“No.”
Praetor Hahac looked up and ruffled her feathers.
“What do you mean by no General?”
“We’re not going to give you children, no matter how you promise to treat them.” Said General Han as he crossed his arms and glared across at the table at the creature.
Praetor Hahac’s feathers puffed out slightly and she set her six fingered talons down on the table clicking them against the bare metal.
“You have lost, you are not in a position to deny us anything General. Your brood need to be raised by those who are strong, should you be allowed to keep them they will remain week and the Empire will not grow. In the future, once your species is strong you might be allowed to raise them again.”
The General slowly shook his head, “Even if I were inclined to sign this deal, make it law, no Human would follow it.”
“Then it would be the responsibility of your government to ensure that it is followed.” Growled Hachac.
General Han stood and the two alien guards in the room twitched, their weapons coming up. The General looked at the two creatures, one was four legged with tentacle like appendages holding it’s eyes and weapon above itself. The other was almost like a centaur, if the top half of the mythic creature was aquatic.
“Praetor, you have brought Humanity to its knees. I won’t contest that, what I will contest your assertion that we are weak.”
“We have destroyed your armies, and most of your governments. You lost, that makes you weak.”
General Han turned back to the Praetor, “You bombard us from orbit with invisible ships. You have technology we have dreamed of, but have not yet made. You sent down robotic unfeeling monstrosities to cull our populations, and engineered genetic plagues to wipe out those of us who you deemed weak and unworthy.” General Han took in a breath and shook his head, “So yes, you beat us. By virtue of sheer dumb luck. You evolved before us, made the technology before us.”
Hachac tilted her raptor like head to the side, “Other races have claimed this before, that we did no fight with honor or integrity. We do not care, you have been defeated and that is all that matters. Now you either join with our Empire, and find your place or we kill you.”
General Han sat down across from her, “Total war. That is what we call it, not a war for resources or ideology. When you fight only to eliminate the other side, for no other reason than that they are ‘others’. Humans avoid it as much as possible.”
Praetor Hachac puffed out her feathers again, “These talks are only a formality General. We do this in an attempt to smooth the transition of power. Are you going to sign the documents or continue to rant?”
General Han picked up the chalk like writing utensil, “I’ll sign them right now if you continue the conversation.”
“Very well, I will entertain this.”
General Han shrugged and scribbled his name on the data tablet.
Hachac blinked her eyes, and slowly picking the document up held it out to the guards. The one that looked like the fishy centaur took it and retreated from the room.
“Why do you avoid ‘total war’?”
General Han raised a hand, “We learned that it invites too many opportunities. It draws a line to clearly in the morality of the Human mind. A war where one side is a total aggressor, without reason or mercy is unquestioningly evil. We did not know of your Empire until you were killing us without cause. You attack us purely because we exist. No Human will ever question that you are evil.”
Praetor Hachac tapped her talons against the floor now, annoyed. “We are here to better your species, we have been watching you for centuries. You squabble and kill others of your own kind. Under the Empire there is no dissention, no argument.”
General Han sighed, “Which is why you want our children. You want to raise them under this culture.”
The Praetor once again tilted her head to the side, “Historically it has been the easiest form of transition. You and this generation of Humans will fight, you will hate us, and you will continue to do so. If you have signed this deal with the intentions of resisting us and subverting us through other means you will fail. Once we have enough children the population will be sterilized. None of the children raised by the Empire will return here for millennia. Your civilization and species will fade into the grandness of the Empire and your world will be only another of thousands.”
General Han’s face was stony at this, “You enjoy doing this.”
“I do it because I must.” Said the Praetor returning the glare.
General Han closed his eyes, “It won’t work.”
“This is a plan we have executed thousands of times; your species is not special.”
“You will have to tear the children from the arms of every parent, kill them and bloody your own hands to take them. Even if you do raise them in your own culture, with your own values, they will subvert you and take control.” General Han smiled, “They might not even do it out of retribution, or revenge. It’s simply who we are. It could take a thousand years, but in the end Humans will beat you.”
Praetor Hachac stood up and raised her feathers, “We shall see.”
General Han smiled, “We won’t. You and I aren’t going to be alive for much longer.”
Hachac paused, and the literal guard dog moved forwards the gun held up by its tentacles humming.
“This negotiation is the first time you’ve landed a ship. We buried a few dozen nuclear warhead underneath us.”
The Praetor’s feathers puffed out even further now. “Which we detected, and have remotely disabled.”
General Han’s expression soured slightly, “Did you detect the C4?”
The Praetor frowned, “C4?”
3,764 Years Later
Tarn sat down across the table from the alien and set the data tablet down in front of the creature. Its hairy tentacles whipped around the room, and ab eerie high pitched sound pervaded the room. As Tarn understood it, that was how the creature could see.
