Xenophobia - Chapter 5

    "Clearly the only thing we can do is eliminate them before they become a threat to the entire galactic community." stated one of the Tulgucks with a disturbing coolness.
    The attention of the entire table was instantly turned towards him.
    "You're talking about genocide." the old judge retorted with an edge of warning in his voice. "And last I checked, that wasn't even on the table."
    "Who are you to even suggest such a thing?" snapped Darrian. He couldn't deny the fear that these humans set in him, but the thought of simply killing them all...
    "My name is Guor-a and, when I'm not listening to galactic monster stories, I'm the high Maister of the Tulguck Armada."
    That explains it. thought Darrian.
    The Tulgucks were one of two races that were regularly on thin ice in the Galactic Consortium. The other being the Gorderians. Both were a younger species, newer in the Consortium, and still felt the need to maintain regular defense forces. They had been regularly encouraged to decommission the majority of their fleets but neither were ever actively forced to since galactic conflict was practically extinct at this day and age.
    "These creatures. These humans. They're showing all of the viciousness of another Krellan empire. Or am I the only one who remembers them? I don't know how you were even entertaining the idea of quarantine initially. We need to deal with them before they gain a foothold in the galaxy."
    Darrian started to feel sick, but for a new reason. The other Tulgucks wore a stoic stare and nodded as Guor-a spoke. Likewise, several more members around the table, including all of the Gorderians, also seemed to be agreeing with him on this.
    "W-w-we can't do that." shuddered the Cadrax. "It wouldn't even be a war. It'd be a slaughter."
    "Exactly." replied Guor-a
    "Now wait." demanded the Jigger. "It's not like the Tulgucks started off on the best footing, but you were allowed time to learn the way of the universe. Could you imagine if we had reacted so brashly?"
    "We would have responded in turn. And besides, could you imagine if you had reacted to the Krellan's quickly enough? We'd still have the Iqru and the Logast joining us for this meeting."
    "The Krellan were a long standing member of the Consortium and had the ability to fight back. Whether we agreed with them or not, they had a right to life. If you were to bring the might of your Aramada down on the human planet you'd be erasing a species before it's time comes."
    "Actually, it sounds like their time came and went already."
    "ENOUGH." the old judge snapped. "As of currently, we have a grand total of a twentieth of a rotation of on-planet observation. A TWENTIETH! This is combined with another twelve rotations worth of long range data that needs to be corroborated. We cannot destroy a species on so little evidence."
    Guor-a snapped up and glared at the old judge. The robot glared right back. Darrian thought he could practically feel the tension in the air.
    "Hold on!" snapped one of the Gorderians. "It's not your place to tell us what we can and can't do. We didn't build you, that was the Merrinians. If they want to listen to a robot, that's their choice but we'll vote on what we want to do!"
    There were a number of cheers from around the table and Darrian felt himself sinking back into his spot. The judge was looking back and forth around the table, clearly battling with the decision.
    "Fine. We will vote." he finally said.
    "But..." the judge's gaze turned towards Guor-a. "All members of the Consortium will obey the decision."
    Guor-a simply nodded in agreement but said nothing more.
    "Alright then. By a show of support." the judge said.
    "All those in favor of Interaction?"
    No response.
    "All those in favor of Extermination."
    There were several grunts of assent and datapads lit up around the table. Darrian was surprised at the sheer number.
    "And those in favor of Quarantine?"
    Darrian tapped his own datapad and watched it light up with a large number of others around the table.
    "It's settled than. Quarantine will be instated due to a vote of 53% compared to 47% for Extermination."
    Guor-a growled and immediately stomped out of the room, the other Tulgucks in tow behind him. The Gorderians quickly followed along with a scattering of others. Darrian couldn't help but feel relieved that they hadn't just condemned a brand new species to death.
    "The species will be Quarantined until further notice." stated the old judge. "For the time being, however, we will be assigning a group to maintain constant vigil and assess the galactic risk that they might pose. Should something be discovered that might tip the scales, we shall reconvene. You are dismissed."

