For six more hours, Max was dragged from dance to dance, meeting new people and seeing sides of his Regiment that he hadn't expected to exist.
Some, like Colonel Klinger having incredible luck with the ladies, weren't that unexpected, but some, like the quiet corvette class Pilot from the Fourth Battalion leading a thrash metal open mic session on the third level of the venue were entirely unexpected.
From what Max could find out, a number of pilots had spent their allocations for the materials printers to get musical instruments made. So, when the time for a party came, they found a good spot and took it over to hold an open mic jam with anyone from the Regiment who was willing, along with a number of volunteer singers from among the guests.
The cake had first appeared at seven in the evening and seemed to come back every two hours thereafter. The last time Max saw it was just after midnight when Nico had convinced a number of Reavers that if you soaked it with rum and ate it with a spoon it was even better.
Max wasn't sure how much that would improve the flavor, but between the cherry pie filling and the decadent chocolate, the alcoholic hint of the rum probably wouldn't be unpleasant once it had time to soak in.
Though, the group was mostly drunk enough that they wouldn't notice anyhow.
"Commander, I heard that you were going to authorize the top floor to stay open as a ship's facility, a full-time tavern aboard Terminus." One of the Wing Leaders from the Second Battalion asked.
"That's right. I thought everyone could use another place to unwind. There's no reason to be uncomfortable, since we have all this extra space available, and we're unlikely to take on so many refugees again that we will need multiple Cargo bays to hold them all."
The slightly tipsy Pilot thought about that for a moment then nodded. "Thank you, Commander. I will go talk to the crew about setting up weekly open Mic nights for us."
Terminus was meant to be a flying city, not just a set of crew quarters, and they were slowly renovating everything to suit themselves, but even with the newly added Line Mecha Pilots, they were under ten percent of capacity.
Those unfortunate souls were still sleeping in regulation dorms, made with the Kepler Materials Printer, and not in the fancy suites that the rest of the Regiment had inherited after their trade dealings, but that was just one of the hazards of being at the bottom of the list.
They weren't too crowded, though they shared space with their wing, as the Corvette Class Pilots did. They just didn't have the luxurious surroundings and lived in dorms like the plain one Max had been assigned in Uncle Lu's Lab.
Max seemed to recall that one of the Captains that he had talked to earlier had specialized in renovations of ships. They had a lot of space, so maybe Max could talk him into doing something here on Terminus, giving them more guest space, plus some entertainment facilities.
"Nico, have you seen the Captain that does ship renovations?" Max asked the next time he saw her. She had just finished some sort of competition with another cyborg, but Max couldn't tell what they were actually trying to do, as they were mentally focused on a picture.
"Oh, the guy who thought we needed a high-tech, terrarium-themed shopping mall and theme park in the central promenade of the ship? He's upstairs talking with some of the guys from maintenance about decorating themes." Nico informed him, and Max saw their location in Nico's mind through the link she was holding open to the ship's cameras.
That wasn't a bad idea, but Max wondered how she didn't drive herself mad multitasking like that. But then, Nico's mind had never worked like everyone else's.
"Captain Calatrava, do you have a few minutes tomorrow? I would like to talk to you about a few ship's features if you can get them designed and implemented in a reasonable timeframe." Max asked.
"Are you really going to approve renovating the whole ship? We've been telling him how much of a pain some of the original sectors are to work in since they're all designed for much larger people, or for Mecha." The leader of the group of logistics staffers that the Captain was sitting with asked Max.
"Not the whole ship, but I was interested in the ideas about the mall and the theme park, as well as some other entertainment venues, as well as standardized housing. We might not have a huge crew right now, but we might end up increasing our numbers later, and we will need to have space available before we can take any more people in." Max agreed.
At five kilometers long, and roughly one and a half kilometers wide, the total area of Terminus was vast, and shouldn't be underestimated against the potential capacity of a small city. Since they could easily build vertically, they would have no issues hosting a few hundred thousand long-term residents, should they decide to become an actual colony ship, carrying intrepid travelers in search of adventures and new homes.
The thought of being a glorified interstellar cruise ship was actually quite amusing to Max, and it gave him a good basis to have the ship's interior redesigned. The balance of living space and entertainment everywhere, with the all-inclusive nature of a cruise ship, or a Military Vessel, would be perfect for their needs, and serve both as comfortable living quarters for the general staff, as well as excellent camouflage, should someone suspect them of being a military invader.
Max put a lot of thought into that over the evening, while he looked into the resources of the Reaver that he was planning to hire.
The crew was well known as ship rebuilders, modifying derelict and captured ships to the new owner's specifications. They had a large number of Reaver vessels in their customer list, as well as civilian luxury yachts from a dozen different nations. That seemed trustworthy enough for Max to let them aboard the ship.
They also had six vessels here in the Rae 5 system and were building a space station near the gas giant that made the middle planet of the system. They wouldn't mess up their good thing here by causing issues on a job for the unofficial flagship of the system.
So, with consideration to the five newly built Cutters, plus room for five more equivalent-sized vessels in the bays above them and a plethora of cavernous storage spaces for any sort of cargo that they might pick up to trade, Max was left with a good estimate of the space he had to work with, and made plans to have them build a luxury cruise ship for fifty thousand taking up most of the front half of Terminus, while the Regiment would renovate the rear half to make room for refugees, or military forces to be stationed, equal to two President Class Transport Ships.
How he was going to explain his plans to the Regiment was the hard part. Taking on passengers wasn't part of their plans, and they weren't planning to take on entire Infantry Regiments either. The more spartan areas could be passed off as refugee preparations since they might pick them up from further away, but the Cruise Ship accommodations would be harder to explain to the men and women under his command.