“We’re not capitulating!”
Tarn blinked and put both of his hands down on the table.
“Most of the species we bring into the Empire say that. In the end, they end up joining.”
The furry tentacles whipped towards Tarn hitting him in the face, the Empire representative flinched and tapped the data tablet in front of him.
“President Uria, this is the agreement that your people need to agree too if you want to survive.”
The President waved his tentacle over the tablet reading the agreement in his own language. For several minutes, Tarn waited on the other side of the table, his face carefully neutral.
“You cannot expect me to agree to this.” Hissed President Uria. “To give up our spawn to aliens, to others who have ravaged our planet, killed my people.”
Tarn sighed and leaned forwards, “President Uria, this is to ensure that your integration into the empire goes smoothly. It is to ensure that your species survives as a greater whole.”
President Uria let out a screech of anger and picking up the data tablet hurled it at one of the guards. Ral caught the pad before it hit him in the face and slowly set it back on the table.
“Then your species will die.” Said Tarn.
“So be it. We would rather die, than submit to this.”
Tarn stood up and looked at the furry creature.
“Is that really what you want, to go down fighting until your last breath? We will release diseases and genetic abominations on your world giving your people horrible agonizing deaths. Drones armed with every weapon you can imagine will stalk your streets, and we will use your population centers as target practice for our orbital weapons. All you have to do to avoid this is give up your spawn.”
President Uria buzzed and whipped his tentacles around again hitting Tarn across the chest pushing him back.
“I do not care. Even if I give this order, my people will not follow it.”
“Then we will take your spawn and kill you anyway.”
“You can try.” Hissed the President.
Tarn smiled and tapped his fist on the table. “Good.”
Ral turned and cracked one of the small lights at the top of the ceiling making the lights in the room flash and blink into a dull blue glow. The camera’s and other recording devices pausing.
“Good.” Repeated Tarn as he slowly sat back down in the chair across from the president. “Ignore all of what I just said.”
“What?”
“I can give you a second option. One my own species took. One that will be far more difficult, and you will never see the results.”
The mass of hair and tentacles sagged backwards into its own seat and the eerie screeching at the edge of Tarn’s hearing continued. “What is this option?”
“You let us take your children.”
The President drew himself up, “I have already told you that I will not allow your Empire to take our children!”
“Not my Empire.” Snapped Tarn. “They did the exact same thing to my planet, we were even less technologically advanced. They killed us off, and stole the first generation of children.” Tarn paused and drew in a breath. “For the first thousand years, we served them like every other species. We killed off other planets, stole their spawn and raised them to serve the Empire.”
Tarn turned around to the guard, “Ral?”
The other man tossed him the object and Tarn caught it. Setting the small object down on the table he pushed it towards the alien.
“That’s a coin, from one of the dozens of nations on what used to be the home world for my species. We’re not sure which one. We’ve lost so much, and the beginnings of the Blue are almost as much of a mystery. We don’t know who first started it, they’ve died. We don’t even know if it was one of our own.”
Tarn picked up the coin and spun it on the table. “We don’t know the name of our original planet, the name of our species. The Empire took all of it from us, and we served them for so long.”
Tarn slapped the coin down.
President Uria waved his mass around for a moment, “What are you trying to say?”
Tarn looked at him and slowly shook his head, “The Blue is growing, but even so we’re not strong enough to break the Empire. We can’t beat them yet, so we grow and spread. We can’t be found so we only offer this to species who are most like us, who will die to one die destroy the Empire. The Blue can’t save your species, but if you give us the data on your people.” Tarn paused, “We’ll raise them as much as we can in accordance with it. Teach them as much as we can, so that one day the children of your species can stand beside us and destroy this Empire.”
President Uria settled his tentacles down and let out a low his. “How do I know you are not lying? How do I know this is not a ploy to gain our compliance?”
Tarn tapped his foot, “You don’t. In either case, we’re going to destroy your species to ensure the Blue is protected. If you want to join the Blue, then your people will have far more than my own did. We will protect your history, the data, and the essence of your species as much as we can. At the very least your decedents will know the name of their own species.”
President Uria stilled and slowly swayed side to side. “You don’t even know the name of your own people?”
“No. I’d like to think we’re doing something our ancestors would be proud of, but we just don’t know.”
“It seems I don’t have a choice but to trust you. I will collect the data.” Said Uria.
Tarn closed his eyes, “Thank you, we will do our best to raise them as you would. We’re aliens though, so your people will be the same.”
The President lifted himself up on his tentacles and reaching over the table signed the tablet.
“They will be my people in spirit, if you are not lying. Thank you. If you are lying, know that my people will be your bane, and even if it takes millennia they will end your Empire.”
Tarn picked up the tablet, “Hopefully they will be.”