Max waited and chatted with the leaders while the officials gathered the approved group of college students who had wanted to leave aboard Terminus for an indefinite period of time. The students viewed it like an extended work experience program, but while traveling the galaxy.
Max had assured the Canis leaders that they would take good care of the guests, while Nico assured the concerned parents that the Terminus Trading Company would find them employment and that the fact that Canis didn't have a currency that was worth anything beyond its own borders didn't matter.
After talking to the families of the ones going, Max truly understood Rill's comment about the Reavers not finding too many Mercenaries among the local population. Almost all of the students lived in a family unit with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and it was only when they had their own grandchildren that they would branch off and move to another residence to expand their family.
There were exceptions, of course. The locals loved to run in the woods and hunt, neither of which were safe activities, so the families had gaps in them, and some preferred smaller families, so there were only one or two surviving members from each generation.
Even the one "orphan" of the group going to space had been taken in by extended family a few generations separated. Living alone simply wasn't a thing that they did.
Max would have to make accommodations for that in the living areas, though it shouldn't be hard since all of the crew spaces were set up for the units to live together so that the entire Canis group would be sharing one common area with separate bedrooms.
Hopefully, that would be close enough for them. In fact, they might even find the experience of having their own bedrooms new and interesting since he could hear in their thoughts that many of them shared with multiple siblings at the moment.
The students arrived, and Max smiled at their enthusiasm, with their ears perked up and tails wagging. It reminded him of the first time that the Innu had seen human technology and had completely freaked out with joy.
"Welcome, everyone. I am Commander Keres of the Terminus Trading Company. I want to say thank you all for considering Terminus Trading Company as your first off-world excursion, and I have promised your families to take the very best care of you until such time as you decide to return.
As you might already know, we are both an interspecies cruise ship as well as a working Reaver ship, doing trade deals through the galaxy and helping form a trade alliance, so there will be a wide variety of opportunities for you in the future.
I am sorry that we are leaving so abruptly, but we have gotten notice that a human-inhabited planet is under attack by the Narsians not too far from here, and we are off to lend a hand."
The students nodded in understanding and began to swarm toward the shuttle, guided by Nico and the hunting team, while Max did the honors of saying their parting words to the planet.
If they had waited for the parents to finish their tearful goodbyes, they would be here all day, so escaping to the shuttle was the only option that the students had to avoid being guilt-tripped into returning home, but Max could sense in their thoughts that the Replicator was their real goal.
They had seen the end product yesterday, but none of them had a chance to really examine the machine while they picked up dinner.
Rill and Ramba seemed to know very well what the end result would be if the families were allowed to linger too long and plead for one last hug from their children, so they escorted them away to a meeting, leaving Max alone with his team and their guests to depart for Terminus.
With ten large additions, the shuttle was fairly crowded, but nobody had to move to the cargo area, so at least they were still properly seated for the trip back to the ship. Their gravity control system was pretty good, but an atmospheric entry was still a rather bumpy ride and tended to pin the weaker humans to their seats, even with the dampening effects of the shuttle.
It was like the first-ever rollercoaster ride for the Canis youths, and unlike the more stoic team that had come up for the negotiations, their tails were giving away their excitement.
"The ship is kept a fair bit colder than the planet, so we will get you fitted for uniforms that will keep you comfortable, while you can set the temperature in your dorm to whatever you like," Nico explained as they flew.
"We're in one room?" One of the men asked.
"Not really. You all have individual bedrooms, but the dorm area was created for military units, so all ten of you will share a common area and kitchen with your own private bedrooms. If you want more privacy than that, you can visit the cruise ship area on your time off and spend part of your wages on renting a fully private room for those times." She told him with a wink.
"My own room. All to myself, no sharing the bed with my little cousin." He sighed happily.
"Roof couldn't be that bad." One of the others laughed.
"You have no idea. Even at twelve years old, he still wet the bed once a week. My own room is going to be the greatest thing ever." The first boy laughed.
"I would have gladly traded you. I shared a room with Priscilla for my whole life. Once she had her first heat, she would come back smelling like a different male nearly every day. It was horrible, and I had to shower twice before leaving for school every morning so that the teachers wouldn't think that I was sleeping around instead of studying." One of the girls complained.
Perhaps sharing space with your family wasn't always as great as it sounded.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr𝒆e(w)𝒆bnovel