Chapter 541 541 Convincing The Commander
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
Max's little sisters and the Innu girls worked remarkably well together, and all four were years ahead of the standard development that you would expect of a human their age. None were old enough for standard schooling, by human estimations, but they all understood the concepts of holographic design, and with the innate talents of the Innu, they didn't even have any troubles with programming locations for the objects that they wanted to place in the simulation.
They had chosen to work together while taking notes on the changes they needed to make. But because this was a full-on science lesson, according to the Innu mothers, they wouldn't just be placing basic objects. They each needed to modify one they placed and show their work, so their understanding of the principles behind holographic projections could be tested.
Max had expected his sisters to struggle with the changes since they had no background in the subject and none of the Innu advantages, but the other two girls did a great job of explaining the parts that they needed help with and only had to refer to Max a few times for clarification.
"Now that the towers are all made and checked, we are going to start on the modification portion of your daily quiz. I want you to hide the tower inside a tree. But the tree needs a secret door, using an incorporeal projection so that those who know it is false can walk into the tower." The Innu Mother directed the group.
As soon as the lecture was over and Max had stepped back, intending to let the kids freestyle their way through a scenario creation, she had stepped up with specific instructions, as well as a checklist of skills and understanding she expected by the end of the day.
Max knew the type, the super intrusive helicopter parent, PTA mom of the year, and general busybody. But, she was very well-versed in scientific theories, and after seeing Max's practical demonstration, she understood how the interface worked, so she made a lesson plan for the kids in only a few seconds.
Making the hologram work as intended was a bit more tricky than expected.
The interface was much more technical than most design interfaces would be since they didn't have a user-friendly software interface as most designers would use, but that was the point of the lesson. If they didn't understand the projections, they wouldn't be able to make the one portion of the tree illusionary without changing the whole tree.
Once they were done and proudly showing off their work, Max gave his sisters a pat on the head and then waved his hand through the doorway they had hidden.
"All good, and the tree itself is still solid. Passable." He informed them.
"You don't grade on a percentage scale?" The Innu girl's mother asked him.
"I leave that to their regular teachers. I am personally a results-oriented person, so my grading is a simple pass-fail. As long as it works, it is passable. If it works in ways superior to what was requested, it is outstanding." Max explained.
"What an intriguing way of looking at the world." The woman replied, but Max could sense that she didn't mean it as a veiled insult.
She was genuinely intrigued by the grading system that he used. It was standard for Military Mission Outcomes, where the only part that really mattered was that the job got done and you weren't dead. You couldn't very well grade a take-and-hold mission on a percentage scale. You either did it or didn't.
The father's thoughts were much more interesting to Max, though. He was a tenured University professor back on his homeworld and no longer taught regular classes. Instead, he helped postgraduate students with their dissertations and worked with the government on research projects that were deemed important to academic advancement.
He had deeply studied the Humans, at least as much as the Innu could with the limited data that they had at their disposal, and the Nanotechnology intrigued him.
The fact that a sentient data net had formed among the population and that it had chosen the humans as hosts to upgrade, but not the whole species, just the ones that were friends of the first group it encountered, was a fascinating study of both human biology and nanotechnology.
If his theory was right about humans being a nearly perfect host for the technology, thanks to their high levels of bioelectrical output, then the reality might be that the upgrades they received were symbiotic and not actually intentional, while the technology simply itemized the changes that it had made along the way.
It would explain how he had heard that the System upgraded what you were best at first, but so far, he hadn't found the correct way to ask permission to study the phenomenon.
This was his first actual meeting with Max since the staff had greeted his group at the hangar bay doors, and Max could sense him going through dozens of prepared speeches in his mind and weighing them for the likelihood of success.
While he was thinking, the lesson wrapped up, and the girls were putting their notes away to prepare for lunch.
"If you want to ask, now is a great time. Your wife wants to drag you to the spa the moment she can get away from lunch, and the girls have no intentions of making that easy on her since they still want to spend the day together." Max informed the man before anyone could suggest they leave the room.
"Fascinating, truly fascinating. Tell me, did the system read the brain wave emissions to inform you of my thoughts, or does it work through an active method?" The man asked.
"Honestly, I really don't know. The extended range readings are outside of our sensory range, and there isn't enough data to fully verify the actual working mechanism of this particular system function.
Mind-related functions have always been the hardest to quantify since they work on those without the system, but often not as well. If it were never as well, it would be easier, but some mind-related functions, like mental attacks, work much better on those without the system or mind-related powers, such as the Illithid possess.
But we've gotten sidetracked. You wanted to ask a question before we parted ways, and now is the best time." Max finished.
"Well, since you've most likely heard all of my proposed appeals already, I will start this way. I have with me formal approval for an indefinite study period aboard Terminus as a researcher of the Human System, as they have officially called the nanotechnology network that those born within the former Kepler Empire possess.
What terms would you require in order to make that a reality?"
Chapter 542 542 Poaching Talent, Again
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
Max thought about it for a while and then decided to make a few reasonable restrictions part of the deal in case scientific morality was different between the two species.
"We will need to make a proper list, but it would certainly include no surgical experiments, and no destructive testing of the Nanotechnology, as it can have adverse effects on both the host who agreed to it and the one attempting to destroy the nanobots. We will want access to the results for our own scientific purposes, and all subjects must be of the age of majority or have parental permission to participate. For the sake of ethical integrity and verification, an unaffiliated observer must oversee the study process."
The man's eyes lit up in joy. "So you really will allow it?"
"For scientific research purposes. If you fail to procure willing volunteers or anger the System, the study will end immediately. Also, as we don't know how long the study will last, we are willing to hire additional staff for you and for the quality of life of your family while you are here." Max agreed.
"Excellent. I look forward to working with you. I will leave this proposal with you and have an amended agreement written up detailing more than the study itself."
"How many additional staff will Terminus be bringing aboard for the study?" The mother of the family asked, concerned about her kids growing up on an alien ship if their father's work took years to complete.
"We will need, at the very minimum, an observer that is not from the university and perhaps not from the Innu or the humans at all. We will need two research assistants for each of them to verify the results, in addition to the human staff we already have here aboard Terminus. We will also need childcare workers since such relocations typically move an entire family unit when humans are the ones doing them.
Finally, we will need educators, as Terminus lacks the staff to provide an Alliance quality education, and it is required by our customs to provide training for children that is at least up to the standard that they would have enjoyed at home.
