All Kota and Zibo wanted to do was to start a family and to make a living, using the spaceship freighter that Kota had salvaged.  They had the retrofit started when the trouble started.  Some idiot bureaucrat wanted them to be super spies for the Charter Alliance.  They turned him down!  His boss was more persuasive but they still didn't want to be his spies.  They just wanted to trade.  Circumstances didn't give them a choice.