Zhouth
"Rockball. Yes, that's actually the name of the place: a high-tech mining outpost, smack in the middle of deep space. Why there? Well, the star that used to exist burned out and blew up, and what do you think that means for the remnants of its system? High-value minerals and even higher-value radioactives, that's what! Rockball itself is just the biggest fragment left over. Of course, between that and the lack of a local stellar wind, everything to do with the colony is so heavily rad shielded that someone could probably start firing particle cannons at it and no one would even notice."
"But I wasn't cut out to be a systems engineer or drone overseer or anything of the sort, so I wound up in Imperium space at one of their naval research bases that specializes in life sciences. Did I mention that Rockball is in Gvurrdon, and technically vargr territory? Close enough to the border that humaniti and vargr mix, so a little less tumultuous than the stories about vargr space usually tell, and also close enough that it's not so strange to end up crossing the other way. Why there? Someone apparently thought that I would be good at their kind of paper pushing, and they also thought I'd make a great candidate to help with their research projects against the Zhodani."
"I know, I know, it doesn't follow, but there are some old Terran legends about high levels of radiation and developing special powers, and apparently Rockball works into the mytholoogy somehow, at least enough for them to think I should be better at studying things like that. Who was I to argue with their superstitions, especially considering the pay scale? I can't blame the Imperium for being worried about the Zhodani, either, since they do have a habit of wrangling, and for all that the Imperium officially foreswears using Zhodani psi-tricks, they still need to know how to defend against them, right? Hence work like mine, which you'll understand I'm not supposed to talk about. I'm pretty sure that they didn't hide any termination implants inside me as a guarantee, but you never know."
"The threat has supposedly abated somewhat since the latest clash, so the Imperial ritual known as downsizing was performed, and I've moved on. Still have a few friends back there, though, which comes in handy now and then."