Before dawn the next day the hab blocks had been finished and First Battalion had been comfortable moved into their new home. The paint had dried in the admittedly creepy back rooms, and the Kitchen had been set up, with abundant space for cold storage. That amount of frozen food was a true luxury to any Battalion aboard a Navy Vessel, normally almost all of their food was dried or shelf stable. The abundance of room for frozen food meant that they could acquire a lot of fresh food the next time they made planetfall.
That would be their first order of business once their final guests arrived aboard the ship. The final storage hold had been dedicated to high-value ores, both for repairs and upgrades, as well as for trade, which would provide their cover story.
There were two schools of thought about the proper method of transport for high-value materials. Either send them on a small and fast ship that might be overlooked and could more easily run away, or bury the items of true value inside a bulk freighter like the Dutchman, where anyone who was looking would see a target that wasn’t worth the effort.
The base had documented the ship as picking up one hold full of refined aluminum, totaling fifteen thousand tons, and they were supposed to be taking it to a small nation, just outward of the Kepler Empire’s borders named Derrax. Their territory comprised six stars and only four habitable planets, but they were strong allies of all the nations around them and worked to maintain their neutrality.
Once that drop had been made, they were supposed to pick up another shipment somewhere in the area and take it back west to Tapani Territory to begin the next phase of their testing in a battle against the Klem who had exhibited an unusual level of intelligence and coordination.
Those were all the details that they had been given about their future travels, for security reasons, and Max still wasn’t sure who was supposed to be Piloting this vessel.
Mecha Pilots didn’t usually train for interstellar ships, and a Pilot with the skills for that sort of navigation would be transferred to the Naval Academies at a young age.
In the worst-case scenario, they could have Nico serve as their Admiral. She had access to the ship’s maps and she could make it move at the very least, but Max was holding hope that the VIP guest that they were still waiting on was the one who would be steering the ship for them.
Of course, so was Nico. The Admiral had to remain aboard the ship in case of emergency, so even if they got into a battle, she wouldn’t be able to leave if they assigned her that task.
They didn’t have long to wait though. Only six hours later, the crew shuttle came to relieve the miners at the base, who were on thirty-day rotations. Along with them came the two new arrivals to the Terminus Trading Company, one new face and one that was vaguely familiar from their recent video communications.
“Inquisitor Ming, to what do we owe the honor? And who might that be with you?” Max heard Nico ask the moment that the doors were securely sealed and the two men were aboard.
General Yaakov looked more than a little shocked and was standing near the entrance with his mouth slightly opened, but Max couldn’t be sure if it was for the arrival of the Inquisitor or for Nico’s pure audacity to usurp his chance to formally greet the guests.
Knowing him as Max did, the answer was almost guaranteed to be the second option.
“Lady Tarith Nico, imagine meeting you in a place like this. You have no idea how difficult it was to convince Imperial Command to give me this assignment, especially after I made a fool of myself, falling for your acting on Rae 3.
General Yaakov, it is a pleasure to see you again. With me is Admiral Drake. He will be taking the helm of The Dutchman for this mission. He has extensive experience with the Klem and has studied the Death Wind Territory for many years, earning a Doctorate in the field.” The General paused for the Admiral to introduce himself, and the man stepped forward with a slight limp.
“It is good to meet you all. Don’t let my disability fool you, it is a recent injury, and as I am not a combat officer, it was deemed acceptable to give my System the year’s time it needed to regrow and repair my leg naturally.
I spent over sixty years on similar missions, gathering intelligence, and if my own word counts for anything, I can assure you that the Regiment is in good hands.”
His speech was well rehearsed and smooth, but Max’s mind reading told a very different story. The Admiral was holding some sort of subtle three-way conversation with Nico and Colonel Klinger using body language and hand signals that were totally different from his spoken words.
They had filled him in on the incident on Rae 3, how they fooled the Inquisitor into giving them repair materials without giving themselves away, and he was telling them about the last mission he was on, to recover a defector from the Trifid Empire.
If Max couldn’t read their minds, he would have never known that they all spoke that secret language, and the fact annoyed him much more than it had any right to.
Nico was his best friend, and he knew she viewed him as hers, but she never let him know that she spoke another secret language, and it seemed to be one related to the Reavers and Mercenaries.
Digging deeper through Klinger’s thoughts, it was also used by many gray market businesses, which made Max wonder if he had simply missed it being used during his childhood because he responded out loud and not in the correct way.
There were a lot of things Max didn’t know, but he did know that one way or another, he was learning this subtle gesture language before they finished their mission. That method of communication was just too convenient, as he could use it during a regular conversation over the video link without tipping off anyone who didn’t already know.
Inquisitor Ming also seemed to know what they were talking about, because his annoyed thoughts didn’t match the spoken introductions, but his mind was carefully schooled, with the deeper thoughts hidden. That was a limitation of his Innate Talent that Max didn’t run into very often, usually, minds were an open book to him.
Now he had two things to take up his time during this journey, and it was going to bother him until he had a solution to at least one of them.