The footage that I was now watching with Haynesworth appeared to be some sort of stock recording of what looked to be the lifeless corpse of a type of primate that I had never seen before.
The creature was bipedal and lightly covered with a soft, green mossy fur. From its right shoulder there was a fairly normal looking arm that ended in six fingers, or five fingers and a thumb. From its left shoulder, it had a similar arm. But, it also had an additional limb – located below the normal-looking arm – that was slightly shorter and with three elbow joints instead of the usual one.
Its face bore a strong resemblance to those of the great primates on Earth. It had a pronounced jaw. A mouth full of sharp teeth could be seen in its lifeless gaping mouth. It had two eyes similarly placed to Earth primates but it also had what looked to be an array of four smaller ones over each eye. The creature looked like something straight out of the comic books, or the imagination of Verne. Take your pick.
The image faded again and was replaced with another message written in pasted letters on a tatty piece of paper. Whoever was behind this certainly had a flair for the theatrics.
We know what you are doing.
Twenty million credits will buy our silence.
Be ready to transfer the money by midnight UTC, Saturday.
If not, we go public.
We will contact you soon with the transfer details.
“What the hell was that thing?” I blurted out. My shock in seeing the alien species had momentarily blocked out everything else.
“It is the native species on the planet, Ithilles,” Haynesworth replied. “We have named them thillians.”
“Who is ‘we’?”
“Nash Automotive Works.”
“Since when do you get to name species?”
“Since we were the only ones who knew about them until now.”
None of this was making any sense to me.
“Aside from the obvious blackmailing that’s going on here, I’m lost. Care to elaborate on what this is all about?”
After a couple of minutes of sitting there in silence, Elias Haynesworth began to speak in a slow, deliberate manner. He sounded like the voiceover for one of those nature videos that they still show occasionally.
“Ithilles and the thillians are Nash’s great dirty little secret.”
“I’ve never even heard of either of those,” I interjected.
“Few have, Mr. Helmqvist,” he replied with a nod. “It is an inhabitable planet that our research and development group found nearly three decades ago but we kept it a secret because it contains a very valuable resource that we wanted to monopolize.”
“Where is this planet?”
“It is in a system about 42 light years from here that is located in the constellation Ophiuchus. We found it quite by accident but were quickly able to determine that it had all the necessary conditions to support life, as we know it. However, we also discovered that the planet was already inhabited.”
“The ape-looking thing?”
“Yes, Mr. Helmqvist, among other lesser life forms but the thillians were certainly the dominant species on the planet. Despite their being a relatively primitive species of hominid, they possessed a crude form of social hierarchy and limited technology use. Moreover, their resemblance to the apes on Earth is remarkable and might have some greater connotation. But, that is beyond my purview.”
He paused to take another sip of his tea but I could tell that he wasn’t finished so I waited patiently.
“However, one thing that is fascinating,” he continued after he placed his cup back on its saucer. “Is that their centers of power are all located in, or around, the ruins of some other ancient civilization. We have found crumbling remains that suggest Ithilles was once populated by a much more advanced race of peoples, for lack of a better term. Whether they were killed off by the thillians or were subsumed by some natural catastrophe, or simply died out we do not know.”
“So are these thillians the resource that you want to monopolize?” I asked.
“Oh no, Mr. Helmqvist. Not in the least. They have some curious physiological aspects to their development but they are just that – a curiosity.”
“Then what is it?”
“Are you familiar with the compound, yttrium?”
“Rare earth metal used primarily in the manufacturing of super conductors,” I answered with a nod.
Haynesworth gave me a look of approval.
“Very good, Mr. Helmqvist. Then you also know that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find on Earth and when it is mined, it is rarely found as a free element.”
I nodded again.
“We discovered it in abundance on Ithilles – as a free element no less. Entire veins of the mineral lying there just waiting for someone with the means and the determination to harvest it.”
“And let me guess, it’s an essential material in car production.”
“That is correct, Mr. Helmqvist. We use it in most of the electrical components, which comprise well over half the inner workings of today’s vehicles.”
I was starting to see where this was going. It was going to be like 19th century Africa all over again – resource exploitation at the expense of a less advanced society.
“I can also guess that the thillians weren’t willing to trade it to you, or let you set up a mining operation, undisturbed.”
“Sadly, no. They are a territorial species that is extremely aggressive. As soon as a company ship landed on the planet, our group of scientists was attacked. Only a handful made it off of Ithilles alive.”
“So you sent a private army there to secure it by force?”
He nodded.
“Mass extermination?”
Haynesworth closed his eyes and bobbed his head up and down in shame.
“Genocide on a planet that only Nash knew about just to get your hands on some raw material?”
“Regrettably, yes.”
“You seem awfully contrite for someone who is waist deep into this whole business, Haynesworth,” I said, anger rising in my voice.
Another example of corporate greed and the things that we are willing to do to turn a profit. It was a story that was as old as civilization itself.
Skid Rogue Haven 
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