They were almost back to the Moon Base when a distress call came through to Terminus. Not from the Reavers, as they had expected, but through their newly activated emergency beacon. It wasn't a mayday call, so the ship wasn't in immediate danger of death, but a pleasure yacht from the Innu had broken down in the Klem territory while sightseeing the vicious alien insects.
Like Terminus, they lacked the capability to replace their Crystals, and so they lacked both the ability to form a Warp Field and the power to open a portal to go home, relying on their organic power packs as backup power.
[Hold tight. Former Colony Ship Terminus is on the way to effect your retrieval.] Max responded.
"Well, we wanted to know what was over there, and there aren't any closer intelligent species, since the Corvus went the other direction I think, so we have a good reason for a journey," Max told Nico.
"Live science test! I will link in Uncle Lu while I set up the portal generator. Terminus wasn't equipped with one, they took the conventional warp journey here despite the time required, but we can retrofit it without changing the outer hull. It operates much like the gravity field generator, only with a warp field integrated. This is going to be amazing." Nico cheered, already sending messages to Engineering, design, the Admiral, and Uncle Lu about her impromptu plan.
"And how long would it take to get there if this doesn't work?" Max asked, trying to put some realism into her enthusiasm.
"About a week in a Cutter, or a couple of months in Terminus? They're way out there." Nico replied, bringing up the full map on a nearby terminal screen.
"From the looks of it, that is right in the heart of the Klem territory as well, so there will be fully colonized planets, with active Queens and full forces capable of defending against intruders." Max pointed out.
"That's what makes this so much fun. But their yacht is only a hundred meters long, even in a Cutter we could drag it aboard and return, as long as we didn't bring any Mecha." Nico responded, knowing that the Klem had no way to catch the vessels.
"That was a lot of data just for a portal array." Max pointed out as Nico sent out the data she wanted everyone to work on to carry out Max's orders for a rescue attempt.
"Oh, since not everyone can be on the same project, I sent them the data of the organic power packs. If they can properly create them after they get the next generation of medical replicators online, we can start moving to industrial-scale production and converting the ship's power backup systems.
As it is, I suspect that the process to open a portal large enough for Terminus will take upward of fifteen minutes, due to power use constraints, even with our enormous power output. There is a better way, I am certain of it, but the only solid data that I have is for the platforms that they used to get around the ship, and this isn't really the time to be wildly experimenting before we have made the base design function." Nico replied.
She really had made the best of her time with the aliens, while Max had focused on a progression path that might lead to them not needing to fight an endless war for resources and territory.
One of the items that they didn't speak of, but that Max had noticed, was that some of the star systems listed in the museum had a creation date. A recent creation date, not something gradual over billions of years.
Humanity might never reach the point where they were creating entire star systems for their own use, but knowing that it was possible meant that obtaining the resources to do it was also possible, and no matter how powerful the Reavers grew, they would likely never need that much raw material.
It took them over an hour to get Terminus ready to begin the initial testing that would allow them to test their portal theory. Well, perhaps it was more than a theory since they had the same equipment as one that they knew functioned, just a different model and power output.
[Fifth Battalion, Third Battalion, to your cutters. We don't know if there are active Klem on the other side of this portal. We will open it here outside the system to give us room to fight, but it is possible that we will get hostiles the moment that it opens.] Max ordered.
The two Battalions scrambled to their Mecha, which were already staged in the Cutters as a matter of standard practice, and Max waited for their ready call before beginning the experiment.
[Cutters three and five, launch and get in position to intercept possible hostiles.] Max ordered, sending the two sleek vessels into the vacuum of space.
[Ready to begin portal activation on your order.] The Engineering team reported, sending Max a stream of data on their expected power usage and the targeting data to open the portal one thousand kilometers from the last transmission.
[Activate.]
A shimmer of purple light, the same as what the Narsians used to move between worlds lit up the void near Terminus, much smaller than their own Colony Ship. It was right on target, and Max could see the strange, alien design of the vessel, which somehow resembled a hybrid of Terminus and an actual Nautical Yacht.
It was possible that the hundred-meter-long vessel was actually capable of both, given its size and shape, making it a pleasure yacht in the truest sense of the word.
[Terminus? Is that your portal? We will come to you.] The Captain of the yacht hailed them and Max realized that this technique would be far more deadly than expected.
He didn't need to send Terminus places, he could send just the Cutters in an instant, and bring them back, along with any other damaged vessels that they might come across.
The ship was on reserve power, but with only a thousand kilometers to cover, it took them only a few minutes to make their way through the portal and line up to dock with the former Colony Ship turned Cruise Ship and Flagship for the Reavers of Rae 5.
[Welcome to Terminus. Our technology might be lacking, but we have a wide variety of materials available to make repairs, as well as a working knowledge of Crystal based Warp Drives. Our staff will be with you soon, and will escort you to the luxury suites of the Cruise ship, where you can wait while your vessel is repaired if you should wish.] Max informed the Innu aboard the yacht.
