Patter sat in his hover chair pondering over the latest report displayed on his tablet. His office on the top level of one of the most prestigious buildings in the Federation capital was sumptuous, containing the best of everything that credits and privilege could obtain. He stroked his whiskers and scratched under his long snout as he gazed into the distance across the large city spread out before of him. Although he was not part of any royalty involved in the Emperor's High Court, he had influence. Many of the royalty and various advisors were willing to retain Patter's favours and funding. It had always been thus, especially since the legalisation of hunting so many years ago.
At that time Hunting Tours Incorporated had not even officially been in existence. Many of the founders had been involved in the illegal hunts and made excellent - if risky - credits doing so. Sometimes when the business was booming some young Royal or an advisor would come along all high and mighty wanting to defend the non entities that were the subjects of the hunts. Funds would dry up for a while until the intruder was demoralised, disgraced or destroyed and hunting would illicitly restart.
Then the great founder of Hunting Tours Incorporated, Madge the Great, started a crusade for the rights of hunters and the marginalised who were being hurt in the process of illegal hunts. Madge was funded by all the illegal hunting groups even as she accused them publicly of being such terrible people.
Madge's famous speech before the court included a section defending hunts, "We must never forget that it is part of our base nature to fight and treat others worse than ourselves. Although hunts have been illegal - some have even considered them immoral - hunts have always met the unspoken need. Our civilisation would not be where it is today if not for that release of tension and aggression that hunts provide. Although illegal, these hunts have been essential to maintaining a just and fair civilisation. Even though we admit hunting is not always right, by making it legal we can make it safe and rare. Instead of costing society to control citizens who only need a little hunt - which costs billions - hunters can pay their own way. No one gets hurt. Hunters are protected. Civilisation is saved."
Legal, safe and rare. The perfect slogan. Now hunting was part of society and Patter was the current director of Hunting Tours Incorporated, the largest hunting organisation in the Federation. He - and HTI - were rewarded well for their provision of such an important service. Five hundred years of growth of the Federation and there had been no wars of note in that time.
Peace through Hunting. Another great slogan.
Patter was very happy with the latest report. It looked as though the Exploration Service had discovered another inhabited planet and the private report he had received showed great potential for hunting. This planet had a history of fighting so HTI could offer premium packages for experienced hunters. Of course, he would first repay a number of favours with the allocation of initial hunts. The first hunts on any new planet were always simple affairs as the locals had no idea of what they were about to receive and some planets never fully worked out what was happening. That is why they were declared Non Compatible in the first place.
He pressed a button on his tablet. A few moments later, his assistant stepped in.
"Yes, Sir?" she said, as she walked in swaying her hairy shoulders suggestively.
"Honey, this latest report," Patter said, not remembering her name, "Do we know anything about who sent it to us?"
His assistant looked at her tablet, pressed a few buttons, and looked up," I have sent you his background, Sir. He is on an Exploration ship way out in the outer galaxies. Not much else out there but they discovered this new planet, ummm," She looked down at her tablet and continued, "Dirt."
"Dirt," said Patter, "Seems like a silly name for a planet."
The assistant shrugged her shoulders and wrinkled her snout as if to suggest what can one say about NC's. NCs were the common term for inhabitants of Non Compatible planets.
Patter looked at the note he had received from his assistant and ignored her for a short while.
"Honey, do you have his file?"
The assistant retrieved the appropriate document and sent it to Patter. He could have done all this himself, but he liked having good looking assistants do all the work for him as it increased his prestige.
Patter then read the informant's file.
"We need to know more about this planet before we can place a claim. Can you please arrange for Harrick to come in? I have some work for him," Patter said, waving at his assistant to leave. He watched as she scurried away alluringly.
A few hours later his assistant alerted him via his desk, "Sir, Harrick is here."
"Send him in, Honey," Patter replied and straightened up in his hover chair.
The door swooshed open and Harrick stepped in. While Patter was relatively small, being about four feet in height with a scraggly tail and scruffy ears, Harrick was much larger. Standing erect at six feet tall, although he was of the same rat like race as Patter, he was of a much different stock.
Patter's hover chair meant that Patter's eyes were on the same level as Harrick.
Harrick reached the desk and stood stock still, "Sir! You requested me, Sir."
"Yes, Harrick I did," replied Patter in a slow drawl. Patter figured this too increased his prestige, putting on a slow and fancy drawl as if everything and everyone was beneath him.
"The Exploration Service has discovered a new planet and one of our supporters has passed on the news to us. I need more information before we lay claim to it for HTI."
Harrick thought for a moment and replied, "Sir, I will arrange for the Exploration Service to recall the Exploration Ship and we will question the crew. Meanwhile, I will send a unit to explore the planet ourselves."
