“Come on!” Nori said in frustration. “Your sole purpose of coming here was to get into business with our species. If we don’t get the ammo we need, we’ll probably all die, then you’ll have no one to trade with. No one but us four has any idea you’re even up here. You’ll be stranded, sitting above a dead planet, is that what you want?”

Alzigo didn’t twitch a muscle. “I understand your position, but it is not accurate that no one else knows of my presence.”

Nori's heart skipped a beat as she realized the alien had caught her bluff. By now, everyone in the Grand Mall already knew about the station orbiting the planet.

To her relief, the alien continued talking. “Hours ago, a group of people on another part of your continent made contact with me. Some of them figured out how to reactivate your communication systems, and I’m certain that they will soon acquire the necessary means to come up here. So, I’m sorry, but I must decline. I do wish to see your species flourish, but I have already given you as much as I can in good faith. The rest is up to you.”

“Alright. Then how about we buy a bunch of cheap Trinium-based equipment from you and turn it into ammo?” Nori suggested.

“It is possible, of course.” Alzigo looked down at the holo console on his arm and tapped it for several moments. “I have some spare power coupling I can sell you. They are made up mostly of Trinium. By my estimation, you’ll be able to create two hundred cartridges from one. I can sell you them for two hundred a piece.”

Nori frowned. “We can’t afford that. We need thousands, tens of thousands of rounds.”

Lana took a deep breath and spoke up. “There might be another way.”

Everyone looked at her.

She smiled apologetically. “I didn’t mention it before because it didn’t seem all that important, but now it might be. When I played around with the freighter’s logs, I discovered the last flight path it took. It originated from a place outside our solar system called Hammerhead and made a short stop on our moon.”

Bulco shrugged. “So?”

“Don’t you see?” she said excitedly. “The first aliens arrived here six months ago and I think it's obvious they came here to shower us with Tec. We already know there was more than one freighter involved … but not how many, exactly ...” She looked at the alien expectantly.

He bowed his head slightly. “Again, assuming your suspicions are correct, which I highly doubt, it would take a small fleet of freighters working for weeks to infuse an entire planet.”