Schiller piloted the ship around to the marketplace again and, sure enough, found the mothership directly above the market's Central Tower. It bore the Interstellar Security Council insignia as well, but several oddly shaped ships were parked beside it, obviously not Standard Equipment.
Logically, the police had already gone down there, so who else would be visiting the mothership?
But the situation was urgent, and Schiller had no time to think too much. The ship he was flying could be recognized by the mothership, and he himself possessed official Interstellar Security Council agent credentials, so the defense systems did not attack him. He entered the mothership without incident.
The moment he stepped inside, he realized something was off. The ship was far from empty; on the contrary, it was rather lively, as though a party had just ended. Something resembling the smell of alcohol lingered in the air. The composition might have been different, but after just one sniff, Schiller felt a little dizzy.
"These aliens are actually using knockout drugs as recreational drugs." Schiller sighed. He could more or less guess what had been happening aboard this mothership.
Rather than heading for the cockpit, he went to the control center and checked the records of visiting ships. Unsurprisingly, the strangely shaped vessels he had seen outside all belonged to the black-market boss Tolos.
Digging further, Schiller found records for over a dozen private ships belonging to high-ranking Interstellar Alliance officials. In other words, the mothership held not only police officers, but at least a dozen senior Interstellar Alliance officials. Some might even have brought their families.
After copying the information, Schiller found a banquet hall on a lower deck that was an utter mess. It differed from a human banquet hall, but the Slime covering the floor and several