Newcomers to the Galaxy

When I received the reports from the scout ships under my command, I was both surprised yet confused at what they claimed to have found. According to the report, a few of the ships that were sent out to examine uncharted star systems not only found one with a planet covered in a nitrogen rich atmosphere, but that same world also had an undocumented sapient species on it. My excitement got the better of me and my tail slammed against the floor and caused a loud thud. One of my servants rushed into the room to check if I was in distress. I commanded them to return to their post, and returned to studying the report.

As I continued reading, my confusion grew due to the bizarre claims that were made. For instance, the scouts reported that the world had a large variety of different climates ranging from dry deserts to rain soaked jungles. It wasn't uncommon for planets to host multiple climates, but it was unheard of for them to also have sapient life. Normally, a planet that had sapient life would be mostly, if not entirely, dominated by a single climate, or extremely similar ones. The species from these planets were able to easily expand and develop into a space faring race. There was also an issue with the natural satellite, or moon, noted as well. Because of its size and distance from the planet, it would cause strong tides in the planet’s oceans. Both of these factors should have killed off any intelligent specie, but these natives not only survived, but built a civilization.

Another claim noted was that the natives should've had the technology capable of spaceflight based on long range observations, but they had yet to colonize any other planets in their system, or even set up any bases. The scouts observed the natives using automated labor drones, world wide communication networks, and many other technologies that would have normally been developed after spaceflight. It was possible that this species was following a similar development path as the Valq who had nearly developed a self sufficient society before they even tried reaching out to any other planets. But, I couldn’t help but feel like we were missing something.

There continued to be other, smaller, notes in the report that just seemed to complicate my understanding of this species even further. They were bipedal, hairless, and relatively weak compared to other predators on the planet. They built settlements in every region of the planet, even those which would kill many of the galaxy’s intelligent species simply through exposure. The list kept going, but I stopped myself and simply sent it off to the on ship research team, and a copy was sent up the chain of command to see what should be done next.

After some time waiting, I received a command from my superiors that a type 2 invasion fleet would be sent to the system, and I was to oversee the invasion and takeover of the planet. The explanation given was that such a planet would be ideal for colonization. Additionally, the unregistered species was not protected under galactic pre-space intelligent life laws and thus would only create minimal blowback from the Pan-Galactic Council. I had issues with the order given, but I couldn’t argue against it lest I be stripped of my rank and punished severely. Soon after, I left my office to head for the bridge.

My ships and the invasion fleet reorganized into a defensive formation and approached the planet under my order. I felt the scales on the top of my head flex upwards. My instincts were telling me that something was wrong. With their level of technology, they should've had at least some satellites or stations orbiting the planet, but there were none. The invasion fleet positioned themselves over many of the major population centers across the planet and prepared the first wave of missiles designed to eliminate on defensive structures. However, just before they launched, all the screens on all the ships flickered for just a moment and displayed a massage in galactic standard and it read: “Attention Shawca fleet currently in orbit in the upper atmosphere, this is your only warning. Do not attack this planet. Doing so will be considered a declaration of war.”

My scales began to hurt with how hard they were standing up. Some of the subordinates on the bridge turned to me with confusion. I could tell what they were all thinking. How did they learn galactic standard? How did they know the name of our species? How did they hack into our systems without us even realizing? I thought about reporting this to my superiors, but I quickly realized that doing so would turn me into a laughing stock. I knew that my subordinates and I would be punished for running from a planet that didn’t even have spaceflight technology. I spent a moment mulling over the situation and concluded that the message was just a threat meant to scare them off. Also, it was possible that this species learned this information from stray signals being emitted from all the other planets, stations, and ships in this local region of the galaxy. After composing myself, I gave the order to continue with the invasion and that any cowards who retreated would be stripped of their rank.

A moment later, a wave of missile were launched towards the surface. In that same moment, all of these ships simultaneously powered down. The lights, the monitors, everything shut off except for life support. Some of the weaker willed subordinates started to panic while I rushed over to a viewing window at the front of the bridge. The other ships began to drift from their formations, but what caught my attention were the missiles. As if controlled by some strange force, the missiles turned around and detonated near the engines of the ships. The absurdity of the situation intensified as I watched giant sections of the moon’s surface began to move and reveal missile silos hidden under the surface. The monitors in the ship turned on again with a new massage: “Any further attempt to attack this planet will result in the complete destruction of your fleet. Transport ships will be sent to arrest the crews of the ships in this fleet. We request your cooperation. None of you will be harmed, and you will be treated fairly.” All I could do was resign myself to what was about to happen. I couldn’t understand how they were so much stronger. There was no way they were capable of doing this unless there was something we missed or overlooked.

