as well, as they ran into a few issues while integrating their power supply with the new replicators. They had adopted the planet's power supply from the alien vessel that they had recovered from the edge of deep space, and it ran at an extremely high frequency that wasn't compatible with most human technology.
Since they didn't have access to most human technology, it wasn't an issue in the past, but the design crew of Terminus did have to design and send them down a power transformer, along with a sample of the fast-growing algae that Terminus used for their own supplies.
Data indicated that they could grow it in one of the isolated reservoirs without too much risk of it spreading and continue to feed their population with minimal effort. What the team recommended was that they catch as many local fish as they could and stock the lake with them, as the fish would eat a portion of the algae, and they would provide most of the nutrients that were lacking in the natural water supply to keep the plant fertilized.
That seemed to be a win/win to the locals, as it was both food and food, now that they had the replicators, so they got the work underway the same day, while the Terminus Design team, accompanied by a number of Innu Guests who simply could not be chased away for any extended period of time, returned to the work of making a terraforming device that could alter atoms to provide missing elements for a planetary settlement.
The initial design was actually two machines working in tandem. One that altered an entire mass into a single element, and then a second one that combined a materials printer with their newest generation of live plant Replicators, which was mounted to a drone and would alter the surface of the planet one strip at a time, after the atmosphere was finished.
According to the Innu helpers, as well as the fans of the live stream, the idea was revolutionary, as they could precisely control the development of the world as it was terraformed instead of altering everything bit by bit until it was capable of sustaining life, and then seeding the entire world.
Max was glad that they liked it, but the most important part to him was the first device.
Once it was another generation along, it could be set to create alloys and other complex molecular structures, so they could start making new parts out of any raw material that they found, even the rocky leftovers after an asteroid was mined for its precious minerals.
The technology really was better suited to a World Ship, like the one that they had first met the Alliance members on, but the colony ship would suffice, even if it really had to devote a huge portion of its storage to the devices in order to successfully terraform a planet in a reasonable timeframe.
They could drop a single pair of drones off on a planet with full instructions and just come back every couple of centuries to see how they were doing, but if they wanted to get the timeframe down to under a decade, they would need roughly ten thousand pairs, as well as either a few large asteroids or a disposable small moon.
The fact that the Valkia lawyer had seen the videos of their work and didn't raise any objections, nor did any of the viewers, meant that they were on a unique path as far as the actual design went and that, finally, they could really start making some advancements without having to get their entire species out of the intergalactic version of the stone age first.
[How are the locals doing with the technology? Do they have the replicators fully online?] Max asked the bioengineering team who had been working with them to solve their crisis.
[Yes, sir. They have them all up and running on a full industrial scale, and the fish have been transferred to help keep the algae reservoir stocked. Within the month, they should be at sustainable production, but at the moment, they are able to provide full rations to the eight major cities from replicated materials.] The team leader responded.
[Excellent news. We will be moving out soon.]
Max searched the areas around them and found a star with no inhabited planets and no reports of Mercenary Bases hidden in it, thanks to the violent gravity shifts of its trinary star cluster.
[Admiral, once all hands are back aboard and accounted for, mark a sixty-minute delay and then set a course for the system marked on the map and find us an asteroid to pull into an empty cargo hold. I want to test out our new toys on the most worthless bit of rock that we can find.] Max informed the flight deck.
[On our way in four hours, Commander. A group just went to the base to run a tour ending in a romantic dinner under the light of the nebula.] The communications officer on duty informed him.
That wasn't a bad idea, and Max sent Nico an invitation to join him in one of the meeting rooms in the Cruise Ship area. The whole room could have a holographic projection placed upon it to look like anywhere that was in the programming, so a little dinner under the stars would be easy to achieve.
He just had to pick up some food on his way over.
Chapter 494 494 Dinner Under The Stars
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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By the time that Max had picked out dinner and drinks, including one that doubled as a Cyborg Nutrition Supplement, he could sense Nico coming from the Technician's bays with a sense of anticipation on her mind.
They had all been working nonstop for the last few days, too engrossed in their work to sleep, so he was sure that at least her mind needed a break, even if her body could keep going indefinitely. She did have a System Function that reduced the amount of sleep that she needed, but he wasn't sure how well it worked or even if it was still active after her conversion.
He suspected that it was since she always seemed to be awake except for the rare time that he would catch her sleeping beside him, but he would have to ask her about it later to verify.
When he finally saw her coming, Max was glad that he had taken a moment to put on something nice since Nico had changed from her coveralls into a slinky black dress in a strange satin pattern that looked somewhat like a leaf.
"You look lovely today, as always." He greeted her with a smile, stepping to the door to activate the auto opener so they could enter.
"Thank you, it's our newest development in sustainable living. The Silk Leaf Tree. We hybridized it from a handful of samples, and this dress is made of a single leaf, cut, and stitched into a gown that is not only durable but recyclable and edible.
"Edible clothing?" Max asked, startled out of his previous train of thought.
"Possibly for emergencies only. I mean, the thought is interesting, but do you really want to eat someone's dirty laundry?"
Max laughed and punched in the code to set the room to the starry night on a grassy hilltop that he had selected for their relaxed dinner and set out the blanket and picnic basket that he had chosen.
