Pilot X by Merritt Tom

Author:Merritt, Tom [Merritt, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Inkshares
Published: 2017-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

Ambassador X had no more meetings with the Secretary. He met with small civilizations just making their first steps onto the universal stage. He met with old civilizations just wanting to be left alone. Most often he met with devastation. A longtime enemy suddenly grew powerful and drove a civilization into exile. An unknown enemy appeared and waged war for no discernible reason. In all cases, Ambassador X was able to help the victims recover. But he could not help them understand. He didn’t understand himself.

His most unexpected assignment came from the hermits.

The planet was known as the Hermitage for most of its inhabited history, though it had been uninhabited for a majority of its existence. It contained no significant natural resources. The climate was stark. It was only about thirty percent water, and most of that was salty ocean. The land was majority rock. The inhabitable areas were barely vegetated with few streams or wildlife.

A few mining colonies were attempted but went broke fast. Researchers and scientists visited, but their studies found little of any value and they moved on quickly. It finally became a refuge for hermits. They came from all species, except for the Sensaurians. There was even a Progon hermit. These loners preferred no contact with others. The Hermitage planet was perfect for that. Nobody but other hermits came there. There was just enough of a biosphere to scrape by.

The few things needed from offworld were provided by a single trading post. It had expanded into a full general store at one point with a market and even a few souvenirs for the extraordinarily rare visitor. However, the owner had started to get ideas about creating a tourist destination. When she tried to charter visits, the usually unflappable hermits got angry. It was the closest to starting an organized government the planet ever got. Several of the hermits gathered together and demanded the owner leave the planet.

After that, the store shrank back into a trading post, run by a series of people content with providing the few goods the hermits required with no ambitions beyond that. That’s what made the assignment so odd for Ambassador X.

A hermit had requested Alendan assistance. She asked to meet Ambassador X at the trading post to give further information. It was a voluntary assignment. The Alendans had acknowledged the request but not committed to it. Since Ambassador X did not have any conflicting mandatory assignments at the moment, he could not resist.

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