Max took a leisurely stroll down the hallways of the Cutter, giving the bridge crew time to notice that he was coming. There were internal monitors everywhere, the same as on every other ship, and they should be watching what was going on in the occupied areas unless there was some threat outside that had drawn their full attention.
Max hadn't made it far when they noticed that he had left the hangar bay and was coming their way, and he chuckled to himself as they panicked and hurried to clean the bridge before he got there.
In their nervousness, they had forgotten that he had the ability to read minds, so there was no need to hide the issue of "Exercises in Logic and Mathematics Monthly" in the storage box of the Captain's side table.
They sent all the food wrappers and dishes to the recycler and activated an auto-clean cycle that they calculated should finish just before Max entered. He walked faster than that, and he would be there near the middle of the cycle, so he made a detour and checked out the side corridors of the Cutter to see if the designers had changed anything for the purpose.
It didn't look like it. The ship was set up to bunk a full Battalion of Mecha Pilots, plus support staff, and even the Maintenance Technician quarters, which linked to the hangar through their own dedicated entrance, were intact and fully staffed for the purpose.
That was where the Research Team had chosen to stay, though, so it made sense to have them stocked. The next corridors, where the Pilots would usually stay, were completely abandoned, though, with most of the surfaces still having the new construction protective film on them.
Max timed his entrance so that he would arrive three seconds after the cleaning process had finished, giving everyone just enough time to get halfway to their stations from the side room they had moved to so the cleaner could work properly.
The door opened automatically as he approached, and Max walked in with a smile.
"Not a bad attempt, but Pilots walk fast. It's in our nature after that much training to scramble for missions." Max greeted the bridge crew, who were all coming his way after seeing the door open.
The Giant facepalmed and sighed. "We forgot that you're a human Illithid, didn't we? Well, at least it's clean for your arrival. Welcome to the Cutter Shinjitsu no Hikari. I know it's not human tradition, but there were only Innu and one Dryad present when it was time to name the new vessel, and they decided to name it Light of Truth in one of the ancient languages."
"It's got a nice ring to it. I'm sure that they won't mind if we just call it the Light of Truth, though. Expecting everyone else to understand and correctly relay the ancient language name is a bit much when we're dealing with so many species.
So, tell me. How has your time aboard the Light of Truth been treating you, and how has the new crew been getting along?" Max replied.
"It has been an interesting voyage for sure. You'll realize soon enough that the three Giants were sent by the Alliance Central Government so that we can keep reporting on the new developments of the humans. There is some suspicion that you came to this region specifically because your top research team needed an unsupervised chance to create weapons which would break the treaties between Alliance Species."
Max shrugged. "They were bound to send someone to keep an eye on us. I assume that you're all competent Captains as well? If you're not, I can shuffle the crew designations and put the Valkia in charge of the ship."
"We are all experienced Captains, as well as members of the Intelligence Corps. We're not here to undermine you in any way, only to ensure that you don't intend to provide Alliance species with the means to commit War Crimes.
There have been some concerns after the recent developments with the Hunters. They came under intense attack by the species on the other side of the Anomaly that they were sent to guard, a species known as Crollo. They're intensely hostile and carnivorous. They tried to eat the Hunters who went to talk to them, and the Hunters decided that they were a game species, and now it's a huge diplomatic mess over there."
Max laughed at the man's phrasing. "Yes, I suppose it would be a mess for diplomacy if the other party tried to eat anyone you sent to them."
The Giant nodded and continued his story, missign Max's sarcastic tone and amusement. "Other than that, your new crew is adjusting well to being together, though the Innu Researchers have chosen to eat separately in their own mess hall."
That was an interesting tidbit. "Are they not getting along well with the rest of the crew?"
The Giant shook his head. "That's not the problem, they spend a large amount of time socializing with the other crew members, and they have modified some of the VR gaming pods for the Valkia to play their favourite games, but there was an incident involving talk of rationing Raspberry Lattes the same as Alcoholic beverages while on duty, and it did not end in unanimous agreement.
I suspect that the reason they are eating separately is because they decided not to reduce their morning intake to a level that didn't leave them bouncing off the walls."
Max smiled at the shift Captain. "You are exactly correct. I came here straight away because their hyperactive minds were giving me a headache from being in such close proximity. I will talk to them about moderation and diminishing returns once I have finished meeting the crew here and getting a full overview of the ship's systems."
"Diminishing returns?" The shift engineer, another Innu, asked with a hint of trepidation in their voice.
"Yes, if you drink too much of it, your body becomes desensitized, and then you need to increase your intake or lose the benefits of the Raspberry Latte. So, either frequency or volume needs to be moderated for maximum efficiency." Max agreed.
The Engineer was typing his words into her console as he spoke and brought up a load of data on the subject in an instant. "How horrific. Alright, we will have a meeting about it. They're all College students and have been going a bit wild now that they're free to make their own choices for the first time in their lives."
"Thank you, and not just for the reduction in my headache."
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