"Xin Ning told the captain to throw that seventy-thousand-credit necklace into space. That was all I heard."
"No, wait! There was also..."
"Oh... no, that was it. I treated the idle chatter of the Fire Warrior sent to throw away the necklace as something important..."
The team member in charge of surveillance removed the helmet from his head and looked toward his team leader, He Chou.
After thinking it over, He Chou realized that Xin Ning might not have been unaware that the necklace could be used for surveillance. He had done it deliberately...
He Chou admitted that he had previously underestimated the Tau diplomatic personnel, but now he felt only astonishment.
Come to think of it, that made sense.
Water Clan diplomats maintained relations between the various clans and conducted diplomacy with allied species such as the Kroot. Their diplomatic work alone could fill several thick volumes of nonfiction.
As for the Diplomatic Group... better not mention it.
That was the gap in experience.
The sector's military strength was so overwhelming that even a captain could casually handle affairs involving a minor xenos civilization. There was nothing for the Diplomatic Group to do, so everyone sorely lacked training and experience.
Presumably, the omnipotent Lord of Tyran had forgotten that, besides xenos civilizations like the spore creatures that slaughtered everything in sight, the arrogant pointy-eared ones who regarded humans as monkeys, and the skeletons that woke up wanting to kill every organic being, there were civilizations and species in the galaxy capable of conducting normal diplomacy. That was why he had not established a department responsible for diplomacy and given it opportunities to gain experience much earlier.
"Team leader."
"Hmm?"
The call pulled He Chou back from his thoughts.
"How should we handle this?"
"Organize what we heard and our