“And he made it sound so reasonable. Like it wouldn’t be anything but a threat, and the Horizon government would respond to the threat by paying its levies. Well, it isn’t. In fact, it’s voted to leave the Confederation—only you pushed through that rule that they couldn’t.”

Roi hadn’t had to push very hard, and he’d had good reason. Another planet, Rakal, had voted to leave the Confederation five years before. As far as Roi was concerned, the Confederation existed primarily to prevent wars between planets—but that wasn’t why the ancestors of modern Humans had set it up. Humans shared space with a number of other species. Most had preferred different types of planets than those suitable for Humans, so relationships generally involved trade rather than hostilities.

Again, this snippet is from Rescue Operation, continuing from last week.