“... – Then listen further. – Piebald Boa suddenly switched to “you”, which would fill anyone with pride. Like the monarchs of antiquity, the Vice-Minister for League Affairs “poked” only those whom he considered a confidant. – The bottom is a raw material planet. Four hundred and fifty years ago, under the terms of the Fomalhaut tripartite treaty between the League, Earth and Union, it came to us as a dominion of Terra. The earthlings fought for it more as a matter of form and in the end gave in: they needed peace more than we did. Since then and to this day, the Bottom has supplied us with some metals, jewelry diamonds and biomaterials of natural origin. Almost all of this can be produced here, it will only cost a little more. In fact, we are not interested in the small profit that the Bottom gives us. We are interested in maintaining the status quo. The problem emerged four years ago, and then we did not pay enough attention to it. The fact is that almost at the very equator of the planet there is a mountain sticking out, the highest among the mountains there. Active volcano. It has the cheerful name of Satan's Cloaca - and for good reason. Almost five kilometers in height. You probably want to ask why the highest peak of the planet has such a modest height? Valentin was not going to ask about anything like that, but he showed interest on his face...”