Sundium Planet Star Map Draftsman I: Federation War

“Moreth Steader.” Just as the two fell silent, a soldier from outside rushed up to Jonathan and spoke before he had even stopped. “The Ninth Legion has arrived at Sundium Planet, and they are assembling outside the city.”

“Any more movement?” Jonathan asked and then cleared his throat as a way to ease his tension.

“Nope.”

“Where’s Centaly?” Jonathan asked.

“They are camped on the right flank of the Ninth Legion, and they look different from the Ninth Legion.”

“What do you mean?”

“Here’s the thing, Moreth Steader: the Ninth Legion is moving in what looks like a blitzkrieg to take us all down together, but the Centaly aren’t moving. They’ve started fires to cook.”

“I see. Tell the people on guard to be alert.” Jonathan finished and walked back to the star map, and after a moment of rummaging in it, he stared thoughtfully at the information in front of him in a daze.

“What’s up, Moreth Steader?” Dawn Lucius asked after walking over to Jonathan and scanning the star chart.

“Not a good thing.” Jonathan pulled Dawn Lucius toward the window, walking quickly as he pointed to the wall of people in the distance, and continued. “The Centaly came first, and they haven’t moved. My initial judgment was that the Centaly would wait for the Ninth Legion to arrive and attack together, while Carlson’s ship would continue on to Kunek Planet. Now it seems that they have something else planned that we don’t know about. Look ......”

Jonathan pointed to the high ground in the distance and continued. “The Centaly are camped there, and it is the most convenient spot for them to attack us from afar. If we go to attack them, climbing that distance to the high ground will cost the soldiers too much physical strength, and by the time they fight the Centaly head-on, the physical advantage will be gone. However, now that the Centaly have occupied it, I am still much relieved.”

“What about the Ninth Legion?”

“That’s what worries me. This rabble is like a moving, rotten sore; as long as it exists in Moreth Federation’s star field, the people of Moreth Federation will not have peace.” Jonathan clenched his back teeth as he said this; then his mood turned, and he patted Dawn Lucius on the back and continued. “But there is good news.”

“What’s the good news?” Dawn Lucius wondered what good news there could be at this time.

“Carlson’s ship is heading away from Kunek Planet. We have calculated the flight paths of his and Burt’s fleets, and their purpose should be to rendezvous at the border of Ashton Federation and attack Ashton Federation together, which is certainly good news for Moreth Federation.”

“Moreth Steader, have you heard from Sandra?”

“What?” Jonathan heard Dawn Lucius’s question and frowned a little; what he didn’t understand was why Dawn Lucius suddenly asked about Sandra.

“Sandra. I just thought I’d ask if she was safe; after all, we were both shot.” Dawn Lucius put his right hand over his chest as he said this.

“She’s fine. Don’t worry.” Jonathan smiled, and after hearing Jonathan say so, Dawn Lucius felt a little more at ease.

“So why doesn’t the Moreth Federation stop the Strath Federation?” Dawn Lucius continued.

Jonathan glanced at Dawn Lucius, then sighed and spoke. “You’ve met our treasurer and general. The treasurer does business with planets of all sizes on Orion Arm; he prides himself on being able to buy most of Orion Arm’s star field. For him, fighting a war anywhere would affect his business, so he is not willing to fight a war. You see, this time I came to Sundium Planet intending to defeat any incoming enemy, but now that the treasurer has come, there will probably be nothing here but business, not any war. He will give the Ninth Legion a good price, give the Centaly suitable terms, and then we will each go home. As for the generals, they are better at building and at avoiding war when there is one. The Finance Department, which is in charge of finance, does not want to fight a war, and the Military Department, which is in charge of military operations, does not want to fight a war. Of the three major agencies of the Moreth Federation, two already won’t fight a war, so how can it be stopped?”

“You are the Moreth Steader. You can order them to defend their star field, right?” Dawn Lucius asked tentatively.

Jonathan was silent for a while, and then he said through clenched teeth, “If I had your power ...... never mind whether they would listen to my orders; across the entire Orion Arm, even if there were a war, I could lift my hand to erase the war and let it all start again.” Jonathan clenched his fist and shook it a few times in front of his chest. He was silent for a while, then opened his mouth and spoke to Dawn Lucius. “Moreth Federation’s administrative power is in my mother’s hands, and she is more than willing to go to war. I inherited the Moreth Steader status from birth, but you know what? I don’t have any power.” Jonathan tapped on the screen and lit up all the screens in the room; some were showing pictures and some were showing videos, and in some videos a massive burning star could even be seen.