It is considered a sign of being a quality employer to provide the necessary facilities for your workers. We simply didn't have many children aboard at the present, as we are making the transition from a military ship to a generational transport." Max explained.
"So, entire generations of humans will live aboard this ship? Not just the ones working actively?" She asked.
"That is correct. While some will choose to retire onto a planet or take work on one while they raise their children, most of the members of the Trading Company would spend their entire lives calling a single Colony Ship home."
The kids looked way more excited about those words than the mother did. Her mind said she enjoyed leisurely days doing nothing in their villa while the nannies and tutors took care of the children, and she supervised their work. A short time on Terminus was a vacation, but after too long, it would be more like she was a common housewife.
"You are free to hire your own staff if you wish to have them accompany you during your tenure here. We are not so exclusive that we forbid domestic workers for those who require them. In fact, there is a group of Giants on one of the upper floors that brought their own butlers and maids with them on vacation." Max explained after reading her thoughts.
"Oh, yes, the Planetary Governor's family. Their children are mostly grown, but I did see their butler picking up from one of the restaurants." The Professor laughed.
Terminus had more than sufficient staff to make food deliveries within minutes, but still, that group preferred to send their own staff to get anything that they needed when they weren't going themselves.
They were paying customers, and from what he could gather, the staff was paid very well, so he wasn't going to argue about the arrangement, even if it did seem redundant.
He had thought at first that they were worried about being poisoned by alien foods or political rivals, but the servants didn't sample any of the dishes they picked up, so that was out. The family simply had their own way of doing things and wasn't adventurous enough to bend those ways even while on vacation.
They did enjoy the facilities, though, and more than once, the matriarch of the family had fallen asleep in the sauna, claiming it was magic on old joints.
"So, we will have our old tutors back?" The Innu girls asked in sync with each other.
"Possibly. If Terminus hires sufficient quality teachers, I will consider allowing you to attend public lessons." The mother reluctantly replied.
"How about this? You are well-versed in educational standards. Perhaps you could help our staff with the job ad? If you find a quality group of teachers, we can add a learning abroad facility to the ship's amenities and take exchange students for a school year at a time."
The idea had just come to Max, but it sounded like a lot of fun, and after meeting the Tech Nomads, Max was absolutely certain that there would be a demand for the service. More than a few Innu youngsters wouldn't be willing to give everything up to explore but would still hold that desire to travel and see new things. A learning abroad program would allow them to do that without upsetting their parents or slacking on their classwork.
"Really? What sort of budget would we be working with?" She asked.
[Nico, how much are Innu private school teachers and tutors paid?]
[About eighty thousand credits annually, with the most prestigious of them making low six figures.]
"With a pair of administrators, plus two educators each for six classrooms, divided by age, not more than one point five million credits annually," Max replied. That would let them take all ages, and he could expand the numbers if the program really took off.
"Barely a hundred students?" She asked, curious about Max's math.
"Does that seem too small?" He replied, sensing only confused thoughts in her mind.
The professor laughed and filled him in. "You really underestimate the Innu desire to experience new things, don't you? If you allowed it, they would turn the entire ship into a floating Academy, with a hundred thousand students every year fighting for the right to come back for another year.
And it's not just the Innu. The Valkia love to travel for school, as well as the Illithid and the Myceloid. If you wander around the Galaxy doing science experiments like this, with some political interventions, you could be one of the Galaxy's most prestigious places of learning if you could find the right staff."
Technically, they had a lot of extra space in the ship still. The Academy could be placed behind the Cruise Ship facilities and cordoned off, so students weren't wandering without permission. The first few cargo bays were dedicated to visitor's vessels, but the next group was completely empty since they preferred to use the ones at the back of the ship, closest to the crew quarters, for materials storage and production purposes.
"Do you have time later this afternoon or tomorrow? I would like to put a proposal to you, Professor, as well as your very capable wife. I think the Academy might be a wonderful addition, and we could certainly free up five hundred meters of the ship's length for the purpose." Max asked them formally.
Chapter 543 543 We Found One
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
[Nico, we need to divert some staff. I have an idea for how to make Terminus truly famous. An Elite Academy in the stars. I want to free up five hundred meters of the ship, behind the visitor bays, to use as a private academy for Alliance kids.]
[You really are going all out for your sisters, aren't you? We're about done making the Canis adorable, and we've updated the Augmentic suits enough that they will need another round of testing, so we can drop today's plans, other than the Cloaking Device live stream, but we can start that now and work on the ship renovation plans afterward.]
The two Innu parents were still shocked at Max's suggestion when he finished talking to Nico, and the professor had begun drawing on a data tablet with a stylus.
"Terminus is what, fifteen hundred meters wide? Multiply that by five hundred meters long and a kilometer tall. Are you making an Academy or a small city?" He finally asked.
"An academy. Our crew's children will attend in addition to the others once we have children that age. But I plan to make it self-contained. Unlike the guests, the Students won't be wandering the Cruise Ship at will, except on their day off. So it needs dorms, the academy, some sporting facilities, and other faculties." Max explained.
Usually, a private Academy was very closed off to keep the kids focused on education, but being able to get live feeds from outside the ship was enough to make it ultra-prestigious, and there was a chance that they could make shoreside excursions as a group if they found a suitable planet, the same way that Terminus did for the Cruise Ship guests.
"I know just exactly who we need to talk to. Auntie Medusa. She has been the practice headmistress, and she's an architect that makes schools that don't suck." One of the Innu girls suggested.
"We have the technology to communicate back to your home Galaxy if you like. We can also send a shuttle to go get her if she wants to come to examine the facilities that need to be reworked, assuming, of course, that she agrees and that her resume checks out." Max replied, trying not to laugh at the girl's description of her aunt's capability.
"She has six doctorate degrees, including early childhood education, architecture, business, psychology, and two in engineering fields." The Mother explained.
"Six doctorates? The Innu really do love their education, don't they? What is she doing for work now?" Max asked.
"She's between positions." The woman replied politely.
"She called her boss a stupid head and told him that he made kids' life suck." The helpful little girl added before being silenced by her mother.
"You know, I can hear her thoughts, right? Silencing her mouth doesn't stop anything." Max reminded the Innu woman.
"I swear, she's a good employee. She's just very outspoken about implementing policies that help students." The woman apologized.
"Yeah, she's the best." The girls agreed.
"Alright, let's make some comfortable couches again, and we can contact her before lunch." Max agreed, much to the children's disappointment.
