Sorry about the little delay.

I did write about a wider perspective, didn't I? Well a perspective encompassing the Galactic Arm is, in my opinion, wide enough. For now!

We'll also have the pleasure to see a few old acquaintances who are not sure if they really like what's happening.

Good read.

Interludes 36 Galactic fan hitting

I

-°-oOo-°-

"We have a soaring event detected, Sir!"

Aruni Anab Takia Ush(*)[1]Abi looked up from his book and smiled at his young detection tech.

"Are you drunk, boy? We are surveying a quadrant with seventy solar systems where the highest techlevel available is seven with a class ten preindustrial civilization five parsecs away, there's no chance any of the primitives settling this quadrant can organize a soaring event for the next thousand years!"

"I'm sending the detection log to you workstation, Sir. See for yourself."

Aruni Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi sighed, changed his visual apparatus to see in three dimensions and gave the mental order to the ship computer to open his 3Dscreen.

Ten second later he was sitting up.

"By the Holy Black Hole, this really is a soaring event detection. And coming just from the class ten pre-indies." He checked out the file they had about that peculiar little dirt ball. "Not even in my dreams could they have achieved that sort of thing in less than two centuries. It must be an outsider interference." He looked at the tech and couldn't hide his nervous feather ruffling. "We are in deep shit. Get me a secured line to the Sector Admiralty."

"Line open and on your workstation, Sir."

"Sector Nine, Admiralty Emergency board. State your business," said the compvoice.

"Scoutship Tlawatli Sikoran Sector Navy, on survey mission in Quadran 852 which includes Solar System Hai-Gwanb-Thet seventy two, Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi commanding officer. We have a soaring event detection, I repeat we have a soaring event detection. In accordance with Navy Regulation Thet-Thet 52-58, I need to speak with the Director for Foreign Affairs. Detection file is attached."

"File received… Controlling. Detection acknowledged. I'm putting your call to the Director's office. Please wait…"

Aruni Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi looked at his Tech while grooming his beak-feathers.

"We're in for a very bad day, boy. In compliance with Fleet regulations, put on an emergency alert; I want all crewmembers at their posts within ten minutes." He ruffled his head feathers. "Till now this mission was all routine, I do fear that's no longer the case. Begin to reckon a Nav-route to HGT 72. I'm sure we will need it very soon."

I

-°-oOo-°-

"Orioka, sorry to awake you before your time but we have a soaring event detection…"

Orioka was immediately awake.

"Repeat please?"

"I know, I did control the detection log thrice before waking you, but I confirm we have a soaring event detection coming from the Capital city of those who came to see us. It seems that they are even more in a hurry than us…"

"What are the Sikorans doing?"

"I have no ideas" answered Jouriya who was keeping watch. "I'm only on passive. And I'm not going active. Not now when this system will soon be submerged with Sikoran fleet ships."

"Will they have a chance to detect us?"

"Of course they'll have a chance but it is so tiny it's not worth to speak about. To get a look at us they'll have to come and survey the jungle visually. And I'm quite sure they won't come to this deserted part of the planet. No, we're safe…"

"Get me the latest reports from the Terumel Quantum Dispatcher. I need to know what happened while I was sleeping."

I

-°-oOo-°-

"You are surveying a quadrant with solar systems at best of class ten preindustrial civilization, Aruni. There is not a chance in a million that such a civilization has found the means to produce a soaring event. Not a chance in a billion…"

Clearly Director Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek was not very happy to have been the recipient of Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi's news.

"I sent the log file and did inform my direct hierarchy as it is said in the Fleet Regulation and in accordance with Navy Regulation Thet-Thet 52-58 I gave you a direct dispatch. You're now in charge and responsible for the next steps in this matter. I have done my duty and I await your orders." He saluted and shut the comm. The Director would call back.

Unfortunately.

I

-°-oOo-°-

Assistant Deputy Director Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek was not a little amazed when he found himself looking at an empty screen.

That idiot of an Aruni had hang on on him.

He was clapping his directing feather into the call slot when he stopped.

