Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

Max decided to fix a few misunderstandings this morning since they were already being open to questions.

"Our people aren't Clan bonded. They are very loyal employees. Nothing is forcing them to stay with their Company other than the fact that it is where their family is, and we are usually quite fond of our families." Max informed the envoys, then amended his statement.

"With the exception of term contracts for youths that have been put through advanced training. The Company pays the cost of their education, and they work for a set time, usually five years, to pay them back with their newfound skills."

"Innu do the same thing. It is a good way to recruit young geniuses from less affluent families and send them to the finest educational facilities." The envoy agreed.

"Exactly the same concept. I am glad that we have that in common. It would be a rather large culture clash if our species had conflicting ideas on the appropriate use of advanced education."

The Valkia gave him an eager look and then took out a data tablet from a pouch between his wings.

"How often are such recruiting events held? I think we would like to have a suitably skilled human among our ship's crew. If they can overhaul the warp drive on our runabout, it would save us weeks waiting on repairs when we get home."

"You can place a job offer anytime, and then it will be up to the qualified workers to contact you with their intent to apply for employment. But if you need a drive repaired, we can do that for you as a service. Repairing vessels that come for vacations is sometimes necessary, so we do have technicians on our staff that aren't dedicated to the ship itself and are available to do repairs on other vessels today." Max offered.

"Really? That would be wonderful. We are getting close to full overhaul now, and if we could extend it by a few years, it would look really good on our performance logs." The Valkia told him with a wink.

"How about I make up a work order, and I will send a crew over right away? It usually only takes a few hours a drive to do the repairs, so they could do your main drives as well as your runabout if you need. I have reviewed our agreement, and that should be allowed under the new terms of our arrangement." Max suggested.

"Excellent. Yes, we will take you up on that. Just let us know what it costs, and we will arrange payment."

Max shook his head. "Think of it as a gift. It will be the first time our crews are working on your particular setup since it's so different from the luxury yacht drives that we usually encounter, so it wouldn't be right to charge you while they are learning the intricacies of your design. I can assure you that their System can fully analyze your Matrix and restore it to its original configuration though."

"I feel like we are being scammed, but I can't detect any hint of a lie in your words. Humans really are a curious species." The Valkia responded with a curious look at Max.

[Nico, I found you a new toy. The Envoys ship needs repair and refresh on all their warp drives. Assemble a team and take them over to bring the Alliance vessel back to peak performance.]

The pure joy at getting the chance to lay her hands on an Alliance Envoy vessel was almost enough to drown out all the other minds around her in Max's senses. Still, she started assembling her team immediately, including two of the Tech Nomads and three other human technicians with similar repair skill sets.

It was a golden opportunity for them to gain new knowledge on a high-warp vessel of the sort that they couldn't yet make themselves.

"You've definitely been had. But I think that we will get our full overhaul. I have been using my implanted data link to chat with some of the Tech Nomads stationed here aboard Terminus. They informed me that Lead Researcher Nico Tarith, also known as Tarith Rage, has assembled a team to head over to our vessel to begin the work, and they are requesting clearance to send the shuttle already." The Innu envoy laughed.

"They are using the repair job to study our ship design, aren't they? Is this the secret to human innovation? Just find new things and blend them with existing knowledge until you find a workable version that isn't patented?" The Giant asked.

"It is the second most popular version, behind creating an entirely new idea. Blended technologies never seem to work as well or have the same advancement potential as an entirely new design.

Now that the deal is signed, we could purchase a vessel with a similar rate of speed and reverse engineer it, but this is more cost-effective for both of us. When was the last time one of your counterparts got a whole Warp Drive overhaul for free?" Max asked.

"Humans are dangerous in more ways than combat, it seems. I must say, your straightforward mannerisms and adeptness with half-truths had me underestimating the wiliness of your species." The Valkia replied with an impressed feeling in their thoughts.

"It is considered horribly rude to outright lie to someone. So Reavers have practiced telling people only the parts of the truth that they want to highlight. I think it is a common skill for businesspeople among many species. Some of the ones we have seen from the Alliance had the same quality, though not all had the same aversion to outright falsehoods." Max agreed.

"That's how business goes. Humans also have a great deal of pride, which can lead to making statements that you shouldn't. The ingrained bias of many Alliance members against non-members is also an issue. I hate to say it, but most of the Alliance views any species that isn't a member as some sort of primitive species, regardless of the reason for their status.

It has been an ongoing issue for many millennia, and I'm not even certain that it can be reversed at this point." The Giant told him, clearly annoyed by the state of things. His thoughts said that it made his job much more difficult, which was the primary reason he wished to change the status quo.

Max understood that feeling. Wanting to change things that annoyed him occupied most of his free time and the majority of Nico's work life.