Nico brought up a list of supplies that she expected they would need and some improvisational materials that she would pack in the ship as spares. The ship had a very comprehensive repair bay on board and could take care of nearly any damage that the Mecha might have sustained.

They had plenty of raw materials, as well as biomatter, available for an extended mission. If nothing else, they could return to the anomaly and this side if they were in desperate need of supplies and couldn’t get anything on that side.

It sounded like there were multiple intelligent species there, though, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue finding some sort of biomass that they could work with, assuming that their composition was close enough that the Replicator system would recognize it.

She had included a list of spare parts to be premade that would bring the power system, and warp drive back online in case of damage to the ship since they couldn’t expect such an unfamiliar species to have anything that was compatible with their gear.

“Is there anything that I’m forgetting?” She asked as she looked over the sheets.

“You should likely make us a pair of specialized Mobile Suits for Piloting in. Who knows what that nebula is going to be like if we get a breach of the cockpit? Even though you’re not worried about breathing, it could still be caustic, corrosive, radioactive, or otherwise toxic.” Max elaborated.

“Good call. I’ve got some that are quite similar to the ones we wore for the last mission but more comfortable to Pilot in for extended periods of time. We will work out logistics and positioning for our ship when we arrive. Dad, how did we communicate with the Koleska?” She replied.

“Their language wasn’t hard for our language translation to pick up. It was phonetically similar to an ancient human language, mixed with one that we found in the Alliance database. We analyzed it, then tried to reply, and they sent us back a language database in the same coding language we used the next day.

I guess we got it fairly close because they didn’t seem upset that we didn’t understand right away, and now we can just use it to communicate with them. It’s not spoken language level right now, as we’ve never heard it, but it’s something.”

“We will work with what we can get. If we can receive and decode their messages, that’s enough to get us started, and we can coordinate combat actions from there without any friendly fire incidents. I’m assuming there are some descriptions of friendly and unfriendly units in that data pack?” Max asked.

“Of course, everything we know you now know. It’s not as much as I had hoped, considering it’s my own immediate family going, but I compiled it myself. I should head out and explore the ship while you two prepare. I’ll be sure to keep the exact details from Mary, or she will be blowing up your communicators. They work through the anomaly, so you’ll be able to message back home constantly as if you were right here in this Galaxy until you move further in, and then it might become a bit flaky, like sending messages from the Alliance Territories.”

“If it’s that good, we’re fine. I hear that you’ve hand-picked us a pretty good Board of Governors. They must have been decent since Mary didn’t have any objections to dealing with them.” Max agreed.

“Of course. I picked all the best for the board, all veterans of many trade wars with a load of experience, all with planetary leadership experience, and all of whom led their companies to new heights during their tenure before passing it on to the next generation and taking on an advisory role until the generation after them took over.”

“That’s a pretty high standard. I didn’t think that there were even that many Reavers who met the qualifications.” Nico laughed.

“Oh, they’re not all Reavers. A couple of them are retired Nobles, and one is a former High Chancellor from the Emperor’s governing council. He’s been getting bored in his old age, and the prospect of mermaids on the beach was enough to encourage him to send me his own request when he heard that I was assembling a board of directors.

I picked all people with Systems for longer lifespans. They’ve all got a decade or two in them before they’ll be picking successors, so you should have some stability at home while you do what needs to be done.

It matters more than I would have thought as a young man. Mary is like a bedrock. You can count on her to be right where you expected her to be every single time. It’s very relaxing.”

“Will they be here before we leave? I feel like we should meet them at the very least.” Max reminded him.

“Unfortunately, no. I wasn’t expecting things with the Koleska to change so quickly, and we don’t have anyone ready to take up the role. They will be here in the next few days, and I will be here until then. I take it that one of your subordinates took up the job last time?”

Max nodded. “Yeah, the logistics officer, Miller. He’s very good at organization. If you’re going to be around and show them the ropes, I will introduce you to the Alliance Envoys. Then you can deal with them directly if Mary runs into any problems at home. I’m sure that she would rather send you than anyone else.”

Nico chuckled as her father sighed at the suggestion.

“I’m afraid you’re right. She would really rather make me her errand boy. Dealing with the Alliance Envoys won’t be a problem. They are supposed to be quite reasonable, and it would let me get home on time for a change, with a good excuse when I don’t, so it might not be the worst idea.” He reluctantly agreed.

“In that case, we will bring you to the other office. They like working here because nobody can come to bother them, and they can block outside communications entirely if they need to. Let’s just hope that the Innu Envoy hasn’t gotten too bored, or the Giant will be in a bad mood, and the Valkia will be stirring them both up while the Huntress laughs if she’s still here.” Max explained.