It was late that night when the students were all safely back aboard Terminus, and the enraged messages from the parents demanding an audience with the Headmistress had all been declined. The staff had sent out various explanations about how despite the appearances, the trip was completely safe and not a single injury had been noted. It wasn't completely successful, but as per the contract, the field trip was deemed to be a totally safe activity and not grounds for the more overprotective parents to withdraw their children.

None of the students asked to go home after the trip, and those who weren't in the classes that got to go were incredibly envious of their trip, so the Academy viewed it as a win on their part.

Building rivalries between classes helped student performance, and only the students taking the most advanced related classes of their years had gotten to go. Those who had slacked off and applied for the easier classes realized that they had made a grave tactical error. The Academy rewarded success, and slacking off didn't impress them.

Max finally found time to check on Absolution just after dark and found that the entire hull was complete, and the interior was well underway, with each pod zone having a unique architectural style appropriate to species native to the region that its vegetation was derived from.

All of them were suitable for humans, as well as species up to the size of Giants, but most of the ship was in the same style as the most advanced Kepler Core cities, where the wealthiest of citizens and Royalty lived.

It was brilliant marketing. Every Kepler citizen and most of the citizens of the surrounding nations would recognize the architecture of the Royal Planets, and living there had been a dream for many generations of humans. Just the appearance evoked a feeling of inferiority in those who gazed upon them, reminding them that they would never be good enough to live somewhere as grand as that.

But now, they were going to pick some of the most densely packed planets in the human territories and fill the ship with commoners, based exclusively on their job skills and qualifications, at no cost to them. They could even bring their immediate family with them if they wished.

[Have we sent a notification to the planet that we intend to recruit from first?] Max asked the logistics staff, who were frantically working to prepare for the biggest recruitment that Terminus Trading Company, and perhaps any Reaver Company, had ever attempted.

[We have, Sir. We have chosen Kepler 207, near the Inner Rim, with a population of 26 Billion and suffering from a severe shortage of supplies in the aftermath of the war. It is being supplied from outside agricultural worlds again, but it is no longer a major bureaucratic hub, and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed to over thirty percent. Even with the planetwide deployment of Replicators by the former Imperial Princess, who now governs the region, they are suffering a decline in quality of life.

In short, half the population of the planet should really leave for other worlds, but the logistics of that undertaking are mind-boggling, and the planetary government has instead opted for strict reproduction quotas to reduce the population over the course of a generation while they work to rebuild their place in the Galaxy.]

Ah, a bureaucratic world. A wretched hive of crime and villainy like no other, at least to those in the slums where Max grew up. They were the ones who determined who was and was not eligible for benefits from the Central Government, while the local government only distributed planetary benefits. Therefore, the bureaucratic planets weren't very popular with the unemployed.historical

[It sounds like a winner to me. They should have a surplus of everything that we need. Are we set up to receive and vet digital applications in advance?] Max asked.

[We are. But there are so many. We have received nearly a thousand applications for every position that we have open, and there are more still coming in. Should we expand the planned quarter million workers?] The logistics officer asked.

[No, once you factor in family members, that will be a large portion of the initial population of the ship, all from one planet. We want a more diverse representation of Humanity, not a refugee ship from one planet. Limit immediate family accompaniment to spouses who were official thirty days ago and biological children or those officially adopted before the same time frame. It will somewhat limit those willing to go, but it will prevent scams from getting children and dependents off the planet.

Then vet out those who would abandon their family to go anyhow.

I know it's a bit heartless, but we're in the position to be picky here, and I want to at least stop at one Cygnus planet and two others as well.]

Max could sense the frustration in the logistics worker's mind but also a bit of relief that they now had a clear guideline to work with.

As Max listened to the recruitment team's thoughts, he found that the limitation on spouses and children eliminated over three-quarters of the applicants and drastically limited the incoming flow. As expected, a large portion of them were skilled workers paid to get the children of upper brass off the planet.

It took two full days to sort out the first batch of recruits, but in the end, the team was certain that their usage of System Skills, and the advanced filtering functions of the Kepler Citizen Database, had found them the most qualified possible workers, with solid backgrounds, and verifiable job skills.

It also gave Absolution time to be completed, and the Terraforming Array was sent back to Rae 5 without incident.

That meant that it was time to become the biggest bit of news that the Alliance had seen in a while. The Terminus Trading Company was upgrading from a Colony Ship to a World Ship.