Look first at the file; if he was right and it was a Soaring Event, he had more important things to do than shout at a subordinate.

"Comp, dispatch me the Soaring Event File. Immediately."

I

-°-oOo-°-

Assistant Deputy Director Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek was clearly unbalanced and nervous.

Fleet Admiral Shanti Ashina Twee(**)kek chose to let him gather his wits and waited serenely until his guest was ready.

It had been clear for everybody that this galactic Sector was of secondary importance and it showed since the High Directorate of foreign Affairs –a much more prestigious career than the fleet- had deemed it unnecessary to nominate a full blooded Director. The fact that they had nominated only an assistant deputy director didn't bode well with this Fleet Admiral's self-value.

Well it wasn't the assistant deputy's fault but still he would have to feel this fleet admiral's bad mood.

"Assistant Deputy," said the Fleet Admiral, "we all have our job and mine is not to give advice to a fledgling who's unable to sort out his tail and wing feathers. You are responsible in case of a soaring event and I have no intention to interfere with foreign affairs matters. You let me know what you need and I'll provide to the extent of what I have available."

"But Admiral it has never happened before. We don't even have a research station in that solar system. I know nothing of what happened on its third planet these last hundred years."

"Well" said the Fleet Admiral, "then I advise you to look into our archives to fill in the gaps in your knowledge and after that let me know what you need to cover the emergency."

He stood up and, as it behaved for a lesser member of the Bureaucracy, the Assitant Deputy Director had no choice but to follow suit.

"I'll let you know what I need," said Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek and lowered his head feathers to show his respect.

"Do so and I'll see if I have the means to provide everything you need."

Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek had no doubt that he would have to ask ten times what he really needed to get enough to do his job.

Well as soon as he knew what was the job of a Director of Foreign Affairs who just was hit by a soaring event.

Once more he played with the idea to call the Capital Planet and ask for instructions from his boss. But that would mean a loss of face and a bad comment in his personal files.

And he was damned if he did such a blunder on his first posting.

I

-°-oOo-°-

Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek could only ruffle his feathers and clatter his beak.

These creatures were the most primitive excuses for civilized people he had ever encountered.

Well, since they were the first non-Alliance people he encountered it wasn't really amazing but the fact that never ever before had a pre industrialized planetary settlement provided a Sector Director with a Soaring Event wasn't unruffling his feathers.

There was only one believable explanation and that was very very bad news because it implied that the Sikoran hadn't been able to protect a local civilization from outside influence.

And Sikoran politics for the last five thousand years had been centered on that very task.

And finding proof that the Sikorans had failed would cost the Sikoran Directorates a lot of clout in the Galactic Council.

He stopped grumbling and took the latest reports.

Well these people were probably the most dangerous and bellicose sentients this side of the galaxy.

The latest report the scout ships had sent was full of an invasion launched by one of the local powers against another who had settled on another continent. And from the statistical survey he was reading, the invaders had completed their genocidal endeavor only a few years before with a death toll of over seventy millions native people exterminated. Out of a total of less than one hundred millions…

These people were bloody insane killers and they had just triggered a soaring event.

Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek forced his beak to remain calm. Only idiots or fledglings were unable to steady their beaks' clatter.

But it was really too much for him to just stay calm.

He was clearly incompetent for such an occurrence but being the Sikoran on the field it was his job to look at the problem. Not to say that if he called for help it would be the last time in his career that he would be boss anywhere.

He had to do it himself or his hopes for a fast tracking career would soon to be a memory.

But that being the case, nobody forced him to do things in a hurry.

The planet was on such a lowly tech scale that he was quite sure that they were not yet able to build flying machines. It would take them half a millennium to put something significant into orbit. They represented clearly no threat for their galactic neighbors and he would take his time.

He would read everything he had in his files about that planet and he would commandeer a capital ship –in the hope to get a courier or a scout ship- and go there to look at the planet and the native race himself.

But meanwhile he could probably obtain that the scout ship that was stationed in the quadrant changed its mooring spot and went to that planet's orbit.

