Manna from Heaven

Haviland Tuf is flying his eco-starship "Ark" to Satlam. He wants to finally pay off his debt and hand over eleven million standards to the Satlam government. However, as he approaches, he is targeted by the most powerful unit of the Satlam space fleet. It turns out that the planets Jazzbo, Skrymir, Azure Trinity, Roggandor, Henry's World and Vandin have formed a coalition against Satlam. The reason for the coalition is the rise to power of expansionist forces on Satlam, which is on the verge of a food catastrophe. The allies are afraid that Satlam will seize these worlds one after another. Despite the fact that Satlam is many times larger than each of the planets in terms of population and technical power, the forces are roughly balanced. Therefore, the side that captured Tuf's starship immediately finds itself in a winning position. After all, a bio-starship is a planetary weapon. However, Taf first manages to force the parties to conclude a truce for a year, threatening the warring parties to destroy their worlds one by one if they do not agree. His second proposal is a demonstration of a new plant - manna, which is unpretentious and nutritious. This plant, like a constructor, was assembled by Taf from the genes of many cultures from different planets. But along with the postponement of hunger, manna disperses pollen, which reduces the birth rate. Thus, Taf hopes that the food crisis, forcing Sathlam to expand, will recede forever, and at the same time the threat of expansion will recede.