To say that Nico was confused when Max led her to the hangar where their morphable ship was waiting was an understatement. Both of their Mecha were still in it, but it wasn''t her birthday, so she was pretty sure that he wasn''t just randomly bringing her to kill stuff.


    It was possible, but it seemed unlikely since he had told her that they needed to dress up for the event.


    Once they were clear of Absolution, Max set a course for a clear spot so he could open a Portal, and Nico started to get really curious about what exactly he had in mind. They were supposed to be back for the light show tonight, so whatever it was, it shouldn''t take long, but she was stumped as to what he had in mind.


    "You''ll understand in a second." Maxughed as Nico''s mind raced through the myriad possibilities, right up to and including the chance that they might have decided to wipe out a random just for giggles.


    As soon as he punched in the coordinates for Rae 5, she knew what the n was. "Oh, this should be fun. You didn''t warn her that we wereing, did you? She''s beenining that I don''te to visit often enough. It''s a good thing you took me to find something cute to wear."


    "Your mother is going to love it. You look fantastic, and you know she''s been missing her little girl. In your mother''s eyes, you''ll always be that rambunctious kid you were before you left for the Academy." Max told her with a sly smirk.


    "Nobody ever grows up in their mother''s eyes." Nico agreed as if it was the wisdom of the universe.


    Perhaps it was. There were dozens of species aboard Absolution, and in all but a few, Max had noticed the same tendencies to baby their grown children. Of course, with such a small sample size for some groups, it was possible that the family just didn''t get along, and it wasn''t an innate trait of the species to leave the kids to fend for themselves.


    [Rae 5 Station, this is Commander Keres Max of the Terminus Trading Company, requesting permission to dock for transfer to the surface.] Max announced traffic control once they were through the Portal.


    [You are clear to dock at Bay 329, Commander. Might we request the purpose of your visit to the surface?] The traffic controller asked.


    [The Tarith Family monthly dinner.] Max replied with a wink at Nico.


    [Understood. There is a shuttle waiting to bring others to the same location. We will hold it for your arrival.]


    That wasn''t surprising. There were a lot of Tarith Family members, and the monthly dinner was a good chance to catch up with each other now that so many of them had upgraded to vessels that had the ability to Portal between locations instead of spending weeks or months en route to their deliveries. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Max hadn''t been back to his home Gxy in a while, and he was excited to see what it was like now that thetest technologies had begun to spread to all of the Trade Groups.


    It might be hard to tell today, though. They werending at the Moon Base, and Rae 5 had been colonized after the Replicators had been created, so even if they were a few generations of the tech behind, it was a very different situation than the worlds that had been settled for tens of thousands of years.


    Max cut the power and let the gravity beam pull them into their bay and found a very familiar site next to them. A huge ship designed to look like a Cathedral. They were sharing a bay with Divine Tribtion, piloted by Luke Tarith, Nico''s distant cousin and one of the first Sumanders that Max had chosen for a ship of the Terminus Trading Company fleet.


    Max had been getting their regr reports, and up until very recently, they had been clearing out Klem-infesteds that were deemed too close to the borders of human space. It was a valuable initiative that the Cygnus Government had implemented, a preemptive strike to keep the Klem from gaining ground anding after inhabiteds.


    A dock worker greeted them at the exit ramp to the ship with an impressed look on his face. It might be disguised as a pleasure yacht, but it was a veryrge pleasure yacht, and not just any Reaver Company could afford a luxury like that to shuttle their Commanders around when they weren''t working.


    "Greetings, Commander and Miss Tarith. It''s a pleasure to see you here today. You have two hours until the dinner starts, but the shuttle leaves in twenty minutes. Uncle Lu is already on the surface, as well as your other Sumander. We''re just waiting on a few more ships that are taking care of issues before the crew can disembark."


    "Hopefully, there haven''t been any heavy casualties?" Max asked.


    "No, sir. Most of the work is being done from orbit since we''re hitting fully infesteds, but the Klem doesn''t go easy. They''ve been learning new tricks, like firing sma into orbit. It''s made things tricky for the clearance crews, but we haven''t lost any vessels yet, just some damage to the hulls.


    That was definitely a new development. It was no secret that they had ways to fire pods into orbit, but actively attacking ships with sma from the surface wasn''t a tactic that he had seen before.


    "I will warn the rest of my fleet. Many of them are on cleaning duty, and others are passing by the Klem zone on a regr basis. It would be a shame to have them taken by surprise." Max replied politely.


    The dock worker nodded and gestured to the door. "I believe that you know your way around well enough. The shuttle is at 217, and there are a number of new vendors along the way. Enjoy your trip."