"Good," said Patter, clasping his hands together, "Perhaps you should go personally. This planet looks promising."
"As you command, Sir," replied Harrick smartly.
"Make it so," said Patter as he turned back to look out his window.
Harrick turned around on his heels and paced purposely out of the room.
Patter then began planning on who he would invite to the initial hunts, once he made a call to his friends at the Imperial Exploration Service to let them know HTI was interested.
*****
Chugalug, the cheerful Exploration Team Director of the Imperial Exploration Service, reached out and answered his incoming video chat message with the standard IES greeting, "Greetings! We mean you no harm." His carapace glittered when he smiled and the red surface seemed to shimmer contrasting with the black circles spread evenly across his body.
His body stopped shimmering and went back to a dull flat red as Chugalug sat forward and noticed who was speaking. It was the IES director herself.
"Chugalug. I see that one of your teams has discovered a new planet with a boring name," she said as her green scales flashed in annoyance. To Chugalug, it didn't matter what the lighting or time of day, the Director was always annoyed.
"Yes, Director," he replied, "Are you referring to the planet the locals call Dirt?"
"Yes," the Director answered shortly, "Are they NC?"
"The report would seem to indicate it, but we always like to double check first. You know how it is with our overworked Exploration Teams. Sometimes they miss things and we don't want to condemn a planet to Non Compatible status on incomplete evidence do we?" Chugalug replied.
The Director stared at Chugalug, "Were the standard tests applied?"
Chugalug gulped, "Yes, but …"
"Did the planet pass or fail?" interrupted the Director.
"It appears to be a fail, but …" answered Chugalug.
"Then they are NC!" stated the Director with finality.
"But the results have inconsistencies…" Chugalug persisted.
"The test results say NC so make them NC. And get back to work!" the Director commanded and cut the connection.
"And may you have a nice day too," muttered Chugalug as he brought up the file on Dirt. He had received the file and reviewed it as usual, but the results prompted him to inquire further. The four specimens may not have been representative. There were two tall biped pale inhabitants, a short dark biped inhabitant and a quadruped animal. There were also no notes by the Explorer Team Leader which normally accompanied any report and the video file containing transmissions from the planet seemed short and poorly edited.
But the Director had spoken and it served no-one's interest to delay implementing the Director's commands. Before he sent the finalised report onto the Directorate, he made a copy of the report and saved it to his private storage device. He would look into this further at home.
*****
Patter's private video call light flashed insistently.
"That's all Honey," he said to his assistant who was in the middle of taking dictation for Patter's latest press release, "Come back in about thirty minutes."
"Yes, Sir," she replied and scurried away quickly. She was not allowed to hear anything that came in on the private call line.
Once she was out of the room and the doors sealed, Patter pressed the answer button.
"What?" he said, using his standard greeting.
"It is done," the Director of IES said, "Dirt has been declared NC."
"When will it be ready for auction?" Patter asked.
"When do you want it?" asked the Director, a lot less annoyed than she had been in her call only five minutes before.
Patter considered the question. He wanted Harrick to get back with his report before making his bid, but if he waited too long another hunting company might step in and take it. Dirt. It was stupid name for a planet, and the tests result was NC so …
"The next scheduled Auction would be fine," he replied to the Director, "Then we can arrange appropriate appreciation for your hard work."
"Oh, it was nothing," replied the Director, pretending to wave away the offer, "I'm just doing my part to make the Federation a safer place."
"Exactly," replied Patter, "We are both giving up so much to make the Federation a more civilised place. But we do appreciate your help and will do what we can."
Patter smiled at the Director and cut the connection.
There was no warmth in Patter's smile. There was not a lot of warmth in the Director's farewell either.
*****
Heron and his crew mates had just entered a new system to be explored when their control panel chimed.
"Incoming message," said Heron. Byron and Nelson hurried over to see. Looking out the front screen they tried to catch a glimpse of the Drop Pod making its way towards them.
"There it is!" said Byron. They always had a competition as to who would spot the pod first. Byron was current leader on the board.
The Drop Pod plunked into the hole in the outside of the ship and it was sucked through. The cover on the control panel opened and the drop pod was retrieved by Heron. He placed the memory chip into his tablet and read the contents.
"Huh," he said and continued reading.
Byron and Nelson watched him waiting for Heron to share the news.
"Well, who would have thought?" Heron said and continue to read.
Byron hit the back of Heron's chair, "Heron!"
"Oh sorry," said Heron, turning around in his chair to face them, "We've been recalled. HQ wants us back so we can provide further information about Dirt."
"Maybe they did better than we thought?" said Byron.
"Maybe they did worse?" said a worried Heron.
Nelson just sat back and sucked on his Fizzy while Heron turned to the control panel and plotted the way back to HQ.