They weren't quite the first to arrive, the Envoys had shown up early and had already made themselves comfortable in one of the side lounges while waiting for the main event to start. The ship's android Pilot had welcomed the early guests, but so far, nobody else was on board.
The Giant Envoy greeted Max as soon as they saw each other.
"Our apologies for coming so early. There are a lot of Alliance formalities that come with our arrival, so we thought that it would be best if we got her first, so that any Alliance eyes that might be watching wouldn't get upset about any slight in the formal rituals.
Things have been pretty on edge since the battles. Between us, the Government believed that the warning was a joke and they greatly underestimated the threat. The Valkia are upset that they didn't send a larger force, a lot of the species are freaking out in general, and the Innu are under observation on suspicion that they might break from the Alliance to join with the Reavers, after an incident where a minor Government official blamed their fleet for not doing enough to save the Valkia, even though they were designated as a support and repair fleet.
In short, things are a huge mess, and it's only now that they are starting to increase the size of the army that things are starting to settle down.
We're still not sure how things are going to go with the Innu, though. That tension has been building since the first group of Tech Nomads met with you after they suffered that breakdown, and now with a bunch of social media influencers ganging up on them, they're feeling even more neglected and undervalued than ever."
The Innu Envoy sighed and nodded. "It's been making my job rather hard. There have been multiple planets pushing for me to negotiate a refugee agreement with the humans so that Innu who are unhappy with their lot in life could move and escape from what they call political persecution in the Alliance."
Nico gave a not so subtle fist pump, before Max gently smacked her on the back of the head.
"No, Nico, you can't have them all on your research team. This is an actual political issue, and from what I can tell it involves billions of Innu, not just a few."
Then he addressed the Envoys. "Honestly, from what I've seen, they're not really treated all that well unless someone needs them, so I can see their point about feeling like everyone finds them annoying and only a few species actually like them.
But for now, we will try to help keep things stable for the Alliance. As much as I hate to say it, you still need them, now more than ever. The Innu researchers are extremely valuable to new weapon and ship design efforts, and the Alliance doesn't really have someone who can step up and help if their situation turns into isolationism." Max reluctantly agreed.
The Envoys looked at each other. They hadn't considered that outcome. Breaking away from the Alliance would lead to retribution, and a series of agreements were in place for that situation. But what if they remained in the Alliance, but took the route that many less social species did and simply kept to themselves, and moved to planets mostly inhabited by their own people?
The Alliance would lose a huge portion of their researchers, scientists, repair technicians and ship engineers.
What could they realistically even do in that situation? Pay more to bribe them to come back to work? Encourage them to make Innu run and staffed businesses to replace the ones that would collapse without them? That would be an economic disaster across the Alliance that really might turn into a civil war.
They could try to train replacements, but that would take years.
In short, if too many of the Innu stopped working with them, the Alliance simply didn't have the capacity to replace the species. They had come to rely on them without ever realizing how integral they were to keeping everything running.
Their contemplation was interrupted by the Android warning that there were more guests coming to start the party, fashionably ten minutes before the arranged start time, as was normal for most military schedules.
That didn't apply to parties, but the Reavers didn't care, it was ten minutes to pregame before the servers with the good liquor became hard to find.
"Commanders, it is good to see you all here right on time for the event. Our Android staff has snacks and drinks prepared for the trip, so feel free to help yourself." Max greeted them, making a few of the older Commanders laugh.
"See, now that's the sort of hospitality a mind reader can offer. It's good to see you again, Commander Keres. Hopefully, you have some of those spiced pumpkin pie squares again, only Mary ever puts them on the trays." One of the older Commanders, a member of the Tarith Family, laughed.
"Of course we do. I noticed that you wanted them on the way up and had them added to the plates." Max agreed.
Nico knew that was a flat out lie. She had added them to the plates when the man asked about them, and Max had only been paying attention to the concerns of the Envoys until a few seconds ago.
Max moved to stand at her side and gave her a pat on the backside in appreciation for the save, which made Nico giggle and the other Commanders chuckle, thinking that they were just flirting in public. The Reaver Commanders had all assumed the same thing, that ten minutes before the schedule was the right time to show up, and there was a line forming outside the doors of the ship in the Moon Base's landing bay.
"We should have used a cargo bay as the entrance, shouldn't we?" Max laughed as the line began to grow.
"It might have been better. Betsy here is almost as wide as a Crusader." One of the men in line joked, and then was attacked by a stout female Commander a few spots in front of him.
The main door wasn't exactly narrow, it was three metres wide, but with over a hundred people showing up in one minute, and everyone stopping to greet the hosts and the important people inside, it was slow-going.
Max breathed a sigh of relief as the local researchers and the representatives from a few independent species, like the Vampires, came in a few minutes late, finishing the loading process and finally getting the event underway.
