Novel Full 534 534 New Project
The first of the Reavers arrived over the next two days to collect the locally made housewares and quilts while bringing many of the things which the locals had requested.
The Capital city was well on its way to being reconstructed already by the end of the third day, though they were still clearing rubble and corpses from the streets. Most of the multi-million-person population had survived the battle, thanks to the intervention of Khan, Nico, and the First Battalion, so the sense of grief was muted, with most of the residents having only lost property and distant family members in other locations, not close friends, or their entire life’s work.
It was the best spot on the planet for the traders to arrive, making a note of the fact that the planet currently lacked shuttles in sufficient numbers to collect their orders.
They did have some, though they were clearly ancient and placed in a museum in vacuum-preserved storage.
For the moment, they didn’t intend to order any. Fulfilling the planet’s basic needs came first, but it was definitely high up their wishlist.
Handmade goods proved to be quite popular among the wealthier members of society. With the advent of Replicators and advanced materials printers, even the most exclusive of mass-produced items weren’t all that hard to obtain.
But genuine hand-crafted items, with their unique flaws and unique character, were proving to be much more of a status symbol, and being able to tell guests that the blanket which was chosen for their room, or the end table in the hall, had come from the far side of the Galaxy, beyond any other known human settlement, was a very unique talking point.
Ordering items made with the Materials Printers was much cheaper than buying the machines themselves, thanks to the retail markup that made getting them as part of a trade deal so attractive, so the ships were coming with all sorts of machinery, tractors, tools, and such to help with the rebuilding effort until the factories could come back online.
The Narsian invasion hadn’t destroyed everything. That wasn’t how they usually operated. They just wanted the native inhabitants gone so they could take over the planet using what existing infrastructure they could.
So, Max got to play host to the Hunters while Nico was on the planet helping with the reconstruction of the Capital City and changing over all of the old security measures and passcodes to the new Governor.
Nico seemed to be enjoying herself, though and was treating the whole thing like one big treasure hunt with the chance of finding hiding Narsians she could kill.
[Do you think you look better in a heroic pose with a sword or in a commanding pose with one foot up on a rock?] Nico asked out of the blue.
[What are you even talking about?] Max replied, not stopping his scan of the incoming vessels to make sure that they were all the right ones and nobody had taken the wrong portal out of Rae 5.
There had been reports already of multiple portals in the Moon Base region, causing some less-than-diligent pilots to end up in the wrong star system.
[The heroic pose with a sword at the feet is classic for a statue, but if it’s a painting, then in front of Cleansing Light with a foot up on a rock looking all philosophical is a better choice. Why are you asking?] he replied.
[They want to put a statue of you in the park to commemorate this occasion.]
That was about what he had expected when she sent the message, but it was a bit surprising that they weren’t making a statue of her and Khan, who had actually rescued the Capital.
Perhaps the damage they had done was more extensive than he had been led to believe, and the locals would rather recall that they had been saved from a Klem fleet than be reminded that a pair of Giant Robots had trashed the Capital during a kill spree competition.
[Just let them do what they think is best. It’s their planet, after all, and we will only be occasional visitors if we return to bring them supplies.] he replied, letting Nico take care of the details for him.
The efficiency of the locals in rebuilding their world was incredible, and they were putting the goods to work as soon as they arrived off the ships, making a passable form of recovery where they had partial power and proper food and water distribution within a week of hostilities ending. Quite a few warzones could learn from them, so Max put it in the system logs and forwarded it to Rae 5, along with all the other data he had been collecting.
If one day, the Reavers were helping rebuild a planet’s infrastructure, as they had done many times in the past, that information could save them a lot of time and money without requiring a lot of specialized equipment, which so many planets relied upon after declaring most manual labor obsolete.
[All Ships have unloaded and returned to Rae 5, Commander. No current orders are pending, and the next delivery is scheduled for one month from now, with a portal to be opened by Rae 5 moon base.] The Communications officer on duty informed Max the evening after the statue of him had been commissioned.
[Nico, our work here is done. What is left down on the surface?]
[Not much, just saying goodbye and getting everyone back up to the ship. They’ve got everything squared away here, and they have the ten factories with the new Materials Printers working full speed to make the raw materials for their exports.
Unless the Narsians or the Klem return, they should be fine, and they are working on reducing their signal transmission, as well as an emitter that should alter the appearance of the planet to Narsian scans, making the planet look uninhabitable.
None of us know if it works on the Klem, but they had one in the past here and had no invasions, so they think that getting a new one up and operational might convince them not to come back again.]
Max made and transmitted even more notes of the new information, so nobody would be surprised if the signals from the planet said it was barren before he responded. [We will be waiting for you then. Huntress Khan says that the world she wants us to terraform has ruins from an unknown civilization on it. Unknown age, fully dilapidated condition. She thinks they might be a good tourist destination.]
[Also, I really do need to apologize for making you take all these notes. This paperwork is torture.]
When she got the last message, Nico laughed and turned to the new Planetary Governor and her husband-to-be.
“I’m afraid we can’t stay long enough for the wedding. The half year of the royal pre-wedding protocol is too much for our schedule, but if we finish the work we have scheduled, I will try to get Terminus back here for the ceremony. At the very least, I will inform the other Reavers, so they can put it on the schedule and try to make your monthly deliveries with time to be here for the ceremony, so you will at least have some representation from your allies present to remind the people that they are no longer alone in the Galaxy.”
“Thank you, Miss Tarith. The day that you and your people arrived here will be remembered for all time.” The Governor replied, taking Nico’s hand into her own for a heartfelt handshake.