Looking down at his recorder, the Investigator saw the 'Data Received' icon light up on his recorder. Opening up this stored new data gave the Investigator pause for thought. After a brief interval he said,
"Well that confirms my suspicions. Only three of the individuals in that room are registered as officials of that planet. Surprisingly enough another three are NOT on the galaxy central database."
"WHAT?" shouted the Captain. "But that's impossible. Every member of the galaxy regardless of the species has a binary code number assigned at birth. It cannot be erased or changed except by direct order from Galaxy Central High Command."
Nodding his head, the Investigator said,
"What you say is true, but there has long been a suspicion that criminals never notify anyone of an impending birth in their family. That means that three members of that welcoming party are from criminal parents."
Having settled down under the clinical outline of a possible explanation, the Captain said,
"Then you were right. There is something going on with that planet. But what it is I have no idea. Do you?"
"Luckily you were very wise to send me in your place. I picked the lapses in welcoming protocol at once. That set my instincts to a higher level of alertness than they would normally be set for a mere beginning to negotiations. I suspect the Space Imps have seized control of this settlement. They must have hostages to make those three high officials not speak up in my presence."
"Great galaxies, that is terrible news. How do we complete our mission now without harming innocent members of this planet?"
The Investigator replied with a grin on his face,
"There is a way. I have a plan. But it will require you to be deceitful and show duplicity. Right up your alley really....only joking.. but we will have to act with less than honest transparency to fool them"
Snorting the Captain said,
"As you said that is right up my alley. I am not joking. Now cut out throwing space dust in my eyes and outline your plan. It better be good or drinks are on you."
After going over the intricate details of his plan three times, the Investigator started to see the beginning of a smile on the face of his friend. The Captain finally said,
"If your plan works we will capture the Space Imps WITH their space ships. That would be good for my career especially if no 'unconnected individuals' are hurt in the crossfire. As for hurting the Space Imps, after seeing what they did to that last space station crew that tried to resist their boarding I could not care less about inflicting pain on such space scum."
Relieved that he had finally got across the finer points of his risky plan, the Investigator said,
"Okay I will go back to accept their water transfer gift. Whilst I am down there I will ask for directions to a distant solar system. I will be as far away as is believable, leaving them all in no doubt that we are moving on immediately the water is stored on our ship. The rest is up to you and your crew. Can you do it Captain?"
Showing scorn on her features, the Captain replied,
"Just you do your part of this. Leave tricky maneuvers to my crew. That is all you Investigators are good at when you call on the military to save your skin. You can safely leave the difficult bit to the best ship's crew in this galaxy. We will catch those Space Imps in open space with no chance of escape by them going to light speed."
With that, the Investigator left the meeting to return to the planet's surface.
After the water transfer was completed the galaxy class ship powered away from the planet. When it was clear of any satellites it went to light speed. Then, once out of scanner range of the planet, it did a loop that brought it back to a point in time-space that hid it behind a large moon. There it waited for its prey.
The space imps ships came by a little time later. Caught completely by surprise, their captains only became aware of the trap when they were crowed by surrounding moons and asteroids. Not able to safely jump to light speed they had to try and fight their way to free space. Overpowered by the superior weaponry of the galaxy class ship the space imps ships were completely immobilized. Boarding party had little trouble with the space imps as their ships now sat under the weapons of the powerful galaxy class ship.
After formerly charging every crew member with offences including aggravated violence, kidnapping, theft and various other acts of piracy, the Investigator settled down to send out his arrest report.
His space ship rendezvoused with the other two galaxy hunter ships. They had equal success but at a much higher cost in unintended causalities. By the time all three galaxy class ships had returned to Galaxy Central, there was a large number of accused persons for galaxy legal section to process. This meant that the Investigator's possible court date was many cycles away. He applied for and was granted temporary home planet leave.
Once he had returned to duty, the Investigator documented his cases. Then he sat back at Investigation Central to wait his turn in the longest running space piracy litigation in galaxy history. His many cases took up most of his time over many cycles.
Only much later was he at last able to talk to his new friend. The Captain of the galaxy ship that had so ably handled the capture of three pirate ships was now famous in military circles.
The Investigator offered to pay for food and drink at a catch up session. The Captain finally took him up on that offer. They met at a civilian eatery to minimize the chances of either one of them being ambushed by colleagues. The Investigator was genuinely happy to see his friend. So his greeting was effusive, if a bit off beat,
"You old space dog, it's great to see you outside official duties. But how did you put on so much weight so quickly?"
Getting the intent of this jibe, the Captain responded in curt but not in an unfriendly manner. His comeback was cutting but not brutal, when he said,
"At least I did not become stupid overnight like someone I could mention. But it is good still to see you in such casual clothes. Where can I get that style of dress. Its late Twenty-Fifth Century isn't it? My ancestors wore something like that back in our dark age."
Ready to banter all night with this friendly sparing partner, the Investigator laughed out loud before conceding defeat. He put his hands up palm outwards as he said,
"Okay you win that round. Now, before the second round starts, how about some liquid refreshment?"
To a space veteran this was definitely the right sort of invitation to break the ice. So the Captain said,
"You're paying right? Then I will have the most expensive drink this place has to offer."
More of a chortle now escaped from the Investigator's mouth as he nodded before saying,
"I thought that is what you would want, so I ordered a double for both of us."
This seemed to act as some sort of signal to the drinks waiter because the drinks robot turned up at that exact moment with their drinks.