Nico’s run was predictably smooth, and Max suspected that she had forgotten to turn the gravity control systems that she had built into her body off. She didn’t think about them at all anymore, so it was quite likely that she was just unconsciously altering the surrounding gravity to help herself out, the same as always.

That defeated the purpose of this course, but she was having a lot of fun, and she wasn’t using her innate control very much if she was still using it, but the way that her body flowed from one gravity pool to another was just uncanny.

She made the extreme training course look like a well-choreographed dance, even though the gravity wells moved around the room and changed in intensity so that no two trips through were ever the same.

She finished her run to a standing ovation from the small group in the gym and smiled at Max.

“We should come here more often. That is a lot of fun. I would say that it would make a great theme park event, but the safety measures would take all the fun out of it. You can’t just let random civilians hurtle at walls or bash their face off the ladder.” She sighed.

The Gym regulars chuckled at that. They had all suffered that fate at least once when the gravity suddenly changed on them, and they were braced in the wrong direction. But it wasn’t their chin that they were the most concerned about bashing off random corners of the equipment. Their scales would heal quickly enough, but the pain of your first nut shot was never forgotten.

“Well, we should take our leave. We’re going to organize a surprise light show for tonight to celebrate the first residents of the new floor arriving. We will do the celebration on the upper floor in a couple of days, so today is just for this one. Watch for it as the evening starts, but we will make a public announcement in a few minutes.” Max informed the lizardmen with a conspiratorial wink.

“We will look forward to it then. There’s still plenty of time, and we will be able to wear ourselves out and then rest and be ready for the evening event with plenty of time to spare.” Titan agreed.

Nico prepared the announcement as they headed out and began to program the light show into the holographic array that served as the sky inside Absolution. The ceiling was many kilometres above them, but it was better to have a more natural-looking sky to help everyone feel like they were living in an actual world.

Sure, there was a limit to the sky, but for non-flying species, and even most flying ones, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be over a few thousand metres in the air without being inside a vehicle of some sort.

[Attention everyone, this is a public service announcement. Tonight, there will be an aquatic-themed light show over the cities on the main floor to celebrate the first residents of the second level arriving at their new homes. Please look forward to it.

For rural residents, the show will begin at 22:00 ship time and will occur over every major city at the height of two thousand metres. Public Transit on affected routes may be delayed as it is rerouted around the show.]

The broadcast went to homes and personal devices so that it didn’t really disturb anyone. At least not any more than a standard text message would.

That would keep everyone excited for the day. The hologram system was capable of amazing things, and if Nico was putting on a light show, then it was bound to be a good one.

Nico was almost as excited as anyone in the city. She hadn’t gotten to play with the ship’s systems much since it was built, a situation that she intended to rectify once she finally had some downtime. Someone was always requesting them for something or another, and it seemed that she never had a full week to herself. She recalled in her past life that she often travelled between worlds at warp by herself, with her Mecha, throwing everyone off her trail and then suddenly appearing at a new location.

At that time, they could trace a portal, but after a battle, there was so much lingering energy in the area that they couldn’t track a ship in stealth mode going to warp.

Now that she had been thinking of it, she had a great idea of how to improve the stealth functions that she had been designing for the new ships. Trying to hide something as large as Absolution was a joke, but for the morphable Cutter that they had disguised as a pleasure yacht, it was completely possible.

Not only could she hide it, but she could also disguise it. That was a trick that had evaded even the developmental legacy of the Alliance, and it wasn’t something that she would share. Not even with her mother, no matter how much cake she offered.

“You look like we should go by the lab on the way to whatever we’re doing next.” Max laughed after having seen what she was thinking about.

“No, that’s fine. I will take care of it this week as long as we don’t have to do anything else.

The Mecha Regiments are on a break, but after that, they have to head out again to clear the last few planets that still have a Klem infestation. That should be the end of our part of the job, and the rest of the Terminus Fleet is nearly done with the planets that we were supposed to clear at home.

I would say it’s been productive, and it has been, but somehow it feels more like busy work than actually advancing anything.” She explained.

“Then what is it that your tiny little mechanical heart desires?” Max joked.

“Other than your mother’s cake recipe.” He amended.

“One day, I’m going to get that recipe, and it is going to be glorious. I’ve already gotten four ingredients. Now I just need the rest and the quantities. But that’s the easy part. The hard part will be learning her special preparation method that makes it so fluffy.” Nico sighed.