The Aruni wouldn't be happy but then shit happens when away from the Capital Planet.

I

-°-oOo-°-

Aruni Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi felt his head feathers vibrate.

"Here it comes, folk," said he while reading his new orders. "Took the Assistant Deputy Director long enough to make up his mind. It seems that we have to deal with a bureaucrat of the patient and cautious sort." That amused the whole crew. Most bureaucrats, after all, were of the patient and cautious sort. No one was ever willing to risk his career on a rash decision. Sikoran bureaucracy was known in the whole Galaxy for his caution. "We go, as planned, to Solar System Hai-Gwanb-Thet seventy two to orbit the planet where the soaring event had just been triggered."

He took a long breath through the beak.

"Let's go looking what has happened on the third planet of Solar System Hai-Gwanb-Thet seventy two. Full alert package immediately and stealth mode as soon as we slip out of quantum space."

"Coordinates in the Navcomp, Sir."

"Let's go then, the Assistant Deputy Director wants details? Let's get details for the Assistant Deputy Director!"

I

-°-oOo-°-

"Nice planet, boss…" said Timbal Allaan Pacsoe his XO.

"With two comma one-six standard gravities? Not nice at all. You know that if we should be commandeered on the surface we would have to don exoskeletonsuits and we would be obliged to crawl like cockroaches on the dirt?" Aruni Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi clapped his beak. "No, not nice at all!"

"I like the colors…" insisted the XO. "Lots of blue and green. It changes from the red and brown most planets show to the searching eye."

"Blue and green are signs of a yellow 'G' sun radiating over the planet, that's all. I, for my part, prefer the red and brown which comes with a homely little red 'M' star. Thanks the Holy Black Hole, there are a lot more red stars than yellows in the Galaxy."

"Well this sun is yellow and the planet's gravity's what it is. It doesn't seem to disturb the local populations."

Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi didn't insist. His Xo was new and since he came aboard five months before they hadn't found an easy way to interact. Way too much hostility between the two of them. If nothing came to improve the situation he would have to ask to Fleet Central to find him another XO.

"Get me as much bugs on the surface as possible. We need to know as much as possible in as less time as possible" said Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi while talking to his commtech. "Put as much as possible around the city where the Soaring Event occurred. It should be there that we will find the most probable explanations."

"Do we use stealthed bugs?"

"To spy on preindies? You must be joking! They have nothing that's worth a dam as counter-measures down there. We will use standard five Nikum Nashkani bugs. They have at least a ten techlevel differential with the native tech, they are cheap as down and we have at least a billion of them in our stocks. They won't even notice the difference between our electronic bugs and theirs native flies." He looked at the tech. "Find all the important cities and spread them with a few hundred thousands of our bugs. Put the central computer on a precise cartography and the survey computer on the deciphering of the native languages…"

"Languages, Sir?"

"Indeed languages, because as you will very soon discover, these preindies have most of the time more than one language. Often as many as half a dozen of them. You'll see we will spend months to get a general understanding of those people…"

I

-°-oOo-°-

"Got them…" said Taklia who was at the Navcomp.

"How's that possible," asked Orioka. "We are still on passive, aren't we?"

"Of course we are but those are Sikorans, remember? Everything's always by the book with these vultures. And of course they are straight at the vertical of London where the Event has occurred. Our little survey satellite has them on visual."

"And what have we got?"

"A Kiringati class scout ship… Nothing to fear with this sublimated space junk. The Sikorans use that ship type for these missions since they have taken over the survey and scouting missions for the Galactic Council." Taklia stopped and made a few changes. "Here, I see her hull code. It's the Tlawatli. A three century old scout ship. The iridescence of the hull speaks of maintenance nanos in good shape."

"Armament?"

"Four missile launchers and ten light grazers. Enough to repel a pirate raiding party. Nothing compared to our striking power. Against us it's a sitting duck."

"We are the crouching duck here," grumbled Jouriya. "Our armament is of no use while we are holed up in these caverns."