Jonathan raised his hand and pointed to all the screens, and he said coldly, “No one in Moreth Federation knows Orion Arm better than I do. I know all the civilizations; I know their populations and their military deployments. If only ......” Jonathan raised his voice. “If Moreth Federation were up to me, I would build more interstellar routes so that poor civilizations would not be enslaved by other civilizations, so that all monopolies would disintegrate. I would sweep away all wars and build a new empire of tranquility.” Jonathan sat down limply on the ground; after his roar, he was like a deflated ball, more than anything, lost.

“But then there would also be a war, no different from the Strath people now.” Dawn Lucius tried to help Jonathan.

“I know, my friend. Orion Arm is at war every second on different scales; it’s just not a direct war between the Federations. We need only one war to keep a civilization like the Solar System safe and sound, so that countless fathers like you won’t lose their sons and no two people will be separated. War, my friend, is not a vile and nasty tactic; at times, it is a good medicine.” Jonathan said this as he stood up and squeezed his shoulders. “You want to save your son. Join forces with me. You use the Star Map Draftsman’s ability to control dark matter to help me take back the rule of the Moreth Federation, and I will use the Star Bridge to transport troops to protect the solar system and help them develop the technology to save your son sooner.”

“I don’t know, Moreth Steader.” Dawn Lucius backed up. He thought of what Sandra had said, that Jonathan valued Dawn Lucius as a Star Map Draftsman. If he cooperated with Jonathan, he would obviously become nothing more than Jonathan’s fighter, which would only make him fall deeper and deeper into other people’s wars. After standing firm, Dawn Lucius continued. “My first priority is to save my son. I don’t know the Star Map Draftsman’s abilities, and I don’t know how to use them. Please, Moreth Steader, understand.”

“I can understand that, Dawn. If you’re willing to work with me, we can figure out a way to use the Star Map Draftsman’s powers together ...... then the Strath people and the Ashton people can’t hurt your civilization. Wouldn’t that be better?” Jonathan walked up to Dawn Lucius again, held his hands, and said it.

“That I believe, Moreth Steader, but my immediate priority right now is to stop the Strath Federation and keep the solar system safe so that they can develop the technology to save my son.” Dawn Lucius did not step back; he returned Jonathan’s grip to let Jonathan know his determination, and Jonathan hesitated for a moment before pulling his hand back.

“The only way you’re going to save the solar system is to go to the Ashton Federation, not for help, but to help them defeat the Strath people so that the Strath people won’t be able to go to war for the next 10,000 years.” Jonathan pulled Dawn Lucius to the screen and opened the starfield map. “Take a look.” Jonathan pointed to the orange planet and continued. “It will be useful for you to remember the political structure of the Ashton Federation and their main administrative planets. This one is Visadio Planet, the political center of Ashton Federation. The assessment and selection of officials for the entire Federation is decided on this planet; they are the best at playing politics and coercing people. Ashton Federation has two main political groups: one is the innovation faction dominated by Lord Winifred, and the other is the old guard dominated by Madam Winifred.”

“The innovators and the conservatives?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“Right,” Jonathan explained. “Madam Winifred likes the current political strategy, which, she believes, has proven successful. No new decisions get implemented, and she leads a political group that feels innovation is risky. But Lord Winifred was different, young and vigorous, and he wanted to lead a new group of ministers to reshape the political atmosphere and establish an Ashton era that would flourish even more than the time of the Patriarchs.”

“Did Ashton Federation used to be brilliant?”

“Yes.” Jonathan fell into memory. “Almost ten thousand years ago, Orion Arm was all a paradise for the Ashton people, technologically advanced and good at trade. Ashton Federation first established a market on Visadio Planet, where there were fair trade rules and an army to protect security, and civilizations from all over Orion Arm were willing to come here to do business. The Ashton Federation festivals were the liveliest, with hundreds of barter ships lining up to land.”

“Why did it split?”

“Split?” Jonathan asked, looking at Dawn Lucius.

“I mean, Orion Arm was originally ruled by the Ashton people, so why did three Federations appear later?”

