Dave rolled his wheel chair over and placed the twins in the back of the cargo shuttle before lifting himself and his chair up onto the deck, while Molly lifted the boys in their stroller beside them. Mary joined them all in the back, then thumped the roof for the driver to return to the Tarith Family dining rooms.
Along the way, she told the kids a wonderful story about how a heroic Mecha pilot held a planet all by himself, fighting off evil enemies until finally a rescue came for him and took back the planet. That was the child’s version of the Kepler 142 resistance story, and the girls loved it, demanding more and more details as Mary told the tale.
Fortunately, it was a historical event, and she knew all the details, so she could indulge every question that they wanted the answers to.
“You’re good with kids,” Molly observed, having not seen Mary Tarith interact with children before since their event was mostly for donors and such the day that the two of them met.
“I have three hundred nieces and nephews at the moment, and they’re all aboard this ship. In our family, you get very used to having kids around, since we all like spending time together.” Mary explained.
“So are you staying on this ship? Traveling as a family?” Molly asked.
“No, once we get to Rae 5 we will be departing, along with all the refugees. The Reavers are currently building cities on the formerly uninhabited planet, and we are looking forward to having a stable population.
The Reaver ships are short on craftsmen, laborers, and general service workers all the time, so having so many Refugees filling up a Capital city will be a good start for us. You can rebuild your lives, and the Reavers will supply the products to get you started.
It might mean that those who want to start a business take on some debt if they didn’t have anything to bring with them, but it will be a good deal with the Reavers since they need the manpower. I think a lot of them plan to keep the businesses in the Companies, but they will still need employees to sell their goods, so there are going to be jobs for everyone to go to, as well as homes.”
Molly was stunned to silence, while the kids didn’t really understand what was going on.
“A newly built, modern city, with jobs for everyone, selling products and services for the Reavers? That sounds a bit too exciting.” Molly pointed out.
“Think of it more like living on a resort planet. Everyone will come there to trade and relax, while the more sensitive and bulk goods will be sold in the Space Stations in the system that are manned by Reaver Company staff.
The planet is supposed to be a homeworld for them, so a lot of young families with children will be transferred to the surface instead of remaining on their vessels.” Mary explained it a bit more clearly.
“Oh, that makes sense now. It sounded a bit like a huge black market venue the first time.” Molly chuckled while Dave did his best to hide his smile.
It wasn’t that far from the truth, but it wouldn’t be some seedy underworld place where they had to hide from the law and do their business without being noticed. Here they could do whatever they agreed was within the bounds of good taste.
Reavers allowed many things, but certain drugs were off limits for being too damaging to their users, classified information couldn’t be sold openly, as it caused too many problems for the people, and Human Trafficking usually led to a very painful death, because so many Reavers started out as slaves in foreign lands who were either bought or freed by force by the Companies that they now worked for.
Dave had forgotten how much stuff the Tarith Family had brought aboard when they left the planet. This dining hall was pure luxury for a thousand guests or more, with real leather chairs for the heads of family groups, and an actual golden throne at the head of the main table.
“Seriously? A golden throne? I didn’t take you for the melodramatic type.” Dave laughed.
“Oh, that’s not my seat, I sit to the right of it. The throne is for the oldest living member of the family present at a meal. It’s an old tradition from before we started passing down the reigns of the family before the existing leader died.
Today, that seat will be occupied by my grandmother.”
Mary Tarith pointed to where an ancient woman was being held upright by a small Cyborg with jet-black hair.
“Good Morning Dave. Did you see Max on the way in? He’s late for dinner.” Nico called across the room while helping her great-grandmother to her seat at the main table.
“We didn’t. Your mother came to collect us, so we didn’t walk all the way down the ship.” Dave explained, then spotted the blonde hair coming reluctantly down the hall.
Max was dreading this family dinner. The Tarith Family was way too friendly, and loud, and had no idea what the words personal space meant, at least in Max’s opinion. Plus, they were pushing way too hard for him to get with Nico.
“You going to tell them boy, or should I?” Dave asked as Max walked up and patted him on the shoulder, not having expected the kids and him to be there to rescue him from awkward conversations.
“Oh, I’m going to tell them. But I’m not sure they’re going to listen. Just look at them, it’s like they’re some fundamentalist cult that worships childbirth. Have you ever seen so many kids in one spot?” Max asked, making the crippled veteran laugh.
“You forget, your own family had five children in total. But they do have a lot of them for sure, and that’s just the ones too young to have gone to the academy.” Dave agreed.
“That reminds me, did we ever track down the ship that took the Cadets off-world? I bet they wouldn’t mind a small change of venue for their education now that Kepler Terminus is in the middle of a mess.” Max asked.
“Not yet, but we’re working on it. The more we can find the better, especially trained pilots.” Nico informed him, then turned to Dave with a smile.
“I have good news for you though. I made some time with the Tarith Family Doctors. They can see you tomorrow and start patching you up a little. Just tell them what you’re after at the consultation and we will see what we can do with the supplies that we have on board Terminus.”
Dave’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, and even Max felt himself getting a bit misty. He knew that there were no Cyborg parts in stock on the ship yesterday, though they had a number of specialist surgeons in the Tarith Family, so Nico must have arranged time with the materials printers as well to make this gift happen.
Even when everything else was chaos, trying to deal with an influx of refugees, Nico somehow still managed to keep her own plans on track to look after others.