Max stepped out of the police station with the government official at his side and waved to the assembled crowd of news reporters and curious onlookers, who were all eager to find out what had happened that led to the foreign dignitary being arrested.
Max raised his voice to be heard above the crowd. "Thank you all for waiting, and know that I appreciate your support. This entire situation was one large misunderstanding, and I can assure you that there were no fatalities involved in my outing today.
The situation is still under investigation by the local police, and those responsible for spreading malicious rumours are being actively pursued, but I have been cleared of any wrongdoing, and will be returning to the Cherry Resort for an evening of entertainment."
The crowd cheered, and then the reporters began shouting questions.
"Commander, who were the women that you were seen with?" One of them yelled.
"One was my Subcommander, while the other two are local guides, who showed us around town and introduced us to a fine coffee shop this morning. We have signed an official trade agreement with them, by the way, and provided a proprietary replicator, so they will be able to provide authentic Reaver Blend Coffee and snacks."
The Government Official resisted the urge to facepalm at the shameless business plug during an interview that had started out being about a murder case, but it looked like Max had managed to divert their attention from the debacle of him being publicly arrested.
"Does that mean that your cruise ship will be returning here on a regular basis?" Another of the reporters called out.
"Yes. We are tentatively scheduled to visit here twice a year, and with average volumes, we should have roughly a hundred thousand guests coming to the surface with each visit, as well as a number of our crew who are given shore leave." Max agreed.
"Is it true what they say about humans?" The reporter asked with a suggestive wiggle of her hips that made the other reporters laugh.
"Humans evolved as persistence hunters. Our ancestors would chase their prey down for entire days if necessary until they were too tired to keep running. It allowed us to become the dominant life form on a planet with many larger and more powerful predators. While it has been a long time since that was necessary for survival, humans do have much more stamina than most species." Max replied with a straight face.
"Are they really as open-minded as the Innu suggested in their podcast?" A Valkia reporter asked.
"Which podcast do you mean? The one run by the Tech Nomads on our vessel?"
The slender Valkia man nodded. "That's the one. They're hugely famous, even here. So, is it true?"
Max smirked. "Why don't you approach a single lady and ask? If you're lucky, she might even massage your wings and condition your feathers before you go."
The man's face went nearly as red as the feathers on his wings, and the other reporters began to laugh.
"Humans really are a strange species. Thank you for your time, Commander." A local reporter giggled as Max started to walk into the crowd, shaking hands and waving to friendly faces further back, while the Government Official followed behind him.
Once they were free of the crowd, the Official stepped up to match Max's pace and gave him a stern look.
"You know, joking like that could lead to harassment of your species by those with an alien species fetish." He reminded Max.
"Oh, trust me. Humans are fully capable of taking care of themselves. I'm more worried about what the children might look like. I'm told by the Central Government medics that there are dozens of species that humans are capable of hybridization with." Max shrugged.
It was no secret aboard the ship that the humans often flirted with the Innu girls, it was just human nature. They could and would pack bond with nearly any living thing, and once they were pack bonded, flirting became part of normal daily conversation, even if they weren't serious about it.
The concept of locker room talk had horrified some species when they first learned about it, but for the most part, they had adapted to the human soldiers and their crude sense of humour.
They were most of the way back to the surface exit that would take them to the Cherry Resort when Nico arrived with Nala and Sill.
Nico linked arms with Max while Nala smirked at him and Sill blushed.
"That was quite the interview you gave. It's all over every single network, and all they can talk about is Reaver culture, humans and all the inventions that you have introduced to the Alliance. I don't think that they even remember that the day started out with a scandal." Nala informed him.
"Then our work here is done. As long as nobody is accusing us of showing up and killing people, or some other nefarious scheme, it's all good." Max replied with a smile.
They returned to the surface through the same ramp that the cargo crew had taken the shipment of Replicators through, and the crew of the resort was waiting there to welcome them back.
"We're glad to have you back, sir. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience, such a thing should have never happened to a guest of our Cherry Resort." The General Manager greeted them as they reached the landing platform.
"No worries, Manager Wu. It's all been explained to me by the Official here, who has agreed to spend the evening enjoying the parties at the Resort and smoothing over any misconceptions that have developed due to the unfortunate situation earlier." Max announced, while the shocked Official stared at him.
Since when had he agreed to spend a whole evening at a resort party? Sure, it was his job to try to control the narrative and ensure that there wasn't any backlash against the planetary government and their interests, but the resort parties were notoriously wild, with hundreds of species of corporate representatives unwinding in the most luxurious ways that they could afford.
He was just a lower bureaucrat, he couldn't afford the cover charge here, much less a whole night of partying. He wasn't even sure that he could get that much money approved on his business spending account.
Nico leaned over to whisper in his ear when she noticed the panicked look on the man's face.
"Don't worry about it. We will cover all the charges, just make us look good in front of the crowds, and it will all be smoothed over by morning."
The Official heard the implied threat in her tone, and wondered just how much the humans already knew about the situation and what they might have done about it that made her so sure it would be solved by morning, but if they were paying, he couldn't get out of being their PR person for the day.
Not after everything that had happened already.
"Alright, let's join the festivities. It looks like the resort goers have been waiting for you to return. There are some familiar faces here as well, should I introduce you to them?" He whispered back to Nico, with a gesture to the closest group of dignitaries.
"Not those ones, they came here with us. But the ones that we don't know, I would appreciate your help with." Nico agreed, firmly entrenching his position as her patsy for the night.
She had big plans, and he was going to help her meet all the right people.
