Everyone joined the meeting remotely this time so as not to crowd the bridge.

"Thank you for being...here, everyone," Captain Geh!aoa began. "About thirteen and a half minutes ago, we slowed the ship to normal travel. Immediately, Massik reported multiple ships orbiting the fourth world, and two others, one moving towards it, and one away. We have another hour and a half before they detect us, less if we move closer. We are holding position so far."

Nick noticed how much smoother the translations to English had gotten, particularly for ship-handling discussions. He'd spent a while teaching Petra the pseudo-military terms used in popular science fiction on Earth, and a bit more detail from the military science fiction he had remembered while under the influence. The ship felt less like the Tower of Babel every day.

"How does our strength compare to the ships in the system?" Sana asked.

"We are the strongest single ship, but with this crew, I do not want to fight them all," Yulliksu spoke up.

"I intend to transmit the message we discussed," the Captain declared. "Are there any final changes?"

When no one spoke up, Captain Geh!aoa ordered, "Petra, send message titled Hiring Ships, in standard Galactic format."

"Message sent, Captain," the alien artifact replied.

Nick refreshed his memory by looking over the text again.

Peaceful greetings to all.

We are hiring small ships for a relief mission including moving supplies and people between a few star systems near each other, about 1,600 light-years from here. No required identification, information or taxes involved. No hostile ships on site, no combat expected. Duration on site 48 days with potential for extension. Payment in materials or equipment to be negotiated.

Contact Captain Geh!aoa of the New Hope for details.

Nick had to grin. I can't believe my proposed ship name won the vote.

"How much in trade goods do we have now?" The Captain asked.

Nick cleared his throat and checked the latest. "We have fourteen grams of Medical Repair Swarm 331 so far, and we are producing another three grams per day. Petra has printed the parts for two Medical Scanners Type 26, but I haven't assembled them yet. There are also 483 kilos of platinum, 723 kilos of iridium, and 1128 kilos of gold."

"What about a Swarm Controller?"

"That part's easy; I made a half dozen," Nick replied.

"Good. I have your list of simple other goods as well. Any changes?"

"No, Captain, I have the resources to make everything on that list."

"All right. Ambassadors Grrmyip, Yiyirari, and Nick, and Doctor Vickall, please be available to assist in negotiations if you know of more things we can provide as payment. Thank you, everyone."

The Captain made all incoming transmissions freely available to everyone on board. Petra was apparently immune to any hacking from anyone but the most advanced races—the kind of people who could already build a Petra themselves. Outgoing transmissions required the Captain's approval, however. Nick thought that completely sensible.

* *

During his IQ acid trip, Nick had dredged up the word ansible for a faster-than-light communicator, from a science fiction novel he'd read, The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin. (It still amazed him how much information was buried in his brain, while still being mostly inaccessible.) He had asked later why each ship didn't have its own ansible. Apparently, it required a large installation, even for advanced races—or so they claimed—which grew even larger with each added connection. It simply wouldn't fit on a ship that wasn't dedicated almost entirely to communications with one or two other locations, and there was very little demand for such a vessel.

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The first response came from a small freighter. "New Hope, this is the Clenish Gwor. We are beep for the next four days, and then would require eleven days to get on site. What equipment are you offering as payment?"

The second reply came from a fairly small ship that was still inbound. "New Hope, this is Mozook Tolini, Captain of the Oonora Zoglan. Captain Geh!aoa, we are not currently available for new contracts, but we have associates in Golgazor system who would be happy to help for the right price. Contact Byznx Shipping at Orbital Two and tell them I sent you. Or, if you want to transmit the details to me, I can pass them along in a couple of days. Discreetly, if you like."

"Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements," floated through Nick's mind.

Negotiations took a while. Once they realized that Medical Repair Swarm 331 was on offer, both parties who replied got a lot more interested. The Captain had to be careful not to reveal that they had an ongoing source of the Swarm aboard, simply that they had "enough" to negotiate with. They settled on a price of nineteen grams per ship for the 48 day tour.

Wow. I knew the stuff was valuable, but I didn't realize that it was that valuable. I guess a medicine that will probably work even if all else fails is a treasure. Apparently you can reuse it, but with about twenty percent loss per use, and the more severe the injury, the more mass you need to treat it even for emergencies. They probably use the stuff just to stabilize someone, and then do more regular surgery or whatever for the rest of the work, to save the swarm for the things only it can do.

"Petra, how many grams of Medical Swarm 331 did you produce for Ktheg!lik before healing me after the accident with Rockhunter?"

"It was 417 grams, Nick."

He pursed his lips in a silent whistle. Thank you, Ktheg!lik. You moved heaven and...Ooafa to save me. "How much was recovered afterward?"

"328 grams."

And then the idiot Goldaskian marine shot the container for the stuff, and the little remaining wasn't enough to save Ktheg!lik. We used all that was left to save Geh!aoa and the others. Which is why we've been starting over from zero.

With the terms set, they could afford to hire six or seven ships without delaying payment at the end. As always, Nick was torn between manufacturing more immediately, or spending some printer time to make more printers. Apparently the Swarm stuff was so intricate that even Petra couldn't produce it directly. They had to build machines to make and process it.

At one point, he asked Sana, "So, if the Medical Swarm is so valuable, why didn't they make a version that makes more of itself?"

Sana's eyes went wide with horror. "Please tell me you do not do such things on Earth."

"Not yet, at least. People back home are talking about it, but they are scared of it getting out of control. I figured you guys would have the problems worked out by now, since you're so advanced."

"No. We have not." Sana was uncharacteristically quiet. "Three times, people thought that they had control, and did not."

"What happened?"

"There are three systems that all ships are banned from approaching, ever."

"Not three planets? Three entire star systems?"

Sana nodded. "Rocks hit planets sometimes, and can send small amounts of matter into space. We cannot accept maybe here."

"Unacceptable risk. We cannot take the chance," Nick taught Petra quietly.

"There are four races that decided to go ahead anyway, and they are banned from interstellar travel, forever. So far, they have not killed themselves, but many think they will. Those are four more systems that everyone must not go to, ever, or they cannot leave."

"Wow." Nick leaned back and thought hard. "So, to sum up, we have to be very, very careful with AI, and there is a Collective that will stop us by force if we do it wrong. We can't make nanotech—"

"We can make nanotech. The Swarm is nanotech. We cannot make nanotech that builds anything like itself. No replicators."

"Right. Mind control exists in a bunch of forms, and we need a security system in place to check for it and protect us from it."

"Yes. This is why some say that we should approach new races when they get to about Earth's level of technology. There are too many things to kill yourselves. The idea is that a little warning will hopefully not destroy the people or their culture, or at least do less harm than uncontrolled technology will. Others say that survival alone is a test, to make it smaller chance that you will not kill all of us together when you do a stupid something."

"What else do we have to watch out for?"

"When you develop gravity technology, never allow it near an inhabited area for at least 48 years, until you know that you will not accidentally make a black hole," Sana replied promptly.

"Did someone...?"

"We do not know completely. There is one system with a black hole with the mass of a planet orbiting in the Goldilocks Zone. It is...not a good beep. Um...sign? Not a good sign."

Nick swallowed. "Yes, I can see that."

Sana added, "Even now, you see that while the Kalash-Quovo...excuse me, the New Hope... has artificial gravity, our shuttles do not."

"Because you don't want gravity tech on the surface of a planet."

"Exactly."

Nick thought about that, and shuddered. "I am definitely on the side of the people who want to warn us."

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