[b]Year 4390, thirty years before first contact[/b]
Following the Kassner Incident, Swehteir increased funding to their own space program, intent on taking advantage of the other countries' current situations. With the UCS forced to re-evaluate and re-design, and Sañira lacking anything more than orbiters presently available to launch, that left only Sanctus as a potential competitor. But the walled kingdom was indolent, and unlikely to see or exploit the same opening Swehteir would.

Just a few months later, Swehteir had managed to smuggle away the Sañiran physicists Dirac and Fermi, wrapping them in a blanket of red tape after convincing them to abandon their homeland. The scientists had wanted to publish their maps of Akheron's surface; Sañira wanted to keep them private. Now the physicists were doing "contract" work for Swehteir, and no amount of Sañiran infiltration could touch them. On the down side, if they were ever to return home, they would likely be captured and killed.

In under a year, Swehteir had landed on Akheron and jabbed their flag into the moon's regolith.

---
[b]Year 4399, twenty-one years before first contact[/b]
"I get it, a dead bureaucrat and a briefcase of state secrets missing. You haven't answered the question: Why the hell was he carrying them in a briefcase, in public?"

"I don't know, sir. His colleagues say he was getting a little paranoid, and --"

"Just a moment, Arne. Claudia, don't we have [i]armored trucks[/i]?"

The red-haired woman looked up from one of her many newspapers, her eyes looking past the older of the two men as she thought. "Yeah, Nat. We should."

"There you go," he said, throwing a hand into the air. "He could have used a truck."

"Like I said, he was paranoid. His colleagues all agree on that. He saw Sañirans around every corner."

"Was it the Sañirans, then?"

Claudia shook her head, flipping the page. "Nope."

"Are you going to tell me who?"

She sighed and folded the newspaper up, tossing it back onto the stack. Arms folded, she made eye contact with Nat Thurmond, the most powerful man in Swehteir, if not the world. He was the present moderator of the Global Governing Body, and sat in the chair labelled "1" at the Summit's round table. With a majority of Swehtesh in the Body, and his remarkable manipulation skills, he controlled almost every vote. Some called him corrupt and power-hungry. Others called him ambitious and dedicated. In either case, he had yet to fail in his duties as moderator in the Body or as administrator in Swehteir.

"We [i]think[/i] we know who it was. Remember that lab we had in the south, working by the Flats? And the scientists there who went off to work for some megacorp or another?"

"Yes, on both accounts."

"Them."

"Scientists?"

"The megacorp."

Nat thought this over. The bureaucrat, an old statesman beyond his prime, had access to far more information than he needed. Among what that western county was reporting as missing were specifications on the Swehtesh nuclear and space programs, and documents regarding foreign interactions that not even Nat's aides, Arne and Claudia, were clear to see. Nevermind the ground they'd lose in private technology, the secrets that had been stolen could ruin the Swehtesh influence in the Body, if not their whole country.

"Where are you going?"

"Making some phone calls. Get Arne ready for a trip and put him on the plane."

* * * * *

"This is Nat Thurmond, Chairman of the Body and Swehtesh administrator. I need to speak with the president. Yes, I'll hold."