Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

By the time the prototype was back together, it was time to call it a day. Unlike Nico's preference with the main design team to work nonstop until someone interrupted them or they began to collapse from exhaustion, they were working more normal shifts here.

They had time, and the research team needed to write their college papers, as well as work on new theories to improve the Mecha and earn their Doctorate, which was no easy feat within Innu society, where standards were incredibly high.

Now that they were released from their work duties, the students dragged Max to what they called Muscle Beach, the sand-floored workout area.

"The other humans showed us the joys of this place. We can work off energy before bed, and once we're done that, we can lay on these lounge chairs here, enjoy the heat and humidity while we watch the others work out." One of the researchers explained.

There was a line of small changing rooms all along one wall, each with a single-purpose replicator to make workout clothing, so Max went and got changed to start his daily routine.

The team of Innu came out only moments later in matching spandex shorts and sports bras, running toward the obstacle course. They weren't particularly concerned about the extra muscle strength, but more flexibility and agility while burning energy was a top concern for them.

As Max bumped up the gravity generator underneath the machine he was working at so that he could actually get a workout, they started giggling and swinging through the air, twisting between obstacles and making their way around the perimeter of the room.

"You know, there are more settings for that, right? The obstacles can move, and some of them rotate." Max called out as they finished the first lap of the course.

"Seriously? How do we do that? Oh, never mind, it will be on the computer." The first Innu to finish replied, then started to scan through the gym's settings to change the difficulty of the obstacle course.

"Perfect. I have the setting that we need. Chaos Mode sets every obstacle to random difficulty, changing every fifteen seconds." She exclaimed with a huge grin on her face.

This round of the obstacle course was a very different experience for the Innu. The obstacles were moving, changing distances, and some of them would fall away a split second after you grabbed them, forcing you to move on or fall.

And fall, they did. There were constant landings on the sand floor, dampened by a reduction in gravity so that they didn't injure themselves. It made walking anywhere but near the equipment in the middle of the room or the lounge chairs a falling object hazard, but they were certainly having fun, especially when Nico came in to catch them.

By the time they were exhausted, it was time for dinner, and the third shift came to say hello. Made up of five people, including the Ship's Doctor, who was technically on call, not assigned to any shift, this group was just as eccentric as the last one was. It was quite clear that the female Valkia and the human communications officer were lovers, while the Giant who had been put in command was wearing a t-shirt with an equation that both proved and disproved that there was a seventh dimension.

As far as Max could determine, you really couldn't get nerdier than that, while the Innu engineer was quickly absorbed into the conversation between the design team members and nearly forgotten by her teammates until it was time for them to work.

"As you might have guessed, everyone here is a volunteer. I wouldn't say that we were all encouraged to leave our last post, but being on a nearly empty ship doing research on the far side of the universe did have a certain appeal to everyone on board." The Dryad doctor laughed as the rest of the staff left the cafeteria.

"I heard that you are on a mission to improve multi-species medicine, so it made sense that you were here. I just assumed that a lot of the others had been pressured by the Alliance to join the mission. I haven't dug deep into anyone's thoughts, though. It's considered somewhat impolite." Max replied.

"Well, that is likely also true. Since the Giants all work for Alliance Intelligence, they were likely pushed to take the job, but they volunteered in the end before their superiors could choose someone at random from the department.

The Valkia on this shift was the first to volunteer. She's from the Envoy ship, and there's still some discomfort there with the whole interspecies thing. For Dryads, that's not really an issue, but a Valkia doesn't do that, as a general rule.

Other than that, we've just got the students, who are enjoying their first taste of freedom, but they'll calm down eventually, and the engineer and the Giant from the first ship who have this whole sexual tension frenemies thing going on."

Max chuckled at the description.

"I take it you're a big fan of romance books?" He asked the Dryad.

"Oh, most definitely, yes. Especially the human ones. They get really spicy." She giggled, with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Well, it's good to know more about my crew. If we're going to be together for a while, we shouldn't encourage them to be strangers." Max told her with a wink.

"Is it wrong that I'm cheering on the Valkia and Human love story only because I really want to be the pediatrician to their firstborn child?" The Dryad joked, making Nico give her an interested look.

"I wonder whether they would have wings? Humans are too dense to fly easily, but if they got the Valkia hollow and extra strong bones as well, would you really be able to tell that they were a hybrid?" Nico asked.

"What if they got feathers that weren't in a grayscale? Human hair and eyes come in so many colours. With the right combination of genetic codes, we could have a Valkia with the most amazing blue, green and red wings." The Dryad sighed happily, lost in thought.

That would be quite a sight. A parrot patterned Valkia.