"Oh, I like. Excellent choice."
Nico settled in next to him as he opened up the basket, checking out the top layer with amusement.
"You really did go all out." Nico whistled as she saw the selection of fresh fruits that made up the top of the basket.
"Oh, it gets better. You can't call it a romantic dinner under the stars if there is no dinner." Max informed her, then began to unpack the basket, bringing out small sandwiches, sliced meats, cheeses, and then a selection of pie and cake squares, followed by the wine.
"Watch out, Commander. At this rate, they will make a proper noble of you yet. Very impressive, and you even properly matched the wine to the meal." Nico commended him, then moved in for a kiss.
Max was breathless by the time she pulled away to begin the meal, choosing to move to his lap and feed him random bits more often than she took anything herself, other than swigs of the Nutritional Supplement drink.
The bottle said that it was Spiced Rum flavored, and it was made by the Reavers, so Max was certain that was likely the correct label, but watching her drink it straight from the bottle gave the whole scene a slightly surreal feeling like they were Pirates or Outlaws putting on an act, not respectable Reavers relaxing between trade negotiations.
Come to think of it, Reavers weren't really respectable, and they themselves had probably killed a few too many people to call themselves innocents, so perhaps it wasn't an act at all.
The dinner and the flirting continued right up until the Admiral sounded the thirty-minute warning for departure, meaning that all of the guests had been back aboard the ship for half an hour already and had started to settle into their daily routines.
The spot that Max had chosen wasn't particularly close, even at Warp 5, the maximum speed that Terminus could maintain without using a portal to travel, so they would have some time in transit, but that was part of the joys of traveling via Cruise Ship.
The last thing that they wanted was someone dropping in to see what they were up to when they were in the middle of an experimental weapon or technology test. Not only would it be awkward, but it would also make things difficult for the Reavers as a whole, as whoever saw them would assume that the entire Reaver Nation would have access to whatever they had seen and were simply holding out on their allies.
Of course, they really were holding out, but the good stuff that the others were holding back was a full two development generations behind what they were testing. This reminded Max that they needed to send some of these goodies to the Moon Base on Rae 5 to be optimized for mass production and distribution.
Especially the augmentic armor, and the flat space technology, now that they had enough that every combat crew member had one.
The Reavers would love that particular bit of tech. Maybe not his mother-in-law, since she was the only one that had it at the moment, but the rest of the millions of Reavers would appreciate it.
"What can we send off to Uncle Lu when we arrive at the test location, and what do we still not have an upgrade for?" Max asked Nico as she rested with her head in his lap.
"We can send them the first generations suits and watches, as well as the upgraded Plasma Rifles that use the bioelectrical packs, the previous generation of replicators that we're replacing with the ones derived from the Terraforming device, and I think that's it for now. The rest of our gear is either at their standard or only one generation ahead, which means we're still testing it." Nico informed him, then pointed at a star.
"Look, I found our old house."
Max did a double take. She was right. That was Kepler Terminus that the screen had just panned past. Max had totally forgotten that they were watching a recorded video on the walls and not the scene from outside the ship. It was good to let these pleasant distractions take his mind off reality for a moment.
Chapter 495 495 Product Testing
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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From the moment that they arrived in the uninhabited star system, things aboard Terminus began to get busy again.
They had found a suitable asteroid in the outer reaches of the system, a type C asteroid made of a loose amalgam of silicate rocks and clay. The great advantage to these otherwise worthless rocks was that they often weren't really solid the way that a metallic or semi-metallic asteroid tended to be.
That saved them from having to break it up into little bits with specialty tools. The technicians had crumbled a large pile of gravel for the tests with a simple hammer and had a great amount of fun doing it.
Max made his way to the test lab to see what they were up to and observe the tests firsthand, equipping his armor in advance since it doubled as protective equipment for lab experiments.
When he arrived, Nico was standing in front, facing a huge number of Innu observers, likely every technician and tourist currently aboard the ship. They had multiple tripods set up for the live stream of their experiment, but the most interesting part was where they were working.
To make their experiments easier, they created a zero-gravity vacuum tube and filled it with the material for the printing test. That way, the creation in progress didn't need to support itself and could be built layer by layer, making things much easier on the terraforming device.
They had clearly come up with a plan since they were allowing an audience, and Nico raised her hand to silence the crowd, then signaled for one of the Tech Nomads to join her at the front.
"Welcome everyone to the first round of the Terminus Trading Company's newest terraforming device testing.
As you all know, we have been teasing this for days, and now it's ready for the very first Alpha stage test, live for your enjoyment.
For today's experiment, we will be recombining this clump of gravel from a type C asteroid into an inverse dome habitable shell moon. That was the basis for the majority of the original world ships, a technology that is still well beyond humans, but possibly not for much longer.
The rotation of the vessel created artificial gravity inside the dome, allowing the occupants to thrive there for extended periods of time while still leaving lower gravity areas for experiments and specialty manufacturing near the axis and core.
This will be no more than a scale model and proof of concept, but the goal is to create a self-sustaining biome inside the sphere powered by solar collectors on the outer shell."
