A Direct and Clear Response

There will always be big, wealthy organizations which promise to sell certain things to small, remote outposts. And which, once the ink on the contract has been dry for a while, will start to change the terms. A little here. A bit there. After all, they are a vast entity of astonishing power and reach. What is some petty, dirty, little base on an obscure out of the way moon in a position to do but pay whatever they're told in return for whatever the wealthy organization chooses to sell to them?

In the case of our story, this has been going on for thirteen years of a twenty year contract and a bright young executive has been sent all the way out to this misbegotten corner of Alliance space to explain to them what the new terms will be.

One of the residents of the base is there to quietly, firmly, explain that this approach is, in this case, ill-advised.