“Nothing,” Rick said, but started a file in his pinplants. Sato Weirdness, he labeled it, and placed the recording of what he’d just seen in it. Then he went back and added the incident against the Besquith, and even earlier, when they were getting the counterfeit Yacks.
Rick finished getting their modest gear packed up then left behind Sato, falling into his guardian mode. As they moved toward the glideways, he did his own research on alien life invading a member planet. Turned out it was your job to keep invasive species off your own planet. Dumping nasty critters on someone else’s world could fall under the genocide rule, and that would involve the Peacemakers, so nobody did it. At least not in a way they could get caught.
What Sato had mentioned before he brain locked was a Science Guild program known as Purity. With their help, you could purchase, at cost, bots whose only purpose was to hunt down and kill invasive species. Everything from small insects to large animals, and even plants. Even with the help, though, a detailed eradication program could cost millions of credits. In the case of Earth, the planet was so darned favorable to life, it was nearly impossible.
Purity had gotten rid of a couple of bacteria that had threatened to collapse the plankton life cycle, which would have been bad. They did so early after first contact, and for free, which was weird in and of itself. Afterwards, humanity had used the program nine times, and had wanted to do so in six other cases, but lacked the funds. Earth reported 20 active alien infestations, but had chosen to ignore 14 of them. One, it turned out, rather liked terrestrial mosquitoes. Rick grinned and shook his head. There was always a bigger bug.
He was still somewhat surprised he’d never read about it. Then he remembered what the Earth Republic was like. Free flow of information wasn’t really their thing, which was why there wasn’t a GalNet node in every library. Instead, Earth suffered along with their own homegrown Aethernet, which was a pathetic echo of the GalNet. Great way to keep some things out of the public eye, too, he guessed.
They reached the zero-gravity hub and headed toward the area where ships could be hired. Now that they were in an area that was patrolled more regularly, Rick could ease up a bit. With the massive population of Karma Station, they largely left basic law enforcement to private concerns. However, the station employed over a thousand four-armed Lumar, contracted as a sort of garrison. They mainly concentrated on merchant operations, offices, and the ship docking bays. That was where the most money was located, of course. Having a ship’s captain get mugged right after arriving would give your station a bad rep, and with another dozen trading stations within single-jump range, Karma needed to keep a good rep.
Within the business area of the hub, all manner of races worked at terminals or with station personnel. They were arranging various repairs, purchasing consumables, and occasionally getting ship upgrades. The aliens Sato was looking for hadn’t come looking for goods or services; they were offering them.
Rick waited to the side, floating away from Sato as the scientist found a group of ships’ captains apparently discussing business. As the scientist moved between the groups, Rick kept his senses open, observing the goings-on in the cylindrical space. In particular, a MinSha crew was pointing at Sato and speaking to each other.
The nature of the MinSha language worked in the aliens’ favor. Mostly scratches of their mandibles accented with minor vocalizations, they were extremely adept at sotto voce communications, and Rick couldn’t read what they were saying. Considering the history between Humans and MinSha, and the near complete lack of fellow Humans on Karma Station, it wasn’t a good thing. Couldn’t be.
Great, he thought and stayed where he was. A quick assessment showed 147 individual beings within the space they occupied. Most weren’t merc races; however 31 were. Besides the four MinSha, there was a group of 10 Goka, another race less than friendly to Humans, as well as three Besquith, a pair of Oogar, and the rest were random pairings. More than enough heavily armed mercs, many hostile to Humans, for this situation to turn to shit in a fraction of a second.
<Mr. Sato,> he sent through their pinplants.
<What’s up?>
<You’re drawing unwanted attention, sir.>
<I’m just trying to hire a ship.>
<Perhaps, but you may have noticed there are almost no Humans around, and we’re at war with the Mercenary Guild. For now, let’s leave.> Sato started to complain, but Rick cut him off. <Just give me a few minutes to find out our status? Something I probably should have done when we arrived.>
<Very well,> Sato agreed, and pushed away to intercept Rick. Sato floated out of the compartment with more than a few eyes on him, while Rick followed backwards, glowing blue eyes tracking everywhere at once. He was all but certain the only thing that kept them alive was fear of collateral damage.
Outside, they found a side passage holding several public-use slates built into the structure. An elSha and a Jeha were chattering at each other as they accessed a terminal, neither taking note of Rick and Sato’s appearance. Once clear, Rick used his pinplants to access the station’s GalNet for more info on Earth’s current status.
As he’d feared, it had worsened. The Hussars’ fleet had been defeated, and the survivors had fled the system. Jim Cartwright’s Raknars had surrendered. It looked like General Peepo had been completely victorious.
“Going to Earth might no longer be an option,” Rick said to Sato quietly.
“Why is that?” After Rick had explained, Sato nodded a couple times then spoke.