Nico paused her introduction for all of the observers to cheer, and then the Tech Nomad began to scan and verify the contents of the materials, showing that they were nothing special, just the most common types of rock found in any asteroid field in the galaxy.
The gravity was disabled, and the tube was evacuated of trace gases from the ship's atmosphere, then the terraforming device got to work.
The thousand-kilo ball of rock was nothing compared to what the unit was designed for, and the whole process was completed in only a few seconds after the design schematics were input.
"The schematics for the dome shell station have been uploaded in the feed's substream, so we can now begin proving that we have successfully terraformed our test sample.
We have a unique volunteer here. Meet Lucy, our robotic test mouse for the day. It will send back a full report of interior conditions after entry."
Nico placed the robotic mouse next to an airlock on the dome, which allowed the mouse inside, and a new video and data feed appeared on the screens in the room.
Inside the fifty-meter-tall ball, there were a variety of grasses, a habitable atmosphere, water features that were currently floating above their designated location, and a small engineering bay running the length of the sphere that was explained to contain the stabilization devices as well as the thrusters.
It wasn't meant for travel, but as a space station, so the thrusters were minimal, but enough that it soon began to spin inside the chamber, and the mouse, as well as the floating water, were forced to the wall.
Gravity inside was very low, as expected for a small station at low-speed rotation, but it was enough to prove that the concept was valid.
As far as a space station went, it was no big accomplishment for any of the Alliance species, or really even for humanity, other than the fact that it had been technologically infeasible to actually create one before today, so the questions naturally turned to deep questions about the device that created it, and how it differed from the standard versions that anyone in the Alliance could obtain with enough credits or influence.
"The basic recombining process is completely different, as you see here. Also, if it is fed organic matter, it can directly recombine large molecules and complex compounds without breaking them down, providing the energy efficiency of one of our Replicators while creating organic compounds with the versatility of a full atomic recombination function." Nico explained while a stream of data flew over the screens and was sent along with the broadcast.
"An Alliance copyright legal team will now join us for verification of the copyright and intellectual property rights. These are not our employees. The generous folks at Nurba Gruber Terraforming sent them to us to ensure that our design team violated no Alliance patents."
That brought a few laughs from the audience. It was quite the way to view an undercover team of investigators that had been sent by your competition to try to trap you in a legal proceeding and bankrupt your new designs.
Fortunately, the Alliance had the technology to make it easy, and a certified patent verification device was placed out in the room by the Valkia and Giant duo, where it began to scan both the sphere and the terraforming device.
"Patents belonging to the Terminus Trading Company identified. No other patented physical substructures were identified. Beginning software analysis." The device reported to the audience.
This was the hardest part for any of them to pass. So much software had been written and patented over the years that trying to write code that was original enough not to be a direct ripoff of existing software was a nightmare.
For this reason, most companies would simply license software from a group of existing designers, then recombine it into their signature product, with a nominal fee paid. Nurba Gruber wasn't looking forward to having a new competitor in the field of Terraforming, though, and they would quickly buy up entire software companies to deny Terminus Trading Companies the licenses if necessary.
"Code segments unique to three patents belonging to the Terminus Trading Company identified. No other patented software identified." The device reported then began to broadcast a signal with its detailed analysis of seventeen million near matches, which were deemed not copyright violations by the testing device.
Chapter 496 496 Big Dreams
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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"It seems you have indeed come up with something new and exciting for the universe to enjoy. Our employers would greatly like to purchase this patent from you, as well as all related devices and their patents. At an above-market valuation, of course." The Giant lawyer informed Nico with a very professional smile.
"While I appreciate their good intentions, this is only the Alpha version. The Terminus Trading Company and its employees still intend to upgrade and improve the capabilities of the device, as well as develop an industrial-scale version for the mass production of space stations and World Ships in the future. Please do continue to enjoy our hospitality if your employers do choose to maintain constant observation." Nico replied.
That was news to Max. Were they going to make a version that could make a moon-sized vessel? That was flat-out insane.
As Max watched the show and the live stream came to a close, his watch began to go crazy with requests to open a portal to Terminus for an extended, indefinite vacation. That could only be the other Materials Printer, Replicator, and Terraforming device manufacturers sending their observers to the ship.
There was only one problem. They all wanted to send hundreds of people with requests for office and meeting room space, and there were thousands of requests. Terminus herself might have been intended to house hundreds of thousands, but they hadn't made the Cruise Ship area nearly that large.
The best he could do was agree to a meeting with a representative of each group tomorrow and advise them to arrange smaller groups due to limited space aboard the ship.
With the stream ended and the cameras put away, Max approached one of the Innu Technicians to see how it was going.
"What do the sales numbers look like for this schematic?" Max asked.
"Since it is a high-end Terraforming Device, and proprietary software, the Alliance IP category was pretty exorbitant. Buying the plans with permission for one manufacturing unit is five billion Alliance Credits. The expected wholesale price of the device is currently near five hundred billion credits, giving us the industry standard one percent of wholesale price design commission, and we have just received a contract for a thousand-unit license for the full-scale planetary terraforming device from Nurba Gruber's competitor, the Innu-Vation Terraforming Company, once that version is ready sometime later this month.
