Finally, the morning had arrived to head to the planet's surface and go see Mary for the first time since their return. Both Max and Nico were very excited, but possibly for different reasons.
Max had spent the last two days aboard Absolution, catching up on the essentials of the Terminus Trading Company business, and some alone time with Nico, but her excitement this morning was on a whole other level, and she was doing her best to keep her thoughts shielded from him.
They had prepared the shuttle with an assortment of random trinkets for Mary to give out to the other Reaver Commanders during the afternoon meetings, as a form of apology for monopolizing her time all morning, and Commander Luke Tarith had brought his Cruiser into dock with Creeping Darkness so that there was at least one Reaver Commander on board if Sylvie ran into a situation where her programming required secondary authorization.
He understood very well that the AI could likely do everything on her own, but he was a relative of Nico's, and he piloted one of the earliest vessels that the Terminus Trading Company had assigned, with an excellent track record.
That made him more than qualified to babysit a stationary world ship for the morning so that Max and Nico didn't have to be in constant communication.
He could have sent someone from the Board of Directors, but they all had enough to do for the day, as they were also helping with the workload of the recovery effort, and had meetings all day long.
"Commanders, we will be landing in the designated VIP pad atop the parliament building in four minutes, please enjoy the trip." The pilot of the shuttle informed them as they departed Absolution.
That alone was enough to make Max chuckle. Of course, they would enjoy the trip, they had very carefully planned to do nothing all morning, so that the other ministers had to deal with their own issues for once instead of bringing everything to Mary. Both Sylvie and Felicity had confirmed that the majority of the work that was foisted on her was not her responsibility, but that of one of the other Commanders, who didn't know how to deal with it on their own.
In a way, that was the role of the leader, but allowing that level of continued incompetence wasn't good for anyone, and sending it back with notes and suggestions would go a long way toward lightening her workload back down toward something normal.
There was only one of her and a hundred other leaders in the Reaver Council, after all.
They were met at the landing pad by the security guards from the Capital, and escorted to Mary's official office and suites in the Parliament building, a small apartment with a very luxurious office in the front to welcome guests.
"There you are, I've been waiting for you to find time to see me. How are things aboard your fancy new world ship?" Mary greeted them at the door, before pulling Nico into what would have been a bone crushing hug, if she had bones in the conventional sense.
"It's good to see you again. I hope that they're not trying to work you to death. But if they are, we had the AI prepare a large selection of items in your workload that they should be taking care of themselves, along with guidance notes on how to do their jobs. Politely worded." Max replied.
"Oh, that's not bad. What else is in the shuttle, I see that the guards are still bringing down crates." Mary asked.
"We brought gifts for the rest of the Council, so they can't complain about us stealing you all morning. Have you had breakfast yet?" Nico asked her mother with a sly wink.
"No, this is my breakfast meeting. Did you say all morning?"
Nico laughed. "We had the AI lock down your schedule, so that nobody but you could change it, and we've booked you right until the end of lunch. We've got more than enough to talk about to keep us busy, but I thought that we would start with the little things. Go ahead and ask the question, I know you want to ask."
Mary smiled at her. "Fine, I'll ask the question. When can I expect grand babies?"
Everyone laughed for a moment, before Nico handed her mother a notepad.
"I have here the definitive evidence that I have managed to modify myself into a fully transmittable biomechanical organism. Of course, the compatibility at the moment is limited, but there is proof."
The data tablet contained a variety of data compiled by Nico and her research team that Max found contained quite a lot of his own data, despite the fact that he didn't recall participating in the study.
"As you can see, as Max has adapted to the influx of energy from his last System upgrade, it made him increasingly compatible with my power system, and I managed to modify my internal energy fluctuations to match, which eventually proved to be a success.
The infusion of the purified energy from the Greater Energy Beings, adapted for my own use, is capable of making a truly living biomechanical organism. It's a surprisingly powerful medium to work with, similar to holding the true power of creation in your hands, only it has been watered down and initially didn't have the power to sustain a corporealbeing.
That's where the studying came in. Now, I can provide you with that heir that you wanted at any point at which Max agrees to participate."
Mary's keen gaze turned to Max, who was looking at Nico. The last update in that data log was this morning, so she had been researching the topic even after he got back to Absolution, in order to be ready to present it to her mother without warning him.
It was a brilliant plan, there was no time to talk her out of it, and now the pressure was on him, with Mary waiting for his agreement now that she had Nico's.
"Perhaps not right here in your office. But we can discuss this later. I also have a collection of data for you on the refugee situation, and we can get that out of the way before moving on to important topics."
