Getting a response from the other ships didn't take as long as Max had expected. They must have started their voting as they watched the feed from the main negotiations, and the numbers were in not long after he had the consensus from the last of the holdouts on the main ship.
In total, there would be eight hundred and ten people coming to Absolution, nearly ninety percent of the total. Most of what was left were just the core crews of their ships, who had chosen to continue on with the mission that the group leader proposed.
That was actually a little shocking to Max. Leaving everything behind wasn't easy, and he had thought that more would want the relative comfort of what they were used to.
"How are we going to do the transfer? There are too many people for your little shuttle." The group leader asked.
"We will bring Santa Maria here and move everyone over. We will have to move the Mecha out of the bay, but we can load everyone, deliver them to one of our people and be back before there is an issue." Max decided.
If they passed through the Anomaly and used a portal, they would be there in seconds, so the whole process would only take a few hours.
"Why don't we just call for the Divine Tribulation? According to the most recent report, they are empty of cargo at the moment and waiting on a shipment of Mecha to be ready from Rae 5. They could run them back to Absolution for us." Nico suggested.
"Marvelous idea. That is a Cruiser Class vessel belonging to our Reaver Company, and they have more than enough space." Max explained to the group leader.
"What is a Cruiser? I take it that the vessel is large?" He asked.
"Roughly seven hundred metres long. It has a decent military force aboard, but it is mostly a trading vessel, so it has large cargo bays and can easily house your people in comfort. Just make sure you give us a list of specific requirements for the various species so we don't get any allergy or food poisoning issues."
"Of course, I have them ready now. How long will it take them to get here?" The group leader asked.
Max looked to Nico, who had sent the message, and presumably received the response.
"About ten. They were just getting ready to make their way to Absolution for a crew vacation, and they agreed to stop here and pick up passengers on the way." She informed the group.
"Oh, ten hours is not bad." The group leader replied happily, now much more assured that they would be able to get the passengers transferred before anything went wrong.
"Oh, you misunderstand. That is them coming through the Anomaly now. I have informed traffic control at the Station, and they will let them pass. They don't want to interact with your armada at all. I'm sure you understand the superstition." Nico explained.
"Pardon? Were they just on the other side of the Anomaly to begin with? I thought they were at some manufacturing location in your territory."
Max patted the man on the shoulder. "It's a human transport secret, and it doesn't work within this region. We got scolded for trying to use it when we first arrived. But they are at warp and will be here in just a few minutes."
The tension in the air was palpable as the nomads waited for the vessel to arrive, but when the Divine Tribulation dropped out of warp and slowed to a stop beside them, showing off all of its baroque opulence, with the thick ram prow and stained glass effect windows along the filigreed side plating, none of them were sure what to say.
"That is, well, not what I expected." The group leader finally stammered.
"It's an older pattern of a human vessel, obtained at a discount, but the unique styling makes it easy to identify, and the Commander of the ship has become quite fond of her looks, so he doesn't want to change or upgrade her." Max agreed.
[Subcommander Nico, it's good to hear your voice again.] The incoming ship informed them.
[Likewise. Feel free to load them in any order you like. I have verified that all of the ships' computers are safe to interact with, but you shouldn't send out any extraneous messages, and make sure that no electronic devices make it aboard your vessel for security reasons.] Nico replied.
The Cruiser began to send out messages, bring the various vessels to its docking ports, or even entirely into the cargo holds in the case of the smaller ships.
[Give us fifteen minutes, and we will have everything loaded. How hostile is this war zone? Should I have the teams ready to scramble?] He asked.
[No need. The Koleska are on standby at all times, and we have both Cleansing Light and Shattered Pride available for response in under a minute if needed. If the Arisen Army appears nearby, you will have time to scramble your teams then.
Max knew that wouldn't calm any ship's Commander, so they were likely moving all the Mecha Pilots to standby positions inside their cockpits, just in case.
But the process was moving even faster than anticipated, with all the Pilots eager to get their part of the job done so that nobody got left behind.
There was sure to be a lot left behind in such a hurried packing job, and Max could sense the panic on their ship as the residents packed everything that they could and pulled pictures off the walls to throw them in cargo cubes to take to the other ship.
But the Reavers had a process for this, and they had done it many times before. As soon as the lead vessel was brought into a cargo bay, dozens of crew members rushed aboard and spread out through the ship, pushing carts with gravity plates under them to make them float.
·?θm The Commander himself had come to see this last ship off, and the bright smile of Luke Tarith, Nico's distant cousin and one of the Terminus Trading Company's most successful ship Commanders, greeted them from the entry to the cargo bay.
"Good to see you again, Luke. The Co-Operative seems like a good bunch, and I think they will fit right in once they get to Absolution." Max greeted him and grasped the man's forearm in a Reaver handshake.
"Likewise, Commander. We have been out of touch for a while, so when a lull came in the shipping schedule, we thought that we would take some time off and visit the World Ship for a vacation. But who is this lovely young lady?"
He bumped into a small woman with a completely bald head and only a slit where the nose would be on a human head, and she was staring directly at him with a mixture of shock and lust in her mind.
It seemed that he felt the same way, and Max wondered if it was some sort of Pheromone response.
[Nico, see if you can determine what is going on with those two. Is it mind control, Pheromones, or are they just both into aliens?] Max requested while the group leader gave an indulgent smile to the short woman.
Max ignored the vague happiness that the team leader felt since the man didn't fully understand what was going on and focused on the two apparent lovebirds.
Their thoughts were strange, and after a few seconds, he realized that their emotions had synched up with each other.
"Well, that is interesting. They are on exactly the same wavelength, so when they are close enough, they have a limited form of shared empathy." Max muttered right before Nico sent him a detailed message on the species.
They were supposed to be empathic and could sense others' emotions through pheromones, but there was no record of them reading minds or anything of the sort.
"There is an old superstition on her planet, as well as mine, that says that everyone has a soul mate who understands you completely. It's likely a pheromone response, but it's a nice thought, isn't it?" The group leader asked.
"It is," Max replied, with a wink for Nico.
If there was anyone who understood him completely or who he understood completely, it would have to be her. They were going on two lifetimes worth of interactions, after all.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