Microships

Mia Larsen has spent her career as External Affairs Liaison for NASA, specifically taking care of the interaction of the External Intelligence orb: the most intelligent sapience humans have dared to develop. Their latest project, the Habitat for the Stars, is a huge Bernal Sphere half a kilometre long, designed to support a population of five thousand scientists and miners in the Asteroid Belt. They are now moving over to the Microship Swarm, a mass launch of a thousand spaceships the size of garbage cans, which were sent to Alpha Centauri fifty years ago. The tiny ships have travelled four light-years, and their first information is just starting to arrive. Unfortunately, what also arrives is an announcement of the displeasure of the other humanoid races of this corner of the galaxy, who object to the wholesale distribution of artificial sapience into their back yards. Mia soon finds herself hauled out of her comfortable bureaucratic nest and tossed into the spotlight of intergalactic concerns. Aided by a motley cadre of loyal allies, she faces off against the Mercantile elite of the galaxy, who are determined to make Earth's population the latest indigenous victims of colonial capitalism.