The Stars Are Cold Toys
Sergey Lukyanenko
 During a usual trading flight Pyotr found a Counter on his craft who called himself Karel and, most importantly, made it through the jump unhurt (ironically, the alien accomplished this by going into a self-induced coma caused by division by zero). Standing orders require Pyotr to destroy the ship and all evidence of the alien's survival, as this would eliminate the Conclave's need in Humanity. The alien requested an informal meeting with Andrey Khrumov — Pyotr's grandfather and a known political scientist, also a great patriot of Humanity, biased against the Strong races. A fleet of Alary has captured a small but deadly scout of an unknown civilization. Its pilot was killed, but without a doubt it was a human being. Studying the memory of the scout showed that another civilization had transferred its planetary system to a region of space close by, perhaps escaping a cataclysm. Strangely enough, they shaped their continents to resemble a perfect circle and square — so Andrey Khrumov called them Geometers. The new civilization seems to be strong enough to take on the entire Conclave, as the single scout ship managed to wipe out two-thirds of one of the strongest Alary fleets before being tractored into the Alary flagship. This is a chance for Weak races to improve their positions... but also a threat for Earth, since on receiving the information the Strong races would destroy it to prevent its possible alliance with a biologically-identical race. A conspiracy of four races decide to carry out a reconnaissance mission. Pyotr Khrumov agrees to enter a symbiosis with a Kualkua, who morphes him to look like the dead pilot, gives him the language of Geometers, and temporarily erases his memory...