From the introduction: Five years ago, AbadarCorp heavily invested in establishing a new frontier colony on the Near Space world of Thosum V. After finding several deposits of ssarlithine—a rare gas used in the fabrication of specialized computer chips—AbadarCorp established their colony, intending to claim the gas deposits and sell them (with appropriate markup) to various governments and manufacturing organizations. Though the gas-extraction efforts on Thosum V have only been underway for a little less than four years, AbadarCorp’s profits from the endeavor have been staggeringly lucrative.