“Greed led to that.” Jonathan shook his head and continued. “If you wanted to do business with others on Visadio Planet, you had to pay a certain amount of taxes. The Ashton people made a lot of money just by collecting taxes, and they began to become extravagant; they lived a luxurious life that you can’t imagine, and what’s more, they had mastered White Crystal technology by then. After a few hundred years, the group represented by Madam Winifred was no longer satisfied with the previous amount of taxation, and people who could read the situation came forward and changed the taxation method to trade notes. In short, how much you sold was how much you paid, and the smaller civilizations didn’t have the strength to trade. At first, the civilizations with large volumes thought it was good that they had fewer competitors, but the Ashton people were not satisfied, and a man named Jasper came forward and made a big deal out of the trade notes, making them the trade license for Orion Arm, which meant that even if you didn’t come to Visadio Planet to do business, you had to come to Visadio Planet to buy trade notes in order to trade with other civilizations.”

“And other civilizations accepted this rule?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“At first, the larger civilizations would openly complain, but at least they could trade, and the Ashton people would protect the traders in return for a protection fee. But then Jasper kept changing the trading rules for trade notes and overprinting trade notes, and some civilizations that bought trade notes early saw them devalued before they could trade. What was even more frightening was that the trade notes in hand might be voided before they had a chance to be used.”

“Voided?” Dawn Lucius felt that such a rule was ridiculous; it was blatant robbery.

“Right.”

“So the emperor of the Ashton people doesn’t care?”

“This is the problem with Ashton Federation’s political factions. These rules kept changing; on the surface, Jasper was the bad guy, but in reality, it was the greed of Madam Winifred at work, secretly instructing Jasper to do it.”

“Got it.” Dawn Lucius nodded, thinking that this must have been the lead-in to the downfall of the glorious Ashton people.

“Too much time has passed, and most people have not experienced the chaos of Orion Arm. At first, it was the smaller civilizations that started the war against the Ashton people, and some people started looting under the banner of opposing the rule and started wars against other civilizations for no reason. Later, large civilizations also joined the melee; when they encountered small civilizations, they annexed them, and when they encountered large civilizations, they looted them, and Orion Arm was simply in chaos.”

“What about Lord Winifred? He’s the heir to the throne, and he didn’t care about Jasper’s behavior?”

“Lord Winifred’s problem is that he is weak and wavering in character. Before the war, one moment he said that Madam Winifred had not done the right thing, and the next moment he was happily enjoying the benefits Jasper earned. Now he wants to reform and wants to recreate the glory of the Ashton people, and half of the leadership is on his side, but he always just cries for reform on a whim.”

“Earthlings have learned a lesson from history: weak-willed leaders only lead to the downfall of nations,” Dawn Lucius said.

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?” Jonathan chuckled.

“Yes, in the ancient civilizations of the Earth, empires that were glorious for a time, whether in the Western or Eastern hemisphere, were overthrown in a short period of time when they were handed over to the wrong people.” Dawn Lucius thought of the Tang and Song dynasties of ancient China, and of the ancient Roman Empire.

“There’s one more thing,” Jonathan said, taking over. “There must be clean generals and diplomats; corrupt generals are a disaster for civilization.”

“Why do you say that?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“The downfall of the glorious Ashton people began with corrupt generals.” Jonathan headed for the large window, and Dawn Lucius followed him. The open area between the Sundium Planet garrison and the Ninth Legion was as calm as a large playground paved with asphalt.

“The Strath people have always been considered an inferior civilization on Orion Arm. The more developed civilizations liked to buy and sell Strath people as slaves, and with the Ashton people’s trade money, the Strath people started to riot at the edge of Orion Arm. No one thought much of the Strath people: they had no advanced weapons and no trained army, and their army was pitifully small compared to the Ashton people’s. There was a wide, uninhabited star field on Orion Arm with almost no planets to land on, which we called the Sothatki Star River, and it was this star river that separated the main star fields ruled by the Strath people and the Ashton people. The Strath people didn’t have enough power to transport their troops to the Ashton people’s main star field to make trouble, and the Ashton people were busy squeezing other civilizations, and so hundreds of years passed. It was not until two young princes of the Strath people led their armies across the Sothatki Star River that the Ashton people realized it was time to end the rebellion once and for all. The Ashton people committed their entire force, more than ten times the size of the Strath army, and Madam Winifred did not take the Strath people seriously at all. In the eyes of both sides, there was no negotiation and no compromise in this war, only total victory or total defeat. The soldiers on both sides were driven by slaughter and destruction; apart from their own people, nothing living was left wherever they went. When the Strath people ran out of food, they ate not only the bodies of the enemy but also the bodies of their own people, and the Ashton people were terrified. And so the Ashton people were beaten back into their main star field, but the Strath people couldn’t fight anymore; they were tired, with their backs to the Sothatki Star River, and the two sides just faced each other.”

