00:00The press conference was held under Corville Prime's Crystal Dome, where the air was filled
00:05with the scent of fresh citrus. Nevertheless, dozens more species were present, including
00:10multi-hinged jaws, feathered crests, and eye stalks, hollow cubes. That floated and projected
00:16feeds over half of the galaxy were courteously directed at the stage. In its boundless kindness,
00:22Concord had called a formal explanation for what is now known as Thea Pale Lavender Creature
00:28served as the podium ambassador. For Sol III's stabilization, the Concord's peacekeeping
00:34arm's supreme mouth, Chowkros, blinked all seven eyes slowly and with the utmost remorse.
00:40He stated flawlessly that we had to step in to stop the given, the growing threat posed
00:45by humanity. This choice was taken with care and compassion over a period of sixty years.
00:52A screen sprang to life behind him as the planet burned in a montage of failed diplomacy.
00:57The oceans in London, Nairobi, Houston, Shanghai, and other places were boiling like kettles,
01:03despite being resilient. Chowkros allowed is unpredictable, emotionally unstable,
01:10and overly committed to myth. There was an unsustainable murmur of agreement between
01:14conflict and personal autonomy. Reporters scrawled as the rookie ambassador shifted through the crowd.
01:20O-I-X-Y-L diplomat chirped an approval of her veil someplace, reminding us they struck first in
01:27spirit, if not in declaration, Chowkros observed gently. Adding that it was a culture based on war
01:33legends, then he respectfully bowed and pointed to the top executive of the peacekeeping council,
01:39a six-limbed arachnid dressed in ceremonial red steps, who would be the next speaker, he said bluntly
01:45that it was logistically required and not genocide silently. A human cleaned a floor on a gloomy
01:52mining outpost that hung over a dying planet like an oil stain. The floor was covered in nutritional
01:57paste. The mop was made of metal, and lights flickered three extraterrestrial guards, each
02:03representing a distinct species, observed him from a corner table. Midway through another round of jokes,
02:10they remarked, Do you think he understands us? After eating their protein rotisseries, the shortest one
02:17is a strange, tusk-wielding frog who never stops grinning, the blue-furred one, grinning and licking
02:23the grease off his claw, added, Don't be speciest. It's just the way their jaws droop. Like lifeless fish,
02:30with the third one being translucent, tiaren, an insectoid, squinted his eyes and cleaned the armory
02:37more quickly than the others. When the sirens went off last week, he didn't flinch. I'm telling you
02:43that something's wrong. They peered over. Once more, the person was kneeling and cleaning with a rag.
02:48While wearing a worn jumpsuit, he wore a jumpsuit with threadbare knees, had short hair, and a name
02:54patch. What is that noise he's making? Red hummed softly to himself. The frog thing, the blue one laughed
03:01when asked if it was some kind of mating call, suggesting that we might play music again,
03:06and for a brief moment. Reed's eyes were serene and crystal-gray like gun-meetle then. He leaned
03:12forward and smiled amicably at them, murmuring, Why would the lone survivor be so at ease?
03:18Three weeks ago, within hours of the tactical strike, which was conducted beneath the concord's
03:23dark exterior, the earth's crust had been glassed. Earth had stopped meeting cooperative thresholds.
03:30Notwithstanding the official directive none of, the concord council members wanted to acknowledge
03:36that people frightened them. They spoke excessively and laughed when they were terrified. They would
03:42not let their complaints be forgotten. Even after decades had passed, they resolved impossible.
03:48Issues under duress and unreservedly gave their lives for one another. It wasn't their weapons.
03:54But their refusal to kneel, they seemed to have something inherited in their blood. Most of humanity
03:59perished when the concord attacked, but not all of the cleanup crew survived. They retrieved Reed,
04:05who had one arm twisted behind his back, and was covered in ash from a burned bunker close to Denver,
04:11Colorado. He was tagged, shackled, and sent to Outpost 39 while unconscious, next to a closed hatch that
04:18opened onto a room full of seeds for processing. But up until this point he hadn't said a word. The
04:25you-missed-a-spot frog slowly straightened up. Janitor, he moved to. The missed area and knelt after
04:32scrutinizing the floor with squinted eyes and washed. So I believe I'll call him what? The blue-furred one,
04:38was faux Reed's voice heard softly? Or did they once call their dogs Charlie?
04:43Those were dogs, he stated without malice. And all three guards turned to Sear Reed stood with his
04:49rag out and said, Dogs are loyal, without glancing at them. When anything hazardous came close by,
04:56the insectoid's antenna twitched, alerting. Their flocket was meant to be a joke, but he turned and
05:02stated, No joke. With a gentle face, however, the lights at Concord headquarters went out. So you might
05:09want to relocate the kids. Ambassador Chalcross now took questions while the press. Conference went on.
05:15However, a reporter now questioned why sanctions or localized disarmament. As they continued to
05:22Evolvichelchris groaned, said more quickly than we could mentally and biologically catalog.
05:27Humans had one fatal defect, even in their spirituality, which they thought was unattainable
05:33things, and occasionally when those things occurred, a second screen appeared.
05:37Pentagon forecasts and AI? Models that indicated a 73% chance that mankind would eventually take
05:45control of Concord leadership in five generations if another reporter wasn't checked. But did?