Medusa, as the daughter called her, appeared in front of their eyes only a few seconds later, picking up very quickly after the call from her sister came in.
"Lucy, darling, tell me you're bringing those wonderful little imps to come to see me again?" She greeted her sister.
"Not quite. I have a job offer for you from Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company, the human who runs the cruise ship where we are on vacation. He wants to build an academy for exchange students on the ship, so they can tour the Galaxy with his group." She explained.
"Students on an extreme cruise ship? Is that safe or wise?"
Max chuckled, catching the woman's attention. "I assure you, it is quite safe. We travel with a very capable escort, and I want the students to be housed in an enclosed Academy, not wandering the ship as a whole. If you think it might still be too dangerous, I can arrange a small armada to accompany us wherever we go."
That was going to happen anyhow, as they had sent a number of ships to be refit already and recommissioned under the Terminus Trading Company banner, but he hadn't chosen Commanders for any of them yet. Most likely, he would give the honor to the Four Battalions and keep one with him since there were four Cruisers, and he would sell the rest of the captured vessels to Mary Tarith.
That would mean that he needed to train a whole new Regiment of Mecha Pilots, but that was nothing new to him, and it would be better to have the other ships under the command of someone he trusted and knew very well rather than having strangers represent his Trading Company.
"You mean the Five Cutters that I have seen in the video feeds of your intervention against the Narsians? Yes, that would be more than sufficient to convince the parents that their children would be safe." Medusa agreed.
"Those are part of the ship's armory. I was suggesting additional forces, but if they're not needed, I am happy to continue as we are." Max informed her.
"It seems I must see for myself what I am working with here. There aren't any outside views of your ship available online. I looked once I saw that my dear nieces would be visiting you. How large is Terminus?"
"Just over five kilometers in length. While it would be considered understaffed by human standards as a vessel of war, it is more than capable of defending itself against the forces of a small nation, should that become necessary.
We are on a diplomatic mission, so ongoing conflict isn't the goal, only a side effect of intervening to assist other human populations."
"Give me fifteen minutes to pack a bag, I live right next to the gateway, and I have a private shuttle, assuming you can open a portal this far." Medusa agreed.
"I will have traffic control send you coordinates, and I will patch you through to them, so you can inform them of any local traffic regulations in your system. We don't have a full database yet." Max agreed.
"See you soon."
With that, she cut the link, and the girls turned to look at their parents with great hope in their eyes.
"Does that mean we're staying here on a forever vacation with Auntie Medusa coming to visit?"
"It looks like it. I had better get in contact with the academy right away. You lot have fun, and Commander Keres, I will contact you directly later this afternoon. I believe the Academy might have a proposal to help with your staffing issues. They have branches on forty-seven planets, all exclusive private facilities, and they might be interested in expanding, even after my Sister in Law told off the board of Governors to their faces." The Professor replied.
This Innu woman was sounding like more and more fun all the time. Max loved strong personalities. They were honest enough to tell everyone what was on their mind. They just had to be accepting enough to deal with the fact that they might not always be right, and they made for great leaders.
Chapter 544 544 The Sound Of Little Feet
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
As promised, Medusa had her affairs in order and was on her way into orbit to reach the arranged transport point within the next fifteen minutes. That sort of enthusiasm in a potential employee wasn't something you could buy, though Max suspected it was almost entirely due to the presence of her nieces since her additional messages asked three times about how they were doing but didn't mention her sister at all.
[Commander, we are ready to open the portal.] The traffic control officer reported.
[Perfect, bring her in and have the staff prepare to welcome any other guests that are arriving at the same time. I have seen in the messages we are due to get more than a few new guests from the surrounding systems.] Max replied.
The Cruise Ship was getting full already, but there were still rooms, and some guests would be leaving in the next few days, out of vacation time for the year, so they should be fine as long as they didn't open too many more unscheduled portals, which many tourists viewed as free standby airfare. If they could get to it and book rooms before it closed, they could piggyback on the portal without having to pay the full energy expenditure to open one to Terminus.
"Everyone, head to your choice of restaurant for lunch. I do hope you two don't mind watching the girls for me while I go gather Miss Medusa from the docks?" Max asked.
"Of course not. I don't think we could pry them apart at this point, so there is no harm if you head out for a few minutes on official business." The Professor agreed.
"In that case, we can order anything we like, right? I want crepes and waffles for lunch." Sasha joked.
"What is a crepe?" One of the Innu girls asked, unaware of the existence of such a food.
"It's whipped cream and fruit wrapped in a thin pancake. They're amazing." Sasha replied with a big smile.
"That does not sound like a proper lunch. But since it's a special event, if you all finish your food, I will allow a sweet snack this afternoon." Lucy sighed.
She could already tell that the human girls led a much less structured life than her own girls, whose life at home had every meal carefully planned for them by a professional nutritionist and their meal schedule set by a time management expert.
Both Max and her husband thought this was a great development since it forced her to lighten up, even a little bit, instead of being the ultimate helicopter parent and an obsessive micromanager. If the Academy was founded and they agreed to stay aboard Terminus with the Professor, the girls might even get to move into a dorm.
They would still have everything planned for them, but they would at least have the hope of making some choices for themselves once they came of age to start formal education.
Max jogged to the landing bays just as his new architect applicant and potential academy headmistress landed and noticed that she was not alone as he had assumed she would be with fifteen minutes' notice.
There was a slightly younger adult Innu woman with her, as well as four small children.
Max thought for a moment about Innu culture to determine how he should address the group, then realized that it was likely her whole family, not an assistant. The Innu preferred designer children, using advanced genetic engineering, and four out of five of them were female.
One of the children was a boy, or at least, appeared to be one, thanks to the difference in body structure, though they were all wearing matching school uniforms, so they must have been hastily grabbed out of the middle of a lesson.
"Welcome Miss Medusa. Thank you for taking the time to listen to our proposal. This must be your lovely family, is it?" He welcomed them.
"Sort of, but not quite. This is my youngest sister and her children. They were visiting when the call came in, and I simply herded everyone into the ship with their luggage." She explained.
"Well, we have plenty of room. Come with me, and I will lead you to where the rest of your family is having lunch with my little sisters. We can talk afterward."
The excited anticipation from the two adults was almost reminiscent of Nico waiting for battle. They knew that it was going to be a big surprise since they hadn't told Lucy that the rest of them were coming, and they were secretly taking great pleasure in the stress that they were going to cause her.
