"Do you really think the Keen Empire is that generous? There's a wormhole here, and they handed it over without even exploring it?"
The yellow starfish scientist piloted the Science Ship, his short, plump body settled in the pilot's seat as he spoke and fiddled with the console.
"Qien doesn't have Wormhole Stabilization technology. Those idiots have an extremely shallow understanding of space. Besides, they don't care about these remote, impoverished star systems at all."
The purplish-red starfish stared solemnly at the images coming in from the sensors and urged, "Pick up the pace. Check the survey files the Keen Empire left behind, then stabilize that damned wormhole, and we can go home."
"But we don't know where that wormhole leads. If it opens onto somewhere dangerous, we'll be in trouble."
"That's outside our remit. Our orders are simply to 'research everything that can be researched.' According to regulations, all we have to do is stabilize the wormhole. Let the bigwigs in Congress worry about the rest."
The starfish piloting the ship clearly couldn't care less.
"If we leave this wormhole alone, we'll have to write a report explaining why. Worried about dangers on the other side? That's not for lowly crew members like us to consider. So who cares? Just open it."
The Science Ship traced a steady course, the blue beam left by its exhaust lingering long before it faded.
Although the Keen Empire had handed over all the exploration data for these star systems along with their stellar bases, the starfish Science Ship still performed a preliminary verification.
That was this ship's assignment, and just like the tasks you usually gave your Science Ships, this one was nothing more than a workhorse. It had no deadline, and its objective was to investigate every anomaly, special project, astral