"Stop it, we don't nee…"

"They are opening their launch pads…"

"Standard procedure: launching bugs" snickered Taklia. "And with luck they'll go on and make a frequency test…" She surveyed her screens a few minutes and adjusted the comm. "Yes, I have their spying frequencies, we will have access to all the date their bugs will collect."

Jouriya couldn't help but laugh.

"They will put out millions of bugs, we will never have enough computer capacity to use everything."

"We have enough storage capacity for a few years of their spying and we already know most of the native languages. We will be able to use the data immediately. They will need months to just get an idea of what is happening here…"

I

-°-oOo-°-

"Repeat that, please?"

"Two hundred seven different languages and counting," answered his comptech.

"I knew that those people would annoy me," grumbled Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi. "Let's concentrate on the languages which are spoken by more than a million speakers."

The tech stroked his tactpad and soon got the wished answer.

"We have twenty seven of those and counting!"

"BY the Holy Black Hole, I'm already hating them! Let's try with fifty millions…"

"I've got five and…"

"Counting, I know. Please spare me the irony and concentrate on facts. Put the comps on those five languages. Is the language spoken in the city where the Event occurred included?"

"Yes, Sir. It's number five…"

"Good, put it in number one priority and get me results. I need to know what happened."

I

-°-oOo-°-

"I love Sikoran procedures," said Jourya while smiling. "They are so predictable, it's always a pleasure. These people are the most lucky bastards alive in this Galaxy. Had they been the ones which had to repel the Umuri invasion they would have been crushed within a week."

"And we would all be dead," added Taklia. "Let's thanks the Stars that it was the Kaleeni who encountered those deadly bastards."

"They died from it," reminded Orioka.

"Yes but they resisted long enough to get enough time for the others to create the Galactic Council. Which, in the end, saved our collective ass."

"Can we take possessions of certain of their bugs?" asked Orioka.

"Of course we can," answered Taklia. "But it comes with a little risk to be spotted."

"With almost a billion bugs crawling all over the planet? Not a chance that they even get a hint of our meddling."

"If we are careful…" interrupted Orioka.

"Of course, if we are careful! We haven't waited here for thousands of years just to lose everything because we are impatient. We have spent so much time here that we all no longer have friends or family. Now we act for our Planet and to do that we need to remain hidden. And we will, by all the Stars, we will!"

I

-°-oOo-°-

Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi looked at the footage of the ugly Boozoom like aliens.

Even their new born children had more mass than an adult Sikoran. They could probably crush a Sikoran Stormtrooper with only one hand. And seeing how they massacred their own people, he was quite sure that it would exactly be what they would do.

"It happened in this concrete box…" said Timdal. "The remnant traces of the Event have brought us directly to it. And the perfectly circular hole in the ceiling shows us what sort of Event they have triggered."

"A booming shifter…" whispered Anab. "The worst that such a violent race could have discovered. I'm quite sure they are already thinking of it as a new weapon system."

"Well it is a weapon system! The Kaleeni used them to get rid of the Umuri. It definitely is a weapon system."

"But it is also a soaring event and that means that this race has a calling. We will have no choice but to welcome them as a member…"

"But not before they have acquired a means to travel between the stars," protested his XO. "And that could take quite a few more years!"

"Not if they have the means to reproduce the booming shifter. It is also a very effective means to move mass into space. Aka travel between the stars."

"At slower than light speed…"

"It is an effective means to travel between the stars" counters Anab. "Not a word about FTL travel in any subsection of the grounding charters. It could be as fast as next year…"

"We are not yet there, boss. With a booming shifter they have even a great chance to destroy their planet."

"And that's why there is the Soaring Event rule, you dumbass. We are here to protect the planet not the race. But with a Soaring Event discovered the probability that a race will destroy its home planet within a century is at fifty seven percent. We have an obligation to interfere now to ensure the survival of the planet. And by the Holy Black Hole, I do not like that idea at all!"

I

-°-oOo-°-

Once more Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek could only ruffle his feathers and clatter his beak. These aliens were making him very nervous. A Soaring Event of the Booming Shifter sort.

