Beloved Queen Mother of Arlaz

Signus Sector, Outer Rim, West Arm

Dearest Mother,

Your support of me is, as always, appreciated from the folds of my niarth as I undertake my ritual Alnask pilgrimage. Alas, I require more support, as the natural restlessness of a Nisk’s tentacles, in Treske, results in the considerable acquisition of goods, and debts.

To the depths of Mithaar,

Your 358th son,

Roslx

Sr. Capistanor Luxi

Chair, Economics Division

First Contact Project

We have learned every capitalist planet is in the thrall of Treske; for without its currency exchange, without its futures markets, no trade is possible across light delay, across the Galaxy’s wild cultures, with their disparate resources, bodies, values.

How else could we acquire the intricately woven rugs of the Ni’faar, millions of threads per square centimeter, made from the first strands woven by each Cad’pis, so dense they could stop a uranium bullet, so colorful they reach into the near infrared and far ultraviolet, when the Ni’faar only care for the fruit of the Farsid tree, which takes 1,000 years to cultivate and doesn’t grow on our planet?

In service,

D. Kinor

Sr. Capistanor Luxi

Chair, First Contact Project

Economics Division

Treske city is on the near side of Pecune, a tidally locked moon around the gas giant Flora 1B7. It occupies the entirety of the central island, reaching up as far as the .7g will allow, vaulted upwards by pilings on breakwaters, landfilled bays, and wildly colored cantilevers hundreds of meters long. Citizens and visitors are required to have microchips in their fingers (or nearest equivalent) directly linked to their Galactic Credit accounts. The barest gesture purchases its object. There is no window shopping here.

In service,

D. Kinor

Roslx

Treske Debtors’ Prison

Pecune, Flora 1B7

My irreplaceable Roslx,

It distresses me throughout my niarth to hear of your travails on Treske. I have contacted the highest authorities there and begged them, with whatever respect is accorded the Queen Mother of Arlaz, that they treat you as I would have you treated on Arlaz. Their esteem of me will, I trust, soon have the desired effect on your situation.

In the meantime, I will be thinking of you.

To the depths of Mithaar,

Your Queen Mother

Arlaz, Signus Sector, Outer Rim, West Arm

Esteemed Counselor Koht

Treske, Pecune, Flora 1B7

Esteemed Counselor:

I have learned my 358th son, Roslx, is a guest in your Debtors’ Prison. I have told him I would entreat you from my deepest niarth to be merciful, that he is young in the ways of the galaxy, being as he has only now embarked upon his Alnask. Consider this my pleading, that you would do him the greater favor, to preserve him from my wrath, by sending him peacefully and swiftly on his final journey.

In gratitude,

Beloved Queen Mother of Arlaz

Signus Sector, Outer Rim, West Arm