It was the sort of planet every explorer
dreams of finding, except for one thing.
It was inhabited by a sapient humanoid race, and some of them were
civilized enough to put it in Class V, and Colonial Office doctrine
on Class V planets was rigid. Friendly relations with the natives
had to be established, and permission to settle had to be guaranteed
in a treaty of some sort with somebody more or less authorized to
make one.
If Paul Meillard could accomplish that, he had it made. He would
stay on with forty or fifty of the ship's company to make
preparations. In a year a couple of ships would come out from Terra,
with a thousand colonists, and a battalion or so of Federation
troops, to protect them from the natives and vice versa. Meillard
would automatically be appointed governor-general.
But if he failed, he was through. Not out--just through. When he
got back to Terra, he would be promoted to some home office position
at slightly higher base pay but without the three hundred per cent
extraterrestrial bonus, and he would vegetate there till he retired.
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