The new group didn't take long to arrive. They scheduled a portal opening for the next morning, Terminus ship time, in consideration of everyone's schedule, and informed Max that they would be twenty persons in total, plus four that they had invited from Non Alliance members to attend the meeting.

That last part was a bit strange, but it seemed like they wanted to make a rather large change to the understanding that they had with the humans, and that meant that they had to involve other species as well.

One of the extra four was a Huntress, but not one from Khan's ship. One was a Dryad, who apparently weren't all Alliance members, and the other two were from species that his database couldn't identify, so he turned to Huntress Khan for advice.

[These species, the Dryads, and the others, what are their cultures like? They are coming to attend the meetings, but I don't know anything at all about them.] Max asked.

[They're not bad. They are from relatively nearby systems but have declined membership. The blue ones with no noses do not believe in outside governance, so they won't accept membership or fully comply with Alliance law when it conflicts with their own. They are vegetarian and generally agreeable, though.

The Dryads also eat only plants and can have a temper, but with your rebuilding of a natural ecosystem, they will like you more. They're what your species calls hippies. You should be able to manage that.

The last is Volga. The douchebags of the Universe. They were early founding members of the Alliance but were later expelled for corruption. They like to force others to do their bidding and engaged in hundreds of proxy wars using outside forces before there was enough evidence to expel them.

Dealing with them can be tricky, don't agree to any sort of arrangement with them if you want to have anything to do with the Alliance. They're only here because they are nearby, and the Alliance couldn't prevent their spies from finding out that your species is growing in power.

Given another decade or two, they would be here, looking for you to help them cause trouble somewhere. Their reflexes are crap, and they're completely cowardly, with mediocre technology, but that doesn't matter when they do everything by proxy using money.]

[Humanity has some like that. I will forward the information on them to the rest of the Reavers so that they don't get involved in a long-running dispute without knowing it. Do you think it would be acceptable to trade with them, or should they be snubbed entirely? I can tell that you, and possibly all Hunters, have a grudge against them.] Mas asked.

[If there are no prior arrangements, we scuttle their ships any time they are found in Hunter territory.] Khan replied, summing up the state of their relationship in a single sentence. You didn't get much more hostile than a kill-on-sight order.

[I understand. I will add it to the information that I am sending to the Trade Group members so they know about the potential for conflict. They will most likely put them on a zero military intervention list, prohibiting them from hiring our mercenaries or buying military equipment from us.]

[That would make the Hunters and the Alliance happy, but do it with tact so that you don't cause additional issues for your people. They could send others to do their work for them until you agree to their terms. It's what they're famous for.]

Max added the detailed notes in the information that he sent to Mary Tarith, who was taking care of disseminating all of the data that they gathered and spreading it to the Trade Group as a whole. The fact that these people were on such bad terms with the Hunters, who had been on excellent terms with the humans already, was certain to become an issue in the future.

The Hunters had been as generous as they could with the data they shared, and they had worked in good faith with the Trade Group when they found new humans hidden on the far side of the Galaxy from the rest of the species, so Max was reluctant to do anything to interfere with that arrangement.

[Thanks. If you want to sit in as an observer, I will make sure there's a seat at the table for you.] Max offered.

[I think that the Huntress they are sending should be enough. She will have a constant link from her sensors open for me so I know what's going on in the meeting. It's not common knowledge, but most of the Innu know that we do it as standard practice, and any of the high-ranking Alliance officials should know already.]

[Understood. Thanks for the help.]

With the link ended, Max began to prepare for the next day's meetings. Preparing a venue and securing it was the easy part. They had a lot of practice for that. The hard part was that they didn't know yet what the team was here to talk about in specific. Without that essential bit of knowledge, it would be hard to avoid talking their way into a trap.

At least he could read minds, so he would find out right away what they were intending and if they were being honest with him. There were some ways around his mind reading, but in a large group, it would be impossible for all of them to hide a major plot twist, so either most wouldn't know, and their surprise would be genuine, or one of them would give away any negative intentions.

The last thing he did before sleeping was to ask the Illithid to keep a mental ear open for anything that he could learn about the situation from his compatriot on the Observation vessel or any other minds he had access to. Every bit helped, and Max was determined to make the best impression possible on these visitors, even if he didn't intend to have a close business relationship with all of them.