"Why don't we make a big deal of it? Since we've got the new technology aboard, and everyone will know it soon, we should play it up and offer trips once a year or something. You know we're going to be called on to do random political nonsense, so picking up a load of tourists on the way and making a spectacle of it would make it very hard for anyone we are negotiating with to justify attacking Terminus." Nico suggested.
"Are you saying to use the passengers as human shields?" Max asked suspiciously.
"No, of course not. But can you imagine the bad publicity if the galaxy found out that someone attacked a bloody Cruise ship full of tourists because it was run by a neutral nation that they were supposed to be negotiating with?" Nico countered.
She had a point, especially if they picked them up within the boundaries of the same Empire. Kepler and Cygnus had pretty good control over their own media, but something like that would still make it through on the underground networks until it became a huge scandal for the sector command.
"I will keep it in mind while we do the designs. I have a structural layout of the area for them to work with, but the rest will be left up to the designer, assuming that he can get it done in a timely manner." Max told her with a smile.
"Oh, I am sure he will. Their Materials Printer Technology is almost as good as our Replicators, only instead of specializing in food, it specializes in bulk furniture and structural elements. As long as they can get a design made that fits within the existing structure, their staff numbers say that they should be able to put thousands of people on the job at once and get it done within a few weeks." Nico agreed, showing him the same set of data that he had looked up last night.
"Alright then, I'm off for the meeting. Make sure all of our guests are in good shape this morning and see to the cleaning of the venue. All of the VIP guests should still be in the guest suites, I don't think anyone has checked out yet." Max said, then jogged out to catch a lift to the middle of the ship where the VIP sorts were staying.
That would be just aft of the new Cruise Ship, which would fill what the builders of the ship had intended to be the central hub of life aboard the ship.
"Captain Calatrava, it is a pleasure to see you again. I have a schematic of the area of the ship I want to be renovated, and a theme for you to design toward." Max greeted the whip-thin Reaver, and the six young women he had brought to the meeting, all of whom were sitting in front of design stations so that they could input what Max and their boss talked about in real-time."
They input the schematic as soon as Max handed over the data tablet, a blank one with only the limited layout of the portion of the ship they would be working with included, and waited for the two to begin.
"So, what is the plan for the Terminus and her mighty crew of eccentric Mecha?" Captain Calatrava asked.
"I want you to build me a cruise ship in that space, big enough for fifty thousand guests to reside in luxury. Make it a self-contained city, I want the guests to have access to everything they could desire, but the food can all come from our Replicators and be served either as buffets or in restaurants. I will supply those as needed in your designs, and the dimensions of the units are included in the data that I sent you." Max informed him.
"So a cruise experience, and not a villa experience, I get it. This huge central tunnel though is bound to cause vertigo." Calatrava told Max, pointing to the opening in the central promenade.
It certainly would cause vertigo, it was a hole a kilometer high. But they didn't need to leave it empty.
"Why don't you add levels of terrarium there, with plants, maybe some hardy species of animals that aren't going to harass the visitors and won't die during space travel? It can be mostly open, but even a landing every four or five floors to give people something to look at would be an interesting feature." Max suggested.
The Captain tapped something into his design tablet, and the assistants got to work right away.
"Do you have a preference for the rooms themselves? An architectural style? Theme? Anything?"
Max shook his head. "Make it represent the Reavers as well as you can, but I want it to be pleasant and open for the guests so that they don't feel stifled despite the high density. Don't forget to put in staff quarters in the cruise ship area as well. I plan to keep it isolated from the rest of the ship under normal circumstances so that we don't get tourists among the Reavers, or spies trying to sneak into our Mecha bays."
Terminus could shield her bay doors, so you could fly a ship in and out without purging atmosphere from the area first, but the actual application of that design was sketchy at best, due to temperature differences. The ships would be alternately freezing in some areas and scorching hot in others, making it nearly impossible to keep a communal hangar operating continuously.
That meant limiting off-ship excursions as much as possible or doing them in very large groups so that only a single shuttle could be sent at a time. Purpose-built Cruise Ships just made many small individual hangars, but that was not a feasible option for Terminus, as the outer hull was too difficult to modify without causing other issues.
They chatted pleasantly for a few minutes while the assistants worked, and then Captian Calatrava brought out a design for the renovations.
It was tropical-themed, much like the facilities on Comor Station were, with similar architecture, and an even more prominent steampunk influence that somehow embodied the Reavers' personalities.
"Not bad, luxury, but not snobby. From what I can see, there are easy accesses to food and basic amenities in every sector, since they're basically copy-pasted with a slight change in the color theme so you don't get lost.
Turning the central column into a huge park with benches and wading pools is very child friendly, and I see that you did find a space to include a theme park." Max listed as he looked through the designs.
"Not only that, there is a water park split into two sections that interlink with gravity-controlled waterslides, so that they can be on the same level and still get the feeling of a two-hundred-meter downhill slide. One side is more adult-oriented with hot tubs and lounges, while the other is more family oriented, with games for the kids." The designer said proudly.
"The question is, can you do all this on my timeline?" Max asked.
"We are just finishing our own station, and we haven't taken on any other work yet so that we could finish our own first. If we can keep Terminus here on the Moon Base for one more week, and get all the required materials, we can finish in a single week." Captain Calatrava informed him proudly.
"And the Price?" Max asked, concerned that they might want something that he couldn't easily provide.
"One Company of Heavy Mecha, in the new pattern that your troops use. New, painted in the pink and gold of my design group."
Normally that would be a non-starter since Mecha designs were kept secret as long as possible, and giving out their new patterns would let anyone who had dealings with the design company have access to them, but Max's System Improved Mind came up with a plan.
"From Uncle Lu's original designs, not as we have personalized them for our own use." Max insisted.
That meant that the improved power plants based on the design in Terminus wouldn't be used, and the design of the Disintegrator would be one generation older than the ones that they were currently using, but for the most part, the Mecha would remain the same.
They would be identical in outward appearance anyhow.
It also meant that the spare parts that they had acquired while they were upgrading the Mecha could be put to good use since the power plant was the most expensive and difficult to produce part of the entire unit unless you counted the precision electronics to control it.
"I can live with that, but if possible, I want Cygnus controls in them. They use the Neural Link, and it's much better for pilots like ours who don't have the advantage of a System boosting their abilities." Captain Calatrava bargained.
"Deal, I will commission them from Uncle Lu, to be built specifically for you." Max agreed. Uncle Lu would know what could be shared and what shouldn't, and he could adjust appropriately without anyone knowing any better.
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