[Nico, it looks like the Alliance is asking us to take care of their Klem issues and investigate how they even developed one, to begin with. Once you're settled back in and Shattered Pride is cleaned and repaired, come to my new office aboard Absolution, and we will talk about strategies for cleaning out a series of planets while searching for hints of the origin and cause.] Max informed his second in command.

[Is it my birthday? No, it hasn't been that long. It's a special occasion, isn't it? You're never this nice to me for two missions in a row.] She replied. He was going to have to talk to her about separating her messaging system from her conscious thoughts so that he would get an organized message instead of whatever she thought when he sent her a message.

[It's not too late for me to put you on managerial duties for the mission.]

Nico didn't bother to respond to his taunting, so Max browsed the selection of dessert options that the restaurant had prepared for them. Now that they had a good idea of what the Envoys were going to have to negotiate tonight, everyone could relax and enjoy their food.

They knew what the answer would be. The rewards offered were quite impressive and included discounts on alliance goods for the entire Reaver Trade Group, which currently encompassed nearly two-thirds of all humans, as well as a lot of Alliance Credits.

The rescue fee for Mercenary Forces hired to save a planet by the Alliance was set at ten percent of the value of the planet's resources and surviving infrastructure. It was set millennia earlier and hadn't been used in centuries, but it was extremely generous, and the Alliance Government could afford it easily enough.

That was the sort of money that would make many human planets much more comfortable since the Reavers would be able to deploy entire cargo ships of advanced technologies to them and change the standard of living in a single mission.

"Do you have a preliminary plan on how you will begin to identify the source of the infestation? Holding the Klem at bay can be done in a variety of ways, but we have had no luck at all in finding the origin of the first infestation." The Valkia envoy asked.

"We have some practice with that, yes. Portals leave a lingering trace that we should still be able to detect. And if you track the position of the planet, as well as the impact sites, you can identify the direction that the pods would have come from if they were sent to you.

If they came from this Galaxy, they would have been sent a million years ago since they travel at less than light speed, and I'm not sure that even Klem pods could survive stasis that long. So most likely, they would have come from another planetary body nearby or a ship.

If it's a vessel that we're looking for, it will be a matter of correlating warp signatures to locations and times in order to identify possible origins, which will be much more difficult since we don't know the signature patterns of every Alliance manufacturer."

The Envoys nodded in understanding. Each design of warp drive had a specific energy pattern that it left behind when it passed, but if a ship was out of spec, it wouldn't be immediately identifiable even with their records, and every ship that was operating as intended would only lead them back to a manufacturer, and possibly hundreds or thousands of ships.

That was a lot of investigative work, and getting the records unlocked would take years by the time they finished, which gave anyone who was a legitimate suspect more than enough time to hide their tracks. That meant that chasing the vessel around to every spot it stopped was the only truly viable method, and they had already spent months doing whatever they pleased with nobody chasing them.

There wasn't much more that they could do here, so the Envoys prepared to step out and make an announcement to the crowd gathered outside the restaurant.

"Should we have the assistants do it? If the crowd is going to yell at someone, it might as well not be us." Max suggested.

The Dryad laughed so hard that fruit juice spurted from her nose, horrifying the normally Elegant Representative but causing the Innu Envoy to laugh even harder.

"I wish we could get away with that, but like official press secretaries, we are expected to make official announcements ourselves and not pass it off to a lackey with no authority to give answers." The Valkia Envoy sighed.

"Well, it was worth suggesting. Do you have a speech prepared? You are the official leader of the delegation." He asked the Valkia.

"I have been provided with a public statement." The Envoy agreed.

"That says absolutely nothing and leaves them with even more questions than when you stepped out to speak to them. This should be fun."

The Giant thumped the table and threw his head back in a full-throated laugh. "He knows politicians entirely too well. I swear, humans have a gift of seeing through subterfuge and doublespeak like no other species. It's almost like their language capability includes a small measure of precognition. They know what you're going to say without you saying it."

One of the Giant's assistants looked up from her notes and shook her head. "That's not precognition. We have analyzed it, and it is a form of pattern recognition. They know what you are going to say because they instinctively understand behaviour and past actions."

The Envoy looked at her in mild annoyance. "You really do know how to take the joy out of the little things, don't you? But you are correct. It is not actually precognition."

"There is a balcony overlooking the street. I suggest that you address the crowd from there. It will let them all see you and prevent your voice from being blocked by the mass of bodies." Max suggested.

"Let's get this over with, and then we can make preparations to get this circus on the move. I swear the Alliance goes as overboard with political observers as the Humans do with military force." The Dryad added.