Unipsi, lovely entity

chapter 54: diplomacy

As promised after exactly 118 minutes from their last words, the Esterian crew was back inside the conference room ready to put an end to their boring meeting. Due to Nixie’s calculated rage the Esterians were relocated to a new zone that had a working connector. The heavily armoured guard changed didn’t go unnoticed. Only Csuicha and few closest to her recognise the marking on one of the soldiers. They had already seen them. That soldier was Sef7 from the video Idra showed them upon meeting for the first time. Nixie face showed complete calmness. She was too relaxed, strangely calm. She let Csuicha resume the discussion but as soon as Csuicha stopped speaking she stood up.

“Keeping going in circles is futile. So we unilaterally decided that from now on only the following people are allowed to speak…”

Nixie proceeded to name about 3/5 of the room however she excluded Jenny Russell.

“the people named acquired their power through hard work. They achieved it and their people follow them. Merit is a fundamental metric to Us. Only them shall speak.”

Of course those excluded tried to speak but their microphone didn’t work. They were cut away from the system. They screamed but Csuicha immediately silenced them threatening with expulsion. She had to keep the room civil yet she didn’t appreciate the Esterian imposition.

Lorcas took the speaking role.

“I appreciate that you consider me worth of my position. But your constant impositions have to stop. We are here to mediate on a neutral territory of your choice, yet you brought guns, soldiers, walkers and warships…”

Nixie was confused and so were her followers. She interrupted Lorcas.

“Sorry to cut you, but what warships?”

She was genuinely confused. Her ears were moving around trying to catch as much information as possible.

“you came here with 7 warships, don’t insult my intelligence”

At those words one of Nixie crew initially smiled, but soon started laughing. It was soon followed by a second one. Nixie and the other one that was not laughing were smiling too. Nixie punched lightly both her crew mates and spoke.

“I think there is a misunderstanding between us. Those are not warships. They are scout ships. Fast travel with light loads and low fuel consumption. I understand they may look intimidating but war changes you. You keep preparing and preparing over and over again in fear of a new conflict and so do your ships.”

Csuicha got in the conversation, she wanted to know more about the war. Something was missing. She knew about the Founder super weapon, everybody knew it existed. There was proof so what happened to it?. Why use bullets when the HBE was in their hands?

“If I may ask. You said that your people used all they could in the Spike War. But you said nothing about your super weapon. Was the HBE used?”

Why is she looking so strangely at me? It’s a fair question. Were they immune?”

“you ask for classified information Liin Csuicha. I cannot provide an answer”

Fair enough I guess? They don’t want to reveal anything about it. But they aknowledge it existance so they must have it, or maybe even more than one. Hard to believe that it was built by a man 400 years ago. The most effective weapon ever built, I would sell my shit to speak with its creator. Too bad he died long ago.

Csuicha however was still interested in the Esterian military capability, so she pressed on.

“if I may ask again. If those you came are not warship, than what is?”

“well warships are usually a lot bigger. There is no real use of small vessels in space. It’s not like you can hide. Stealth is also useless. Ships that are hard to see and make less noise are obviously for planetary usage.”

Nixie avoided the question.

“Back to us sir Lorcas. We came armed because quite frankly we don’t trust you, nor we trust the others. Weapons are mandatory by law outside our planets. The amount of time that our scavengers clashed with your people is absurd. We worked to avoid escalating our conflict and prioritized unknown sites. However we can’t tolerate more than that. What you see as a senseless massacre is just the repercussion of your people constant hostility. Was it avoidable? Of course it was. Was is excessive? Probably not. We tried to reason. We are not psychos, but if you ask me I’ll always prioritize my people.”

“Your… your people killed 46 millions of mine. You destroyed a city just to get your hands on some mercenaries. What else could I say. If this isn’t an act of war then what is?”

“You could start a war, but I suggest you not to. Unless you want to seen the end of your nation. If you want we can go for a restricted war, but I suggest you to wait. If you declare war now I’m sure that the ETU will vote for a full war. If you wait… don’t know about 4 month I’m fairly sure that they will only vote for a restricted war.”

“what’s the difference?” asked Lorcas confused. After all war is war, and war never changes.

“restricted war are programmed. We send our fleet, you send yours. They fight. The winner is considered to have won the war. This way you avoid damaged on structures and civilians. In a full war however we just go for it. We keep fighting until all are dead or surrendered. It’s like a… well a not regulated war. You choose, we don’t care. The only reason we didn’t come back and put an end to all humanity is because of the Founder’s words. He forgave you for your ignorance and so you live. In the end we just want to live in peace. We are isolationist so if you don’t care about us we won’t care about you.”