Their thoughts said that compared to her, the youngest sister was a borderline Tech Nomad, living a free and random lifestyle with her kids. Both sisters apparently made a habit of stressing Lucy's need for an absolutely rigid structure and made a point of showing up together or five minutes early for appointments.
"How do three sisters end up so wildly different?" Max asked Medusa as they walked out of the bay together.
"Our mother is almost exactly like our sister. We all responded differently to her care. Lucy became her, I buried myself in academia, and Euri here went full rebellious daughter. She didn't even pick a partner. She had her children designed completely custom from her own genetics." She explained.
"Oh, this is going to be good then. The girls barely managed to convince your sister that she could be flexible with nutritional guidelines and allow a sweet dessert after lunch. Try not to stress her out too much, she is still a guest of the Terminus Trading Company, and her husband is working on a proposal to do a long-term study of humanity based here aboard the ship."
"Trust me. It will be fine. What sort of space do you have for me to work with, so I can start making a design for the academy? I have dozens of education-friendly plans already made, but they are all designed for terrestrial use, not to be implemented inside a spaceship."
"Here are the basic plans for the sector that you will be working with. You will have full access to only human technologies, but you will find that we can be quite versatile, and you can use solid holograms to design multi-use spaces if necessary." Max offered.
"Carte blanche to design a full facility, as long as it fits in this space? Oh, this will be wonderful. Especially these huge open spaces, what is that, fifty meters tall, and with multiple layers of them stacked up?" She gushed, nearly walking into a wall in her distraction.
"Those are cargo bays at the moment, they all have exits to the outside, but you can feel free to block them if you wish, for safety's sake. The design identifies the sections that can be safely modified and removed as well, so you can open up multiple floors in some regions instead of integrating them."
Medusa shook her head. "That would be missing out on the best part of being aboard a Colony Ship. Building the facility as integral to the ship will remind the students where they are while I can use the outer levels to join them."
Chapter 545 545 Medusa Has Grand Plans
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
"I think, for the sake of staffing and exclusivity, we should limit the amount of this space that we actually use, though. Say ten thousand students. It would take less than a quarter of the space allocated, even with the facilities. I will get a plan made tonight and have it ready for you in the morning. But first, you said there are human children here? How old?" The educator continued.
"My younger sisters, twins, just under five. There are also twin boys, but they're still toddlers. We have a few newborns aboard, but they won't be a concern for the academy for some time."
"Marvelous. We will start with the oldest, so I can assess their learning curve. Did you know that some of the Alliance Species grow at a very different rate to Innu? The Giants and Valkia don't reach mental growth until nearly forty standard years old, while most species are around twenty, and the Innu are considered mentally mature enough to finish primary education at twelve."
"That is where the system enhanced humans move from basic education to specialized trade education as well, though most of the human population finishes basic schooling around seventeen, with higher education finishing around twenty-two, at which point they join the skilled workforce."
Medusa nodded to show her understanding. "It does make things more difficult for mixed species education in the long term, but if they only attend the academy for a single year, anything is possible. Don't worry. I have plenty of knowledge on the subject."
Max led them past the Gravity Slides, much to the children's disappointment, and straight to a restaurant by the main entrance, where the rest of the group was waiting for them.
"They're at a table on the left, and I have ordered the staff to link another table for us all to sit at," Max informed them right before the sound of excited children burst the silence in the air.
The cousins had seen each other through the window, and they were rushing to greet each other while Lucy set her head in her hands and mentally counted down from twenty, a stress management technique that even Max could recognize.
Max and the others followed the kids into the restaurant, where the pair waiting for them was still staring in shock at the newly arrived Innu children.
"Medusa, Euri, it's a shock to see you both here together. To what do we owe the honor?" Lucy asked, looking more than a little displeased to see her youngest sister.
"You know, I was visiting, and since school is between semesters, we thought we might tag along. Sister plans to open an academy here, or so I've heard, and with a bit of luck, I might manage to score some scholarship spots from her." Euri responded nonchalantly as if she were talking about her usual morning shopping, not a trip across dozens of Galaxies with her family on fifteen minutes' notice.
"Well, it's good to see you here, even if we weren't expecting it. Look how happy it makes the girls, and it's the perfect opportunity for Medusa to prove to the Commander here that she is capable of instituting a structured system to keep unruly children in line." Lucy added, barely managing to keep the contempt for her sister out of her voice.
"Of course. I wouldn't have brought them along if I didn't think they would help me prove my capabilities to the Commander. He has already agreed to look at my preliminary drawings in the morning, so I will have to retire after lunch to get to work, but I am certain that the kids can spend some constructive time together, enjoying their youth. Within the bounds of propriety, though.
I heard something about a sweet dessert named crepes. Perhaps they can use that as a group bonding exercise, despite their difference in ages."
Max was thoroughly enjoying the family ribbing they were giving each other, but the father of the younger Innu girls had discretely led them to the far side of the table so that they were as far away from their mother as possible.
It was a great bit of foresight since everyone in the cafe could see that things were going to get seriously snarky among the sisters if nobody intervened, and having them in the crossfire couldn't possibly end well.
It also put them right next to Medusa, who was so eager to see her nieces when they were talking earlier that she didn't even hesitate to make the trip.
"You say that you only need a quarter of the space I had available for the academy. Is there a particular reason for not spreading things out more?" Max asked Medusa to change the topic.
"Efficiency. If you place them too far from the classes, it takes longer to get anywhere, so precious time is wasted in transit. With high-density dorms as well as the closely integrated living and learning spaces that the ship's architecture allows, we can actually increase efficiency over a standard terrestrial layout.
The dorms can be placed on a floor directly above or below their section's classrooms, so the majority of their commute will be within their own social circle, with minimal distractions, but the Common areas can be placed as an intervening layer, so that everyone must pass through them and intermingle, which builds a sense of community, as well as letting class rivalries build by proximity.
That is why grades are always publicly posted. You can hide the names, but if you put up the grade and class with a student number, the students in other groups can see how their rivals are doing.
That's especially important to an Elite Academy like this, where many students will be transferred for a single year from their home planets to be judged against each other's accomplishments."
"So, the idea is that they can build group pride among their classmates while also keeping a lower level of pride in the Academies that they came from to carry with them when they return. Like bragging rights for special training?" Max asked.
"Exactly like that. Of course, I don't think that having everyone be a single-year transfer is wise. We need a solid base that is trained here from the start or for the remainder of their academy years to form a baseline for the transfers to judge their own standards against."
