The transport pod slowly brought them over to the city while the automated voice narrated all of the interesting features. The uniquely designed high-rise buildings, the forests split into representative biomes from various planets, the lakes and finally, the city itself, where the existing crew lived.

"Your ship really is empty. Hundreds of kilometres without even a single house. It's practically paradise to a Dryad, but we usually stay on planets, and not world ships, so this is a fairly new experience to me. You could split every inhabited floor into a different nation if you wanted. They're large enough." The Dryad Envoy giggled.

"That's just what I need. Nationalist conflicts aboard my ship." Max chuckled, making the Envoys smirk.

"It wouldn't be the strangest thing that we have seen humans do." The Valkia reminded him.

While that was true, when he put it like that, it almost sounded like an insult. His mind said that it wasn't intended to be one, only a reminder that they had seen humans do some incredibly strange things in the past, by Alliance standards, but Max could sense that separating the floors into separate nations would be a very bad idea, given how humans are, and the inevitable rivalries that would develop.

He would also have to work to avoid having certain floors end up with too heavy of distribution of certain categories of workers. Even though the replicators made life much easier, there were still bonuses to having a better job, and he didn't want to create entire floors who felt that living where they did was hindering their chance.

Even worse, if a floor got a reputation for raising low-wage workers, it really would hinder their chances since they would have their location code on all their identification and job applications.

He briefly wondered if General Tennant had felt like this when he first took over as Planetary Governor, trying to balance everything so he didn't create a dystopian nightmare for his residents. Then he remembered that this wasn't the General's first time serving as Planetary Governor, so the first time he had inherited what was likely already a dystopian nightmare, but a functional one.

Because the Kepler Empire could tolerate anything but dysfunction.

When they were over the city and the major landmarks had been pointed out, the pod began to descend toward a landing zone on top of a shopping center.

"I know it's not what you were expecting, but the restaurant that we want is right across the street. Reservations for a private room have been made, and we only need to pass through one building and across the street.

I'm sure there will be more than a few people already waiting for us, but it won't take much to get away from them." Max explained.

"Oh, is this another one that makes custom things with the Replicators? That's such a rare thing in most worlds that I almost forgot humans like their own personalized recipes." The assistant to the Valkia asked eagerly.

"It is. But first, I count just over one hundred corporate representatives headed for the area, so we should get moving so that we aren't trapped on the upper floors of the building. Once we get to the shops, a basic sense of decorum and the security forces will keep them from becoming a major nuisance. So, put on your best political faces and prepare to answer questions." Max informed them.

Most of the questions would fall to the assistants since the Envoys had such a high social status, but even Max wouldn't be immune to being swarmed since so many of the people already in the area were staff who had only met him once at an official announcement, if at all.

The human staff was pretty good about it, though, and treated him like a celebrity out shopping, simply snapping pictures or inviting him into their shops as the group passed.

"Wait, what is that shop? It smells divine." The Dryad asked and turned into a candle and potpourri shop.

"We've lost her." The Innu laughed as she followed the other Envoy into the small shop.

Her memories were showing Max an incident some time ago, where the Dryad had gotten immersed in a bath and body product shop for over an hour, checking out every scent until she found one she liked.

"Do you have any natural scents? I know I smell some that aren't chemical." The Dryad asked the woman at the counter, who was wearing a floral sundress with a flower braided into her hair at her temple.

The ship's hippies had found each other, and he certainly wasn't going to be able to separate them anytime soon.

"I replicate all the individual ingredients and make the candles myself with beeswax as a binder. I have a batch ready for processing if you would like a short workshop?" The hippie asked.

"Oh, that would be wonderful. I'm sure my companions can spare a few minutes." The Dryad agreed without hesitation while the Innu rolled her eyes.

Of the entire group, she had the shortest attention span and always needed to be doing something, so these little pauses were pure torture to her on the same level as doing paperwork.

"I think they will let you make a custom one if you ask. Think of it as a biochemical experiment to balance scent profiles into a pleasing combination." Max suggested.

"Please, I would love for you to join, Envoys." The shopkeeper agreed, then pressed a button under the counter that brought a teenage girl that looked like her daughter out from the back room.

"It had better be important. . . are those the Envoys? Here in our little shop?" The girl asked as she stomped in.

"It is, and they are. They want custom candles, so we are going to the back, and you need to watch the counter." The older woman explained.

Since they were tucked in the corner of an upper level of a mall, not many people were likely to know this shop existed yet, but Max suspected they would be very busy in about two minutes.

"If you have another assistant, you might want to call them. A lot of people are going to show up either to get something from a place where the Envoys shopped or to buy scents that they think the Dryad would like. She's a bit of a celebrity." Max whispered to the girl who had moved behind the counter.

She nodded vigorously, then began to panic as she realized that the shop wasn't big enough for them to have hired anyone else, so it was just her. They had come as the family of a sanitation engineer and used their savings to open a shop in the cheapest stall that they could find in the city. Hiring more staff wasn't high on their to-do list, especially after using so much of their energy ration to stock the shop.