Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

The scent of coffee brought both other occupants of the ship out of hibernation just as they were entering the star system where their next stop was scheduled, so Max brought up the visual display on one wall for them to watch the phenomenon together.

"Coffee, coffee, coffee." Annabelle was chanting sleepily as she made her way to the replicator with tousled tentacles somewhat resembling bedhead.

Of course, she could control them, so their state was more of a reflection of her frazzled mind than a lack of grooming, but in this case, the concept was the same.

"Coffee will stunt your growth," Nico warned her, and the little Innu stopped suddenly just before pressing the button.

"That wouldn't be good. I can't reach the research desks properly. I can't work forever on stilts just because the tables are too high." She mumbled, then made herself a juice and a plate containing some sort of sushi rolls.

"Ah, I love the replicator." She sighed at the first bite of her breakfast.

Max looked into her thoughts to see what she meant, and once he got past the happiness about sushi for breakfast, he found that her mother worked early and had signed her up for school breakfast and lunch programs, so she ate cafeteria food twice a day.

It was good food and came from the replicator, but it was carefully curated by the school's nutritionist to create a balanced daily intake for optimal learning, which was very different from optimizing it for what a bunch of seventh-grade students actually wanted to eat for breakfast every day.

"This morning, we don't have an assignment. I have a bunch of meetings with the Envoys, and I found a particularly interesting specimen for you to examine." Max explained while they ate.

"Oh, what sort of science lesson is this?" Annabelle asked.

"Call it a morning break period. There is a planet up ahead with a unique visual effect in the atmosphere that will make a great spot to stop for the meetings since the communications get garbled at high warp and long distances.

That's just rude to the Envoys, so I will be stopping the ship while I hold the meetings, and then we can carry on, and you can finish up the analysis of the route that you started on yesterday. There are a lot of factors that come into play, so I don't expect that it will be done in a single day when you haven't even learned the base material yet." Max explained.

"Got it. I will try not to get in the way while you're holding meetings." She agreed with a sloppy salute.

Nico pointed to the viewscreen on the wall. "We're here. What do you think of our layover location for the day?"

Pure joy overtook Annabelle's thoughts, and she stared at the screen in awe while her hands made happy flapping motions before she decided to grab her data tablet and start making notes of the phenomenon, just in case she wanted details to help remember it later.

Max was quite sure that this wasn't a moment that she was going to forget anywhere in the near future, but it made her happy to record it, so he didn't say anything and just let her take her notes while staring at the bursts of colour and fire that rocked the planet.

After a minute or so, he retired back to his office so that he could make the connections to get the meetings started and brought up Major Miller on his holographic projector.

"Commander, you're right on time. The Envoys are just arriving in the office for the morning meetings. How did your first day away from the ship go?" The former Adjutant asked.

"Better than expected. We have a verified report of Klem pods passing through a region, though we can't confirm their origin or trajectory. We found other signs of the Klem as well and some signs of suspicious vessels, but it hasn't been enough for a solid lead yet, so we are on our way to another possible location." Max explained.

"That's better than any of us expected. The odds that there would actually be something to trace after this long were pretty low, and if the pods were sent intentionally, the perpetrator would have done their best to hide their tracks."

Max saw the Envoys appear in the hologram as they entered the room and gave him a wave.

"Welcome, everyone. If we've all got coffee, please take your seats, and we can get started." Max greeted them.

"Good morning, Commander. I am prepared for the day. I have a coffee for now and one for later. Let's do this thing." The Innu Envoy cheered.

"And by later, she means in about three minutes from now." Max's Illithid advisor informed him from the background.

"I'm sure he already knew that. But I should ask, is Annabelle alright? Your message was a bit vague, and her mother was concerned." The Innu Envoy asked.

"She's fine. She managed to sneak aboard the new ship after learning about it. Nico had taken down most of the security because we were about to board, and she got inside. We left before we noticed her, but she was not in any danger except in danger of learning new things. We have assigned her homework assignments to be done on every topic that comes up during our mission in order to improve her frame of reference."

The Envoy looked like she was going to say something, but the Giant beat her to it. "Unfortunately, Homework, like Decaffeinated Coffee, is not a sentient beings rights violation."

The others all chuckled at the standard Innu objection to anything that forced them to sit still without being engrossed in a project, and Max smiled at the camaraderie between them.

When he first met them, he had thought that they were a bit awkward and unfamiliar with each other on a personal level, but that turned out to be the opposite of the truth. They were actually highly stressed when they first arrived since they didn't know how the humans would react to them and were getting on each other's last nerve.

Now that they had time to settle in, they were more like one large dysfunctional family.