Bad new indeed.

But the bugging of the Planet has shown that there had been no interference by a foreign more advanced galactic race. They still weren't able to understand one of their languages but the factual data collected had given quite a lot of unsavory information.

So the Sikoran clout would not suffer because they hadn't failed in their mission.

But the Galaxy, with these new impending members, would probably be a much more dangerous place.

He was studying the data the scout ship had sent and it had been quite unnerving to discover that the tech base of the planet had jumped like never before in any place of this Galaxy. He couldn't help but go on shattering like a dimwit.

In ten years this race had progressed on the Tukari-Kaleeni tech scale from six to eight. A never seen progression at so low a beginning level. And there was clearly going to be a tech-race between the two major powers.

And both competitors were hoarding resources to advance even faster.

It wouldn't take them more than four to five local years to jump to the next level.

And at level nine they would have their first efficient electronic machines.

He was quite sure now that he should have called the Galactic Council and handed them this very hot potato. But he no longer could. He had decided to make it his problem and now he had to solve it alone if he wanted to remain in the race for a Director seat somewhere.

And no Sikoran bureaucrat would ever renounce to its career out of his free will.

Especially not when he was considering the Event not as a catastrophe but as a major career booster.

Which it would be.

If everything went well.

He wasn't the betting type but he was quite sure that he wouldn't bet an old feather on this thing going on without a disaster. Or two…

I

-°-oOo-°-

Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi was quite satisfied with his linguist. In less than two weeks he had deciphered not only one language but two and he was sure that two others were related in such a manner that they would be decoded within a day or two.

"So what do we know about that civilization?"

"I'd put a plural to that, were I you, Boss," said Uklo Gawa Pio, his linguist. "There are a lot more than one civilization on that planet."

"How can there be more than one civilization on only one planet? Don't they communicate together?"

"They do but they are spread out over the whole planet and till very recently going from one place to the other on a same continent would have taken weeks if not months. Within the data we could gather till now, I'd say there are three major civilizations and each of them is divided into a myriad of offspring which have the same origin and have all evolved differently. It is not unknown on preindie planets."

"Let's concentrate on the civilization where the Event occurred. What can you tell me?"

"Well it is a clear example of an aggressive militaristic plutocratic beta strand with an autocratic political regime. There are traces of an aristocratic beginning but that's clearly a thing of the past and the members of the aristocracy are clearly no longer in power. Now they have an unique ruler who makes most of the decisions with two chambers where members of the civil society have been elected to help the ruler in financial and diplomatic matters."

Anab nodded.

"What about the ruler? Did we get a good footage on him?"

"We did and it is a rather surprising phenomenon."

"How so?"

"Let me show you…" the screen before them lighted up to show a group of four aliens. "The tall one is the actual ruler." The central part of the picture lit up showing a tall creature with a flat threatening face with no feathers but hair on the top and on the sides. "At his side you see, at his left, his offspring who will become the ruler of a subdivision of his empire, at his right, his nephew who will replace him as a ruler in about four planet circumvolutions and at the heir's right you see the heir of the second empire that has entered into a tech race with the empire whose ruler we have a picture here…"

"So I surmise that the two Empires are not enemies even if they are engaged in a tech race?"

"For now you are right but it is quite common on this planet that allies change their allegiances and become enemies. Their rulers don't seem to think highly of ethics and morality."

"Do we have access to their History?"

"Not easily, we have been able to place a great number of bugs in a most of their public libraries and we have quite a few pictures of people reading in History books. The Computer is sorting everything out but we already have proof that the same event won't be described in the same light by to different subcultures or the same civilization."

"When will we have a good picture of their history?"

"It could be soon but we have no way to force one of them to page through a book at our convenience. We still have chapters which are unknown because nobody had looked at that part of their history."

"Do we know why they have increased their tech progress in such an astounding manner?"

"Yes we do," answered Uklo while changing the picture. An alien of the same subspecies appeared and he was clearly piloting an autopropulsed airship.

"This is the man responsible for these last ten years of accelerated progress."