That sounded exactly like Kepler treated the Special Forces students and even the Pilots versus the noncombat paths and the Infantry. Everyone was a rival, and the Pilots were the standard that everyone else was judged against.
Chapter 546 546 Innu Meet Sugar
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
While they were talking, the children all finished their lunches, and Euri ordered them all crepes with mixed fruits and custard, which she deemed the optimal combination from the menu she was presented with.
It wasn't until they finished their dessert that anyone realized that the Innu children had never really experienced sugar before. For all her permissiveness, Euri was big on an all-natural diet at home, so they didn't eat many sweets other than fruit, and Lucy's children rarely even went that far, as their mother's hired nutritionist deemed treats an inefficient ingestion of calories.
In layman's terms, that meant that they had six very hyper Innu children who were more than a little eager to see the sights of a human cruise ship and try out the Gravity Slides for themselves.
"Would you like me to assign a crewman to accompany them?" Max asked when the children's pleading began to make a vein on the side of Lucy's head twitch.
"No, she caused it so she can deal with it." The woman declared, looking at her youngest sister.
"In that case, there are swimsuits available at the kiosk by the entrance to the gravity slides. Be sure to check the map well, as they all end up in pools, but not all on the same level. The gravity manipulation makes the actual direction of travel irrelevant, and more than a few guests have found themselves sidetracked by taking the wrong tunnel branch." Max informed her.
Medusa's eyes lit up at the proposal. "Excellent, you can keep them busy for a few hours, and I will have a long visit with these wonderful human children so that they can teach me about the ship's best features, and I can learn a few more things about how young humans work. How does that sound?"
She directed the last bit at Sasha and Sandy, who gave her a thumbs up and flagged down the server to order one of the fruit teas that this particular cafe specialized in.
They weren't standard replicator items. They were hand mixed from multiple drinks, so you could only find them at this particular location, though you could make them yourself with a little creativity or knowledge.
"Oh, that's good. The school will need a cafeteria. Will Terminus be able to provide these replicators in large enough numbers?" Medusa asked, unfamiliar with human technology beyond the fact that it was known that they were barely past the status of a primitive culture by Alliance standards in the official database.
"We can, and any furniture and building materials that you require can also be produced on board unless they are a material that isn't known to humanity. We have a fairly large supply available, and we will be terraforming a planet in the near future, so we will have an abundance of raw materials coming in."
"That's even better. Might I borrow these two darlings for a while? I presume you have better things to do than to hang out with us all day, given your position." She suggested.
"I will contact their guardian, so she can come and keep an eye on them, as well as show you around the ship. But I cleared most of my schedule for the day for your arrival, so I'm not so strapped for time as I would usually be." Max agreed.
Lucy and her husband looked relieved and excused themselves to their room for a bit of alone time, now that Euri was watching the kids for a while, while Max messaged Molly to meet them right here, so she could accompany them to Medusa's room and take care of the kids in case Max had to leave suddenly.
He might be planning on hiring her to run the academy, but Max still hadn't fully vetted Medusa, so leaving his own sisters alone with her wasn't going to happen today. He would do the full verification of her credentials and history tonight while she worked on the design and determine if she was the right person to be running the school as well as building it.
"Hi, sorry for the wait. How are the girls? Not ready for their nap yet?" Molly asked as she came into the Cafe.
"Not yet. They just had a crepe, so they've got some energy left. Meet Medusa. She will be designing and leading the construction of an Academy here aboard Terminus and quite possibly running it as well.
Medusa, this is Molly, a former social worker and professional in the care and raising of human children, as well as dealing with troubled kids from difficult backgrounds." Max explained.
"Just the sort of person I needed to meet among the humans. It is a pleasure to meet you and your children." Medusa replied, giving Molly a very professional handshake.
"It is a pleasure to meet you as well. I would be very interested to know how the Innu treat education, given their unique advantages in interacting with technology."
The conversation got immediately deep and technical, so Max distracted the girls with crayons and coloring pages grabbed from Molly's purse. She carried convenient distractions everywhere she went, a habit learned many years ago at work, where the kids often needed distractions while very upset parents dealt with Social Services.
The technical talk just dragged on and on until both girls were beginning to nod off, so Medusa agreed to get her information from Molly, who was eager to help design a new facility for the ship, and Dave was called in to collect the girls.
That left Max free for a few hours, so he headed to the Development labs to see how the new Cloaking device was coming along. The technicians would have moved on to other projects already since they had so much to do to prepare for the terraforming, but they could spare a few minutes to go over the technical jargon in the live stream that Max couldn't follow.
As usual, once things started happening aboard Terminus, they all happened at once.
Chapter 547 547 We Need More Data
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
The live stream of the cloaking device in development was over by the time Max was free to join the technicians, but that didn't slow down the to-do list for the day. Instead of hanging around with the technicians, he went to double-check that the area for the new school complex was clear and ready for development, with no hidden makeout or picnic spots tucked away in the disused areas of the ship.
Everyone needed a little bit of alone time now and then, and gossip spread faster than anything else among a unit, so couples that didn't want everyone to know their business always needed a spot to meet somewhere on the ship.
Terminus had a lot of those sorts of spots, with so little of its space fully utilized, even after loading a full regiment of Mecha and a couple of thousand tourists on board.
He had just finished his walkthrough, and uploading the updated 3D imaging to Medusa, when he received a message from Admiral Drake, letting him know that they had a proper sensor view of the destination now and that they could start calculating the number of Terraforming pods that would be needed for a complete net to revitalize the planet, as well as how many asteroids would need to be transported over to its location to replace depleted resources.
They were doing this for the benefit of the Hunters who were already waiting there, but mostly for the Human refugees who would be calling the place home, so making sure that it was a proper planet and not a used-up and discarded relic of a long dead society was of the utmost importance.
At this point, they didn't even know what sort of being had lived here, but the first sensor scans from the Hunters were coming in with excellent detail. There were entire ruined cities made of a combination of stone and primitive alloys, as well as decrepit facilities that looked to Max to have been decommissioned, not abandoned.
There was no rubble around them, so either it had been used elsewhere, or whoever had used it last took the good parts with them.
[The newest of the ruins appears to be just shy of one million years into decay after its abandonment, judging by the degradation of the alloys. We have also found buried facilities that do not contain any known material.
Our entire database, both of Alliance and non-Alliance sources, does not include this material. It's not even an element. The entire structure is a single molecular bond of disrupted atoms.