“those are all good words, but you will came for our ruins again.”

Nixie sighed.

“as I said, you don’t use them and they are neutral as they have a defensive system so they don’t belong to you. They belong to nobody except their extinct creators and those who can survive them.”

They kept talking without getting to anything. After all it was something really hard to resolve just politically.

“if you even want me to consider to wait for a war, I have demands. We want the murdered of our people. We want to process Idra 511 for her crimes” said Lorcas. Little did he know that it was not something that anybody inside the ETU would even remotely consider nor had the power too.

“I can’t speak for Idra nor can the entire ETU. Your demand is senseless. Idra was just the operator that executed our request. If not her we would have sent someone else. Or maybe not. Judging by the previous events I bet we would have opted to nuke to dust the city if Idra declined. At least you can repopulate. Minister Lorcas you are looking for a head to cut. Someone to punish and to accuse. But you will never find one among us. The ETU has no prime minister. All member of the supreme council are elected by individual planets. All planets have their own planetary council were only the intelligent can vote. We are all equal, hierarchy exist only to accelerate the voting process. There is no individual fault. We are all at fault and we won’t give up all our intelligent people”

Csuicha spoke instead of Lorcas. He was thinking about a reply that he couldn’t find.

“who are those intelligent people that you speak of? How do you define them”

“the Founder built a test. You answer and we know if you are intelligent. To be clear being intelligent means a lot of things. In this case an intelligent creature will act to gain but also to make all others gain. If everybody is gaining the action is positive by definition. On this principle if you only let intelligent people guide your state they will make everybody gain something. Improving our society.”

“seems too good to be true. There is no infinite gain in nature”

“I agree. However to reach the peak the road is really long. Probably billions of years of constant gain. So far it worked and will work for much longer.”

“is Idra intelligent? I mean did she made the test?”

“no. Idras are excluded from it. Idra 511 even more so”

“why?”

“because like I said, we value merit. Idras are special, but 511 is even more special. She demonstrated with her actions that she is Intelligent. Her contribution to the ETU is invaluable. So invaluable that it redefines the standards of intelligent and sentience.”

“do your soldiers think the same? You never let them speak, nor you let them show their faces”

Let’s see if I can convince Sef7 to speak. He worked with her.

Nixie was taken a back. For her they were just guards, but at the same time she knew that if she let a soldier speak they would improve their position.

Sef7 took a step forward. He spoke. His voice was low but it sounded excited.

“may I reply?”

“go on soldier”

The man opened his helmet. The heavy power suit he was wearing couldn’t remove the helmet entirely. Instead it opened and retracted leaving his face and half his skull out. Like the others he had green skin, pointy long ears and he was also good looking. His hair were short except a short braid in front of his left ear that terminated with a white piece of cloth. He also had a short beard that the other didn’t have.

“Nixie’s words speak the truth. But I would say they are reductive. I am one of the few who had the honour to fight with her, to feel her power. There are no words to describe how it feels to fight under her wings if not that she truly is our angel. The Founder sent us his blessings in the form of Idras. 511 however is not just a blessing. She is an angel that can bless all those around her at the snap of her fingers.”

The man closed back her armour and returned in position. He spoke of Idra as if he was venerating her. It looked absurd from the outside but it was to be aspected. Nobody knew of the absurd diffusion of the omnicure. Nobody knew of the incredible amount of people that it saved from death. All they could see was a really capable scavenger. They saw someone totally crazy that explored ruins and never came back. They had no idea of the amount of technology that Idra discovered and gave to her people. So much technology that now Esterians and the rest of the known species were no longer on the same level.

“did he clear your doubts Liin Csuicha?” asked Nixie.

“Y...yes it did…”

This is dangerous. We are playing with fire on a leaking oil rig. How can they be so attached to Idra?. Who the fuck is she?

“one last thing, that may be coming out of the blue. Can Esterians have yellow eyes?”

“amber eyes? yes. They are more like a light brown mixed with bright green but it’s possible. If you mean yellow like paint than I doubt. I never seen one and never heard of such feature. Our eyes are mostly brown, green, blue and purple. Plus combinations. Mine that are pink are a rare case”

“thank you”

So she never saw Idra’s face or she is lying about it. But if they are such rare feature why did Idra showed them to me? What was her plan and why are her eyes yellow if her species can’t have such colour? The more I think about it the more I regret seeking a connection to her and her people. All of this was a mistake. By interfering with them we are just attracting the attention of a silent monster that maybe was best left asleep.