Since the license is individual, the terraforming devices in the Alliance are usually embedded into the planets that they modify, allowing ongoing regulation for the lifetime of the device. It's a small price to pay when you're working with the scale of a planetary population. Only a few hundred credits per first-generation resident. That doesn't even cover the taxes on their flight. It will revolutionize the entire segment." She told Max happily.
"Did we undercut the market that badly?" Max asked.
"Nurba Gruber does not directly sell their devices, but they charge fifty trillion for an M Class planetary terraforming." She replied with a smirk.
"Why do I feel like we are the bad guys here?" Max asked.
"Because you're not greedy expansionists looking to create intergenerational debt bondage within the colonies that you establish?" One of the observers asked.
"Yeah, that might be it. I am just glad that everything went smoothly. Even if nobody wants an obsolete relic of a world ship, the device that made it seems quite popular.
[Nico, we need to talk about market prices and the dangers of disrupting the market balance.] Max mentally informed her.
[Nah, I understand, and we will limit access if it becomes an issue. This way is just much more fun. Think of all the Terminus-branded planets and ships that will be floating around the universe for centuries to come.]
[You want our name on entire planets?]
[We offer credit terms to colonization groups looking to prepurchase a planetary scale development device, with the stipulation that the colony is identified as a Terminus Colony until the debt is paid in full.] She informed him.
[Since when?]
[Since about four minutes ago. Romantic, isn't it? Gifting people their dream planet with no down payment and no interest charged? Limited time offer only.]
Max's laughter drew a lot of concerned looks, but he tapped the side of his head, and the Innu understood that it was a mental conversation that he was reacting to.
"Well, if the show is over, we have a lot of work to do getting a full planetary scale design developed," Nico informed the guests, who finished up their questions for the Technicians and exchanged many hugs and handshakes before leaving.
"That was one hundred percent a lie." One of the Technicians pointed out.
"Of course it was, and once they think about it for a moment, they will realize that this design is intended to be modular, so the planetary scale version is actually just thousands of licenses for the module sold as a bundle. The lawyers are going to blow a blood vessel in rage when they realize it." Nico agreed.
"How long will it take to get a distribution-ready version ready?" Max asked the group.
"The Alpha version is functional and already on sale on for small-scale construction, but give us a few weeks to work out the small bugs and interface issues to get the linked versions ready. We will have to commandeer another cargo bay as well. I feel bad to be taking up so much of a Colony Ship for experiments, but on the bright side, just the presales from the last fifteen minutes could buy you a nice country somewhere."
"Our new generation ship engines are almost ready as well. The renovation stream is going incredibly well since funds are basically unlimited, and we have stockpiled a bunch of them to do weekly releases to keep stream traffic up."
"There is nothing worse in the world of technology than to be forgotten or overlooked." Max agreed.
"Now that everyone is gone and the bay is secured, with the monitoring devices that the lawyers left behind disabled, let me show you something cool," Nico informed Max.
"They left behind a tracking device in a room full of Innu? Did they think nobody would notice?" He asked.
"With all of the technology in the room, it would be practically impossible to notice one bit of nanotechnology, much less locate it, if Nico hadn't been tracking their every movement and signal. The device is currently broadcasting a prepared video of us explaining the technical details to you like a toddler." One of the technicians laughed.
"Alright, what do you have for me to see?" Max asked.
Chapter 497 497 Only Nico Would
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
Nico stepped toward the Terraforming device with a flourish, holding a data chip in her hand and a huge smile on her face.
With her input, the spherical mock space station was lowered to the ground and rolled to the side of the room, where the Technicians blocked it into another zero gravity chamber and started it spinning again as a display piece in the lab.
Then she inserted the data chip and brought up another set of schematics, pressing start before waving her hands to the side like a game show assistant doing a big prize reveal.
"Welcome to the one and only Miniature Terraforming Assistant, Tarith Nico edition. It comes with a full control panel, bipedal drive system, and state-of-the-art localized terraforming tools." She announced as the machine created a much smaller object inside the anti-gravity zone.
No matter how Max looked at it, that was a knockoff of the standard Kepler Pattern Line Mecha with a Plasma Cannon in its hands. Even when he looked at the diagnostic screen showing the data from the current build, he couldn't see anything but the Mecha components that he had once memorized in the Military Academy, but with the venerable fuel-powered drive system replaced with a bioelectrical energy pack series.
"That, my friend, is the greatest terraforming tool known to humanity, now available with a more environmentally friendly power source. Careful data analysis that I have conveniently made up on the spot shows that more cubic meters of soil have been reconfigured by units of similar design than any other single tool known to humanity. Not even the classic spade shovel has rearranged so many planets." Nico announced in her best showbiz voice, a digital mimicry of a famous idol.
"Tell me you didn't register a Line Mecha with a shovel as a Terraforming tool in the schematics."
Nico looked away and whistled, but her thoughts were clear. Line Mecha with shovels and tow-behind plows were totally part of the available options in the programming.
"Is this what a tractor looks like in your brain?" Max asked, looking at all the small modifications that she had made to the Mecha so that it only superficially resembled the Kepler Mecha that he was familiar with.
