Once they left the station and brought Terminus back up to Warp 5 for their journey to the border, Max began to analyze all of the communications data that they could get from the Kepler planets that were along their path.
It should give him an idea if there were rebel elements left active in the region, if there were other humanitarian issues that needed tending to, or if there were other beneficial cargo shipments that he might be able to pick up and turn some profit for the ship to keep themselves running.
They were getting paid by their guests, but it was in interstellar Credits, which held absolutely no value in this Galaxy since they couldn't use them for anything, and most of the things that they would want to use them for they were forbidden from having, thanks to their violent tendencies.
Proving that they were safe enough to be trusted with the most modern alien technologies was a bit like trying to convince the universe that a Jakalian Dire Bear should be taught to use a Plasma Cannon.
Max wasn't sure how, but Nico had a spiel prepared for every planet they passed, not just the closest ones along their route, but she had made a short speech for every inhabited system even vaguely close to their path.
While he sorted through communications, Max took a moment to look into it and discovered that Nico had simply changed the computer voice to her own so that when guests pulled up the data files from the ship's computer to look up nearby galactic waypoints, they were treated to a speech in her voice that was simply a reading of the summary that every ship had programmed into their computers.
It was actually ingenious and saved them a lot of time dealing with inquisitive passengers. They could look up bits of data about inhabited systems and learn everything they wanted while the screens randomly zoomed in on exciting things they were due to pass.
After a few hours of searching, Max found their next two stops. One that wanted to trade for furniture, and one uninhabited but atmospherically safe planet that had the most incredible geography.
They had taken some of the furniture shipment to decorate officers' quarters for the infantry that were staying on the ship, but they still had a huge amount of it to trade, so Max ordered the communication officers to set up a meeting on their behalf, while he planned the excursion stop at the uninhabited planet.
Letting people off the ship didn't seem safe at all, but if they had their own ships, he would let them depart for a shore trip and make sure that they were as safe as he could make them.
A cruise wasn't a cruise without the chance to see more than the ship, after all.
[Sir, Kepler 903 says that they can't mention the type of item that they have to trade, but they do wish to trade for the furniture.] The communications officer informed Max a few minutes later.
That wasn't entirely unusual. You didn't just broadcast that you had a large number of illegal materials and products to offer in trade. The Reavers might buy them, but you couldn't risk the transmission being intercepted.
[Tell them that we are on our way. If it's no good, we will move on. Furniture is easy to sell almost anywhere.] Max informed the crew, letting them make the course adjustments necessary for the meeting.
Nico was out among the guests when the announcement came, and the Illithid had questions about their trade policies and general level of sanity.
"You offer dangerous items for trade to dangerous people. How do you guarantee that you won't be betrayed?" One of the guests asked her.
"There are no guarantees, but the Reavers are an essential supply route for most of these planets. If they attack a vessel during a trade, they would face an embargo that could starve out their citizens and stop them from getting the goods they produce off-world.
There are an intricate set of protocols for interacting with each other to show respect for each other to prevent violent incidents. I will make a video about them after this next meeting." Nico informed the Illithid, who burbled happily, an odd noise that sounded like a happy baby to the humans but made the Innu run away from them.
From what she learned from the Innu, the noise had a psychic element to it that caused them physical pain, like a feedback loop in a computer system would when you tried to interact with it. It didn't seem to do anything to her or the other Pilots who came to relax in the cruise ship area, but Nico had noticed that the lower-ranked pilots and infantry subconsciously avoided the Illithid the same way that the Innu did.
Not all the time, only when they got excited or were drinking. The Illithid turned out to have virtually zero alcohol tolerance, even after factoring in their actual body size.
Like Max, Nico had been monitoring communications traffic in the region, but she picked up on the issue a little faster than Max had. All of the messages were perfectly normal and benign. Even the data net traffic seemed normal and uninteresting. But when she checked on some of the planets, they had been heavily damaged by fighting and were in the process of rebuilding.
If everyone was homeless, and the cities were still smoldering from the battles with the Loyalists, why was the data net traffic perfectly normal, uploading gaming stream scores, vacations, and various other nonsense social media messages at the same rate as before hostilities broke out?
She sent the data through to Max so that he could be prepared and left the actual planning to him while she sat down with a bottle of Rum to explain the intricacies of Reaver Social protocol with a group of Illithid.
Max saw her on the view screen and just sighed. He couldn't even complain much, as she had found the aberration, but leaving all the planning work to him was just cruel.
The first thought that he had was that it was possible that the Rebels had won, but the more he searched through the data, the less likely that seemed. It appeared that the Loyalists had won the battles, and in some cases were still there repairing the damage caused by the battles.
The signals that were being sent out were a cover, either to hide that anything had happened at all, or to keep those in the area from noticing that something was about to happen.
