Challenge #01427-C332: Illegal Saviors

Someone going through human archives, and they find this story and the key phrase of it:

"It may be ‘illegal’, but those who risk their liberty to ~save the world~ should never be reprimanded, no matter what those in power say." -- RecklessPrudence

When the people of Pre-Space Planetary System #J4N3T-111811260516 finally get into Galactic Society, they'll find some funny things in the archives. If they go looking.

My name is Leon. And technically? I'm a criminal.

GalStands&Legs - that's the Galactic Standards and Legislations Comittee - clearly marks all wormhole passages that lead to inhabited, Pre-Space systems. Galactics are supposed to keep the hell away from them.

Well... Planet Janet has a whole load of really rich asteroids. Any one of them could wipe them out. Blink of an eye. Thousand years of fire raining from the sky. Choking clouds, snowball planet, extinction across the entire globe. That sort of thing.

So... me and a few of my buddies have been sneaking past the alert buoys to mine out a few Apophis-type asteroids that just happen to have intersecting orbits with Planet Janet.

We're good at this, you understand. We have supercomputers and the cogniscents on Planet Janet have just noticed that the stars have something to do with the seasons. And they might have noticed us as 'strange lights' in the night.

Relax. Nobody got a real close look, near as I can tell. At least... none of us buzz the atmosphere and none of them have been building space-visible lithographs.

Thing is... I don't reckon any civilisation is worth exterminating by neglect. My buddies agree with me. Getting rid of the really dangerous asteroids that come near them is sort of like a civic duty. It means that we have one more chance for some cool discoveries and new friends. I mean, sure, it's a thing that'll happen well after my lifetime, but -hey- maybe my great-great-great-grandkids'll be there to greet 'em.

It's a fun thought.

Picked up a Hitcher last month. Didn't mind seeing what I was up to. Had hir pegged for a GalStands&Legs independant investigator from the get-go. It was the new towel. Dead give-away. Hitchers keep their towels until they are way beyond useful and sew a bit of the old one on the new one.

Anyway, there's a lot of nothing to do and a lot of talking to be had. I used the scanners to check out the peeps living on Planet Janet. They got some nice-looking cities down there. Good, healthy populations. And they're sensible with their waste, which is a step up from Humans at that stage. Good, healthy crops, too. They might have some better attitudes with everything.

Meanwhile, the little detective documents everything they can. Asking all sorts of questions. Under what circumstances would I interfere with the peoples on the planet, that sort of deal.

I never said a word of a lie to hir. I am here to stop them getting wiped out by asteroids. Planetary tectonics, atmospheric disturbances, war, and disease, those are Planet Janet problems for Planet Janet people. I'm just giving them more of a chance than they did before my buddies and I stepped in.

Damndest thing happened at the end of the tour. I saw my pet nosy parker take all hir research into a box, and then run it through the on-board molecular disassembler.

"Keep up the good work," was all ze said by way of farewell.

Guess some people at GalStands&Legs have morals after all.

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