05:51We handed them a seat on the board after they tried? Empathy protocols and blinked. Chalcross concluded
05:58after they provided barbecue. Laughter, nervousness, and politeness instead of creating humans in their
06:04image. We save the galaxy's future. The map on the table was old, not a star,
06:11and the leather apron never revealed his name. One general answered, No, Reed. The chart does not
06:17include coordinates. It only shows Earth, he had responded. This is where it begins, Reed was standing.
06:24In the command alcove of the Widowmaker fleet at the time, twenty people moved like shadows around the
06:30lead stealth ship, Tissaroga. Men and women who operate as ghosts in modern armor for the Navy
06:36Seals and Rangers. Whose records he asked one of them for the call sign, which had been deleted long
06:42before Earth burnt. Brisket smiled at all seven payloads since he had grilled ribs in a combat zone.
06:48Deployed, they received the response to the message, there. In a panic, sir, so he patched me into the fleet,
06:55using the NAV console, wideband. I want this to be heard everywhere. For thirty-two years,
07:01a green light blinking. Reed talked we sent a message to the galaxy requesting to be heard,
07:08and we were instructed to. He halted, and you should have crossed. Neil, we didn't. You interpreted
07:14that as a threat commanders sat in battle rooms as the stars, that sentence. Fell like grenades,
07:20whole species paused their breathing, and in the back. While civilians continued to whisper,
07:26a single fear blossomed in every head. What if humans weren't ever attempting to win? What if they
07:32were just waiting for us to feel secure? Knowing that the channel, Brisket, is leaning over you when
07:37they get to the table, they will run, then stand, then plead, and finally Reed glanced up. And we decided
07:44to go to the Grand Council Tower Supreme in the Concord, for the first time in decades.
07:50Chalcross's mouth went dry as he observed the pulse feeds as human signals were taken over.
07:55Almost all band songs convey a sense of quiet. Worse ships were showing up on their scanners
08:01in locations close to the sun that were logically impossible, Howe. He whispered the words.
08:07Coronas inside stable black holes in gravity slits that hadn't been navigated in three thousand years.
08:13Because they discover, Crush, the Rhythians' female diplomat gave a curt response. Turned to her and said,
08:19We destroyed their archives because they
08:22Didn't need them, youngster, into a memory vault that has all of those poems. Songs and damaged photos
08:29on board the Tissaroga. Read, we educated them about war and paused their blueprints.
08:34Turned on a concealed panel beneath the captain's chair that was housed inside an ancient
08:39Earth relic and a number of chip burn drives. He carefully unzipped a sealed olive green satchel to
08:45find broken folded pictures within. He placed the dog tags and letters on the console one by one.
08:51Not out of sentimentality, soldier on board brought their own satchel for calibration.
08:56Not because they required the past, but since the past must be accurately recalled.
09:02A future cannot be constructed without it. Deciding which shadows to?
09:06Carry forth.
09:07Brisket sat silently next to him.
09:09They genuinely believe that we are seeking retribution.
09:13Read shook his head. He grabbed one of the dog tags and flipped it over for blood.
09:18But we're outreads stand in a silo beneath Antarctica training grounds for truth flashback.
09:23A lady dubbed Master Chief Alvarez is blind, and there are no signals or gravity during a
09:28subzero blackout. Between kill drills, one eye reads him poetry.
09:32We die quietly, she says, but when we—he had once asked her what the strategy was.
09:38And she had smiled. Speak. The galaxy burns when we reappear. Let them believe they have erased us,
09:45and then we become the—he engraved her words on the inside of his wristguard that night.
09:50Not for show, which is why they checked beneath the—bed?
09:54The Concord responded by launching six squadrons in retaliation toward the measured flanks and
10:00coordinated strikes by a widow-maker fleet from many systems. They had always thought the human
10:06ships had better technology. Didn't resist, instead they vanished as they leaped into folding light.
10:12Logic bending angles, one squadron chased an afterimage, while another crashed.
10:17One ship made a last distress cry into its own echo before collapsing in such complete quiet
10:23that the AI refused to describe it.
10:26They're not attacking? They're studying, a pilot shouted into communications on board the remaining
10:32Concorde ship. Us, he was correct, because people didn't waste their rage. Instead they made notes and
10:38Reed's voice was activated by a broadcast tower in orbit around. Yes, once more you eliminated seven
10:44billion of us, expecting extinction. But you forgot a barefoot child wearing a sunflower dress was the only
10:51image displayed on the feed. Behind her shadows, a figure wearing boots on the ground grasped a
10:57violin while standing in the wreckage of a church, for the first time in weeks. Concord Capital World
11:03Chalcross went outside, entered a field with guards, yet nobody moved in. The sky above him, thousands of
11:09pinpricks illuminated against the dark ships, first shimmering and then turning black. Some of the human
11:15ships were corroded, while others were old, but all of the armed. Chalcross fell to his knees not because
11:22they were afraid, but rather because they were aware that one of the ships was a museum artifact from
11:29the first Voyager class that humanity managed to save. He started to cry as they prepared this,
11:35taking their mythologies and used them as weapons. The data streams depicted the galaxy as the whispering
11:41Reed sat peacefully on the bridge. Shifting lights, every hit had been noted, every fatality had been
11:48listed. And now, those documents were made public so as not to embarrass the Concord the actions of its
11:54citizenry. Brisket's console beeped, Sir, we have a—a brow was raised—by the person who
12:00Chalcross direct, Reed and he, a crumpled human command.
Comments