Challenge #03263-H354: A Debt of Life

A few years after the first encounter, the humans return to Lilli Station, they come in large, new, ships. They do not dock but, instead, make contact. They offer to reinforce the station to protect the inhabitants. To assign humans to guard the cogniscents there. The inhabitants of this station helped them, saved them, in their hour of desperate need, and, despite the gift given, never asked for anything in return. The humans were grateful to the ones that saved them. And intended to make sure others knew, this station was under their protection.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02930-h007-a-gift-in-kind -- Anon Guest

The Phrajji had chalked the encounter up to one of the more baffling incidents of history as a whole. Why these ragged Deathworlders had not acted as expected and indeed left gifts was one of the eternal mysteries. The Phrajji never expected the Humans to return.

They offered a message, staying at a distance that would not panic the inhabitants. The one in GalSimple was the best for the Phrajji to translate. "You is helping us. We is helping you. Gratitude. We protect. We help."

Over the following years of the relationship, it became clearer. These Humans were desperate escapees from a war-torn polity in the process of eating itself. They had left without so many things, including a ship that would hold up during interstellar travel, or plants enough to make the air they needed.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Prompts remaining: 78 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!