After the meetings with Mary were finished, both Max and Nico returned to Creeping Darkness to keep themselves close to the developing population base of the new ship. Absolution was stable and had been for quite some time, so there was no real need to second guess anything that the Board of Directors was doing there, but Creeping Darkness just had Sylvie, who had never dealt with a civilian population before.
The fact that there hadn't been any major issues yet was something akin to a miracle, and Max fully expected that there would be a major blowup soon, as someone protested either the job they were given, or the fact that they were expected to work at all.
There were always layabouts in the group, and most Reaver Companies would have the new arrivals look for jobs on their own, which would give them plentiful time on the basic allowance before anyone caught on and realized that they weren't even looking for work.
Then they would be kicked out of the nicer units reserved for new arrivals and into whatever they could get on the Reaver Company's minimum subsidy, which was usually a rooming house for deadbeats.
It was nothing glamorous, but to some it was still better than having to show up for work, and when they had left, there were hundreds of new arrivals who hadn't shown up for their first day at work.
Max looked over at Nico in the shuttle. "You really got your mother going with the fertility announcement. How long do you think that she's going to let us slide before she starts to demand that we test it out?"
Nico smirked at him. "I give it a full year. The thought of a baby flying cyborg in her house is enough to give her a headache, so she will back off for a bit. But on the bright side, now that I've finished my modifications, there is no reason that we can't have that big family my mother wants. Even better, we can just deliver it straight to her for incubation."
The shuttle docked with the world ship in the same bay as the Cruiser was stored, and the duo exited to rejoin the small research and command team that was overseeing both the new arrivals and the team of applicants who were doing all the actual work.
"Any issues while we were gone?" Max asked.
"Only one small one, but it needs your authority. Sylvie won't send Company Contracts to anyone who hasn't shown up for work. She says that if they're not fulfilling their duties, they haven't agreed to abide by the terms and conditions of membership in a Reaver Company, so that makes them tourists, and not part of the group." The team leader explained.
"That's not actually a bad idea. We have taken them in as refugees, but they're not officially members of the Terminus Trading Company yet. If they're not a benefit to the Company, there is no harm in leaving them in refugee status." Max shrugged.
The others looked somewhat concerned at Max's decision, but if that was the Commander's choice, they weren't going to argue. It would also be easier than going the disciplinary route later.
"What is next on the agenda, now that we have most of the station's core functions up and running?" The team leader asked.
"First, we will start moving goods from the industrial areas to the cargo bays for shipment to afflicted Reaver Planets, then we will finalize the new Command Crew. After that, we can start the full production of new ships and space station segments for the Companies here in Rae 5.
Absolution will be doing the same, and we are the largest vessels around, as well as some of the only undamaged ones. That puts us in a unique position of needing to have the most possible output without the distraction of smaller issues like the recovery of other planets.
That is why we're sending out as much as we can before we switch most of the bays to space station production." Max explained.
"And these Command Positions, we're in the running, right? Not just the group of refugees?" One of the Innu away team members asked.
"Of course. The most senior positions always go to experienced Reavers, and you ten were here right from the discovery of Creeping Darkness." Max agreed.
The Innu high-fived the man next to her, and began preparing herself for the excitement that was going to happen when she finally got her wish to be the first Innu in charge of a Reaver World Ship.
Max didn't have the heart to tell her that she was thinking of the wrong Innu, and that the team leader had both more experience and better qualifications for the job of Admiral. He would let her celebrate, and then the team leader would take over the senior assignments, with the newly arrived officers filling in the gaps.
There would also be more officers brought over from Absolution to fill top positions where there weren't enough qualified applicants. Some of them were ready for a promotion, and building a loyal core at the top of every division was vital to preventing the sort of insidious rebellion that had destroyed Creeping Darkness's power systems the first time.
The rest of the day was spent in the oversight of the equipment transfer, sending out massive amounts of relief supplies to the damaged human worlds, including expanding dome homes, a briefcase sized unit that deployed to create a round single room home, whose walls filled with rapidly expanding foam that hardened to a state stronger than wood.
Coupled with a huge amount of ration packs which included a water purifier and condenser, it covered the basic needs of food and shelter, with an ongoing source of clean drinking water. They were also all branded with the Terminus Trading Company logo, so everyone knew where they came from. It was important to let everyone know who had created their relief supplies, both for properly directed gratitude, and properly directed complaints, should the items prove to be of substandard quality.