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Xenophobia - Chapter 4

    "Well?" demanded Uu'lassna. "Are they a threat or not? Are we dealing with a hostile species?"
    The old judge turned his attention to Uu'lassna and looked back and forth at the different participants of the Consortium before letting out a long sigh. Darrian couldn't help but wonder if this was something the old robot had been programmed to do or had learned over the years.
    "They are, without a doubt, a threat."
    "What makes you say that?" asked the Yool.
    "Unfortunately, they have shown paramount hostility not only to the species of flora and fauna that inhabit the planet, but to their own species as well."
    "Their own species?"
    "Right. Over the course of the rotations that we've been able to observe, there have been hundreds, if not thousands of continually escalating conflicts. We've been attempting to understand the basis for these conflicts but have not come to any educated conclusions. Even more frightening is that as their technology advances, so too does the level of destruction, without any real recognition at the damage they're doing."
    "Surely there's some reason for this constant in-fighting." Darrian wondered out loud.
    "The best guesses we've come up with so far are both too idiotic to really accept as fact. The first has to do with disagreements over fictional characters created earlier in the civilizations. It would seem that some groups think these characters are more important than others and actively kill each other in the name of that character."
    "That's lunacy..." the Jigger observed with a hint of horror in his voice.
    "It gets better. The other 'reason' that we've identified seems to be on the basis that they believe they are not one species."
    "W-what?"
    "You heard me. For some reason, a large number of them believe that they are different species on the basis of things like mating preference and even flesh pigmentation. They take it so far as to enslave, punish, and murder each other under the presumption that they are somehow separate from each other despite being such superficial differences.
    For one of the first times in the meeting, Darrian could clearly hear whispers and quiet debate. They had never heard of a self-destructive species becoming space-faring. It simply never happened. Either a species eliminated themselves or they evolved past the need for destruction and focused their goals on the stars as a single unit. And yet, here they were with such unabashed aggression and somehow they had reached space.
    Wait...
    "Hold on. Perhaps this was some kind of accident? Maybe they have space faring technologies but it was just coincidental. They aren't aimed at space travel."
    "A welcome thought." remarked the judge. "But you'd be wrong."
    Darrian's heart sunk.
    "But...HOW?"
    "Actually, it was a competition."
    "A competition? The ability to escape to the stars and explore the universe was somehow made into a competition?" asked a Gorderian who looked legitimately disgusted.
    "Quite right. Several groups around the planet were racing and even sabotaging each other to see who could reach their moon quickest. In fact, that brings us to the only good news we might have for today."
    "Which is?"
    "Once one of the groups managed to reach the moon, their desire to explore the stars seemingly diminished. While some groups continued to work, the race being 'over' seemed to quench many desires to leave the planet's orbit."
    "So it's possible they might not leave their planet at all?!" the Cadrax asked with a little bit too much enthusiasm.
    He was met with many nods and agreements. It would seem that the entire Consortium was in favor of not having these warmongers joining them anytime soon.
    "It's...possible." the old judge agreed slowly. "For the moment they seem content to litter their atmosphere with satellites and war with each other."
    "You don't sound convinced it will stay that way." Darrian added.
    The old judge simply shook his head. This was met with a collective sigh and many sidelong glances around the table.
    "I suppose that brings us back to the original point of our meeting. What do we going to do about it?"

