After the dinner was finished, the dessert was brought out, a chocolate torte that left Nico immensely eager for the day to end so that she could hound her mother for cake.
The torte was amazing, and she loved it, but it was also chocolate and that only reminded her that there was an even better chocolate dessert in her near future.
When the night finally wound down, Max led her back to the room, and found that it had been fully cleaned and restocked while they were out, and the flowers switched to ones that gave off a calming scent that should encourage good sleep.
The hotel really did put the effort in to keep their guests happy. Max was impressed that they had gone to the trouble of changing all the flowers in the room twice a day, even if they were in vases so that they didn't just die constantly and need to be refreshed.
They were both up bright and early the next morning, but there were already messages from the Innu students, who had been up all night talking with the main research team and were now eagerly waiting for the breakfast buffet to open so that they could see what the chefs had come up with today.
Eventually, they would need to sleep, but an extreme level of caffeine intake had kept them theorizing all night long, and they had barely even spent any time on the gravity slides. At least by Innu standards.
In reality, it had been five hours that they had spent on the slides during the night, but they still considered it extremely moderate to have come back to discuss their thesis developments with the researchers.
None of them were going for their doctorates, the main research team had chosen to diversify their skills instead of mastering one to the point of a Doctorate. That had led both the former Tech Nomads and the newer members to a level of fame that few in the Alliance could match, but it was a different sort of achievement than the students were going for.
Max couldn't hold out long, the Innu would barge into the upper floor of the hotel soon enough to come pounding on his door and tell him about the breakfast buffet if he kept ignoring them. That was just how they were, and they practically worshipped Nico.
[We just need to shower and then we will meet you all down at the buffet. Save us seats at your table.] Max replied by text message.
That was enough to keep them happy for the half hour it took him and Nico to get showered and dressed, but there really wasn't a big rush, the place was basically empty as everyone slept off a long night of partying and overexposure to the ship's simulated sunlight.
It was designed to emulate the bright sun of a tropical beach, and that's what it did. But many of the revelers now had sunburns to go with their hangovers.
That could be easily fixed with the in-room medical treatment devices, but when they first woke up it would not be a good morning for them, or much encouragement to get out of bed.
With that in mind, it was a good thing that the Innu were morning people. That level of happiness the morning after an all-night party was enough to drive many people insane.
"Good Morning Commanders." The researchers cheered in unison as the duo entered the room, waving unnecessarily to help Max find them.
"Good morning, ladies. It's good to see you so chipper this morning. Did you make progress on one of your thesis topics?" Max replied.
"We did. But the doctor did as well. She was helping someone who hurt themselves at the beach and made a connection between the Umbwe species and the Koleska Genome that she thinks will be a great breakthrough for medicine.
They don't look anything alike, but she says they're internally similar enough that some medical treatments might be effective in both species."
That would be excellent news for everyone. The Koleska had excellent medical facilities. Not that the Alliance didn't, but the combination of the two sets of medical knowledge for exoskeletal species was definitely a good thing.
"We also made progress on one of the Warp Field Modulation theories that we are eager to test once we get away from the World Ship again. An unstable Warp Field can cause extreme damage, so we will have to rely upon Lead Researcher Nico's skill with drones to do the practical testing.
It's a combination of the data we were using for higher Warp Speed stability and the data that was gathered from the Darkling force in the other layer.
We struck out on the layered space theory though. We used the same methodology here, but it was a failed experiment."
Nico shook her head. "That can't be right. What did you find? Was it impossible to open a portal? That might be a modulation issue since the other region is so heavily damaged from past battles."
The researchers all sighed in unison. "Well, we opened the portal, but there's nothing there. No current, no fluid energy, no floating masses, nothing. It's like staring into space if none of the stars existed.
We didn't have time to do more testing, but I don't think it will even be possible to move a ship there unless a conventional Warp Field works. There's just nothing, like this region of space never got finished in that layer."
Nico sighed. "That topic will need a lot of time. Let's delay it until after breakfast. We will need a lot of energy for this one."
Those were the magic words. Everyone, Max included went to refill their plates and get more coffee, and the conversation turned to the proper scheduling of their time here.
They had studies to do, theories to work on, new designs to approve, and most importantly a very well-planned birthday celebration that would begin just after lunch.
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