The deliveries to Terminus were completed right on schedule, and they departed later that evening, ship time, to head out to meet the Corvus.
The Lead Ship of the Noctem Fleet, as they had introduced themselves, was eerily similar to Terminus in design, leaving no doubt that they were designed by the same culture, despite the fact that Corvus was over eight thousand kilometers long.
The sheer mass of that vessel should be impossible. There was no way that it should be able to travel through space without the forces tearing any known material apart, but there it was in all its glory.
[Welcome Terminus. Please proceed to Bay MC8 for docking and structural integrity verification.] A pleasant synthetic voice greeted them, likely the translator of the alien ship.
They had at least been assigned one of the closest bays on the planetoid-sized ship, and a gravity beam from the massive vessel brought Terminus in smoothly after the Admiral powered down the engines, landing them inside the bay while a wall of light passed over them on the other side of an atmosphere containment shield.
That was interesting, the wall of light seemed to normalize their ship's temperature so that they could safely enter the bay and not endanger any unprotected life forms that might also be present.
[Nico I hope you are making notes.] Max sent to his second in command, who replied only with a smiling cat emoji.
Once they were landed and their status was verified, a signal was sent through to Terminus that made a green ring glow around the outer edges of the ship's screens, indicating their safe-to-depart status.
Max hadn't known that the screens could do that, and it was an incredibly handy way to verify that a command series was completed and the ship was ready. He would have to get it coded into more of their status notifications later.
[Commander Keres of Terminus, our welcoming party will be ready for you in ten minutes, by your time measurements, at the foot of your main departure ramp.] The pleasant translator voice informed Max directly to his communicator.
[Thank you, my Command group will be present to make their acquaintance.] Max replied, getting back a happy-sounding beep that reminded Max of the language that Nico and Theta had been speaking.
"I don't suppose that you can translate, can you? I don't know if we're going to be able to talk directly to them once we arrive there." Max asked Nico, just before meeting with the honor guard assigned from the First Battalion for this function.
"I'm already on it. Theta says they have translation implants, so they will understand. I am programming their standard language into your headset right now, and it will translate in close to real-time, so you can just speak your responses as you hear the conversation." Nico replied.
"And the same for you?" Max asked suspiciously.
"Nope, I already programmed their language into my language subroutines, so I will see it come up as subtitles."
Max laughed at the thought. Subtitled reality? How strange would that be? A bit like watching foreign movies, but in real life. The ultimate VR full immersion experience.
Unfortunately, Max was going in what passed for formal uniform among Reavers, so he didn't have a helmet display to do the same, and had to rely on the earbud to translate for him. Many Reavers got implants for this purpose so that they didn't have to actually learn foreign languages, but Max had never seen the need so far in life, and the earbud didn't interfere with anything.
Max and Nico arrived with the ten soldiers behind them, five men and five women, all in their formal best, the same as the reavers dressed for General Yaakov's wedding, minus the pistols and knives. If things got messy here, it would most likely be about a misunderstanding about their own aggression from what Max had learned of these strange vessels, not because Terminus and her crew were attacked.
The ramp opened slowly, revealing a very eclectic group facing them.
There were two giants, who Max had assumed were the primary population of Terminus. They looked a lot like the Narsians, but larger, and somehow softer. That made Max wonder if they were actually related, just separated by Millennia. But they weren't in charge, nor were the pink-skinned ones with tails, or the pair with bestial faces, or Theta, who was waving happily from the far left side.
That honor went to a group of four blonde-haired women, roughly two meters tall, wearing simple cloth tunics and holding ceremonial spears that Max could see weren't sharpened, or containing any sort of technology to make them lethal.
As the ramp reached the floor and Max stepped forward with Nico a half step beside him on his left, winking at Theta, the four blondes shifted slightly, and large white wings unfurled from their backs.
The sight was incredibly impressive, and even the lighting through their feathers gave the impression of gentleness and power.
[195cm average height, high-density musculature, hollow bone structure, hybrid carbon and adamantite-based life form, average weight 32 kilograms, determination, flight-capable in standard atmosphere.] Max heard Nico's mental analysis.
Why that was the most important part to her was a mystery, but the revelation about their bones meant that they were not only bulletproof, they could likely take direct hits from light energy weapons without severe injury. Like Theta, they were also a metal-based life form, but a biological one and not purely living metal.
"Welcome Humans, and Nico. I am Nena of the Vakia. It is both a pleasure and an honor to meet a group of travelers with such respect for the integration of history and modernity, though the choice of technologies seems a bit incongruous." The leader greeted them with a slight bow.
Max saw Nico smile at being given her own species designation by the alien leaders, but she remained silent while Max stepped forward to speak on behalf of his people.
"Thank you for the warm welcome, Nena of the Valkia. I am Keres Max, Commander of the Terminus Trading Company, and leader of those aboard the vessel we have named Terminus."
"Theta, they have translators, you can stop screeching in my ear." One of the pink-skinned creatures whispered, making Nico snort in amusement.
"Interesting. So you can understand not only my greeting but the ultrasonic translations of Theta?" Nena asked Nico.
"My hearing has been upgraded from the human standard, so his range is within my detection capabilities. Binary wasn't hard for me to pick up, given my nature, and the assistance of the Nanotechnology in my body." Nico replied politely.
"Please, join us in a sitting room. We have far more to talk about than even I had expected." Nena replied, gesturing behind her, as the welcoming party from Corvus parted to let Max and his group pass between them