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Xenophobia - Chapter 3

    The next while was spent reviewing information that Darrian already knew but most of the counsel members had only briefly covered. The old judge went over the hellish conditions of the planet. Of the energy storms and contaminated water and poisonous atmosphere. He listened with a renewed sense of nervousness when they revealed that more oddities had been found including a recurring tendency towards cyclones.
    Little did he know, the best was yet to come.
    "And so that brings us to the so-called, 'Humans' that inhabit this planet." the old judge said.
    "I still don't know how anything can live there." one of Tulgucks muttered.
    "That's a great question." The old judge retorted. "Which brings us to surprising fact number one. They seem to have a heightened ability towards survival and regeneration."
    "Come again?"
    "Them, and many species on the planet, seem to have an incredible ability to heal and survive extreme injury. So much so that an entire facet of their 'medical' sciences rely upon it."
    "Even in our short observances of the planet, we've seen a multitude of species, not even limited to these 'humans', survive injuries that are too graphic to even consider. Creatures have had their limbs torn asunder. They've been impaled, gored, ripped, shredded, crushed, and more...yet many can simply get back up and heal these injuries."
    An eerie silence fell over the table. How could something lose an appendage and just keep on living? Darrian suddenly found himself thinking about a monster story his parents had told him when he was younger about a horrible insectoid creature from 'Planet P' that could lose a limb and still be 86% effective.
    "That's...horrible." Darrian finally said.
    "And you said some of their medicines are based on this very idea?"
    "Indeed." continued the judge. "This species is so confident in their ability to regenerate from damage that they have an entire 'medical' specialty that they refer to as 'Surgery'."
    "What's surgery?" asked the massive Jigger near the back of the table.
    "Put bluntly, it's a form of 'medicine' where humans cut into themselves with sharp instruments and actively manipulate their own internal organs."
    "WHAT?!"
    Darrian could hear someone get sick off to his right and flee the table. He didn't look. His eyes were glued to the robotic form of the judge.
    "You heard me." he said with just a hint of mocking. "Rather than developing a medicine to combat certain ailments, they'd rather stick their hands into the entrails of another and riggle them around a bit. Strangely enough, it seems to work. Many of these creatures recuperate without issue."
    "R-r-recuperate?" Stammered the Cadrax across from Darrian. "AFTER being cut up and played with?"
    "That is correct."
    "With regenerative abilities like this, these creatures must live for generations." Darrian said thoughtfully and doing all he could to force the image of someone rooting around inside him from his mind.
    "Actually, that brings us nicely to the next point I was going to bring up. They're incredibly short lived."
    "Not surprising with how their medicine works." Uu'lassna grumbled.
    This merited a good chuckle around the table but Darrian couldn't help to notice that it sounded strained. No one in the Consortium would be resting easy tonight with thoughts of these monsters floating about.
    "Perhaps." The old judge said with a nod. "But I believe it has more to do with the fact that they are naturally a short lived species."
    "How short are we talking?"
    "One twentieth to one tenth of a rotation. The oldest we heard of was barely over a tenth."
    "A tenth? These things are damned insects!" scoffed a Yool.
    The Cadrax, still looking sick, replied. "Right. Right... We could probably just wait for them to die out on their own."
    "I don't think that will happen." denied the judge.
    "Why not?" the Jigger asked from the back.
    "Because their short life spans are to their benefit. Not their fault."
    "What could be the benefit of a short life span? You have no time to accomplish anything." Darrian retorted more out of confusion than anything else.
    "You're right. Yet they do. Review of our archives show that this species has risen from the dirt to a semi-space faring species in a maybe a dozen rotations."
    Whatever merriment there was again slipped away. It normally took at least a dozen rotations to make any scientific discoveries of merit. How any species could literally come into existence to being on the brink of deep space travel within that same period seemed impossible.
    "On top of that, they use their short lives to their advantage when it comes to disease. What's it matter if one drops off early if another can be born with immunity at the same time? The parent might die just in time for the child to live. Disease simply can't stick to them. They're not unlike bacteria themselves. They simply adapt too fast to be conquered. There have been several instances where massive populations were decimated only to be reborn immune and healthy within a twentieth of a rotation."
    The thought of the insects from 'Planet P' drifted into his thoughts once again. If anything ever matched such a description, he thought these 'humans' didn't seem too far off.
    "So, these things are ridiculously short lived, have incredible regeneration abilities, and live on an all together hostile planet." stated the Yool. "I think I need to ask the question that's on all of our minds: Are they a hostile species? Are they a threat?"
    The old judge stared long and hard at the Yool. Darrian didn't think a robot could look scared, but something about his expression said it all.

