"Governor Tennant, it is an honour to meet you here so early in the morning. I know how much work you have to do to keep a city running, especially under these circumstances when so many foreign guests have just arrived for the first time.
It is a rather intense stress test for the entire colony, but I must say, they seem to be handling it admirably." The Giant Envoy greeted him.
"All the adult colonists were from Reaver Companies to begin with, so none of them were inexperienced with intense pressure at work, and I think it really helped out in this situation. Their job experience is coming in handy, and it seems that the Alliance visitors have no problems bartering and making deals in the same way that the Reavers do." General Tennant agreed.
"Yes, we would normally warn people about that, some tourists can be quite intense with their desire to get a good deal, and they will show all sorts of unseemly antics in order to get what they want, but it seems that your people have seen it all before." The Envoy agreed.
"There is very little that they haven't seen before, that's for sure. Even if some individual members are still young enough to be fairly inexperienced, they have good, solid mentors with them to show them the ropes.
Perhaps it's actually better this way. They will learn firsthand everything that they need to do to keep customers happy, and they will get used to the maximum workload right from the start, so once the guests begin to settle in and enjoy the city at a more leisurely pace, the job will seem easier by the day."
"I can't argue with that logic. What is good here?" The envoy asked, looking over the menu.
"If I recall your preferences correctly, I would get a double order of the number three combo, the eggs benedict, and then add the hashbrowns and a side of fruit to both orders." The General suggested.
The waiter nodded from his spot off to the side, indicating that he had the order, and the rest of the Envoys placed their menus down.
"If we all get the same thing, we can compare notes on how each of us reacts to the same human foods." The Valkia suggested.
"Well, that's easy. I'm sure they are more than capable of thirty orders of eggs benedict." Max chuckled while the waiter looked a bit concerned that he was going to be the one to tell the chef that their first table of the hour ordered thirty full breakfasts at the same time.
They were open because tourists on random schedules would show up at any hour of the day, and they didn't have a good reference yet of what species were nocturnal and how many of each species were staying here in the city. Once things settled out a little, they might not pick a twenty-four-hour schedule, but from the number of people in the street, they wouldn't be losing money by staying open.
Of course, bringing in all the Envoys was also drawing tourists to the shop, eager to eat in the same place and get a discrete selfie with the powerful politicians.
Max doubted that most of them had any clue who these people were, but they were all wearing official pins or uniforms, so it was virtually impossible for the Alliance guests not to notice them.
The attention didn't bother them, though, as the tourists were mostly respectful and took their pictures from a distance, while the staff kept them from directly bothering the other guests.
The food had just come out when the first strikes of thunder began in the night sky, sending echoes through the open areas of the city and lighting up the sky with flashes of light that caused shadowy figures to dance in the sky outside the towers, looking to Max like fairies dancing in the rain.
The sight caught the attention of everyone who was currently awake in the city, and the steady drum of rain on the windows made a soothing counterpoint to the random flashes of dancing figures in the sky.
It was like nothing that Max had ever seen before, but he could sense that there was something else out in the darkness that certainly wasn't a flash of light from the reflections on the city's spires.
[Nico, check the vicinity of the city, Northeast, at roughly fifty degrees. I swear I see something out there.] He informed his second in command.
[Working on it. I haven't seen anything so far, but that doesn't mean that there isn't anything to see. Give me a few minutes to tweak our sensors, and I will be able to tell if we have an unexpected guest.]
That wasn't out of the question, as they had recently turned away an envoy on rather bad terms after embarrassing him in front of everyone else from the Alliance. If his people had come for some sort of retribution, it wouldn't have been a shock to anyone.
While Max enjoyed breakfast with the Envoys and the General, Nico and the development team were hard at work investigating the surface of the planet.
"I've found it. It is an alien craft of an unknown design, and they are in position following one of the Terraforming drones. I can almost guarantee that it is a case of industrial espionage." She told the Innu working beside her.
"I have reported it to the Alliance World Ship in orbit. They say that they will investigate. What step will you take next?" The researcher asked.
"I say we skip straight to the hostilities. Get me an Interceptor prepped while I convince Max that this way will be easier." She decided.
"On it. We have that one you custom designed ready to fly now." The researcher answered with a smile. It wasn't like they needed much to get ready. The interceptors were just sitting on standby in a bay, with a staff waiting to see if something happened, while they kept their skills sharp in a training pod.
[General Tennant, we have detected an unauthorized visitor who did not pass through planetary Immigration. Requesting permission to make landfall, as we are investigating them for possible Industrial Espionage.] Nico broadcast to both Max and General Tennant.
[Permission Granted. Please inform them that all vessels failing to report to Immigration may be subject to search and seizure should they be found harbouring undocumented arrivals or illegal substances.] General Tennant replied, glad to have the help with a problem that he hadn't even known that his planet was suffering from.
"The Illithid advisor aboard Terminus has informed me that the unknown vessel is following a Terraforming Drone, and they are currently cloaked. The Interceptors should take care of it in short order. They are quite good at their jobs." Max informed the Envoys, as the Innu had likely already read the message, and the Dryad could read it over General Tennant's shoulder.
"Ah, excellent then, nothing to be concerned about. The Frozen Gates will send a detainment crew should they be Alliance citizens in violation of immigration or industrial espionage laws." The Giant stated plainly, well used to this sort of thing.
"Assuming that there are survivors. Many stealth vessels believe that technology can save them, and Reaver Interceptors usually only give one warning." General Tennant reminded them.
That got the Giant all the way awake from his lethargic state, and he began frantically sending messages back to their ship, which responded with a confirmation that, indeed, it was within Alliance standard policies to shoot down any vessel refusing to report to immigration after entering the atmosphere. In fact, it was even their own vessel's standard procedure.
This was going to be a very interesting morning.
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