Huntress Khan requests that this location is placed off limits for modification during the terraforming so that she might study it while the rest of the planet is prepared for habitation.]
The data portion of the message included by the Hunters made no sense to Max, so he forwarded it to the technicians and Nico while he examined the included diagram for himself.
His past life had knowledge of many things, but this was not one of them. He couldn't even fathom how it could have been created until he recalled a nomadic species that his personal fleet had once encountered. Their ship had been made of something similar to this material, but they had refused communication and left the Galaxy when he tried to talk to them.
The unidentified ship repeated the process over and over in various Galaxies nearby until finally, they simply vanished, presumably finding the uninhabited area they were searching for.
He couldn't tell if it would be considered durable, highly advanced, or simply confounding by their current standards. His fleet just didn't learn enough about that ship before it disappeared. The example that they had found here was too precious to tamper with at this time.
More reports came in as the Hunters scanned the planet, and dozens more buildings, statues, and random items were made of the unknown substance. At least that meant there was enough now that the Hunters could experiment on it while keeping all of the other locations off-limits, so they didn't cause an unexpected interaction with the Terraforming Machines.
He didn't even realize how much time was passing until Nico came in with a fresh set of clothes in her arms and a tray of breakfast.
"You have a meeting with Medusa in two hours. She has no fewer than seven separate facilities designed, and she is very excited to tell you all about them. I ran into her and the kids on my tour past the breakfast buffet just now.
After that, we will be arriving at the designated planet, and you've got a meeting with Huntress Khan, who wants to talk to us both in person. She says that what she has to tell us can't be relayed to the Alliance, so it will have to happen on her ship.
I've already started on the important things so that you can focus on school matters. Just a friendly reminder that the majority of Alliance schools have just let out for semester break, and this is the time to have them send applications if you want to open right away and not half a year from now.
What else was there? Oh, yes. Dave sends his regards and thanks you for helping the girls make more friends."
They really should have stayed on Rae 5, and Max had even made arrangements for them to do exactly that at one point when the planet was being colonized. However, in the end, they were still aboard when Terminus left again, and he may have forgotten all about the matter until it was too late to turn around.
"Alright, I will get everything going on the school so that we can bring students aboard for the next semester since we will be here for a while anyhow.
You take care of the planet matters, and we will both go visit Huntress Khan this evening. Did you find out anything about that material?" Max asked.
"A thing or two. I know how it is formed since I managed to make it in my past life, but actually using it and shaping it is beyond anything I knew." Nico replied, then replayed the memories for Max to look through.
She had been experimenting with ways of weaponizing the destabilization of space-time and had managed to make some fragments of that material that appeared to be one continuous atomic structure, but nothing that they had was able to shape it after it was formed.
Their disruptors tore it apart with ease, but it was mostly impervious to lasers, and Ion weapons seemed to actually grow it in the most unexpected ways. It could also be broken by hand if you knew the trick of coating your gloves in an energy barrier first.
Nothing about the material made sense, but that was only due to limited understanding, and it was possible that Huntress Khan had more information on the subject.
It might not be good news if the Alliance wasn't allowed to learn of it, but it was news.
"Alright, back to work. We've got a lot to do." Max sighed.
"Oh no, I didn't walk all the way here to leave without my eye candy. Pants off, big boy. Get some clean clothes on."
Chapter 548 548 Innu Architecture
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
Max picked Medusa up at her suite to take her to the designated school area so they could go over the plans properly.
It seemed that the Innu had a rather cool holographic tool that would let her overlay her proposed design on the existing structures, so they could get a good feel for what her vision would be like as a student or educator living within the Academy.
"I think we should start with the most traditional first. Terminus is an ancient Colony Ship, and the interior ten-meter ceilings are perfect for the traditional grandeur of a historic Academy." She began once they reached the cargo bay where the tour would begin, at the bottom of the ship.
The fifty-meter wall of the cargo bay disappeared behind square stone blocks, with numerous small windows lining nearly every meter of the surface in five rows, marking the five interior levels that could see into this bay.
"If you like, the vertical dividers of the bays are removable so that you can have up to a full kilometer of open space vertically with only a few structural supports," Max suggested.
Medusa shuddered at the suggestion and shook her head. "While I plan to have some higher spaces in the upper levels, the Innu are an amphibious species, not a flying one. Just the thought of looking out a hallway or bedroom window down a thousand meters to the ground is enough to give me vertigo.
It would also be hard to properly calibrate a gravity net to compensate for terminal velocity and prevent injuries in the event of an accidental fall.
I didn't program much into this area since it will be the welcoming area for the academy, so it is only these open flagstones. The windows, the huge double doors, and the exposed bay door will remind everyone that they are, in fact, still aboard a space-faring vessel are the important parts.
There is a placard space above the main doors for the school crest and name, which I didn't have access to during the design phase. We can add those later."
Max followed her through the six-meter tall solid wood double doors with blackened steel banding suitable for a medieval castle and into the main floor hallway of the academy.
The interior was a mix of light-colored stone and richly oiled wood, with golden ornamentation and luxurious-looking couches set into alcoves on either side, leading back dozens of meters on either side. The ceilings were vaulted, and covered in murals, for that particular feeling of wealth and nobility that Max had seen from every Planetary Governor and high Noble he had ever met.
It had the ambiance of an old-fashioned Gentlemen's club, the sort where business was done in luxury and the behind-the-scenes decisions that actually ruled a world were made. Max noticed that she had included replicators built into walls above carved wooden tables so that tea sets and light snacks could constantly be on offer, made fresh as someone approached.
"If this is just the entryway, I daresay you are planning on bringing the children of planetary governors here and not just any lucky student who happens to make the grade," Max told her with a smile.
"In Innu Architecture, it is considered to be good manners to design for the highest level of guests that you feel comfortable hosting and not the average of the guests that you will have. So, since there is a good chance that a plutocrat who controls multiple star systems might send a child or the child of a close relative here, it is necessary that the whole school be built to a standard that they wouldn't be embarrassed to show their peers when they return home.
Anything less would lose its prestige in an instant." Medusa informed him.
"Interesting. On my homeworld, all schools are run by the military, so they are grim, uniform, and utilitarian places, not palaces with a side of education." Max replied.
"Oh, make no mistake, educational discipline is paramount to the school experience. We have differing opinions on how best to teach subjects to improve comprehension, but the classrooms themselves are designed for maximum concentration and ergonomics so that nothing disturbs the learning experience."