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Xenophobia - Chapter 2

    Darrian couldn't believe the number of people before him. He couldn't think of anytime he'd ever seen so many different souls in the counsel chambers, particularly of so many different species from around the galaxy.
    While the initial discussion about the "humans" and their planet had surprised him, it was how the Galactic Consortium responded that made him realize something was truly amiss. At any given time, the Consortium could take as long as one tenth solar cycles to arrange and host a hearing regarding a new space faring species. This new one was arranged within five rotations.
    Now, standing at the precipice of the room, he felt himself go numb with shock by the size of the turnout with such little warning.
    He could see ambassadors for the Gorderians and Tulguks already waiting at the counsel tables while a massive Jigger was doing what he could to get settled. A small group of Urreaneans and Kaeel were floating several feet off the ground, discussing something in the back corner of the room. The old judge and several other Merrinians were trying to help a gaggle of Yool, Bivvie, and Cadrax to their own seats. And those were just the species Darrian could readily recognize.
    "Alright, alright!" the judge called angrily, his robotic voicebox amplifying tenfold over the rabble. "Let's get this meeting underway. I know we're missing some people but we've waited long enough."
    The next fifteen minutes was a barely contained riot of activity as everyone did what they could to get to their assigned seats. Darrian was jostled several times before he could get settled and even got accidentally slimed by a passing Yool.
    "We're here to discuss the potential of quarantine for planet AV32784 along with reports of a species that might be acquiring space faring technology kno..."
    "EXCUSE ME!" yelled a creature at the far end of the table. Darrian didn't recognize the species but he thought it might but an Olgan?
    Ambassador Uu'lassna of Planet Olanta 23 has the floor spoke a robotic voice that Darrian had never heard in the regular counsel meetings.
    "Yes, Uu'lassna?" asked the judge, looking quite displeased to be interrupted.
    "We seem to have a mismatch in data. You're claiming that this species is developing space faring technologies, yet they don't seem like they're capable of flipping a switch."
    A confused babble of discussion and questions broke out around the table.
    "I'm not sure I understand Uu'lassna. Our Merrinian analyst team has clearly identified space faring technologies." the judge said, looking perplexed.
    Uu'lassna tapped a few buttons on the console nearest to him and the holographic imager gave birth to an image of scales and feathers and claws and teeth. A massive beast not greatly dissimilar to a carnivorous lizard species in the Ijulen system, but drastically larger and more terrifying looking. It stood on two legs and was in the process of tearing apart another scaled creature limb from limb in a horrific display of savage violence.
    "These images were captured just after you sent out the announcement about this planet. These beasts might look terrifying, but I doubt they can fly."
    The judge said nothing initially but instead responded with a secondary image of his own. This time of a primitive looking urban area made of stone and metal with mechanized transports zipping about on roadways. A number of bipedal creatures, strangely smooth and weak looking, lacking any obvious natural decoration or defenses, meandered about the sides of the roads.
    "These were also captured during that time period." the judge said with annoyance. "Now tell me, what kind of imaging technology was utilized?"
    "Lightcore telescopic lenses, of course." Uu'lassna said with a colorful photochromatic display under his mouth. Not readily knowing the species, Darrian could only presume this was some kind of show of pride.
    A number of the other ambassadors trying to contain their snickers.
    "Ambassador. Your planet is 67,000 light cycle from AV32784. While LTL scopes might be useful for something relatively nearby your planet, you are viewing images that are 67,000 cycles old! Even worse, the solar rotation is drastically intensified for that planet, so the images in question are something in the range of 67,000,000 rotations old!"
    The judge was clearly livid at being interrupted, particularly with such an impudent mistake. The other ambassadors couldn't contain themselves any longer and began to openly laugh. Uu'lassna sunk back and turned several shades of blue.
    "Now, before I continue, does anyone else have anymore terrible lizards that they want to show us or can we get back to the topic at hand?"
    Darrian resisted the urge to request more pictures.
    "Good." he growled out. "Let's begin..."

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