The show of strength was enough to break the ice between the men of the entourage and the women of the Huntress's entourage, and happy chatting about combat filled the air as the teams departed the Cutter and began to make their way through the bay.
"We have a transport waiting and rooms prepared in the bow if you don't have any issues being housed near the Innu and Illithid." Nico offered.
"That is fine. We have the technology to keep the Illithid at bay from our minds, and the Innu are good people. What did you do to keep them here, though? They customarily only stay in places with advanced technologies that they haven't seen before. If not, they lose interest, even if they are supposed to be working." Huntress Khan asked.
"We have waterslides with gravity control linking the whole section of the ship reserved for public viewing and residence. They are huge fans of them." One of the Pilots laughed, drawing all the Hunters' attention to him.
"What do you mean by waterslide?"
"A tube, with rapidly flowing water, roughly 30 cm deep inside, and the gravity altered so that it feels like you are always sliding down to your destination, regardless of where it is in the ship," Nico explained.
"Where is this transport? I must see this marvel immediately." Huntress Khan demanded.
[It seems that we have more fans of the waterslides. We are on our way over, and the Hunters evolved from an amphibious reptile. They freaked out a little when they heard about the gravity slides and demanded to see them immediately. They might like them even more than the Innu do.] Nico told Max.
Max looked over at the very harassed-looking members of the Admiral's negotiation team, who were dealing with the obsessive pencil pushers of the Hunters negotiation team, and sighed.
[I am glad you are having fun. The men of their species are completely literal, completely humorless, and obsessed with details. They're expecting no fewer than a thousand pages of an agreement to cover who and what might be hunted in this galaxy.] Max replied.
[Good luck with that. There is a template from the Innu Yacht that you can use as the basis if you like. I believe it is their agreement with the Hunters, but I haven't actually read it. I only skimmed the titles.] Nico informed him.
That should be enough to get them started, and Max could have his team alter the document as they went through since there would be an acceptable hunting species in this Galaxy, the Klem, and they would have to localize the agreement only to the regions that they were familiar with, as they didn't know how some of the species in the Northern end of the Galaxy felt about the Hunters and their ideology, or if they even knew about them, despite their limited ability to move between Galaxies.
"You seem somewhat stressed, Commander. Do you not often negotiate treaties?" One of the Hunter's negotiators asked.
"No, most treaties in the region were completed centuries before I was born. But now, I have two to work out at once. The one with your fleet and the one that we left to come to meet you." Max explained.
"That is a high honor, Commander, and we thank you. Delaying ongoing business to meet a new fleet is an honor to the strangers that we didn't expect." The negotiator told him with a bow.
This species needed to come with a manual. Even though he could read their minds, Max was having trouble determining how they would react to any given situation since their standards and his were so different.
"Our Champion tells me that you might also enjoy the Gravity Slides once today's meetings are done, so I will make sure to have the escort show you the map of where they lead before you retire to your rooms tonight," Max told him, and the man looked perplexed.
Huntress Khan says that you will enjoy it, so I will keep the details as a surprise, but they lead right to the rooms that we have prepared for your team, assuming that you don't need to be on the same floor as the Huntresses. They requested a room close to the Barbecue restaurants, but the rooms we originally prepared for your team were the ones closest to this meeting room." Max explained.
"That is fine. Our teams have very different interests, so they don't customarily interact much outside of mating season." The Negotiator explained.
Seasonal mating. That was another item for the list of details about the Hunters. If his experience in this Galaxy held true, he could expect increased aggression and territorial behavior at that time. The Huntresses seemed to lean toward aggressive and territorial anyhow, so heightening those sentiments could cause some violence, though likely nothing that he couldn't handle, if the Alliance deemed them civilized enough to deal with, though not peaceful enough for membership.
"Admiral. I have a copy of the Innu version of their basic agreement with the Hunters available as a template if your teams would like to start from there. Just be sure to keep it regional since we can't speak for everyone, and be sure to include hunting rights for the Klem, as I have been informed that it is very important to Huntress Khan that they be included and detailed." Max informed Admiral Drake, who was leading the human negotiation team.
"They want to hunt Klem by the planet full, do they? That takes some serious bravery. I will make sure that all the appropriate language is included, including remuneration, if they happen to come across a recent landfall where humans are still fighting. The locals can take it up with the Reavers if they don't like the mercenary fee to save their planet from the Klem." Admiral Drake agreed.
With that settled, Max went to meet Nico, who should be just arriving at the Cruise Ship area now, only to watch the transport skid to a stop from maximum speed as a group of Huntresses rushed out to examine the gravity slides.
"Welcome, Huntress Khan. I am Commander Keres of Terminus Trading Company. I do hope that our Champion spoke kindly of me." Max greeted them, stopping their advance toward the slides.
"You, throw her straight up in the air and catch her." Huntress Khan demanded while Nico laughed.
"They think I'm exaggerating the strength of an Alpha Ranked System specialized in strength," Nico explained.
At 250 cm tall, the Huntresses weren't light, well over two hundred kilos, but that was nothing to Max, who gently took one in his arms in a Princess Carry, then hurled her straight up in the air, crossing over the next floor before coming back down into his arms and being set on the floor.
"Oh, I do approve. I apologize to you, Tarith Rage, for misunderstanding when you said that your men were commendably strong. If the hunters had men like that, we might never get anything done." The Huntress that Max just caught laughed, then turned to look at the gravity slides, with no emotion showing through her smooth metal mask but a clear wave of excitement and joy in her thoughts.
"Take a good look at the map first, you don't want to end up lost on the cruise ship, and the slides run for dozens of kilometers in total," Max informed her, then made a grand gesture toward them.
The fact that the Huntresses were in white cloth togas totally escaped his attention until the first of them rocketed toward the slide at a full run, launching herself onto her stomach and racing away through the tunnels.
Hopefully, they brought a change of clothes, but if not, there were towels available at every exit.
