[12] A human female, Kristin Bjornsen, escapes slavery, but unlike others before her, she resourcefully evades capture for months.
In Freedom's Landing, the Catteni routinely round up human troublemakers and drop them on empty planets – if they survive, the world is suitable for their own people.
They also attempt to contact the aliens farming the planet, hoping to receive information about them, their origins, and possible help against the Catteni.
Starting on Botany, then to Earth, then to Barevi, Zainal conceives of a complex trade relationship that will benefit the humans, the Catteni, and their other alien allies.
[16] The original short story, "The Thorns of Barevi" (1970), had a rape-fantasy component that was removed when it was reworked into the first novel, Freedom's Landing.
But there were seeds in the short story that could eventually germinate a full novel about the modus operandi of the Catteni in subjugating a planet and its inhabitants.