"An overall technical genius?"

"Not at all, he is a finance wizard who is probably the richest man living on that planet. And he spends most of his fortune to sponsor technological advancement. He's the man who was financing the researchers who produced the Soaring Event. Everybody agrees that this is the man who has singlehandedly pulled this culture from TL 6 to TL 8 and he is not yet done. He's each day hiring new inventors and scientists by the dozens and everything his scientists discover is immediately published in a monthly scientific journal that exposes everything that has been discovered in the last weeks." The picture changed once more to show a series of boxes. "These are called newspaper and they are printed on a cellulose extract and spread all around their world. Clearly this man has understood that scientific progress needs publicity and maximal dissemination. And his policy gets him results. Be it on the scientific front or the financial one. He is spending humungous sums on technical and technological research but his incomes are nevertheless steadily increasing. He is no political ruler but he is, probably, the most famous and most listened to alien of his planet."

Once more the image changed and a group of aliens appeared. This time the two different genders were visible and they were mixed in what looked like a dicey assortment.

Five females were highlighted by the computer.

"These five females are sisters and offspring of the same genitors. This culture does favor unique lifelong bonding between a female and a male. I'll use a color code to show you the marital relations on this picture." The picture changed. "As you see, if you take the time to look with attention, the ruler of the country where the Soaring Event occurred –that's him- and the finance tycoon who finances the research effort –that's him- are wed with fledglings coming out of the same nest. They are bond brothers…"

"Interesting family indeed."

I

-°-oOo-°-

Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek had stopped looking at century old survey reports to look at the rules the Galactic council had enacted in case of a Soaring Event.

Clearly and for reasons Puuc could only understand too well, looking after Soaring Events was the most important task of any public servant dealing in foreign affairs under the Galactic Council's authority.

Because races producing Soaring Events had been the most dangerous foes of civilization and –not always for the same races- the most stouts defenders of the political compromise that had, for the last twelve thousand and eight standard Kaleeni years, guaranteed peace in the Galaxy.

Everybody did agree that the first known race to produce a Soaring Event had been the Umuri. With all the dreadful results that had provided to the Galaxy.

Than the Kaleeni had done the same and –the Holy Black Hole be thanked- it had happened while the Umuri was happily destroying the Boozoom Empire.

By the time both Empires got into contact, the Boozoom had been destroyed and the Umuri had been reduced to a tenth of the strength they had had before encountering the Boozoom Starkhanat.

So it happened that the Kaleeni were stronger than the Umuri when they first collided. But the Umuri had been at war for the last three thousand years. Their ships and crews were the best fighters the Galaxy has ever known and they were not defenseless. So even if they had been undermanned and underequipped, they had won all their battles till the last confrontation over the Kaleeni home world where what was left of both Empires' navies had destroyed each other in an orgy of fire and thunder.

And while the Umuri were busy exterminating the Kaleeni, the Sikoran had done the same with the defenseless Umuri planets and Colonies. Discreetly and by using thorough but lethal orbital bombardment techniques

The Sikoran had never bragged about their role in that war –it was known to the Galactic Council members and the Sikorans' privileged status had been granted because of it- but it was a fact more or less known throughout the Galaxy.

But because nobody wants to enter the history books by being the backstabbing thug who slit the injured famous heroes' throats, it hadn't been included in the official Galactic History.

Nobody, not even the Sikoran Official History gave any information about who did the Kaleeni extermination. Everybody gave, of course, the Umuri that last victory but there are –soon smothered- rumors which point towards another culprit.

Which could explain why Assistant Deputy Director Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek had also been busy studying an orbital bombardment plan for a certain planet inhabited by Boozoom like aliens.

But for now that was contingency plan omega and it was perhaps still possible to 'save' said aliens in order to get them under the benevolent rule of the Galactic Council –and in Sikoran service- and not destroying them.

To do that he, as Acting Director for foreign Affairs, had to organize the coming times. There would be a few years between his discovery of the race and its 'welcome' into the Galactic Community. And he was the one who would have to arrange everything.