"Of course not. A tractor needs a utility hitch. This is the hostile environment pest control model, without the additional fittings, available to be added separately, but with the high-efficiency rodent removal package."
The Innu were in tears laughing at their exchange by this point, so Max relented.
"Alright, so if the sphere was fifty meters tall, then we can print even Super Heavy Mecha if we have enough raw material available in this Alpha version of the printer?" Max asked.
"Exactly correct. I still need to add the software after the printing, but the machine can do that automatically, and the energy packs and weapon capacitors are uncharged, so they will need a tremendous amount of energy to get ready for use after creation, but that's also within the realm of normal energy usage for a Mecha Battalion." Nico agreed.
"Under a minute to create a fully assembled Mecha, ready for programming and charging? That is beyond impressive. I can only imagine the horror of being an enemy that is facing a force with this level of tech. The assault forces would never end, and initial scans would show zero defensive forces in the area since they could be held as raw materials until needed." Max realized.
"I thought you would appreciate the subtleties of the new technology. Once we are ready to distribute this technology to our allies, anyone on a fully upgraded Reaver Standard ship will be capable of deploying as many Mecha as they can find pilots for. They could even deploy them as drones if they had the raw materials and energy to spare for the inevitable destruction since drones are so easy to trick."
"How many other vehicles are included in the planetary terraforming software that you sold to the Alliance buyers?" Max asked.
"Four vehicles and an assortment of tools. A passenger bus, a cargo transport, and a hovercycle, all with anti-gravity flight. Then there is a large tractor, like a real one, with four tracks. They didn't get any Mecha designs but a modified Line Mecha without armor or built-in weapons because we didn't want to cause any accusations of selling war implements.
The combination Replicator and Materials printer, residential version, is a licensed by creation downloadable content for the terraforming machine." One of the Innu Technicians informed him.
"Microtransactions embedded into a terraformed world? You lot truly have learned the dark side of humanity." Max sighed.
"Oh, no. That's standard procedure for Innu technologies. We have great reverence for innovators, so the payment for intellectual property is a standard part of most creation plans. The fact that we included public and private transport, plus a farm tractor with unlimited on-planet free-use licenses, will be a huge thing once the buyers discover them.
The Line Mecha derivative is a license-by-use item, but they are all branded as Terminus Trading Company products." She told him proudly.
Now Max was really sure they weren't the galactic good guys. They were official purveyors of software with mandatory microtransactions to unlock all of the top-tier content.
"Well, now that we've covered that, why did you need a full cargo bay again? If this is modular, then don't you only need to do virtual testing?" Max asked.
"On the contrary, we need intense practical testing to ensure there are no compatibility glitches when working with overlapping fields. They might be linked as one, but they are actually a lot of smaller units working together, and the planetary version includes mobility drones that we didn't use here, to expand the area to a planetary scale without excessive resource expenditure."
She showed Max the plan, which was to mount these units on hover drones and have them fly at one thousand meters over the surface in a grid pattern, remaking the planet to a depth of one hundred meters. For an M Class planet, one that would have gravity close to human standards, the whole process would take about a year with the full package.
Not the fastest, but fast enough to be impressive, even if it was mostly a surface remake and would require a basically compatible world beneath the terraforming. It included a nuclear fusion subsurface torpedo design as well, though, which could reheat a planetary core and begin molten core circulation if fired in the proper pattern and timing.
That would create a temperature-stable world out of most planetoids in the habitable zone, as well as many moons. The thought was surreal to Max. Large moons with their own atmosphere and molten core but low natural gravity due to their size. Was that what a private island looked like when you had an amount of wealth that was far beyond anything average humans considered comprehensible?
Now that he thought about it, the idea was actually pretty cool. But how would you top giving a moon as a gift? That was the endgame. If you ever messed up in the future, there was nothing you could do to top it.
No amount of flowers, cars, vacations, or other gifts would ever top the time that you gave them a terraformed moon as a gift, so buying your way out of trouble would no longer be a viable option for anyone who made that particular mistake.
"What will you be working on in the new bay? We do have one to assign you for your research, but I would like to know what you have planned. I am not actually a fan of surprises, despite the amount that Nico likes to spring them on me." Max explained.
The group all looked to Nico to answer, assuming that she had the extra sway to get them the toys that they desired. "We wanted to make some of the new high warp capable cutters that our nearby Mercenary Company customers had ordered, but for that, we will need an entire bay equipped with linked devices. The actual creation of a planetary terraforming array would take up over two-thirds of the cargo space aboard Terminus."
"Fine, I will assign the bay. I look forward to the good news that the array design is complete and tested, but right now, I have thousands of travel requests to sort through from company representatives that are concerned about the implications of our technology and the free distribution of our IP for licensing by their competitors."
Chapter 498 498 Good Little Worker Bees
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
Over the next week, Terminus kept in close contact with Rae 5 Command, testing the new technology while building a wide variety of devices from Replicators and Mecha to furniture and prefab building segments.
Over the course of their experiments, they did find a few software glitches that needed to be updated, but nothing that caused a catastrophic failure of the product only hung subroutines during the creation process.
