The rest of the conversation was cut short by a message from Station Traffic Control.
[Commanders, we have incoming Co-Operative ships. Seventeen in total, and they are requesting a diplomatic meeting.] The operator informed them.
The Koleska officers seemed to sigh in unison and gave an apologetic look at Max and Nico.
"The Co-Operative is a group of species that have lost their homeworlds to the Arisen. A ragtag bunch of vagrants always begging for handouts and looking for somewhere to stay." Commander Yuri explained.
"So, you suspect that they are going to ask the same thing here? To stay in the vicinity of the station for safety reasons?" Nico asked.
Max could hear her thoughts as she raced through the station's database, pulling up everything that they knew about the group, and it didn't look positive. None of them were militant species. Those had mostly fought to the last and had been entirely eliminated by now. They were the peaceful species that had lost their entire civilization in a matter of days or weeks.
Many simply weren't suited to battle, none of them had the technology to be helpful against the Arisen, and in this situation, they were nothing but a liability.
"How large are the ships?" Max asked as he began to formulate a plan to poach these nomads for the Reavers.
His people could provide security, terraform a planet, and then tax them for all the new technology that they could produce. It was a win for everyone. The humans got new toys, and this group of the Co-Operative got a safe spot to stay.
"None of them is much larger than your vessel. But with seventeen of them, they add up quickly. There must be a thousand people there." The Commander sighed.
Alright, forget the planet. He could just throw them on Absolution and let them integrate since they weren't a violent group.
"Are they a threat to security? Thieves or violent criminals?" Nico asked.
"No, but they're bad luck. Everywhere they go, the Arisen follow, attempting to wipe them all out. We believe that their ships are marked, and the Arisen Army is using them to help target new species to destroy. Once they have stayed in one spot for more than a week or two, the Arisen will inevitably follow, even if that species has never been under attack before.
So, we all drive them away. It's the only way to be sure that we aren't attacked even worse than we already have been."
Max and Nico shared a glance. That meant that they couldn't send the incoming ships back to their Galaxy, but perhaps they could send the people back instead. He would offer them compensation for the lost ships and then send the ships toward an uninhabited region to draw the attention of anyone who might be tracking them.
"If you bring them aboard for a negotiation, I believe that the Reavers might have a proposal that will work for them, as long as none of them are being personally tracked and they haven't turned traitor." Max offered.
"Well, that makes it easier. It is against our code of conduct to refuse to hear them out, but they say the same thing every time, that they just want a spot to stop and be safe. But then the Arisen arrive, and they flee again, leaving their hosts to suffer the invasion."
"That sounds a lot like an advanced scout team to me. Why have they not been eliminated?" Nico asked.
"They are the last of their species. How could anyone even consider eliminating them? It would be the end of an entire culture. No civilized species would do that." The head bureaucrat replied in horror.
Nico's mind wandered to the various meanings of the word civilized while Commander Yuri turned to Max for additional details.
"In our culture, being the last of a group of traitors doesn't mean that you are not a traitor, and traitors are put to death for their crimes," Max explained.
"So, the culture?" Commander Yuri asked.
"Is documented and detailed, then stored for reference purposes. If their homes are gone, and they are living a nomadic lifestyle, then the old culture is already dead and gone. Like a child who rises up from the lowest levels to the very peak of society, they are no longer part of the lower class culture, and it won't take long before they can never truly go back to what they were." Max elaborated.
The bureaucrats looked confused, as Koleska society was much more fluid than most, so Max continued.
"A man who spent his whole life at the bottom and one who was at the top but made a mistake that saw them stripped of their rank might both be equal, but they have different experiences, different mindsets and different lifestyles." Max tried.
That they understood, put that way, they could see how the Co-Operative was a whole new group, not just a floating assembly of species without a home.
"Alright, they are five minutes out. We should prepare for the meeting." Commander Yuri sighed.
Nico stood up from her seat and thumped her hands on the table. "Do not let them dock. Stop them at a distance, and we will go to them for the meeting."
Her demand startled the Koleska, and everyone turned to her for an explanation.
"I know how they are attracting the attention of the Arisen Army. Their ship computer is a basic AI construct. It's not that they are traitors. Their ship is tagging everywhere they stop with an invasive virus, so even after they leave. The station would be broadcasting a beacon for the Arisen to follow. If your computer interacts with theirs to guide them in, you will never stop the Arisen attacks on the station." Nico insisted.
"How do you know this?" The lead bureaucrat asked very seriously.
"Because we have done it before, and I recognized the signal that was being sent from their ship. There is an Arisen code base embedded in the messages. The ship is definitely infected with a virus or malicious code."
"And you still intend to meet with them?" Commander Yuri asked curiously.
"Yes. I absolutely must get aboard that ship."
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