He looked, once more at the seven occurrences of Soaring Events the Galactic Archives had traces of.

In five of the seven events the races had been included peacefully in the Galactic Council with Observer status which had very soon, not more than two centuries OKT (official Kaleeni Timing) for the less interesting of them, been transformed in active member status.

But all those races had been space faring for decades before they triggered the Event. They had not been surprised by the arriving of a diplomatic ship at their solar system's outer Oort shell.

These Boozooms had not even been sky faring ten years before and their planet was divided in thousands of more or less important Principalities.

It could be that they would have to be treated like the Bereendi and the Lakwa whose Galactic involvement had lasted for less than ten OKT years.

They still existed –the Galactic Council was an instrument of Peace and harmony, after all- but their planets were cordoned and everything the satellites detected which was over TL 10 was destroyed from orbit. With a very efficient surgical strike that did the least possible collateral damage.

Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek looked at Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi's last reports.

Family bonds and family business were cultural traits the Sikorans shared with these Boozoom-like aliens. That peculiar family –he looked once more at the territorial surface it ruled on the planet, twenty three percent and growing- would be the key, he didn't doubt it for a moment, to a peaceful integration into the Galactic fold. And he could be the link between these aliens and the Sikorans –he didn't yet dare to think about being the link between these aliens and the Galactic Council which was way over his pay grade, but somewhere deep inside he knew that, if he were to be subtle enough, it could be the case-.

He closed his eyes, stopped his shattering beak and turned around to the Navchart he had summoned on his work computer.

He studied the Boozooms' solar system and zoomed in on the fourth planet. Which was –the absence of an atmosphere not included- perfect for Sikoran colonization. And the fact that the Boozooms had nothing yet in orbit meant nothing else that they only owned their home planet. All the others could still be occupied by star faring races.

Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek hesitated. It was frowned upon to place colonies or industrial plants in a system where a native race was developing. There were so many empty systems in the Galaxy that doing thus was more or less considered as a theft and could, once the race had put something in orbit, be contested before the Galactic Peace Court.

With a one hundred percent win rate for the local civilization. But very often said locals never even knew that the resources had been there because an efficient Multistellar had mobile mining operations which could rip out a rare resource in less than a OKT decade.

In economic terms what had been exploited had been taken away legally and wouldn't have to be compensated. So if an inhabited system had a very rare –and precious- resource, nobody had ever hesitated to dig out what the locals couldn't use.

But the Boozoom's system had been a waste of time for the Galactic Multistellars who had sniffed at it and soon they had gone somewhere else to invest their money.

But the locals where not yet orbital and the fourth planet could still be claimed as a colony.

It had never been done because there were a lot of better suited planets all over the Galaxy and –most probably- because there was an inherent risk when two different cultures and races lived together at a technological point blank range.

And the locals could be pissed if they learned that a foreign race had established a colony on one of the more interesting planets of the system.

Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek looked at his third screen where a few or the scouts recordings were being played. And what he was looking at was nothing else than random bloodshed and systematic massacres.

If there is a race you don't want to see pissed at you, it was that one!

But then if there was a race you wished to see at your side to be pissed at some of your enemies, it was clearly the one you'd like to have available.

Yes, it would be a very interesting partnership, thought Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek. But where do I find the funds to launch a terramorphing endeavor for the Boozoom's fourth planet?

Interesting question, indeed.

I

-°-oOo-°-

Fleet Admiral Shanti Ashina Twee(**)kek was very attentive not to let his head feathers show his hilarity.

Acting Director Puuc Yanssi The(*)eek had changed since he had seen him the last time.

Clearly he now knew what he had to do and he was committed.

Which was a very good sign because it meant that the bird facing him was no longer unsecured and hesitating. And Fleet Admiral Shanti Ashina Twee(**)kek had lost too many sailors to bad decisions made by foolish bureaucrats who had had no idea what they were dealing with.

"What can I do for you, Acting Director?"

