Arada was asking, “Did you get any visual images of the raiders?”

I had already seen the images, sent in the SecUnit’s codeburst. A six-second video clip of two Targets, bursting through a hatchway. Leonide admitted, “Very briefly in a security vid. They were, as you said, unusually divergent.”

Arada’s expression was grave. “We suspect they’ve been affected by alien remnant contamination.”

“Yes.” Leonide’s expression and tone said she did, too, and it was a source of extreme exasperation. If Barish-Estranza was going to get any return on their investment, they would have to do something about the contamination first, which at best would mean quarantining a large section of the planet and calling in a licensed decontam operation. (If they meant to do this legally and not pull a GrayCris and deal with it by murdering all the witnesses.) “How were you attacked?”

“We had just arrived in the system and started our initial longrange mapping scans.” Arada spread her hands. This was the hard lying part and I put SecSystem’s download on hold so I could concentrate and because it was just too nerve-racking. “We received a distress call from a ship we now know was your explorer. When we came within range, it launched a shuttle. We allowed it to dock and ended up in a battle for our lives and our ship. They were able to take eight members of our crew. If we hadn’t had a SecUnit, we would have lost the ship.”

Leonide’s gaze lifted briefly to me. I was doing the blank SecUnit stare at the wall past her head, which is less effective than the opaque helmet stare, but still gets the job done. She said, “Our Units weren’t so effective.”

Oh, I don’t know about that. If not for that codeburst warning, you and your supply transport would be in tiny pieces.

“Did you see anyone who might have been from the explorer’s crew?” Leonide asked. She managed to make it sound just the right amount of casual.

“Just Eletra and poor Ras,” Arada answered seriously. I thought that was showing too much sympathy, but Leonide was preoccupied and didn’t seem to notice. Then Arada said, “Did you have any idea there were alien remnants on this planet, perhaps at the old colony site?”

Careful, I said on our feed connection. That was getting uncomfortably close to discussing Barish-Estranza’s steadily falling profit margin for this reclamation and its potential liability for exposing employees and assets to active alien remnants.

(Overse was right, alien remnants were the one thing the whole Corporation Rim agreed was bad. Not that there weren’t corporates like GrayCris who would sell them if they thought they could get away with it, but the liability bonds and the chances of wiping out your entire population made it rare.)

Leonide had relaxed a little, maybe lulled into a sense of security by Arada’s general air of earnestness, but now her expression went back to a smooth professional mask. “I’m afraid my contract won’t permit discussing that. Our cargo factor has finished unloading your supplies.” Leonide eyed Arada again, and obviously came to a conclusion. “Before we transmit a certificate of note for your invoice, perhaps you’d like to negotiate.”