Max and Nico led Dahlia out of the Cutter and into their personal hangar bay, where the girl stopped in her tracks and stared around the room in shock.
"What sort of enemy could you possibly be fighting that would need weapons of war like that?" She gasped as she saw the assortnt of personalized cha standing proudly in their storage racks along the walls.
Nico smiled at her. "You would be happier not knowing, but so of the hostile alien species that we have faced are even larger than that. But mostly, the larger units are used to deal with large groups and extrely powerful technological weapons.
I can show you so examples and battle footage if you like, but we have a whole new world to show you, and I know that you're going to enjoy that.
The first thing that I should warn you about is the Innu. They are bright pink, with tentacles on top of their head that work as sensory organs. They are very high-energy and good friends of mine, so don't be shocked if we get rushed by them as soon as we leave this room and enter the laboratory area."
Not only were the Innu good friends, but the students that they had left behind were right in the next room doing a study on so of the samples that had been sent back from the other side of the Anomaly lately.
There were so many new things to learn that they had been working around the clock on both the research and their thesis papers. So, they were predictably caffeinated and eager to talk to anyone who would listen to their recitation of the new theories that they believed they could prove.
After steeling his will to prepare for the influx of hyper Innu minds, Max realized that they were no longer overwhelming. He could dim their ntal input into background noise and only pick out the most important parts as regular thoughts.
That was a vast improvent on the situation before, where he preferred to avoid the Innu when they were working. Now, he could see being around them a lot more, since they were always so happy and eager to please.
They even waited at the door with snacks and beverages when they heard that the Lead Researcher had brought back people with her. It was that sort of thoughtfulness that endeared them to everyone they t, even if almost all of the Alliance species found them annoying.
"Good morning, Lead Researcher Nico. Good morning Commander Max. Good Morning Envoy Dahlia." The greeted in unison.
"Oh, these are Innu? They're bigger than I expected." Dahlia gasped, before being pulled into a group hug due to her proximity to Nico.
None of the Innu in the room were over 160cm tall, but to Dahlia, everyone was a giant. Even Nico stood a full head taller than she did.
"It's a pleasure to et you Envoy. Should we invite the minister over for dinner?" One of the researchers asked politely.
Dahlia turned to Max in confusion.
"There are more of your species living on this side of the Universe. As far as we can tell, you're genetically identical, so you ca from the sa species, but you've been separated for hundreds or thousands of generations." Max explained.
"There are more of my people? I would love to et them. Are there many of them left? Could we make a recovery?" She asked.
The cheerful researcher took out a data tablet and checked it quickly.
"As of last census, there are eighty-seven planets where your species is the majority, and another seventeen hundred and four with more than a million of your people residing on them, which is the minimum number to be recorded as a significant minority population." She explained.
The little alien was in tears of joy at the news, but the Innu were beginning to panic, thinking that it was too few.
"No, she's happy. Don't worry, you didn't upset her." Max laughed and hugged the researcher.
"If you could arrange a dinner with my species, that would be great. Do they eat the sa things I like? I want to know all about them. How did they even end up here?" Dahlia asked.
"Honestly, I have no idea. They think their species erged here, so it's how they got to your side of the universe that we thought was the mystery." Max shrugged.
[Sending invitations. I have arranged a group dinner with the Gray and Hunter leaders for 1930 tonight, ship ti. That is in two hours and seven minutes.] Felicity inford them through the intercom.
"Thank you, Felicity. Invite the cha Regint leaders as well. We will need to et with them after this, as we have so new developnts that they will be interested in." Nico inford the ship's AI.
[Understood. I will invite them for etings after dinner, as they have a al event already planned.]
Max checked their thoughts and found that the Regint leaders had a et and greet planned with mbers of a Reaver Company that was visiting and had been doing deliveries of cha and military equipnt from Absolution since Max and Nico left.
Their production levels all over the ship were well above predicted levels, so there was no fear of underemploynt. If anything, they were having more trouble picking the right custors to distribute their products than producing the orders.
The Council had been very picky about it since the Alliance had so many rules about military equipnt, and most of what the humans specialized in was weaponized.
Max cleared his throat and addressed everyone in the room.
"After we finish with the dinner and etings, I suggest that we spend so ti in the beach waterparks. We have spent enough ti doing serious things, and it is ti to relax in the sand for a few days and get our new guest used to Absolution."
The Innu all smiled at the ntion of the waterparks and their gravity slides that emptied into the pristine waters of the ocean or the pure waters of the resort pools for species that didn't do well with salt water.
"Yes, you have a deal. We will ntion it to the Gray delegation over dinner." The shift's team leader cheered.
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