Max sat in his makeshift office in the cargo area of Creeping Darkness and looked across the desk at the group of Reavers, Innu and Giants that had requested a meeting. They had come aboard with one of the freighters, recovered from a damaged shuttle after a battle in a nearby system, and they were requesting to remain aboard after the freighter left.
"Alright, sell it to me. Why should I take you on as crew?" Max asked.
The group of spacefarers smiled back, feeling that they had already won the first battle. Max was considering taking them as part of his crew.
"We represent a whole command team, engineering, astrometrics, maintenance, personnel management, Mecha pilots and security guards. Between us, we don't have anyone without advanced skills, and we come with a proven track record of steadfast duty.
We fought until the bitter end, kept the Great Enemy away from the planet for six whole hours before our vessel was lost, and we escaped in the emergency shuttle from the bridge. Our Commander was with us at first, but he suffered heart trauma during the explosion, and the medical team couldn't treat him in time aboard the freighter.
That is the only department that we are lacking, as all of our medics were sent to the surface once we realized that we wouldn't be able to hold the enemy in space.
There is battle footage to serve as a recommendation, in lieu of our Commander's word." The leader of the group, a younger Reaver with blonde dreadlocks, explained.
"Are any of you from a Command Family, with a chance at inheritance rights? Or were you all enlisted crew?" Max asked.
"The Company itself would pass to the Commander's son, who was on the planet the last we heard of him. I don't know how that battle went, though. It has been difficult to keep communications on the freighter with everything that has been going on."
That was understandable. None of the battle situations were public, they had all been encrypted and sent to Command. Mary would know, but Max had too much to do right now to disturb her, and she likely didn't have things any easier than he did.
"I will find out what the situation is for you. If they are in the queue for a replacement ship, are you planning to return to your original company?" He asked.
The leader shook his head. "No, we were hoping to break off and start another freight ship under their command originally, but now that their business has collapsed, we were hoping to do the same under you.
We have the funds saved between us, but with the queue, we thought that it might be better to try our hand at becoming the permanent staff of a world ship. Owning a cargo vessel is just the start, as you well know. Getting good customers was never easy, and now with everyone repaying their saviours, it will be even harder."
He had a point, and Max had thought about the same thing. It really would be a bad time to be a brand new Reaver Company, starting out without the connections to ensure that you could keep busy.
"Alright, I will hire you. Standard contracts, with no fixed term of service. Your first task will be to help me sort all these applications. You cover most of the major departments, so each of you can separate them by group. We can start with a thousand of them, and work from there.
Once we have enough staff to get started, I will hold proper auditions for the leadership roles. I won't guarantee them to you just because you're here first, but your job performance in finding the rest of the crew will be a factor in the decision." Max announced.
"Isn't a thousand far too few people? I know that you managed to get the world ship this far on your own, but a thousand souls isn't enough to keep it running for more than a day." One of the Innu Reavers asked.
"For that, we have the androids. I had considered making this a fully autonomous world ship, but with so many people looking for work, it makes sense to bring them on board and bring the place to life.
The ship's AI has already begun renovating for the new crew, but once you see the layout of the vessel, you will understand that this was a ship made for war, and it is set up for extremely high density living, not the sort of natural luxury and splendour of Absolution."
The blonde laughed. "So, more like a normal Reaver Ship? Tell me, how many is it intended to hold once it is renovated and set up for cargo?"
Max shrugged. "Fifty million, give or take a few."
"What will fifty million even do on a world ship? I mean, it would be a city of its own, but if it's not generations of family, what would the goal of the Creeping Darkness even be?" The leader of the crew group asked.
"Humanitarian aid. Creeping Darkness has a massive drone and android army on board, and I fully intend to keep sending it places to either end battles, help planets recover after battles, or calm domestic disturbances. I think most of you will be familiar with the Rebellion that broke Kepler apart. If there were more reliable peacekeepers, I think that the rebellion could have been ended before it ever gained the traction that it did.
Too many planets called for help and got nothing. That was what turned them to the Rebellion. So, we will be aiming to prevent that level of discontent from happening in the first place."
One of the Giants stepped forward to speak. "With an emphasis on rebuilding or on quelling rebellion?"
"On rebuilding and defending so that rebuilding isn't necessary. The goal is that there shouldn't be any rebellions to quell in the first place."
The Giant nodded. "Then I think that we're all in agreement. It's a pleasure to meet you Commander Max."
