Kat stood still on the tarmac. To her right were Bell Donnst, Jasper Haupt, and Ricardo Waggoner, the shareholder that had supported her bid to join GroCorp’s elite. Wind blew through her hair, heralding the eerily silent descent of the egg-like spaceship as it touched down on the boiling blacktop.

Behind their party, Whippoorwill stood uncomfortably with a group of executives, looking as out of place in a suit as any of her more dignified companions would in an alley holding a makeshift knife. Her pink hair contrasted with the navy and charcoal of her cohort’s suit, singling her.

Just behind Whip’s group, eight corporate security guards ringed a chained stallesp prisoner. Without hands or a Tower avatar, he wasn’t much of a threat, but this near shareholders, GroCorp security wasn’t going to take the chance.

A door opened in the side of the landing craft, projecting a metal ramp down onto the helipad. The only sound was the buzzing of distant cars, the rest of O’Hare’s air traffic having long since been grounded to make way for the visitors.

Then a pair of lokkel, covered in armor and only recognizable due to their four arms marched down the ramp and took up positions on either end of the opening. Kat wasn’t entirely sure if their armor sound dampening qualities or if they were using gravity magic to prevent their heavy footsteps to echo on the ramp, but the silence of their descent was an eerie counterpoint to their heavy armor.

Corporate security ringed the landing site, guns pointed outward as radar watched the sky for anything that might threaten the upcoming meeting.

An orb, humming quietly on its anti gravity engine, hovered down the ramp followed shortly thereafter by a rock alien that reminded Kat of Gasoot, two birdlike bipeds with brightly colored plumage, and a very familiar lokkel with dark scales. Dorrik grinned at her, their crest fluttering in the wind as they stood at the back of the cluster of aliens.

“Attention humans,” a mechanical voice crackled from the hovering orb as its metal surface became transparent, revealing what looked like a small octopus working the sphere’s controls. “My name is Valgreth Manak’lik of the Crimson Wave Shoal. I have been appointed the chairperson of the Galactic Consensus blue ribbon commission that will be investigating the accusations of inappropriate stallesp involvement with your planet’s development.”If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Welcome Valgreth,” Kat replied, smiling at the small octopus as she stepped forward. “GroCorp is excited to have your commission visit Chiwaukee. As you can see, in addition to the information we sent your data technicians in orbit, we have taken one of the stallesp involved in the plot prisoner. Since capturing hime, we’ve learned that his name is Addnok and that he is a member of the Prosperity and Bounty Consortium.”

“I am familiar with the Prosperity and Bounty Consortium,” Valgreth responded, its mechanical voice buzzing slightly. “I presume that you have brought Addnok to this meeting to surrender him to our custody for questioning?”

“But of course,” she answered, stepping to the side and motioning toward the bound stallesp. One of the guards behind the mole prodded it in the back with a stun baton that crackled with electricity, singing a chunk off of the creature’s fur. “In fact, after a week or so of questioning, he was quite insistent about being returned to Consensus custody. He kept reciting various treaties and conventions, claiming that our treatment was inhumane, but the last I checked, GroCorp was not a signatory to the Deneb Accords or the Antares Codicil.”

“Antares,” Valgreth said flatly. “So you were torturing Addnok then?”

“We were only asking questions,” Kat riposted, smiling down at the small octopus. “Specifically questions about how many of my people the stallesp had kidnapped, cloned and murdered as part of his race’s illegal plot to enslave my planet.”

“He doesn’t have hands,” Valgreth noted flatly.

“You don’t need hands just to answer questions,” Belle interjected, her voice pleasant.

For a second, the small octopus didn’t respond. The hovering orb buzzed quietly as it stared at the whimpering alien surrounded by heavily armed corporate security. Behind it, the two birdlike aliens crooned to either other softly in their own language.

“Indeed,” Valgreth agreed, bobbing slightly. “A fair point.”