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slave-soldiers. According to the survey team’s admittedly no more than superficial physiological data, it might even be possible to teach them using neural educators without surgically inserted receptors. While they would never be the equal of the Shongairi as warriors even if that were true, they’d at least make useful cannon fodder. And whoknew? A few generations down the road, with the right training and pruning and a suitable breeding program, they really
might
at least approach Shongair levels of utility.
    The Emperor had made the importance of exploring KU-197-20’s utility in that respect clear before Thikair’s expedition departed. And the fact that the weed-eaters and their only slightly less contemptible omnivore fellows had so cavalierly handed the planet over to the Empire only made the possibility that it
would
prove useful that much more delicious.
    None of which did much about his current problem.
    “You say it’s
possibly
a Level Two,” he said. “Why do you think that?”
    “Given all the EM activity and the sophistication of so many of the signals, the locals are obviously at least Level Three, Sir.” Ahzmer didn’t seem to be getting any happier, Thikair observed. “In fact, preliminary analysis suggests they’ve already developed fission power—possibly even fusion. But while there are at least
some
fission power sources on the planet, there seem to be very few of them. In fact, most of their power generation seems to come from burning
hydrocarbons
! Why should any civilization that was really Level Two do anything that stupid?”
    The fleet commander’s ears flattened in a frown. Like the ship commander, he found it difficult to conceive of any species stupid enough to continue consuming irreplaceable resources in hydrocarbon-based power generation if it no longer had to. That didn’t mean such a species couldn’t exist, however. Alien races could do incredibly stupid things—one had only to look at the pathetic excuses for civilizations some of the weed-eaters had erected to realize
that
was true! Ahzmer simply didn’t want to admit it was possible in this case, even to himself, because if this genuinely was a Level Two civilization it would be forever off-limits for colonization.
    “Excuse me, Sir,” Ahzmer said, made bold by his own worries, “but what are we going to do?”
    “I can’t answer that question just yet, Ship Commander,” Thikair replied a bit more formally than usual when it was just the two of them. “But I can tell you what we’re
not
going to do, and that’s let these reports panic us into any sort of premature reactions. Survey’s
always
off a little when it estimates a primitive species’ probable tech level; the sheer time lag makes that inevitable, I suppose. I admit, I’ve never heard of them being remotely as
far
off as the scouts’ reports seem to be suggesting in this case, but let’s not jump to any conclusions until we’ve had time to thoroughly evaluate the situation. We’ve spent eight years, subjective, just getting here, andMedical is already half a month into reviving Ground Commander Thairys’ personnel from cryo. We’re not going to simply cross this system off our list and move on to the next one until we’ve thoroughly considered what we’ve learned about it and evaluated all of our options. Is that clear?”
    “Yes, Sir!”
    “Good. In the meantime, however, we have to assume we may well be facing surveillance systems considerably in advance of anything we’d anticipated. Under the circumstances, I want the fleet taken to a covert stance. Full-scale emissions control and soft recon mode, Ship Commander.”
    “Yes, Sir. I’ll pass the order immediately.”

. III .

    Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky climbed out of the MRAP, stretched, collected his personal weapon, and nodded to the driver.
    “Go find yourself some coffee. I don’t really expect this to take very long, but you know how good I am at predicting things