“Okay, CliffsNotes version,” Nat replied. “They do have something kind of like a Federation of Planets—that was the first thing I asked—which they call the Galactic Covenant or just the Covenant. It acts like a central government by deciding on common sets of rules for members. Membership is voluntary, but there’s a huge economic hit for anyone not in the club. There’s a military force funded by the member species, but for the most part, members do their own governance. Think of it as the UN with teeth.”

“How many species?”

“Sixteen currently officially part of the Covenant. Another sixty or so known species are pre-FTL, ranging in technological level from ‘Me make fire’ to around Industrial Age.”

“Wow, that many?”

“Yeah, but the number fluctuates. Apparently getting from the industrial age to the FTL age is a real Fermi bottleneck. Most species don’t make it.”

And just like that, another series of questions popped into my head. Like why don’t they make it, and are we in the same danger? But one thing at a time. “And the ‘deep shit’ thing?” I asked.

“So there’s kind of a prime directive, to the extent that you should leave pre-FTL species alone to develop. But the exception is when a species runs afoul of a Fermi bottleneck and screws up their planet to the point where they’ve killed themselves off, or nearly so. They’ve basically shown themselves to be incompetent to run their own show, so a Covenant species can step in and act as trustees or conservators.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound bad … ”

“Alaric’s theory was that the Loranna are trying to help the human race along to the brink of destruction. Then they’ll step in, Johnny on the spot and all, and take over. For the good of the human race, you understand.”

“Oh, shit. But what’s in it for the Loranna?”

“Resources. According to the Covenant, a species owns their entire stellar system, so the Loranna would take charge of the whole thing. Starlifting elements from the sun, harnessing solar power, mining the asteroids, siphoning Jupiter and Saturn for raw materials for fusion. Plus a ready workforce, assuming enough humans survive.”

“And something about Earth having a lot of phosphorus,” Patrick added, “although I didn’t follow that part.”

“Fusion?” I replied, ignoring Patrick’s comment. “I thought they used antimatter.”

Nat nodded and resumed her explanation. “Antimatter is literally the highest-density energy-storage medium in the universe. But it doesn’t come for free, and trying to collect the naturally occurring stuff is more trouble than it’s worth. Instead you use fusion power and solar power to make antimatter in huge space-based accelerators, which you then cart around to use as fuel. And it takes a crap-ton of energy to make even a gram of antimatter. E = mc2, right? Worse than that, really, because the process isn’t anywhere near a hundred percent efficient.”