After several more days, they returned to Ooafa orbit, and the natives greeted them with relief. I suppose it must have been nerve-wracking when their one and only starship disappeared for weeks, and with an uncertain return date. They were thrilled to hear that multiple ships would be coming to help with rescue, migration and commerce.

Later that day, they went to the Arrurran System and got an unpleasant surprise that Nick had half-predicted—the Yirahyah engineers managed to break a couple of things on the Goldaskian shuttle despite the Goldaskians doing all the disassembly-reassembly. Fortunately, it turned out that Goldaskian ships were a lot like the sailing ships of Earth a couple of centuries back—they had the capacity to rebuild anything that got damaged. It only made sense, because no one was going to come rescue them if they were stranded.

They didn't even need any help from Petra. They had their own more limited printers for ship parts, and only asked for a little bit of the resources stockpiled. They could have managed that too by raiding an asteroid, but Petra's miner bots were faster and more efficient than the Goldaskian ones. There generally wasn't a lot of waste ore—the bots consumed it all, and anything not needed came out in elemental ingots.

Nick watched the whole process in fascination, doing it from his cabin so that he didn't get in anyone's way. The process looked deceptively simple, and he understood the frustration of the Ooafans who kept trying to learn Goldaskian technology. It's not that the Goldaskians are geniuses, they just have access to vast information through brain implants and HUDs that make the amazing one I'm using look like a kid's toy.

Actually, I wonder if my HUD is a kid's toy. Nah, this is a warship. They wouldn't have the equivalent of snap-blocks and board games lying around.

It was a couple of days before they finished the repairs, and the Arrurrans were happy to trade more rare elements for the parts they busted. A couple of Goldaskians muttered about the possibility that the Arrurrans broke the shuttle on purpose so they could gain the parts permanently. Nick would not be surprised at all if that were true.

Within an hour of their return to their home system, Grrmyip and Yiyirari had a big fight. Nick gathered that they were arguing about the math data from the Yssnila, and who got...not money exactly...something about halfway between money and prestige, from what he could gather. Man, I don't even understand Earth economics, although according to Sana, neither does anyone else on Earth. He kept out of it, but had to fight his instincts, which were telling him to find a garden hose and spray the both of them until they broke it up.

They're not dogs, he told himself for the umpteenth time. A while back, he had explained to the Arrurrans on board about Earth dog breeds, and how a lot of humans would likely misunderstand and misinterpret them based on that. It was important for them to know if they ever went to visit the human race. Both Grrmyip and Yiyirari were determined to go with him to Earth if allowed.

Since they probably didn't have much if anything to learn from Earth technology, Nick assumed that they wanted to be on hand in case the human race collectively decided to part with Petra once Nick handed off the hot potato. That was fine. As far as he was concerned, the more races he could introduce to Earth, the better. He might have been more leery of doing it, but this stellar neighborhood was a long way from his home planet, and nobody in the area would have sufficient motivation to go attack Earth, over 13,000 light-years away. It was doable, just not likely profitable, or worth the effort in any sense. He'd have to think about being more careful once they were over halfway to Earth.

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* *

Two days later, the first of the contract ships arrived. It was the freighter Sweet Liberty from Byznx Shipping, out of Orbital Two, Golgazor. The name of the ship was in Galactic, so Nick got the translated version. No more memorizing tongue-twisting names, hopefully.

Captain Geh!aoa briefed Captain Molgilk on the details of the situation. He had twenty crew and three shuttles. It wasn't hard for the alien Captain to read between the lines.

"So, you want us to leave these Goldaskian exiles alone? No contact?"

"That's correct. We'll handle any necessary communications or supply runs to the site."

"Are they going to be your prisoners indefinitely?"

Geh!aoa paused. "We have no objection to them being returned to the greater galaxy if that is their wish. However, we would prefer to postpone retaliation from the Goldaskian Empire for as long as possible."

"We can get a tidy ransom for returning them," Molgilk pointed out.

"I'm sure. But at the moment, you have nineteen grams of Medical Swarm waiting for you if you complete your contract here first."

"That's true. Well, we understood that we would need discretion for this job before we set out. We can discuss this at the end of the 48 days."

"Thank you, Captain."

"Before we go, though, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to confirm that you actually have the promised payment. It's a bit hard to come by, particularly on a world like yours—no offense meant."

"Of course, Captain, that's perfectly reasonable. Send a shuttle to match our orbit when it pleases you, and I'll hand over 1.9 grams as a first payment."

"Excellent. I'll send someone immediately. As for the job, we get to be heroes for a change, and my crew is looking forward to it. Please send us maps of the planet showing where you have already searched for survivors, and we'll get started."

* *

Captain Molglik was as good as his word. One of his officers came aboard, gawking curiously at the Goldaskian warship with a mixed-race crew. Nick was there to watch. Geh!aoa made a show of drawing off the 1.9 grams of Medical Swarm from their total supply right in front of the officer, and allowed them preliminary scans of the product.

The Lieutenant treated the object as the precious treasure it was, placing it carefully in a travel container. Then they held out one hand. "Also, here's a hard version of the data you asked for. The books on galactic culture and raising up technology on primitive worlds."

Nick's breath caught.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. I appreciate you handing this over to us, knowing how valuable it is to our peoples. I'm surprised you didn't try to charge us for it."

The Lieutenant grinned. "Someone suggested it, but the Captain pointed out that it cost us nothing but a few minutes of download time, and that there will soon be several other ships coming here. Any one of them might do the same, so we might as well get the goodwill."

"A good choice. Before the contract ends, I'll be sure to send you the location of one of our larger banks. You might find the silver and gold stockpiled there of interest."

"A pleasure doing business with you, Captain Geh!aoa."

"I feel the same."

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