“And then there was no war?” Dawn Lucius asked.

Jonathan shook his head and continued. “Think about it: the Strath people had to live near the Sothatki Star River, where supplies were scarce, so inevitably they had to rob the nearby planets. This gave the Ashton people a headache, so they started to negotiate. The Strath people just wanted a small amount of food and a few planets to live on, and then they wouldn’t fight. The Ashton people allocated food, selected a nearby planet, and sent a general to hand over the food and the planet to the Strath people. This way, the war would stop, and the Ashton people could continue to enjoy their extravagant life. But the problem was that the general who was handing over the planet did not think so. He saw a chance for profit; he wanted to take all the food and supplies, and he devised a treacherous plan.”

“What kind of treacherous scheme?” Dawn Lucius asked, already thinking this was a clumsy tactic.

“The general invited only the two Strath princes to land on the planet and held a sumptuous handover banquet. The general wanted to kill the two princes at the banquet; their soldiers, without a backbone, would certainly fall into chaos. The general could not only take the food supplies for himself, but also kill all the Strath people, and he could go back to receive a reward. But it didn’t happen as the general expected.”

“Was there an accident?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“Well, by the time the escort captains outside the planet got hungry, made their move to kill the Ashton people’s guards, and showed up at the banquet with grumbling stomachs, the general’s ambush was also getting ready to strike, and both sides understood what was going on. The negotiations then turned into the prologue of a massive war.”

“Are Strath people very good at warfare?” Dawn Lucius was a little curious about those two princes.

“Yes. Carlson is reasonable in all things and does not go to war easily unless forced to do so. But Burt is different, warlike and bloodthirsty. After being deceived by the Ashton people, the Strath people would no longer negotiate. They almost took Visadio Planet, and we Moreth people were also forced to enter the war.”

“Which side were you on?” Dawn Lucius was curious as to which side Moreth people were on.

“We?” Jonathan looked at Dawn Lucius.

“Did you guys fight the Strath people?”

“War is not like what you think, with only enemies and friends. In the beginning, Moreth people fought defensive wars. For example, when there was a war near our important assets, we would send troops there to protect them, and if someone else’s war came to our heels, we would drive them away. But then it became more than just defensive. To protect ourselves, we had to fight proactively so that threats could be nipped in the bud.”

“Got it. How did the war stop?”

Jonathan heard Dawn Lucius’ question and turned and patted Dawn Lucius on his right arm as he pointed to the glowing object and said, “Because of this.”

“Datheon?” Dawn Lucius frowned.

“Yes, Datheon. When Orion Arm was set on fire by battle, most of the planets were burning, and wailing spread through the nebula, Datheon appeared. They appeared on the battlefield, and the weapons were sucked into the air and crushed; the blood mixed with filth on the battlefield seeped into the ground, insects burrowed out of the mud, and together with them, the plants of hope grew upward.” Jonathan had a smile on his face.

“So they’re people?” Dawn Lucius was even more puzzled.

“I don’t know. My mother knows a little more. Not many people have actually met Datheon, and I haven’t either.” Jonathan smiled.

“So, Datheon designated three Federations to check and balance each other to make sure Orion doesn’t go to war, right?”

“Brilliant.”

“But now that the war is coming back, why aren’t they coming out?”

“That we don’t know. Datheon’s technology is way more advanced than ours, and we don’t understand their way of doing things. Besides, the galaxy is so big, they can’t manage it, right?” Jonathan smiled.

Yes, the galaxy is so big. Even if Datheon is an energy body that can travel in different spaces at will, they do not need to take care of every big and small matter between the stars. Orion Arm is not so special; it is just the smallest arm in the galaxy, and compared to the fairy arm and the centaur arm, the number of civilizations on Orion Arm is certainly not as great. Dawn Lucius remembered visiting the science museum as a child; when he saw the structure of the galaxy, he always imagined that there were high-level civilizations living on the Perseus Arm, like fairies. Solar system civilization had not yet discovered more effective interstellar navigation technology, but deep-space telescopes had mapped the structure of the galaxy over the years, and the gravitational force of the Silver Center was unusually high. In fact, scientists on Earth had been updating their knowledge of the Milky Way and the universe. The updated theories suggested that the Milky Way collided with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy about five billion years ago, which led to a surge of material in the galaxy and a repositioning of the galaxy’s stars, making the current shape of the Milky Way more wave-like from a certain point of view.

