 Why was Altair regarded at once by the Trading Commission as a commercial prize of tremendous value?
Meyerhoff followed the huge, bear-like Altairian guard down the slippery flagstones of the corridor, sniffing the dead, musty air with distaste. He drew his carefully tailored Terran-styled jacket closer about his shoulders, shivering as his eyes avoided the black, yawning cell-holes they were passing. Quite suddenly the corridor took a sharp bend, and the Altairian stopped, producing a huge key ring from some obscure fold of his hairy hide. There was a startled gasp from within, and a skinny, gnarled little man suddenly appeared in the guard's light, like a grotesque, twisted ghost out of the blackness. Wide blue eyes regarded Meyerhoff from beneath uneven black eyebrows, and then the little man's face broke into a crafty grin. Interplanetary ruling. "And you've been here for two weeks, three days, and approximately four hours. "These overgrown teddy-bears don't know what brotherhood means, nor humanity, either. Bread and water I've been getting, nothing more, and then only if they feel like bringing it down." I sent an appeal to the Terran Consulate the first day I was arrested. I mean, all they had to do was get a man over here, get the extradition papers signed, and provide transportation off the planet for me. I've got three million credits sitting in the Terran Consulate on Altair V, just waiting for me to walk in and pick them up. If you live long enough to walk in and pick them up, that is." "What do you mean, if?" You may not know it, but you are. You walk into a newly opened planet with your smart little bag of tricks, walk in here with a shaky passport and no permit, with no knowledge of the natives outside of two paragraphs of inaccuracies in the Explorer's Guide, and even then you're not content to come in and sell something legitimate, something the natives might conceivably be able to use. No, nothing so simple for you. The Altairians are sore about it. And the Terran Consulate isn't willing to sell all the trading possibilities here down the river just to get you out of a mess. You're going to stand trial—and these natives are out to get you. Why, you should see what they tried to sell me ! "You've committed the most heinous crime these creatures can imagine, and they're going to get you for it if it's the last thing they do. I'm afraid, my friend, that your con-man days are over."
 They have a large reservoir of 'unclaimed' uranium
 They do not understand the loopholes in the trading laws  They have a large amount of 'unclaimed' land  They were an ideal location for an interplanetary prison system  They have a large reservoir of 'unclaimed' uranium