They were just starting to get ready for the serious negotiations when everyone's communicators started to go insane with a flood of urgent messages. The Cathedral Ships that they had been watching had suddenly disappeared from their sensors, going to Warp and too far away for their movements to be tracked, though there were projections based on the initial forming of the Warp Fields that had been detected.
[How long do we have?] Max asked Nico, whose mind he could hear calculating the next steps in their strategy.
[If my analysis of their movements during the previous battles is correct, then we should have approximately seven days before they arrive. Their Warp Drives aren't as fast as what the Alliance uses, as they usually travel through the other layers of space, where they can move much faster and without being detected.] She replies an instant later.
[Alright, then six days to prepare for battle and get everyone mobilized. Do we have any indication of where they're going to strike?]
Nico's thoughts filled with annoyance.
[Nothing yet. Their course will take them off into the middle of nowhere, along the very borders of Alliance space, and closer to where Terminus is working than to any populated worlds.] She replied.
[Could they know where the humans went after the last portion of the Eternal War, and they're headed there first, and then planning to make their way across to us?
If they still view the ancient humans as their true enemies, and us as new threats, then it would make sense.] Max replied.
[That is a possibility. It seems unlikely, unless they don't have the sensor resolution to see that the whole region is uninhabited.]
Max had a sudden flash of insight as he recalled the many cloaking technologies of his past life.
[Or if they think that the life that is, there has simply been cloaked from their sensors. Remember the Distortion Fields?] He informed her.
[Oh, yeah, they could hide whole planets full of people from your sensors. That trick never got old. If they know about those, then it would make sense that they are going to search areas that look like they're empty.]
Nico didn't send a direct reply, instead she started adjusting the sensors on Terminus, which was the only vessel anywhere near the region, to detect hidden vessels, and to pick up on the subtle signs that would let them know if there were planets hidden by the old cloaking technologies.
Modern sensors could already see through most of them, but if there were some that had been overlooked, Max wanted to know about them before an invasion arrived. It would be a tragedy to overlook a potential ally with knowledge about fighting this enemy, if there were still some of them present in this part of the universe.
Going by the histories that human planets had, and the group of identical star systems that they had discovered on the north side of their own Galaxy, it was possible that the humans had long since been here and gone again, but there was some hope that they would have a surviving colony or two.
"Do we have any further official information from the Government?" Max asked the Envoys, who were frantically sending messages to various groups.
The Envoys all shook their head. "There has been too much happening for them to make any preparations. They're running on autopilot at the moment, and relying on the preset procedures to get them through the next few hours until they can come up with an official response."
"Alright, we can wait to make plans until they've got things well enough in order that they're not going to freak out the moment that we take action. I know that the Reaver Council is going to want to start retrofitting the facilities that they purchased as soon as possible, and that will mean plenty of Reaver ships arriving in the alliance.
Large ones, to transport enough equipment to retrofit entire operations in a day, and we all know that means they'll be heavily armed, no large Reaver ship isn't, by Alliance standards." Max added with a chuckle.
The Valkia and Innu Envoys shared an amused glance, while the Giant looked incredibly frustrated by the fact. They were sure to get hundreds of complaints about a human war fleet appearing all over the Alliance over the next few days, and there was nothing that they could do to prevent the concerns from citizens who had been sheltered by generations and suddenly came face to face with the immense military might of the Reavers as they worked to renovate the local construction business.
The Innu was the fastest to recover, and after taking a sip of her coffee, she smiled at Max. "I'm sure that it will be fine. They must have seen a planetary defence ship before, they patrol everywhere that doesn't have one of their own, so the novelty will wear off eventually.
Plus, they're likely going to be one of the biggest employers in the system after they arrive, so it will be difficult for people to see them as an enemy for long."
Max relayed the information to Mary, who was surely waiting to hear if he had been successful in his delaying action, and then moved over to the wall to get a fresh pot of coffee and some sandwiches.
"I think that we are all going to need these in a few minutes. The deals to purchase the weapons makers are almost done, and the news of the Cathedral Ship Fleet headed this way should be public in the next thirty minutes." Max reminded them.
"What do you mean?" One of the assistants blurted out, then covered her mouth as she realized that she had spoken out of turn.
Max shrugged, and the Innu Envoy reached out to pat her head.
"The entire government knows now. How long do you think that their staff is going to wait before someone goes to the media in an attempt to get a payday out of the breaking news? We never expect a secret to last more than an hour, and that is why none of you have outside communication privileges." She explained.
"One hour? Isn't that a bit too jaded?" The assistant asked, and the Envoy gave her an indulgent smile.
"Only the first one to spread the news gets paid. So they have to act quickly if they're going to get anything. The news agencies are pretty good about keeping the source secret most of the time, so there isn't much of a risk, unless they embarrass someone that they shouldn't have." She explained.
The assistant made a note and then faded back into the anonymity of the crowd, hoping that everyone would forget that she made a spectacle of herself during an important meeting about a grave threat to the Alliance.
Mary sent back a message as the conversation finished.
[We have the purchases completed, and we're starting to field the hate mail already from the companies that had the same idea we did, but an hour too late. It looks like everything will be fine, and we are already preparing to send out the renovation crews to the new factories.] Mary informed Max and Nico at the same time.
[Alright, I will let the Envoys know that the ships are coming, so that nobody panics and thinks that every unfamiliar vessel is an enemy. The news should have been leaked by now, and we're just waiting for it to go public.] Max replied.
[Alright, I will ask them to hurry, so that as many as possible are in place before the announcement, so their arrival only causes rampant speculation.]
