The com screen went blank and I sank back on my haunches, trying desperately to catch my breath. I wasn’t used to talking to anyone as important as the Admiral. I was an academic that tried to avoid the notice of my dean. As long as I got funding, no one at the university needed to know who I was. Until I found a date, I didn’t need to go to the department holiday parties. And I wasn’t vain enough to need any awards.

Although I was guaranteed to get many awards once my project was finished. Terrans were so interesting. They seemed to have an innate need to care for other species, even when such actions didn’t benefit themselves. I had witnessed more than one occasion where a member of the dominant species had risked their own life to rescue another mammal or even a bird in distress.

I couldn’t imagine one of the leaders of the Alliance doing such a thing. Those politicians talked a lot about pulling together and fighting the same enemy, but some of them seemed more interested in protecting their own hides than fighting the incursions of the Falgaran Empire.

My mother would admonish me for such uncharitable thoughts, but she had not seen the funding fights I had. It still boggled my mind that a representative from the Alliance would demand a meeting whenever even a small grant was awarded to ensure that the recipient would obey unwritten rules, but wouldn’t blink at spending outrageous sums of credits for a project that produced nothing, as long as the Primary Investigator was from the right institution or on the proper committee. I sometimes wondered if the Alliance was truly better than the Empire.

But then stories of life in the Falgaran Empire would leak out. Then the stupid antics of the Alliance didn’t seem so bad. Besides, there were always heroic stories from the Field Agents who risked their lives to keep newly discovered planets free of the Empire. I’d been raised on stories of Rissa, the premier Field Agent who had convinced more than 50 newly contacted species to join the Alliance, sometimes pulling planets right from under the noses of the Falgaran Empire. She was my hero. I hoped that one day I could influence events to help as many sentients as she had.

The beeping of a message pulled me out of my reverie. I had a message from Gwengi! Maybe she wanted to set a time and place to meet with me? I was an excellent potential mate. I had a good income, came from a good family, and could provide for a wife and kits. Even if we would have to live as primitives on a backward planet for a few years. But it would only be temporary, not a life-time commitment to poverty.

I’m certain my mother would be able to convince Gwengi’s parents of the advantages of our match. I needed to let my mother know I had found my love. She would be so excited!

A second notification dinged and I opened the message and scanned the contents. My dreams died.

It was from my beloved Gwengi, but she only talked about the arrival of the first batch of the Brantas. I sighed and slapped my tail against the floor, disappointed, though I should have known better. Gwengi was a career woman, not a Osanu recently graduated from her family’s lodge.

I’d left my family lodge for university and never looked back. Most of the communication I had from my beloved family involved recriminations for abandoning the family business for the insecure future of academic research. None of them understood the allure of exploring the unknown. Especially how other sentient beings interacted with the universe. One of my brothers didn’t believe that fur-less sentients could exist. Even after I’d published several papers proving that intelligence did not correlate with the amount of fur. I don’t believe he read any of the journals that I sent to him every time I was published.

Another ding of a delivered message broke into my scattered thoughts.

The first shipment of Brantas would be small, less than fifty adults. They needed fresh water and a grassy area to thrive. That was easy. There were several parks near my lab that would be perfect.

I had made contacts among the not-quite sentients on Terra that would help me protect the Branta. Maybe. I hoped, anyway. There were always a few, like the squirrels, that I couldn’t trust. But I put my faith in my trusty friend, the moose. He would be a worthy second if I had to attend to other matters. As long as I was not distracted for too long.

We could avoid the Guurn and any relatives native to this planet.

I hoped….