Medusa led him through the grand and opulent facilities of the common areas, study halls, and separate libraries for the differing course majors on the first five floors. Then they went up to the true core of the building, the classrooms, sports areas, and gymnasiums.
This was one of the areas where she had linked and expanded the cargo bays so that some sport which the Valkia and other flying species loved to play could be accommodated, but mostly it was classrooms like Max recalled, only much more luxurious, with high tech chairs that formed to your body.
The chairs put you into a virtual reality simulation with the teacher so that they could demonstrate everything they were teaching in real-time without the need for dozens of additional labs.
Above that, the floorplan was no longer so open, and the student accommodations were split into four towers. The plan was to have sixteen total years of schooling available here, starting at age four for the crew's children.
That tower also included a huge daycare center for parents who wanted someone to watch their children while they worked, a standard among Innu since they custom-designed their children. No Innu-designed facility was without daycare starting from birth.
The first four years would all be in one tower, and their classrooms could be placed closest to them, with the daycare on the higher levels that were more easily accessible from the crew quarters through a secure secondary entrance.
Each of the other towers would also contain four years of students, keeping them somewhat within their age groups within the academy, but the classroom and common areas would let them mingle outside their dorm towers with ease.
It was opulent beyond Max's commoner sensibilities, grand enough that even Mary Tarith wouldn't find a fault with its luxuries and absolutely beautiful.
"This is incredible, and I see why you picked it first. What were the other design themes?" Max asked, poking his head into what would become a dorm room with six queen-sized beds and separate desks in one of the older age group's dorms. This particular room had a more feminine feeling to it, with softer colors, less dark wood, and red velvet, but it lost none of its grandeur.
"After seeing your reaction, I have two more that I think would meet your standards. One is a light-colored post-modern open plan design, and the other is actually quite similar to this, but with a steampunk theme. It's all the rage among the wealthy children these days, but I fear it might look dated too quickly if the trend changes."
"And the rejected options?" Max asked.
"Shin forest with living spaces, where the carpets are actually a live fungus, and there are artificial Pixies as helpers floating around the area instead of automated cleaners. That one had a low chance of acceptance, but it is very beautiful, and I didn't know what your species liked or how they decorated their own spaces when given unlimited resources.
The last ones are all the various noble themes of the major Alliance species. Greystone and frost for the Valkia, blue and gold with polished silver instead of stone and wood, which the Giants prefer, and the bioluminescent caverns of the Myceloid."
As she spoke, she flipped through the projections so Max could see what she was talking about. None of them was terrible, but none of them suited humanity quite as well as this. If it weren't for the clearly alien frescoes on the ceilings of the hallway, it would have fit right in on most human planets.
"Not bad designs and I might want to employ some of them for new themed spaces in the cruise ship, but the first was the best for the Academy. I will give you permission to begin, and I have already requisitioned a terraforming drone pod as well as materials to get started.
I will let you finish your work, and then you can clear any changes you had to make with me. Most materials can be recycled with enough power usage, and Terminus has plenty of power available at the moment, so do your best to get the structure complete, so we can start talking about staffing and student recruitment issues.
I will have a contract offer to stay on as the first headmistress of the Academy drawn up by evening and delivered to you."
Chapter 549 549 Orbiting Raeven
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
While Nico was disappointed with the rate of progress that they were making on the cloaking device, they were still making progress, and in a uniquely human fashion, not using any methodology that was known before.
Simple optical camouflage was a simple matter, they could already do that to some extent with Keper technology, but it only blocked eyes and cameras using visible light, so it wasn't in widespread use.
To be considered fully cloaked, a standard sensor suite shouldn't be able to detect the object, and that included sound, thermal emissions, and energy signatures, which any ship they passed or alerted patrol would be looking for.
The Hunters weren't, strictly speaking, allowed to help her with the project. Still, she had a meeting with Huntress Khan in only a few minutes as soon as Max arrived at the shuttle bay, and she was certain that she could weasel a little more help out of her without breaking the restrictions placed on her by the agreement her species had with the Alliance.
If you ignored the sensor readings that said the precious minerals had been fully extracted, and the air was toxic, Raeven was a beautiful planet, floating below them like a blue and green marble, tinted slightly teal by the toxins in the atmosphere.
It somewhat reminded her of the clear waters of the pond they had found at a vacation spot, the one with the waterfall and the opal stone bottom, absolutely beautiful. She would have to ensure that the efforts to terraform it and prepare for the arrival of a new population didn't destroy the natural beauty of the planet.
So, while she waited for Max to finish his meeting with Medusa, she drew up plans to turn the planet's barren moon into a major industrial facility. Asteroid mining drones could feed it, and the produced products would be sent back down to the planet at regular intervals, which would allow the workers to operate in shifts and keep the early stages of industrialization off the planet.
There was no telling how many people they would want to send to this world. Even if they sent a billion, the majority of industrial workers could be stationed on the moon, while high-efficiency biomass farming could take care of the part that needed to be done on the surface.
That seemed like a much better plan to her, so Nico added it, as well as the necessary spaceport, to the floating city that she was designing for the first inhabitants, which should be fully self-sustaining for a hundred million people, spreading over a thousand square kilometers, and suspended above the surface by pillars and gravity control devices.
She was doing her best to get that design finished while Max was busy since he knew that he would recall it from her memories right away when he saw the plans.
It was the Impossible City, or the City of Demons, as his soldiers had called it in her past life after her forces had taken it and made it their largest-ever recruiting facility. A monument to human achievement that had been the most advanced feat of engineering ever attempted.
Of course, this one just looked like it since she didn't have the technology or knowledge to actually remake the original.
There was something about the surface ruins that bothered her though like she was missing something huge, something important, but she simply couldn't figure out what it was. That was what occupied her mind when Max finally showed up to catch a shuttle to the Hunters mothership for their meeting with Khan.
"How bad do you think it's going to be?" Max asked once they had departed the ship, and even the Illithid could no longer hear their thoughts.
"I think it's going to be huge, but not immediately dangerous, or she would have warned us not to try to terraform this planet.
There are a dozen others just like it, all built the same right down to the continent shapes, so there is no need to remain on this one if there is any sort of a reason not to pick it." Nico shrugged.
There wasn't really time for more conversation, as the two ships were only a few dozen kilometers apart, incredibly close by orbital standards but convenient for both parties in this case.