They weren't alone in their work, though. After the original team from Nurba Gruber had been sent home for their attempts to bug the design lab, which had earned them an industrial espionage investigation from the Alliance Central Government, Terminus had come to an agreement to take one thousand new guests aboard from one hundred different interested parties, and allow them to sit in on the experiments with strict limitations prohibiting any form of recording or broadcasting the process.
Every time there was a minor software glitch, they would celebrate the failure of their new competitor, and every time the issue was fixed with a software patch a few minutes later, they would be crestfallen.
It was almost like watching a romantic comedy with a heavy side of drama.
With thousands of orders filled and transported to Rae 5 through a precision portal, another Terminus modification of the indoor portals that Alliance vessels used, they were finally beginning to catch up on the backlog of minor items that their new allies had ordered while the major factories and shipyards took care of the major product requests as fast as they could.
Max strode into the test lab with great confidence that day since he had a surprise for all of their unwanted but paying guests.
Nico and the Technicians had announced that the initial tests of the linked units were successful in creating multiple Mecha, and they were ready to show them off to the audience.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Alliance's major Terraforming Companies. Welcome again to our test bay, but today we have an extra special surprise for you. We will be moving to another bay further down the ship, where we have prepared another Terminus Trading Company Exclusive product for you to observe.
This will be the first official Alpha stage test, and the product is clearly not ready for market yet, but it would be remiss of me to send you away when we have such a momentous occasion for you to observe." Max informed the gathered corporate lawyers and engineers.
"Is it related to the patents that we have come here to inspect?" One of the engineers, an older Innu woman whose enthusiasm defied all concepts of time and aging, asked excitedly.
"In fact, it is. It is a custom prototype based on an array of units of identical patterns to the one that we are using here. Working in conjunction with one another, we hope that they will be able to completely replace the traditional factory assembly line." Max informed her, bringing the crowd to an uproar about worker rights and protections.
The Alliance did have the same level of technology in its factories, or much higher levels in any self-respecting system, but somehow that never stopped the activists that got upset about every single new technology that replaced a traditional worker.
"Fear not, this version of the device requires a large number of operators and supervisors to function at full efficiency. They are just removed from the line and placed in a safe environment, away from hazardous materials." Max informed them.
That was a flat-out lie. Nico alone would be doing the work while the other dozen technicians were actually analyzing the performance of the machine, but the observers didn't need to know that.
The explanation served its purpose, and the majority of the complaints faded away as they walked down the corridor toward the testing bay set up for the large-scale tests.
For a change, ship security only had to turn around one visitor who got "sidetracked" and wandered into the secure areas of the ship, an improvement from every day before that Max took as a sign of interest in today's tests.
It really was a pain keeping an eye on all of these people, but fortunately, they only sent a few hundred to the daily tests while the rest compiled data and wrote reports back in their rooms.
"Welcome to the test bay, everyone. Please find a seat in the auditorium here, so you can observe through the window. Yes, the bay appears to be empty for now, but the entire wall and roof structure is part of the assembly machinery, and the raw materials will be brought in momentarily."
The raw materials, in this case, were from a freshly captured asteroid that was plucked from space by a shuttle with a gravity beam and deposited directly into the bay.
It was a dense metallic amalgam and floated in the center of the room for a few moments before the machines began to get to work.
First, it was broken into segments, and they were moved around the bay toward the locations where they would be needed, and then the work began from the floor up, printing floating layer after layer in the zero gravity environment.
For this to work, Terminus had to be at a dead stop, with no large objects nearby that could exert gravitational force on the ship and pull the object out of alignment. They were working on a method of stabilization, but it hadn't been incorporated into the room yet. If the object shifted too much, they had to pause construction to reposition it and begin again.
Only a quarter of the small asteroid that they had brought in was being used for this process, with the remainder moved to the side, but it was clear that the bottom layer of a ship's hull was taking shape in the bay.
Once they realized what was going on, Max was certain that the crowd was going to lose their minds. Having the device create objects less than fifty meters in size was not a huge deal to them. It wasn't a level of development where they felt that the human species was a threat to their business interests.
But if they could link them to create an entire spaceship, and they sold that technology the same way that they sold everything else, as a "fee to create" type of blueprint, it would crush thousands of corporate monopolies that had been carefully nurtured around the universe.
Those with money and power carefully hoarded technology in the Alliance. They made the products available but not the advanced production methods. Those they patented for centuries after creation and refused to license, letting the weight of the bureaucracy crush anyone who dared defy them.
The Tech Nomads were a fringe group wanting to distribute anything to anyone as a form of communal betterment, while Nico simply thought it was funny to make people mad.
The shuttle took form inside the bay, and then a large energy transfer began, jump-starting the Warp Drive and bringing the ship's bioelectric systems to life, albeit at one percent capacity and slowly growing.
"As you can see, the Shuttle is now complete, and the factory bay has powered down. Please follow me for an in-person exploration of the shuttle's build quality and functionality." Max informed the group, looking toward the engineers, as they were the only ones actually qualified to know what they were looking at.
Chapter 499 499 Outrage And Purchase Offers
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
The engineers followed Max down to the factory floor, where the gravity had been increased high enough to walk properly and took out their scanning tools to examine the ship on a molecular level.
