If you truly think that your world is needed to be saved; you’re a bigger fool than I thought... -- Anon Guest
It had been quite the journey to the distant station. More effort in one lifetime than Rilissith's people had been through in recent history. They had been ambling vaguely towards space travel for previous centuries, but that was before they discovered that something was going chronically wrong with their solar system.
They could, with their current technology, launch one person at appreciable speed towards the installation. It had been there for a century or two, at least. Whoever was there was keeping to themselves, and not bothering the planet of Sahaemar, so the scientists observing it weren't concerned.
Rilissith became concerned when hir scanners revealed that the inhabitants of the station were Deathworlders. There was no going back, all the same. Ze ran through everything hir people had gathered about Deathworlders and how to appeal to what there was of their better nature.
Deathworlders, the sources agreed, needed to believe there would be a profit for themselves before doing anything to help others. Rilissith therefore went through everything ze had about what might entice a Deathworlder and compiled a pitch session with all the desperation of a college student rewriting their thesis during crunch week.
If the scans had shown her which Deathworlders were on the station, it might have been better, but as it was, she compiled a list from most-popular attractions to least-popular attractions and added what pictures she could grab for free. All before the space tugs appeared to escort hir vessel to the docks.
Everyone wore livesuits, and Rilissith technically had never left hers. All ze had to do was remember that at least twenty percent of the apparent bulk was actually the suit and the being inside wasn't nearly as large and bulky as they seemed.
Which, ze had to admit, didn't make much of an impact on the overall bulk of these Deathworlders. It was all Rilissith could do to stand there and not be intimidated.
Finally, someone in charge said, "You took a lot of risks to get here," and Rilissith was glad they were both speaking Galstand. "Either you're a fool or you're desperate... or some mixture of the two."
"Both?" said Rilissith. "Both. Both is good. I have come... to ask for help. My planet is -uh- my planet is..." Ze fumbled with hir document, which now seemed unwieldy and poorly organised. "We can give you many things," ze blurted in desperation. "My planet is valuable, especially so with all the people still alive on it."
"Blunt. I like that," said the Deathworlder. "Do you... really believe that your planet has to be needed by us before we act?"
"Would it be insulting to say 'yes'?"
The enormous figure in front of hir made a series of rough, barking noises and said, "I like you. Which is why I'm going to tell you this: if you truly think that your world is needed in order to be saved? You're a bigger fool than I thought. We're already on this. My teams have been mining that rogue planet for... a fairly long time. enough to perturb its course and swing by on a near miss of about a quarter of an AU from your planet. You might get a king tide, and a few weird seasons, but otherwise you'll be fine."
"You... knew?"
"I just said we're already on this," said the Deathworlder leader.
"Why?" wondered Rilissith. "You could have let it be and plundered the remains of our world once the disaster hit. There wouldn't have been any opposition."
"And then we wouldn't have met you," said the leader. "Hi. We're the Humans and we're here to help."
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / njaj]
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