Huntress Khan greeted them at the landing bay with a very serious look on her face and led them silently to a meeting room, where a series of energy fields engaged as they entered the first of three sets of doors and then again at each layer after that.
If they weren't already clear that this was a private conversation, even from her own troops, they were now.
"I will cut to the chase. I still don't know what that material is, and that bothers me, but what bothers me more is this statue I found. That, my friends, is the God of War. Not a god in the literal sense. It was a God Class Mecha, or perhaps a world ship from the annals of Hunter history. The story is a fairy tale to Hunters, so the exact size and description are somewhat blurred.
We didn't make it, but in our earliest space-faring days as a species, we saw it traveling and the utter ruin it left in its wake. Entire solar systems were destroyed, and trillions of sentient life forms were dead within days and replaced by a new civilization as if they never existed.
The species that operated it ruled a region of space a billion standard units beyond the Alliance borders, near the edge of what the Hunters had mapped at the time, until something happened to them. After a hundred thousand years of utter domination of their region of space, they simply vanished.
Now, this is important because while it was a billion standard units beyond the Alliance, that makes it even further from this Galaxy. There is no reason that ruins that are exactly like hunter fairy tales and statues of that machine should be anywhere near your civilization." Huntress Khan began.
Chapter 550 550 Theories And Speculation
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
+ - Turn on Reset
"I have a thought. The edge of Hunter territory isn't far from us, but they operated on the far side of what Hunters considered known space. Is it possible that Hunters or another species with a territory that lay closer to us had seen, observed, or interacted with that society and had tried to establish a colony in this Galaxy?" Nico asked.
Khan shook her head. "At the time we interacted with them five hundred thousand years ago, we were among the most advanced species we had ever encountered and the oldest since so many become genetically unstable after a few hundred thousand years and either devolve or evolve into something entirely different.
Never mind keeping the same mythology, the human species didn't exist a million years ago and likely won't exist a million years from now, given their rate of evolution. These ruins are a million or more years old, and the statue was found in even more ancient ruins, buried in many layers of rubble beneath the surface ruins."
She paused for a moment while Max worked to grasp the full implications. At the very least, the statue matched the description of a Hunter fairy tale monster from half a million years ago. Still, the ruins were twice that old and a billion standard units apart, being separated by hundreds of thousands of stars.
There was a chance that it was a simple coincidence, the law of probabilities having two societies creating nearly identical-looking things, but the ancient ruins where there should have been no sentient life in this galaxy made Max think that maybe there was a large portion of their history missing.
"I know this isn't the question anyone wants to hear, but what are the chances that this is the home Galaxy of those beings who eradicated and replaced entire civilizations in an instant? If they started here and then moved on for some reason, either due to a threat, war, or a simple urge to explore, it is possible that our Galaxy might have hosted an advanced civilization when most of the planets were only beginning to show signs of intelligence." Max suggested.
"That was my thought when I called you here. I looked into your lore for signs, and they are all there. Your entire history is full of monsters, lost civilizations, and other myths that match the species in your Galaxy, which you wouldn't get to meet until after you invented space travel.
I think that this cluster of identical systems might have been their first attempt at forming a Galaxy to their own wishes as they spread through the stars.
But if they were here and then later so far away, it means that they might have gone in other directions as well. If that is the case, they might not all be gone, and we might be in for a rather rude surprise if we happen to see them again." The Huntress agreed.
"So, what is your proposal?" Max asked.
"I think we need more than a few floating cities full of humans and some alien resorts. I want to bring a full Hunter Fleet to this Galaxy and search the other identical planets for signs of the oldest ruins and this strange material so that we can understand it and the species that made it.
A million years ago, they were more powerful than anything that we have ever seen since. We can't pass up that opportunity to grow as a species."
That logic actually made a lot of sense to Max, given the Hunter society's obsession with strength.
"If that is the case, take this data. It is an experiment with weaponizing space-time that will create the most rudimentary form of that material. I don't know anything about using or shaping it or even about the majority of its properties, but I can verify that this experiment is best performed in the void between solar systems, at least a light year away from your ship." Nico informed Khan with a sigh.
Even the Huntress looked shocked at the description of what she had been trying to do when she discovered how to make this material. Space was malleable. They did it every day when they activated their Warp Drives, but to intentionally alter the flow of time was insanity.
To the Hunters' knowledge, it was beyond anything that could be manipulated, a universal constant that lay behind the fundamental rules governing all of creation.
"We will have others perform the experiment in a controlled environment. Just in case it attracts the attention of those who formed this material, we will do it somewhere in enemy territory, as far as possible from any friendly species, and then we will inform you of the results." Huntress Khan agreed with an abundance of caution.
Nico nodded in approval of her idea to sacrifice an enemy species if their attempts to create a new form of matter angered a species that was a million years more advanced than they were, and started mentally scrolling through the options for exploring the region while the terraforming of this planet began.
"None of the planets can be seen from the others, so you shouldn't have any issues with someone noticing that a load of Hunter ships are in the region. There is nothing in our agreement that prevents you from coming here in large numbers for scientific research, so the presence of an entire Hunter fleet won't be a problem at our end. Will it be a problem with your allies?" Max asked.
"Possibly. Most of them required us to stop expanding our territory, so if they think that we will be setting up our own colonies in this system, they might not take it well, but your assistance on that matter will help smooth everything over if there are any misunderstandings.
They also track any large movements of our fleet because everyone is paranoid that we are going to hunt them for sport despite the agreements and our history of being true to our word, so the disappearance of a lot of vessels could be an issue if we don't space the departures correctly."
"Hunters really do have it hard, don't you? We will support your research and even tell others that we called you in to make sure that the region was safe for humans to expand into if you would like. That's within our agreements, since the only species here are highly aggressive and hostile ones that our agreement lists as game species." Max suggested.
"We have an accord then. I will inform the others, so they can begin the work of preparing for the study, and I will let you get back to beginning to terraform this world back to peak standard.
It has occurred to me that if this world is truly that species' ancestral home, you might earn some goodwill with them if you repair the planets that they used up in their early developmental days." Huntress Khan agreed, ending the meeting.
"Oh, one more thing. About the cloaking field. How do you hide the transmission of sound?" Nico asked as they started walking back toward the shuttle bay.
"That part is easy, just bring up a modulated air filtration barrier, and it will dampen the vibrations enough to silence any sound from inside. We found it out by accident when we first started exploring water worlds for new game."