“Moreth Steader ......” The soldier who had reported the news rushed in, almost dropping his gun on the ground, and added before he had even stopped, “The Ninth Legion is picking a fight outside the city. Should we meet them?”

“Go check it out.” Jonathan walked quickly out the door, and Dawn Lucius followed.

The merchant capital city-state where the Moreth Steader was had been built with its back to the huge lake. With the lake as a natural barrier, the back of the city-state was safe enough, and the bottom of the city-state was hard rock, so even if the Ninth Legion played dirty tricks and dug tunnels in from the back of the city-state, it would be a difficult thing; not to mention that their idea of war was to quickly wipe out the planet at hand and then go plunder another planet. The Ninth Legion recruited people in a very simple way. Those who joined only needed to follow the orders of the top commander; as for the rest, however much they wanted to earn, they robbed it themselves, with no need to turn it in and no need to report it. Any means were allowed; there were no rules and no punishment, which made the Ninth Legion a byword for death in Moreth Federation’s star field. Some planets ran away as soon as they heard that the Ninth Legion was coming, while some planets that were not satisfied with Moreth Federation rule came a long way to join the Ninth Legion. To say that no one was afraid of the Ninth Legion could have been said when the Strath people had just formed it, but now it was already a war machine, the most courageous and fierce in combat.

Dawn Lucius followed Jonathan to the top of the wall, where the treasurer’s son saluted Jonathan, who walked straight to the front lookout as if he hadn’t seen him at all. When Dawn Lucius looked out, the sight before him made him swallow hard; he even felt that a sheet of sweat had broken out on his neck, gathering and running down his skin, leaving one cold streak after another down his back. The Ninth Legion outside the city walls had no uniforms; they were like a group of beasts eager for blood, wielding weapons, their two feet constantly shifting one in front of the other, ready to charge, and some even had withered heads hanging from their waists, which might be a symbol of their cruel glory. At the front of the army stood one man alone, his whole body inlaid with golden armor, with two short silver knives welded to the left side of his armor, their cold, brilliant light wavering. His right hand held the butt of his rifle, his index finger resting at the trigger. He raised his left hand, and the roar of the soldiers stopped.

“Listen, people in the city, you have two choices. The first is to open the gates and end yourselves; the second is for us to fight our way in and end you. But in my experience,” the man in golden armor continued as he slung his gun over his shoulder, “I would suggest that you end yourselves. If my soldiers do it for you, you may not be comfortable.”

“Listen up, people outside the city,” Jonathan shouted, propping his hands on either side of the watchtower, and continued. “You are a bunch of rabble. You are the enemy of the entire Moreth Federation, and the Moreth Federation will hunt you down to any corner of the universe. I, Jonathan, give you two choices. The first is to end yourselves; the second is to wait for me to come out and end it for you. We have no experience in helping people end it ......” Jonathan spoke after the man in the golden armor, and he added after a contemptuous smile, “But we will use your lowly bodies to practice how to help you end it.”

“Jonathan?” The golden armor took a few steps forward and stopped to continue. “The Moreth Steader of the Moreth Federation has come in person. That’s better; it saves us the trouble of going to Kunek Planet to settle accounts with you. Now it hurts.” Then the golden armor raised his gun above his head, and the soldiers behind him slowly approached the walls like a poisonous tide. Their roar, as they waved spears, reached the ears of everyone on Sundium Planet, haphazardly zapping people’s eardrums, and their footsteps were like drums struck by chaotic stones, smashing ragged holes, deep and shallow, in everyone’s heart. Sundium Planet’s guard troops unconsciously retreated, and even the soldiers Jonathan had recruited with high pay were whispering.

“Moreth Steader, what do we do?” The treasurer’s son asked anxiously as he clasped his two hands together.

“What can he do?” Before Jonathan could answer, the thin treasurer came toward them with a disgusted look on his face, his eyes signaling his son to step back, and after walking up to Jonathan, the treasurer deliberately stepped in front of him. “Protecting your people by fighting with arms is the most incompetent and underhanded way to do it.” The treasurer finished by glaring at Jonathan, who was as blue as if he hadn’t breathed for a long time.

“If something can be solved with money, why not use it? Let’s talk about it,” the treasurer shouted to the golden armor below, who raised his left hand, and the tide of people behind him stopped.