He could have used the formal Director title but he needed to show the young bird in front of him that he was impressed but not fooled. He was recognizing the new role the bureaucrat was playing but he wasn't referring to him.

Puuc took a data crystal from one of his ornamental bags and put it on the worktable.

"Here is the list of what I need, Admiral. And it is everything I need, not a pushed up overinflated list in order to get ten or twenty per cent of what I ask. Everything on that list is necessary to get the job done. I don't need everything immediately –that's the reason the items are prioritized- but I will need them all within the next five years."

"Within the next five years? You intend to stay on that operation for more than a year?"

"I intend to stay on that operation as long as it will take to get the race which has produced that Soaring Event on a seat in the Galactic Council. And if it takes a century than I'll be on the job for the next century."

Fleet Admiral Shanti Ashina Twee(**)kek looked at the young bird facing him and he was impressed. This was clearly a bird who had looked at the problem and decided to see the thing through.

"Please give me an overall resume of what you intend to do."

"With pleasure, Admiral," answered Puuc while playing with his circlet's inbuilt 3D projector. "Let me show you what I have found and what I intend to do to get that race into the Galactic Council…"

"Is it worth our efforts?"

Puuc was pleased to hear the 'our' in the Admiral's sentence. He was interested and he was showing him that he would, if the presentation was adequate, backing him.

"I believe so and I have the means to convince you, I'm sure of it!"

I

-°-oOo-°-

"How is it possible?" asked Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi. "There is clearly not even a shadow trace of energy in this city. They cannot have ECM efficient enough to find and destroy all the bugs we send them."

"They don't destroy all the bugs, Sir. They destroy only those we send into this house."

"Is the Surveying satellite in place?"

"Not yet, Sir. We have him arriving on site in two minutes. We should be able to trigger the trap when it is able to send us its feed. We will have details in the micrometer range; nothing will be able to escape our cameras."

"Let's hope so," grumbled Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi. "I have already reported that this planet has no visible alien infrastructure and that the Soaring Event hasn't been triggered thanks to outside help. I would lose face if I had to admit that I was wrong."

"We'll know it in a few seconds, Sir. Here it comes."

I

-°-oOo-°-

Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi was looking from above at what must have been designed as a pleasure garden within very high and guarded walls.

There were a few female aliens doing what alien females do near a water pool where a few fledglings were swimming –how pleasurable it was to see them take pleasure from water as Sikoran fledglings would do- and lying on what looks like an outdoor bed was a djoonlike creature that was showing all the signs of a content sleeping djoon.

"The first bugs are arriving…"

The surveillance comp stopped analyzing the pictures and embedded another image at the screen's side.

The Djoon's tail had begun to move and his upper eye had opened.

When the bugs came nearer the Djoon stood up, stretched and looked around him.

"Put a bug in the immediate vicinity of that Djoon…"

The embedded picture began to grow and suddenly the Djoon was looking directly at the bug. The next second the embedded picture was empty.

"Bug destroyed, Sir. It has been fried."

"Do we have data about what had happened?"

"We have UV and IR feeds, I'm respooling."

And in IR everybody saw clearly an energy tendril shooting out of the Djoon's head and frying the bug, and the next and the next…

Anab Takia Ush(*)Abi couldn't help but clap his beak in surprise. This planet was clearly full of surprises. But, at least it was a native event, not an outsider's doing.

"Pass the data to the zoological section, they will probably want to get a specimen."

He clapped once more with his beak.

Interesting creature, indeed.

I

-°-oOo-°-

Fluffy was more than annoyed.

They were back.

These things' noise was unbearable. She wouldn't be able to sleep for as long as one of those ugly Tikrin critters was in the vicinity.

"I'm on hunting new critters" she signaled to Betty. "They are back and they are annoying me."

"Good hunt, I'll stay with the kids, looking after them…"

Which meant nothing else than playing like a kid herself, which was OK with fluffy. Because the critters were back in force.

By the seven Hells she would show them who's in command.

I

-°-oOo-°-

[1] (*) represents a loud Beak Click which emphasizes the hierarchic position of the wielder of the name.