My stay in their captivity was surprisingly nice, especially compared to how my people would treat prisoners. The humans kept me in a cell that seemed designed for my species, gave me food compatible with my species, and the cell even had artificial gravity to simulate my home planet. After a few cycles of questioning, I was informed that I would be brought to the Pan-Galactic Council to give a testimony.

Upon entering the central council camber I was guided to a seat and told to simply wait. I sat there nervously as I saw other members of my species looking down from the seat above in both a literal and metaphorical sense. I even received a short, hateful glare from the council member representative of my species. I was able to distract myself from my nerves by focusing on the human female who walked up to the podium facing the council members. The human was followed by one of their automated drones. The drone positioned itself next to the female and waited. The council members expertly hid their surprise when viewing a human for the first time. The first to speak was a Loow, a six limbed arthropod species that acted as a mediator in many conflicts throughout the galaxy. You could still hear the clicking of its mandibles even though the translators tried to block it. “The council bids a warm greeting to the Human representative. We know the nature of this meeting, and we hope to reach peaceful resolution. Furthermore we apologize greatly for how your species first contact with another intelligent species transpired.” The arthropod put its frontmost limbs together and made a circular movement with it. Their species used that as a sign of being sorry and asking for forgiveness.

The Human moved its head slightly at the drone. The drone in turn extended a limb which morphed like liquid metal into a large display screen for everyone to witness. Footage of the attempted invasions was shown in addition to various documents related to the event. The human then spoke: “I don’t believe I need to continue with explanations of what happened. Everything was well documented and already compiled into these documents.” As the human finished, the drone morphed its other limb into numerous thinner limbs which extended out towards the council members. It then gave each council member a copy of the documents mentioned.

The Council member from my species didn’t bother looking at it and turned to face the other members of the council. “Which one of you helped these primitives?” They snarled as they scanned over each of their faces before continuing. “There is no possible was that a pre space flight species would be able to do all of this!”

The Valq representative prepared to respond before the human said: “None of them, we just defended ourselves. We even went through the extra effort to ensure there were no casualties on either side.” This made all of them freeze in place. Perhaps each of them believed that another species was aiding them. The human continued: “We are still willing to let this go, and we can have a peaceful relationship. We have already drawn up a fair peace treaty with only a modest amount of compensation required from the Shawca.”

Seemingly unsatisfied with what they were hearing, the Shawca representative spoke again: “I won’t let some newcomer make demands! Your victory was a fluke; you altered this footage and convinced that coward to surrender.” They pointed a sharpened claw in my direction.

The human interjected before they could continue their ranting. “We are newcomers to the galaxy, but we are far more advance than you think we are. Let me rephrase. We are newcomers to this galaxy.” Both the council, and everyone watching, stood still wile trying to process what the human claimed. The human continued: “We are not originally from this galaxy, we’re from the next one over.” The drone adjusted its display to show two galaxy. “We actually achieved FTL spaceflight roughly around 1000 years ago. We created an alliance with the other species of our home galaxy and began a project to start first contact and colonize this galaxy.” The display changed again to show an image of the various alien species of that neighboring galaxy. “The planet you tried to invade was a research base meant to gather some initial observations of this galaxy’s civilizations. It would later be remade into the first human colony. Not to brag, but we really got good a terraforming 350-ish years ago and made this planet a replica of Earth, the home planet of Humans. We even moved a large asteroid into orbit to replicate the tides . To give a quick explanation as to why we didn't have ships in orbit or flying around. We have recently started using teleportation relays instead of FTL ships. They're much safer and faster, but I'll stop myself there.”

Anyone could see the shock on the face of the Shawca representative. All of the evidence pointed towards this being the truth. The other council members shared similar sentiments. It was easy to tell what they silently agreed on. If the Shawca representative didn’t accept the peace treaty, our entire species would be denounced and we would be all on our own against the Humans who were centuries ahead of us technologically. With shame, the Shawca representative began to look over the terms of the treaty.