Free Guest Night on Union Station by E. M. Foner Page B

other species present. It’s only appropriate we should have the opportunity to return the hospitality they have shown our documentary crews.”
    The translation of his last sentence came through Kelly’s implant sounding oddly like a threat, but she brushed the thought aside.
    “I would have offered to invite the Tzvim emissary, but we are allergic to their epidermal shedding,” Srythlan finally got out.
    “Well, this was much easier than I anticipated,” Kelly remarked happily. She had come into the meeting worried that she would have to lean on her friends to accept a mismatched guest, but instead, the ambassadors from the species who usually gave her a hard time had stepped up.
    “If that’s everything, I have a party to finish planning,” Aluria announced, rising from her seat. “We in the Empire of a Hundred Worlds are always happy to do our part for the Stryx.”
    “Likewise,” Crute declared, pushing back from the table. “Can I assume that nobody else intended to partake in this gourmet platter of Sheezle bugs? Good. I’ll just take it with me then.”
    “Yes. I just remembered I have something as well,” Ortha stated. He didn’t rise from the table immediately because he was busy wrapping Horten delicacies in napkins and slipping them into his pockets. “For the children,” he added, addressing no one in particular.
    “Since everybody else is leaving,” the Grenouthian ambassador said. His pouch looked strangely lumpy as he hopped away, and Kelly noted that the platters in front of his seat were swept clean, even though the ambassadors had only been seated for a couple of minutes.
    “Where’s the fire?” Czeros called after them. He uncorked a second bottle of California Cabernet, and shocked Kelly by pouring glasses for Bork, Gwendolyn and herself before filling his own. A sound like stones being crushed into gravel came from the end of the table, and everybody turned to see the Verlock caught in a rare fit of laughter, his massive shoulders heaving.
    “Am I missing something here?” Kelly demanded. “I know that Vergallians and the Dollnicks do a lot of business outside of the tunnel network, that the Hortens are a bit slippery and the Grenouthians think they’re smarter than everybody else, but why did they all agree to help me?”
    “Your little speech was a marvel of underhanded motivation, though it took a moment for them to figure it out,” the Chert ambassador explained. “They aren’t used to subtlety from humans.”
    “But I was being perfectly honest,” Kelly said. “By taking home an alien dignitary, they’re doing a favor for the Stryx.”
    “Why would they do favors for the Stryx?” Bork asked. “Will the Stryx give them special treatment in return? It was your remark about the station librarian that woke up Aluria, and the rest of them figured it out as soon as she spoke.”
    “Figured what out?” Kelly asked in frustration.
    “That their best chance of affecting the decisions of the visiting emissaries is to get them alone, on their own turf,” Czeros said. “The Cayl Empire is a completely functional entity that’s been around for millions of years. Do you know what that means?”
    “They’re stable?” Kelly said.
    “They’re competition,” Srythlan boomed.
    “Imagine what will happen if the Stryx push a permanent tunnel through to the other side of the galaxy,” the Chert ambassador continued. “All of a sudden, the members of the Cayl Empire with expansionist tendencies will be able to send their colony ships to the systems on the fringes of the tunnel network for little more cost than expanding the edges of their own empire.”
    “The Dollnicks and the Vergallians are the most expansionist of the oxygen/nitrogen breathing species on the tunnel network,” Bork explained. “The Grenouthians practically have a monopoly on news, documentary entertainment and several other business verticals with high entry costs, and the Hortens operate in the