[Maybe they will take pity on us and give us a status upgrade so that we can start properly trading for things that aren’t considered too high risk.] Max suggested.

[That is a possibility, but I think humanity will have to clean up their mess at home first. The Trade Group has made huge progress in bringing our sector of the Galaxy under control since we left, but it’s still a mess. There are hundreds of inhabited systems still actively hostile to the Reavers’ efforts, and that doesn’t even take into consideration all of the species in the Northeast sector of the Galaxy, who were previously more technologically advanced.

They are unhappy about our rapid advancement. There has been word that the so-called peaceful Federation on the North side of our Galaxy has been feeding humans military technology and using double agents to stoke wars for the past few centuries so that we wouldn’t get out of control or settle down and start working on ourselves.] Nico replied.

That was news to Max but not entirely surprising. They had the no interplanetary wars part of the requirements down but had been turned down by the Alliance when they tried to contact them due to their technology, which was deemed too primitive to qualify as an advanced species.

As far as Max knew, they still hadn’t gotten their hands on a new pattern ship, which would bring their species to Warp 10, which the Hunters at least considered the bare minimum standard for interstellar travel.

But even if they did, it would still be recognized as human technology, and they wouldn’t get any credit for using another species’ ships to get around. In order for a vassal or parasitic species to gain status, the society giving them technology had to be recognized as well, and the humans were a bit stuck on that recognition part.

As if discussing the subject of hostile aliens had alerted them to the topic, the Alliance vessel hailed Terminus to discuss the likely outcomes should a renegade businessman come to cause trouble for them. Of course, given their limited knowledge about Illithid technology, it was completely possible that talking about it had, in fact, been the cue for them to make contact.

“Terminus, we would like to know if you have safety measures in place should you be ambushed by a criminal group before we are able to intervene.” The Illithid in charge of communications on the Alliance vessel asked through the video chat.

“Indeed we do. We have shields up at all times and two Cruisers on standby with Warp 12 capable Interceptors, including a newly developed Warp Torpedo, which can be launched without having to slow down. As long as we can catch them, we can cripple them.” Max informed them.

“And what might the penalty be for launching an attack on a Reaver vessel in unclaimed space?” The Illithid asked.

“That’s the beautiful part. Since this area is not yet inhabited and doesn’t have its own legal structure in place, the punishment is whatever I say it is. By Reaver law, I am the judge of the case, and the officers of any vessels in sensor range are the jury.” Max replied, causing the Illithid to smile at him through his humanoid environmental suit.

“So, what you are saying is that it might be wise for us to intervene before you claim an Alliance ship as reparations for criminal activity?”

Max smirked and looked at Nico, who was standing beside him.

“Those are your words, not mine. But I won’t disagree with your conclusion.”

The Illithid nodded. “I will forward the details of your criminal justice policy to headquarters. Does that apply to all crimes?”

“No, just piracy. All attacks on Reaver’s vessels, except by vessels flying the colors of a foreign military, are considered acts of Piracy. For other crimes, we are using a more traditional judge and jury, evidence-based court system, though you will find that very few of our punishments involve incarceration. If they are too dangerous to be in society under supervision, it is more cost-effective to remove them from society entirely, either through banishment or a long walk out a short airlock.”

“Understood. Your second in command has sent us the abridged version of the Kepler Military Justice handbook and the Reaver Rules of Conduct. I will forward them to the observers, but they seem to be mostly in line with Alliance standard practices.”

He cut the link at that point, and Nico turned the conversation back to the state of the Galaxy.

She had a three-dimensional map up now, marking all the active battles and the areas which were still hostile to the Trade Group.

It looked like they had almost made it all the way out to the Vampires’ borders now, with only a few holdout nations between the two groups, but most of the resistant systems were closer to the center of the human territory, being comprised of systems that broke away from Kepler, or who were part of the aborted attacks.

“It looks like it won’t take too long to get everyone on board with the new program, at least in name,” Max told her as he looked over the scattered group of nations who chose not to join the group.

“On the contrary. The Cygnus leaders and Rae 5 have decided to take a hands-off approach. As long as they remain civil, they will keep the existing treaties in place and leave them alone as independent nations without the protection of the Trade Group.

But since most of them don’t border each other, the effect should be the same. Trade Group members won’t attack, so they can remain safely isolated and continue to pay the standard markups and additional taxes.” Nico explained.

“Then are the battles among the human nations almost finished?” He asked.

“Not even remotely close to it. But they’re almost completely contained to individual planets now, which is a good start. Avoiding spreading battles across entire sectors of space is the goal. Getting everyone’s act in order is a long-term goal.

Half of these planets won’t stop fighting over who should be in charge for a decade or more.” Nico laughed.

“Alright. Let me know if there are any developments, either on the surface or in the research lab. I’m going for a nap.”