Nico had verified that the devices did not record or transmit anything, so the technicians would have to verbally describe what they had seen to the other members of their teams, whose communications were monitored.
So far, none of them had broken the confidentiality rules that were in place, but they weren't going to take any chances, especially after the first team to see their work had tried to place a nanotechnology bug in the lab, which most facilities would have missed.
"Is this the same pattern of vessel as your other shuttles?" One of the technicians asked.
"We have a few like this, but the ones we use for the majority of the labor work are not warp capable and don't need to be, so they are a much simpler design. This is a passenger shuttle, suitable to be repurposed as a small yacht with its twenty-meter size. Inside you will find that the design team has set it up for couples travel, with a single luxury bedroom suite and comfortable seating, including an in-flight holographic entertainment system."
Max led them through the small shuttle in groups so that nobody missed his details of the ship's features, and then back outside to extol the virtues of the warp 12 capable design, using the newest generation of their crystal-based warp drive technology and a new design of warp field hybridized from Hunter's technology.
There were demands for the patent verification device to be brought in again, so Max had the group wait while a lawyer team was brought down with the large machine, and the scan was run on the shuttle.
[Patents belonging to the Terminus Trading Company detected]
[Expired Patents verified for generic use detected and confirmed free of charge]
[No other patented parts or software found]
"Is it even possible to create an unpatented Warp Field at this point? Hasn't society already patented them all?" One of the lawyers asked.
"Five hundred years after the first patent is issued, a warp field configuration enters the public domain. Many budget shipbuilders use such obsolete technology to keep their costs down for consumers." One of the Engineers informed him as if the man was an idiot for not knowing such a simple fact.
"Patent device, when did the Patent for the Warp Field Configuration in use on this vessel expire?" The lawyer asked the pile of machinery sitting on the floor.
"All patents relating to Warp Drive Components and configurations belong to the Terminus Trading Company and were registered within the last standard Decade." The Machine informed him.
"Then what are the expired patents for generic use?" The lawyer asked.
"Forty-seven structural alloys licensed for generic use by the Hunter civilization are detected. Three Holographic Display Technologies patented by the Innu civilization and licensed for generic use are detected."
"They used five-hundred-year-old holographic technology for the display? That's incredible. The fact that they could make it work with their own new software and hardware alone is an engineering marvel. Those parts belong in a history museum." One of the engineers announced after looking up the patents that the machine had displayed.
A number of assistants and lawyers ran out of the room at that point, relaying the message to their bosses since no communications were allowed in this region of the ship, and the engineers began to comb over the design of the shuttle again.
"What will be the blueprint cost for this shuttle when you put it to market?" One of the engineers asked.
"For the moment, we are not planning to enter the private yacht market, so this design will not be mass-produced or the blueprints licensed at this time," Max informed the group.
They had enough angry people on their ship without bringing in the Yacht designers.
"When you say not mass produced, do you mean that those with influence might have one custom made here aboard Terminus?" Someone asked, hopefully.
"That might be possible in the future, but as a new design, this shuttle must also undergo thorough evaluations and test flights before we allow anyone outside the organization to obtain one. Our reputation is too important to allow an untested space vessel to leave our control."
That they all understood testing generally took years so that they could go through every possible scenario and evaluate long-term wear in a real-life situation before anything was sold. When technology was already so advanced, it wasn't a delay to anyone's development to thoroughly test new products. The industrial revolutions of any interstellar species were millennia in the past.
Though, as they watched the Terminus Trading Company working with the Innu to develop new technology, it was a bit like the humans were undergoing a second industrial revolution of their own, from interstellar flight capable primitives to a technologically advanced developing species in a single generation.
"Just what would it cost to have a custom yacht built here aboard Terminus? I want to get one for my fiftieth wedding anniversary, so my wife can enjoy the trip between our home by the main facility and the vacation house on Kugox Seven. She absolutely despises flying on commercial flights." One of the engineers from the willowy Dryaa species asked, flashing his very best smile at Max, in what his thoughts said was a pleading expression for his species.
"How custom are you looking for? A replica of this Patent, or would you like an individual yacht made, with the Patent guaranteed locked, so it will always be a one-of-a-kind hull?" Nico asked.
The mere thought of an individual hull made many of the attendees flinch at the damage such a thing would do to their wallets. The fee for a custom design was exorbitant enough. They should know they were engineers, but to have it locked for a century before the designer could produce another was a huge loss to their business, so only the most wealthy would dare to even suggest it.
"I was thinking Cutter Class, and your existing hull design simply wouldn't do. It's too militaristic. Perhaps something more elegant?" He suggested.
Nico turned to the Technician closest to her, who handed her a tablet with a series of numbers on it.
"Is six months delivery fine? Human standard months, that is. This is the price estimate, including Patent fees and single unit production upcharges." Nico informed the man, handing over the tablet.
He looked it over for a moment, frowned, sighed, and then frowned again.
"I may have been overly optimistic. How much if it becomes commercially available afterward, with a limitation on factory application of my specific interior color scheme?" He asked, handing the tablet back.
The technician edited it for a few moments and handed it back. The man's face brightened, and he flipped through the options she had prepared.