“How do you plan to talk?” the golden armor spoke up and asked.

“You set the conditions,” the finance officer replied.

“Why should I believe you?”

“You don’t have to trust me. You just have to trust Moreth Federation’s finance department, and I, for one, happen to preside over Moreth Federation’s finances.”

“Well then, the terms are simple,” the golden armor continued after sweeping a glance back at the soldiers behind him. “My brothers are all about money. Here’s what you do: give one galaxy coin each, and we’ll pull out of Sundium Planet.”

“A galaxy coin?” Jonathan snarled and took a step forward as he pointed down at the golden armor, “Do you know the value of a galaxy coin? That’s enough to pay for a trip on the Star Bridge. How can you possibly be worth one galaxy coin each?”

“Then there’s nothing more to talk about. We’ll come in and grab it ourselves.” The golden armor raised his gun, planning to move on.

“Wait.” The treasurer raised his hands and shouted, and after the golden armor stopped, he continued. “Whether to give galaxy coin or not is up to me. Moreth Federation always wants to see peace, not war, and if money can bring peace, then let’s spend the money. So ......” The treasurer pointed to the people behind the golden armor, asking how much galaxy coin he needed for so many people.

“At least half a million galaxy coins,” the golden armor replied after a moment of hesitation.

“Deal, then figure out how I’m going to transfer the money to you.” The treasurer smiled broadly.

Jonathan, the Moreth Steader, was not taken into account from beginning to end. The treasurer had his hands on the Moreth Federation’s finances; never mind withdrawing his power, even if the treasurer proposed establishing another Moreth Steader, it would not be impossible, and this deepened Jonathan’s desire to take back the Moreth Federation’s power. On the way back to the observation room with Dawn Lucius, Jonathan did not say a word; he was as silent as a child who had been terribly wronged in front of everyone. He slumped his shoulders, pushed the door open hard, went to the nebula monitor, and flipped through it at random. Dawn Lucius stood next to him, not knowing how to begin, and he just stood there until someone came in the door: a slender woman in a blue dress, with short hair, white skin, and clear features. She walked up to the two men and, after first saluting Jonathan, smiled at Dawn Lucius.

“I thought that I would never see you again.” Dawn Lucius said this with his heart like a sunflower in full bloom.

“So, do you expect to see me, or don’t you?” Sandra teased with a big smile on her face.

“I was hoping to see you, of course.”

“Here’s the thing, Sandra,” Jonathan said, interrupting Dawn Lucius and Sandra’s conversation. “The Strath people have gone to war at the borders of Ashton Federation, and they are rapidly advancing towards the inner star fields of Ashton. Would you please take Dawn to Ashton Federation and see if there is anything you need from him?”

“Need him?” Sandra’s voice suddenly rose; she wondered why the Ashton people would need an Earthling.

“Yes, he’s a Star Map Draftsman,” Jonathan emphasized.

“Oh, got it.” Sandra smiled even more as she turned her face to look the other way, muttering under her breath. “Remarkable, Datheon’s messenger. So what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know, but I would like to ask the Ashton Federation to stop the Strath people. If they cross into the Ashton Federation’s star field, then the solar system is in jeopardy.” Dawn Lucius’ voice bounced back to his ears after hitting the walls multiple times, and again he felt that it was a bit rude. As the other two stood frozen, Dawn Lucius walked up to Sandra and spoke. “Please take me to Ashton Federation. I can’t let the Strath people attack the solar system. My son is still there; he has been dormant for seventy years. I don’t want him to wake up and find the solar system gone. I want to stop anything that is a threat to the solar system.”

Sandra didn’t look at Dawn Lucius; her eyes passed over Dawn Lucius and fell on Jonathan, and she said respectfully, “Moreth Steader, can you provide me with an access report?”

“What kind of report?” Jonathan asked, puzzled.

“A report for this Earthling to go to Visadio Planet. I cannot take people from other civilizations into the core area of Ashton Federation without permission.”

“There’s no need for that. Just treat him like a tourist visiting Ashton Federation.” Jonathan chuckled.

“That’s not good. He’s not from Moreth Federation, and he’s not from Ashton Federation. If something goes wrong or he gets into some kind of trouble, which side do we count on?”

“It’s not so bad. Dawn is not a politician. What kind of trouble can he cause for either side?”

“That’s not a guarantee for any of us.” Sandra wasn’t going to budge.