Max sent a brief message to the staff of Terminus that they would be leaving within the hour for a political summit with the Anomaly Representatives, and then started to double-check the gear that he had in his flat space storage.
If things did go wrong, he didn't want to be caught unprepared, and unlike Nico, he couldn't go for a month or more without eating. The ship would have plenty of material for the Replicators, but Max liked to at least have a week's worth of rations in his storage, just in case, along with his weapons, Mobile Suit, and a few changes of clothes.
That was about all that would fit, and packing it all in there took some skill, but he was satisfied that he had enough to get through most situations that might come up during their trip back to Rae 5 this time.
With that done, Max headed for the rear of the ship, where Nico should be getting things ready. She was in the hangar, where he expected her to be, but not preparing the yacht. She had started stocking the Cutter for their excursion, on the hopes that they really would be able to pick up a load of new Mecha on this trip, or that they were Titan Class, which wouldn't fit easily in the smaller vessel.
The old researcher could have just been teasing them with the pictures, and the chances that he had a significantly modified Mecha in such a short time was fairly low, even if they did have a new power source, but it was better to be safe than sorry, and Nico was taking no chances when it came to the possibility of a new custom Mecha.
Terminus opened a portal for them to get halfway back, the extent of the Portal Array's range, and then Max set course for an uninhabited relay point within the Alliance, where they could open the final portal to Rae 5.
It was an odd feeling, being so far out that they had to use multiple jumps to get where they were going, but the entire process only took a few minutes with the upgraded Warp Drives on the Cutters, which could charge the Portal generator much faster than the first generation.
[Rae 5 Moon Base, this is Nico Tarith of the Terminus Trading Company, requesting permission to dock a cutter class vessel.] Nico reported once they were back in the Rae 5 system.
There was a short pause, and then the traffic controller's confused voice came back to them.
[Terminus Trading Company, the Moon Base reports no functional empty docks. Please remain in orbit over the planet or make your way to the world ship Absolution for docking.]
Max listened to the nearby workers' thoughts, looking for Uncle Lu among the crowd. There were definitely open docks, and they were both working and staffed, but it seemed that they had arrived early and Uncle Lu didn't want to let them in until their surprise was ready.
Finding a single person among the crowd wasn't easy, but Ranarth's mind stood out like a beacon of mental fortitude, which let him pinpoint the Darkling right away, and then track down Uncle Lu by proximity.
They were still six hours from completion of the first unit, and the second hadn't even begun production yet. There had been serious delays with the Replicator systems, and a number of overloaded relays when they attempted to create the exotic materials for the project.
Max pressed the transmit button to respond to the traffic controller.
[Understood traffic control. We will return to Absolution and await clearance from the Moon Base.]
Nico gave him an annoyed look for that, as she had been intending on hacking the doors to a bay to land, but Max's reassuring look settled her down.
"They're not ready, are they?" She realized.
"Not for another six hours at best, and that's if nothing else goes wrong. I don't know all the details, but whatever they've made this project out of keeps killing the Terraforming Arrays and even the custom Replicators that we designed for the Dyson Sphere." Max agreed.
"See, that just makes me want to go there even more." Nico reminded him.
"Let them save some face, and get it right before we show up to look at it. They'll get it, we just need to wait a little bit." Max laughed as they approached the curved hull of the World Ship.
"Waiting has always been the hardest part. But at least I'll be back with the research team for a few hours, I'm sure they can find some way to distract me." Nico complained.
"Tell them that we need a new drone configuration. That should keep you busy all day." Max suggested.
"A configuration to do what?" Nico asked, curious where he was going with this line of thought.
"Automated point defence for the new custom Mecha. They're clearly valuable and difficult to replace, so they are going to need wingmen even if we're out on a mission alone. That means a versatile multipurpose drone configuration." Max replied with a smile.
There was no possible configuration that could do everything at the same time, so they would be busy all day just trying to decide what aspects were the most important, while guessing what sorts of missions the new Mecha would be on.
Nico smiled at him. "Excellent idea. I will get the coffee, and we will get right to work. Expect wonderful things by the time that we are finished."
Max docked the ship while Nico sent messages to the design teams to get them started on the new project, with the understanding that it was a one-day creativity exercise, not a priority. If they didn't come up with something good, she would just have them swap out the drones between missions as they always had so that they had the right ones for the situation.
Max went for a much more simple afternoon. He returned to the common area of the Cutter, grabbed snacks from the replicator and settled into a reclining chair, where he put his feet up to watch a comedy. Three hours down, no problem.
