Free SODIUM:6 Defiance by Stephen Arseneault Page B

4,244 years since, the people of Bolin station had not reported an interaction with any other species. The Remmik had been forced into the stars as their red sun expanded during its natural death cycle. Their more than 7,000 years of history on their home world had been recorded and was a point of study for every Remmik youth. The three dominant religions from their planet were now the dominant beliefs on Bolin Station.
    Ambassador Shezen shuttled us from station to station for meetings with the politicos of each station's government. The laws of each station differed in many subtle ways and it was the responsibility of the traveler to know the laws of the station they were on. Crime rates were low and the citizens of each station went about the mundane tasks of life with a somewhat positive attitude.
    The shopkeeper would rise in the morning to meet with his suppliers. Once a week he or she would travel to other businesses with requests to stock goods that were in demand or to push for lower prices on those that weren't. They would go home to their families at the end of the Bolin day and spend the time in front of a two-dimensional display where they watched station news or entertainment.
    A career in the Bolin Station military was about as dull and boring of an existence as one could have. Military incidents were few and far between, many centuries would pass with no activity. The highlight of a career in the Corps was the annual war game where the ships were divided into two factions of equal size. But the Remmik ships and weapons were superior, so their side always came away victorious. For most, they were happy to participate, regardless of the predetermined outcome.
    I asked the ambassador where they drew their supplies from. He responded that they had 16 mining colonies on distant planets bringing back the natural resources they required. None of those planets were habitable and with no life to support, they had been deemed free from claim and worthy of mining.
    Other than mining there were no other known outposts or colonies in their traveled space. The drive systems, as well as the weapons and the shields of their ships, were far behind our technologies. At just below the speed of light it would take them lifetimes to get anywhere meaningful. They were content with where they were.
    After a month of discussions with the ambassador and the other politicians we were ordered to head to Rigel before coming home. It was another two month journey and the team spent the time going over the technologies that came from Bolin Station.
    Even though they were far behind on interstellar travel they did have a few technologies that they were willing to trade. We offered the plans for a BGS (minus its Sodium skin and fusion power) in exchange for sensor technology and a few choice methods for the recycling of materials. Those methods, although simple and low tech, could be used to cut Earth's demand for raw materials by nearly a sixth.
    On the trip to Rigel our team was hard at work with the engineers at home in an attempt to make use of the new sensor technology that had been traded for. Within weeks it had been applied to our long-wave sensors giving an impressive boost to their sensitivity. As we closed on the Rigel system we scanned the nearby stars and were surprised by the number of ships that had been detected.
    More than 13,000 craft were shown moving about in the Rigel system, mostly small transports. The main activity seemed to be centered on a planet orbiting a dwarf main-sequence star. It had a luminosity of only one quarter that of the Sun and the planet was in close orbit around it. Seven space ports were in stationary orbit around the planet and another five were detected scattered amongst the other planets in the system.
    The second planet in the system was a rocky world and mining ships were detected landing and lifting off from its surface. The next two planets in the system were gas giants with four moons each.