"I think the situation you're in comes out on top relative to any attempt to move to the second-place planet, just because there's no good way to send you directly to their empress without anyone else having the chance to interfere. And interference could get unpleasant, and I'd have no leverage there to help. Well, very little leverage. I did rescue their empire from civil war one time, which is how I know how trustworthy their empress is in the first place, but I didn't get much lasting public recognition out of it and I definitely couldn't get you all the way to a private audience with her while maintaining all necessary secrets."