“well seeing that Lorcas is still trying to find a comeback let’s close this conversation. In 4 months we will meet again. In such time frame you must think and elaborate what you want to do. If you want war so be it. This invite is not only for Lorcas, but for everybody who wants to challenge us. 4 months is plenty of time to get back homes, discuss with your people and came back. If you want to declare war before, just say so. We are always watching…”

Nixie smiled widely. It was no more friendly. Combined with the eyes it sent off a malicious feeling. She was terrorizing the ambassadors with her sadistic confidence. Then she sat down and stretched. It was a new switch. She looked happy and relaxed, almost as if she was at a friend house. Her tone changed as well to a more playful one.

“now considering that we are here. We have a present for one of you. Liin Csuicha I would say that you should not get presents, only coal after you banned our greatest hero from your planets. But I’ll make an exception, after all it’s not from me…”

One of the man took of his backpack and pulled out a stack of what appeared to be letters bound together nicely. Nixie took them and lift up her arm waiting for someone to take them.

Csuicha nodded at one of her guards while the rest of the representatives stood silent. The guard grabbed the letters and returned them in front of her Liin. Csuicha didn’t touch them.

“what are those?” she asked.

“letters” replied Nixie smiling.

“I have eyes too. Who are they from?”

“them” replied Nixie connecting again to the room system. She started to display a series of Lean death documents made inside the Lean federation. They were few, at best 20 people. Those had all disappeared and marked as death in the last 7 years father the war. Those same 7 years of Esterian activity.

“what are you saying?”

So they killed them? Than the fuck are those letters?

“what I’m saying is that they are now ETU citizens…”

“WHAT?!?!?!”

again the room was shocked by what they heard. Those Esterians kept changed and changing. From monster, to less evil being, than again to terrorist and so on.

“it’s not that hard to understand. Those people in a way or another met with ETU citizens. They fell in love and are now married. As for now we can’t let our people leave our space. So we asked them if they wanted to send something to their parents or siblings. We also have those things all for them.”

from the backpacks the Esterian crew pulled out a dozens of gifts and a digital storage device compatible with Lean technology.

“they have all being checked so they are all safe. We believe that you will make them delivered to their families. We hate to see our people suffer but for now this is the best we can do”

“are they alive?” asked Csuicha in disbelieve.

“why should they not?” replied Nixie.

“where they kidnapped or forced to go with your people?”

Nixie tilted her head. She didn’t understand why Csuicha was so mistrusting her but it was obvious. She was also not the only one who didn’t trust Nixie words. Almost nobody believed them.

“I’ll be blunt. What is wrong with you people? I told you what happened. They met, don’t know how. They fell in love and married. Once married they acquired our citizenship as their panther applied for it and now are ETU citizen. What so hard to understand? We felt bad for separating them from the rest of their families but they all knew what they were doing. Now because I’m a good person I asked them if they wanted to write to their families here and they did. It’s mostly about their families, how now they have kids, how things are going. How loving is their second half and so on. We are not monsters. It’s already sad that their kids have just a couple of grandparents.”

Nixie was sincere for once it was not something that was meant to happen.

They were still incredulous while Nixie stood up to speak one last time after the rest of the packages have been taken.

“Our duties are over. We will meet again in 4 months. Hopefully you will have made the right choice”

Then she walked toward the Liin until her guards stopped her with their bodies. Nixie pulled out a small package from her backpack.

“Here this is for the house owner. A gift from the ETU”

Csuicha came out of her mind that was already in hyperdrive on the missing people that are now alive. With kids, possibly with male one and Leans corrected by Esterian genetic code.

“I think it’s too early for exchanging token of friendship between our nations” replied Csuicha. Nixie face however showed confusion.

“what friendship? You don’t give gift to the people that host the meeting?”

“emh? No?”

Nixie retreated with the gift in hand. She and her crew grouped together. Something was not right. Than she turned back with the gift again.

“It seems that your data is obsolete. Well than accept our gift as a token of appreciation for the future deliver of our messages to the right recipients.”

“I’ll accept it.”

“farewell Liin Csuicha. May the Founder guide you”

how the fuck I’m a suppose to reply to that?

“goodbye. Let’s hope for a better future for our nations”