Chapter 981: "Gift"

The Envoy stared at Max in shock at his words.

"You would really gift my people the technology to create new kinds of food from basic biomass and ask nothing in return?" She asked, much louder than she had intended.

"Of course. But it's not for free. What we ask in return is an agreement that they will not attack us, and we will not attack them. I think that both of our species have enough enemies in this region, and we don't need to add more of them without good reason.

So, we will give them a simple technology to eat well, one that they are likely to be able to recreate on their own and spread to all of their cities, and in exchange, they will not attack our ships as we travel the region.

It's a good deal, you see. Finally, we will have one set of alien ships that we can see without preparing for an attack." Max explained, making sure that the drone could hear him.

Back in the drone base, the radio operator and his superior were just finishing a rather short but intense fight of their own, with the radio operator coming out on top and informing their direct chain of command instead of the supervisor's political connections.

Once the request was sent out, along with details of the situation, it would become widespread knowledge in the defence force's senior ranks, and the politicians would stand no chance of hoarding the good thing for themselves.

They had been so engrossed in their fight that they didn't even know for sure what it did, only that they could use it to make food. Real food, and not just ration packs.

Nico was already working on the solution, and Khan was doing a terrible job of hiding her amusement when the small cyborg came out with the most basic of biomatter replicators that anyone aboard had ever seen.

The device did the job, but it was designed as a single post machine intended to be placed over a conveyor belt and had been simplified in the extreme.

The interior circuitry was something that the humans could have duplicated on their own two thousand years or more earlier, and there was no software. It was all hard firmware-based to make one of nine options with the push of a button.

It even had pictures of the items on the post beside the buttons.

Ironically, Max recognized three of them as boxes of ration packs, just fancier ones than the aliens were currently using, and the other six were bulk bags and boxes of raw materials, with one option for an assorted sauce and spices box.

Now, that wasn't exactly the most amazing way to fulfil their agreement, and any human world would have laughed in their faces at that offering, but it was close to compatible with the aliens' technology, so they should be able to reverse engineer and reproduce it quickly and without damaging the unit.

"You should make a schematic label for the side so they can fix it if it has issues." Khan laughed as she stepped out of the room so that the Envoy couldn't see her holding her sides in laughter.

"Oh, that's a splendid idea. You know what, let's send them a spare unit just in case this one breaks down. We've got enough on board." The away team leader added from the back room, where she was still standing in her Mobile Suit.

The Envoy was so overjoyed that she didn't even notice that they were laughing. Or perhaps she simply lacked the experience to interpret the alien body language.

The drone saved her from any further need to fear that her words would cause an interspecies issue.

[This is Governor General Boolop of the Planetary Defence Force. With the delivery of your peace offering, we will consider the agreement to be signed and paid in full. You may keep our Envoy as a gesture of trust that we will not break our deal.] The speaker on the pod declared in a squeaky but somewhat masculine voice.

Nico skipped out to the small transport vehicle and placed the two poles in it, along with a small instruction book in the local language with enough details for them to recreate it on their own in their military factories.

They were already very near this level of technology, and in some ways, this was a simpler device than the ones they already used. It did fulfil the deal, though, and if the local soldiers could make hundreds of these, they could solve their issues with morale.

The pod disappeared as soon as Nico had the delivery securely fastened in by the seatbelt and the door closed, marking the end of the negotiations in the minds of the small aliens.

Max could tell already that they had forgotten all about the girl, who they had never expected to live through the encounter anyhow. They were focused entirely on the option to have new foods for the first time in their lives.

Fortunately for them, Nico had even adapted the power supply to the local wall plugs and had added capacitors so that it could be used nearly anywhere, at a lower continuous draw if necessary.

The Envoy looked around the ship, then blinked slowly.

She had just realized that her ride home was gone, and she was stuck here in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of murderous aliens that could take out the warriors who had been terrorizing her world with relative ease.

"Um, what do I do now?" She asked slowly.

Nico patted the metre-tall alien's head in consolation. "You've been stationed with us for the duration of our agreement with your people, so I will prepare a room for you. I'm not sure that we have clothes already in your size that are suitable for an Envoy, but we will find you something."

She had every intention of dressing the girl up as a Reaver child with the excuse that it was all that they had, despite the fact that their replicators had thousands of clothing designs suitable for her species input by the members who had visited either Absolution or Terminus.