conuly

No. Mostly it's internal politics in a trade compact causing it. The humans were just used as an excuse, though there's the very valid notion that the discovery of an entirely new, space-faring species would lead to squabbling over trade rights and renegotiation of treaties.

Basically, you have Pyanfar Chanur and her crew, who are prosperous hani merchants -- hani being one of four oxygen-breathing species and seven (or six, depending on who you ask) total species of the Compact, all of whom are out for themselves and most of whom are politely hostile with one another. One day in port in the middle of a successful trade run, this thing gets aboard The Pride due to Pyanfar not waking up on the paranoid side of the bed that morning. It's big, smelly, funny-shaped, and makes weird noises, and Pyanfar just about shoots it in the head until she realizes that it's writing numbers (on the floor, in its own blood, which is a cool scene). She proceeds on the cautious assumption that it's at least semi-sentient, and trouble ensues because there are kif involved, and hani hate kif while kif see hani as a meal waiting to happen.