On a clear summer morning, residents of the European part of Russia saw a frighteningly huge silhouette of a star cruiser in the sky, and by evening the whole country listened with bated breath to the president's address on the occasion of contact with extraterrestrial civilization. After the first negotiations, humanity has a unique opportunity to touch technologies that are an order of magnitude ahead of the development of our civilization. But the new partners give nothing for nothing - and now transports with mercenaries are rising from the surface of the planet to work and serve in the Septicolian Empire weakened by numerous conflicts. On one of the ships, yesterday's student Andrei Stan, who signed a contract with a trading corporation, leaves the planet - as the entry in his identifier now says.