"Can you stay a little longer with us? I want to talk to your ship design team about the Cutters that made it past Warp 10. The way you did it is incredible. Who would have thought that a resonant hull and brute force could accomplish such an interesting feat?" One of the technology-focused representatives asked.
"You will have to pry the leader of the team away from Theta, but I can call in a few more of the design team for you to talk to." Max agreed.
"Oh, in that case, I will just have Theta ask all the questions and answer for us." The woman replied happily, and Max realized that she thought Nico wasn't good at speaking the common language since both she and Theta had been speaking Binary the whole meeting.
"You can ask her yourself, she understands just fine. It's just that whatever she is speaking with Theta is a faster language to communicate in." Max explained.
"Why don't we go check out the museum? Everyone loves the Museum." Nena suggested, indicating a platform in the corner of the room.
"That sounds excellent. Even a view of the progression that your technology took might be a good way to encourage our sentient neighbors onto a more peaceful course. The Klem might be a lost cause, but the rest can be reasonable." Max agreed.
"Yes, the Klem as you call them are innately parasitic. We had thought the same about humanity until we realized that the colonies lived in a state of symbiosis. The Klem species isn't smart enough for that and only consume until they kill themselves off, leaving entire systems bare." Nena sighed, obviously disappointed in the species.
"It's a good thing they're not smarter though. They would be the only species in this Galaxy if they were much smarter." Nico pointed out, having finished her negotiation with Theta.
"However, with appropriate technology, and some raw materials, they do leave behind prime candidates for terraforming, since they don't strip planets of their atmospheres. If you drop a few large meteors on them to replace essential elements for the growth of life, moving a distance behind them would lead to prime opportunities for colonization, and they would never know, as they don't return to dead planets." Brick pointed out.
That was actually a genius idea, and Max wondered if anyone else had thought of it. Possibly the Narsians had, though he didn't have enough data to be sure. These aliens might know the extent of the Narsian's borders though, and he would ask later, once they finished looking at all the amazing things the museum was likely to have.
When they approached a small portal, just large enough for Brick and the other giants to pass through, opened, showing the doors to the museum, clearly labeled, in a language that Max couldn't read, but it looked like the default language on Terminus, the one they had been translating.
If he had armor on, he could translate it right away, but he would have to just guess for the moment.
To move more quickly, Theta had turned himself into a long metallic worm, simply extending over the distance in a flash of fluid metal and passing through the portal. His level of speed was unexpected, and it made Max wonder what sort of world they developed in that his species needed such fast reflexes, even as a liquid metal.
"Their homeworld is very volatile. Volcanic activity occurs with little or no warning at all, so they had to learn to avoid being burned to death or drowned as they evolved. At this point, it isn't much of a concern for him, but in the ancient past, they were closer to a species of snail than purely living metal." Nena explained, responding to Max's thoughts again.
Theta as a snail actually worked as a visual. He still preferred a round shape, and extending out to reach a location and then pulling his body behind him was a lot like how most snails moved. That made Max think of the friendly ball of silver in a whole new light.
The entry to the Museum was very impressive, meant to be able to move relics in and out, and Max could see a lot of activity not far from the doors, where a group of giants was adjusting one of the exhibits.
"That's where the replicator you donated is going. The sector is designed so that a journey through the museum from this entrance is chronological, for my species. If you take the left path, it will follow the Valkia, if you go further right, it will follow the Innu." Brick explained.
The sector was labeled the Fundamentalist Uprising and Expansion Era. Not exactly a creative name, but it did give a very precise description of the era that Max could appreciate. Much of the tech in this area was similar to what they had found on Terminus, though most of it was holographic, as no preserved samples survived the exodus of the Colonists.
The main body of the species was already moving forward in technology, and according to the data Max could see in front of him had started genetic modifications to enhance their species that the Colonists objected to, though in later years it was found that they often employed it in crude and violent ways on themselves in order to survive the environments where they landed.
That was viewed as less invasive than full terraforming of the world they landed on.
Looking it over, Max was almost entirely certain that the Narsians were in fact from the same base species as Brick was, they had simply modified themselves into a very different species, whereas Brick and his people had modified themselves to be capable of photosynthesis and a number of other things that Max couldn't translate, as no language that he knew had a word for them.
The words were in the Common language that Nena had been speaking to them, but the words didn't exist in any dictionary in this Galaxy.
That gave Max a great idea.
"I don't suppose that a few science textbooks and a dictionary would be too much to ask for?"
