A Great Negotiator (2)

"I rarely show up in the black market; never thought I'd slip up," Kishi sighed. "Ask whatever else you want."

"Why are you working for the space pirates?" Yuka asked.

"Not everyone lives as comfortably as you," Kishi paused, "I don't mean anything by it, but in the Alliance, especially farther from Capital Octoxis, many people on smaller planets live a life of barely full one day and starving the next. I was one of them."

The current Imperial Alliance of the Stars was the result of a compromise between the Alliance Army and the royal family following their conflict. The royal family still held sway over most of the prosperous planets, operating under 'imperial' rules.