"What is this last one?"
"That is the Tech Nomad method. All units sold with your specific design will be marked as the Lord Governor Moop Edition of the vessel, including an engraved placard by the cockpit and main doors, letting visitors know that it was designed to honor your wife."
Chapter 500 500 Custom Order Central
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
Max knew instantly that the technician had scored a critical hit. The only thing better in the Planetary Leader's mind than having a unique vessel for his wife was an entire line of Spaceships dedicated to her, so there was a chance that one day she would be relaxing poolside and see a vessel in her honor land nearby.
"I will prepare to sign the contract and transfer the necessary funds. Please understand that this amount of credits will take some time." He agreed, placing his thumb on the document as a tentative agreement.
Slowly, everyone filed out of the bay, satisfied that the show was over and unwilling to beg for a copy of the luxury shuttle when Lord Governor Moop was dropping half a trillion credits to have a custom Cutter designed for his wife to get to her vacation home.
Max retreated to the design room to see what they were planning, only to find the Technicians laughing so hard they were crying.
"What's the joke? I wasn't paying attention to your thoughts." Max asked.
"I just mentioned that since this is being designed and built on Terminus that we are entitled to a ten percent cut of the gross price for our efforts. Fifty Billion credits are more than our entire families will make in their entire life, and we will have his ship ready in a month if he doesn't object to too many of our designs."
She had a point. They were spending so much time renovating a nearly derelict ancient yacht for the stream, but here they were building a brand new Cutter for a Planetary Governor, with a profit large enough for them to buy every member of their team a brand new replacement for their vessel at full retail cost.
"Someone once told me that once you get enough of it, money doesn't matter anymore. I think that's the feeling that you're having now. So, what are you going with?" Max asked.
"Well, his species likes things that look like trees. They live in hollowed trees that they bioengineer back on their home planet. It's not the most conventional design sense, but I think that species like the Shin will love it when we are done.
We could even add dirt floors for the Shin, with a secondary containment barrier, so the dirt wouldn't be disturbed in the event of sudden impacts.
The Dryaa like nature, but they're clean freaks, so no dirt floors for the Lord Governor. Instead, we will have it in polished wood with a hardened enamel coating. The alliance doesn't use anything like it, but we found it all over human wood products."
Max watched as the screens all over the room went crazy as ten Innu and Nico all started making custom ship designs at the same time, modifying the hull to look like various trees and altering the interior to look like the interior of the plant.
"What about this one from our homeworld? It's actually a fern, not a tree, though." Max suggested, showing them a picture of a Kepler Palm tree.
"Not bad. The layered bark can be windows to look out of without disrupting the flow of the exterior." One of the Innu agreed, making a quick alteration to her design, while the others shook their heads, happy with what they had come up with.
The Lord Governor hadn't even made it to his room when the first designs came into his communicator, and he began to run so that he could examine the first drafts to see what they were after.
Six had aspects of trees, while the other four had the classically elegant lines of his planet's ocean-faring yachts.
He ended up picking one of the boat-like designs, but with a few alteration requests to make the interior more like the natural-themed ones they had designed, causing the race to design to begin all over again.
Max had forgotten how competitive both Nico and the Innu Nomads could get when it came to technology, and they were betting on whose design would win each round of the design phase.
Nico won the next round, and the Lord Governor declared it absolutely perfect in form, not wanting any more changes cosmetically.
Then they moved onto the furniture and flooring and lighting until it was morning, and they had gone through forty enthusiastic revisions with the Dryaa man, who was now sitting in their design lab to save the time of relaying his instructions.
"I knew that having the Innu design a custom Yacht would be a marvelous idea, but these human designs, how do you come up with them?" He asked, waving his hands as he watched the virtual walkthrough that they had prepared for him.
"Most of them are based on ancient human vessels and animals of some sort. Like that curved sink, it is the shape of a shellfish species on one of our worlds. Lovely, isn't it?" Nico asked.
"How long will it take now that we have a design finalized? It's only a little over six months to my anniversary." He asked.
"Honestly, since we designed it in-house with your help, we can directly port it to the constructor using existing Terminus Trading Company drive technology and software. We could make it this morning before the main tests are set to begin, and then we will just have to fine-tune, and flight test it before delivery." Nico explained.
"Fine tune? Didn't we already adjust the hull shape for smoother Warp Bubble activation?" he asked.
"We did, but that is theoretical. Sometimes manufacturing tolerances mean that it isn't as seamless as intended. Since the basic hull is based on a proven design, we can skip the destructive testing and move straight on to the tuning.
Max was startled to fully awake when he realized that everyone was looking at him for permission.
"Fine, I will cancel all tests and meetings scheduled for today. Finish your custom order, and keep it hush-hush. I don't want the others badgering us for custom runabouts on a single-day turnaround schedule." Max agreed.
"Excellent plan. We can pretend that it was one of the clients' private yachts. Nobody will know any better when we do the flight tests." Nico agreed.
"Good. Now, I am going to bed. Your enthusiasm is wearing me out." Max informed them after sending a message that the custom ship design process was taking up so much of the team's time that today's meetings and demonstrations were canceled.