General Kirkland approached the spot where Max and Nico were admiring the devotion of some of the Comor Nobles to gluttony. He weaved his way through the thinning crowd with a smile until he got close to the two Kepler Pilots when he held up a hand with a pair of hotel key cards in it.

“As promised, your rooms are ready. I hope you don’t mind that they’re on the Cygnus delegations floor. It was the only way to obtain an extra room on short notice. The hotel is pretty much booked full for the upcoming engagement parties.” The General explained.

“As luxurious as the rooms on a Capital Class transport are, I’m certain that anything you could find us in this hotel would be an improvement, Lord General.” Max chuckled.

“The broom closet is two meters by three with hardwood flooring and golden fixtures. I checked.” Nico added, making a number of the guests laugh.

No aspect of the hotel was overlooked so that malicious photographers would find there were no bad angles to embarrass the luxury of the resort with.

The General led them to a glass-walled elevator that overlooked the indoor lake, and they slowly ascended to nearly the top of the hotel._.

“If you don’t want to stay in for room service, the beachfront cafés have an excellent selection of seafood-based breakfast options. In addition, material printers in the room will create your choice of hotel-branded bathing apparel and formal wear. It’s included with every stay, so don’t be shy.”

His description made this day off sound better and better. A whole day spent lounging on an exclusive resort beach with all-inclusive galaxy-class food and drinks? Max was practically in heaven.

“Say zero eight hundred?” Nico asked, and General Kirkland nodded.

“I’ll be there. I live by the ocean on my homeworld, but good seafood is hard to find on deployment. Ah, here we are, your room. Forgive the plethora of guards. It is protocol with Royalty in the building. The entire hotel is on a discrete partial lockdown until after the young couple leaves.” He explained.

?[0)??? “That’s to be expected. I certainly don’t want to get caught up in any meaningless international incidents.” Max agreed, touching the key card to the door, which automatically swung open.

Max and Nico shared an incredulous look at the room. It has deep cream-colored carpets, burnished Bronze accents, blood red curtains, and bedding, with golden filigree on the walls.

Though there was an extremely slim chance that it was intentional, the hotel room almost perfectly matched their unit’s colors.

General Kirkland noticed the unique color combination when his men checked in. When he spotted Abraham Kepler docking, he even rearranged some of the room assignments so that he could put Max and Nico in this particular room for their stay. The Comor Royal Family’s brother, the scientist named Lu, who had come to the announcement party late today, had asked him to help impress these Pilots to earn their goodwill.

The General wasn’t privy to the details, but he suspected that they were about to become much more famous in Kepler than he had made them infamous in Cygnus.

That would not be easy, though. They were the antagonists in a new hit docudrama that had aired all over the Cygnus nation. It had a surprise happy ending, with the antagonists releasing the captured heroes at the end and walking away from the battle to let them escape, but the filmmaker had used their actual names and a close copy of their likeness, so any Cygnus citizen they casually met would likely recognize them.

Of course, it was censored and blocked in Kepler since it was foreign propaganda, so they would likely never learn of their own infamy.

After bidding the General goodnight, Max took a moment to truly admire the room. It was properly a suite since the bedroom was separate, but the dining room and sitting room were in a matched theme. There was also a large holo-projector on which he couldn’t wait to watch movies and a Bronze leather couch softer than any cloth he had ever touched.

“Could you unzip me? They’ve got a bubble bath that smells like orange blossoms.” Nico demanded, pointing to her back.

Max obliged, and Nico simply stepped out of the dress right where she was, heading for the bath.

“There’s a separate auto shower if you don’t want to smell like orange blossoms.” She called out right before the sound of splashing let him know she was in the tub.

After a whole day of socializing, Max was ready to shower and have a nap. Whoever decided that these functions should be twelve hours long was pure evil.

Max finished washing, stepped out of the shower, through the gold framed doorway that dried him with warm air as he passed through, and grabbed a robe from the wall. Nico was making happy noises in the tub, so he headed for the bedroom without bothering her, finding only one enormous bed.

It was what the slums called a Harem King Size mattress. At three meters in either direction, it was suited for many species of varying sizes but vastly oversized for the two of them.historical

It was incredibly comfortable, though; Max was asleep seconds after he lay down.

The next thing he knew, he heard Nico whistling as she got ready in the morning. He cracked open an eye and found her braiding her hair in a dressing gown, bringing back unpleasant memories of mornings with his mother when she was home and would insist on styling his hair for the day.

She had chosen a fashionable one-piece swimsuit that laced up the sides, showing off her flawless metallic skin, which she had managed to alter enough to almost exactly emulate her previously alabaster organic skin. She also had a Yukata, a form of simple short robe commonly worn during summer festivals waiting for her to finish her hair.

“You know those are usually worn without anything underneath.” Max joked, and her eyes lit up with mischief.

“Wouldn’t that cause an incredible scandal when I went swimming? Maybe I should change.”

Max shook his head at her, then noticed a pair of shorts and a lightweight button-down shirt waiting for him with a pair of sandals.

“I took the liberty of picking matching outfits. Now hurry up or we will be late for breakfast.”

Fortunately, she didn’t go overboard, but the shirt was the same red as her swimsuit. Come to think of it, Max himself had never been to a lake unless you counted the day that Planet Belmont flooded.