His name is Foog, Kymbflikpk Foog. He's an agent for the Xiyan Historical Service and prefers his Flemlik Ooze scrambled, not whipped. He's also discovered evidence of a lost Xiyan colony deep in the territory of a hostile alien species and it's his job to find the truth of what happened to that colony. But he can't do it alone. Wallace Tran isn’t sure he wants to help, but the paycheck is very, very large. "History Isn't Cheap" is a SF novelette brushing up against novella/short novel length, set in a version of the future where FTL is possible and there are plenty of intelligent aliens hanging around.