4 Ruling Council

"The human should be killed! He killed a commander despite all your assurances that no harm could come to our soldiers!" Sur-Gamar, the Ungalit representative to the Union government, was hysterical. Such a thing, a three-ton mass of muscle being histrionic, would have been funny under any circumstances. For councilor Rh`emar, the scene was far from funny. In fact, he was too preoccupied battling with his own astonishment, dread and uncertainty to laugh at his fellow representative.

"Commander Gelor's death was a tragic training accident. If you look at the tapes you will see…"

"Are you blind, willfully ignorant or insane?!" Councilor Artan-Artvul cut Raymond Pierce, Earth's probationary representative, short. "Did you see the same video recording of the 'training exercise' I did or were you given the wrong file to view?"

Artan-Artvul was furious. The Reecevark representative, normally cool, calm and collected, was having none of the human's evasiveness this time. It was one thing that the Union sanctioned genetic modification on its citizens due to the pressures of war. With the Rhizon sending fewer and fewer pilots capable of handling the stresses of combat in vacuum, the humans provided welcome options. That they would use criminals, society's rejects, outcasts without honor …!

Pierce's eyes narrowed. "You have all seen the figures. According to the reports we sent you, fewer than one in four thousand survive the change. Well, the reports lied. It is actually worse than that. We now have close to seven thousand trainee pilots in commission. Of that number, only five hundred and fourteen underwent complete transformation." Seeing the doleful expressions on his audiences' faces, he added angrily.

"That's right, not all can handle the Terror well."

This time, his eyes were flat. Congress forced Earth to offer its soldiers to fight. If they were going to demand Earth provide fighter pilots, they should query their provenance. There was no way the Hegemony was going to allow her loyal soldiers to undergo such procedures. The military would rise up in arms!

The room was filled with silence. Even the Ungalit representative, bull-headed and aggressive to a fault, knew what those figures meant. Sur-Gamar wanted to reproach the pink-faced human but could not. One in four thousand? Not even our own kreeche suffer such loses! He thought to himself.

"Pardon me, I think we digress. We are here to discuss our response to the honorable Sur-Gamar's demand that the human be executed. I am yet to hear proposals, only accusations." The Davii'd's demeanor, if one could be seen, would have come across as uncaring. Davii`d were Congress' adjudicators. Impassioned and aloof, they were the perfect arbitrators. To the representative, it was clear in the recording that the human planned the other's death. This was beyond question. It was also unquestionable that the Ungalit had no business provoking a fight with a creature that so thoroughly outmatched him. Were it left to 'him', the Davii`d would have awarded the human with a medal and sent him on to the Ungalit homeworld to teach the insufferable hulks lessons in humility. It wasn't. He did not even care about the Ungalit or humans. All the representative wanted was for the seating to conclude its affairs so that it could return to its chambers. Its pits were ready. It was close to releasing its spores.

Rh`emar, the Rhizon councilor present for the day, was drawn from the recording. What he had seen was the act of a warrior with a skill so superlative classing him was statistically meaningless. When he called up additional video records of the humans in training, he was stunned. It was not that they humans were violent. Rhizon were used to violence. It was not that they were so skilled at maiming and killing each other. That in itself was remarkable but not by much. In the most hidebound of the traditional Rhizon training schools, tutors provoked their charges to violent combat with each other. Resultantly, the fact that the humans in the recordings, without instruction, actively sought death was nothing extraordinary.

It was the sheer readiness of the humans to murder, accept grievous injury, and offer unprovoked aggression that stunned him. Great R`halloir above, what have we given life to? On his screen was frozen the image of the human named Paul. He had just killed his opponent and was facing the older troop leader. I do not blame Gamar for trying to kill the human. Had I been offered the opportunity, I'd have taken his body and jettisoned it off the damned rock! The councilor thought to himself.

Pierce noted Rh`emar's shock. He also noted the councilor's eyes were stuck on the image of subject XK-0197. The death of a single subject, painful as it was to Earth's quotas, was acceptable. However, it was the principle of the thing. Besides, if he played his cards right, he would get Congress to ease up the pressure on Earth. Pierce knew that the Rhizon and Ungalit came from warrior cultures. Even the Reecevark, with their love for flight and their rejection of violence, were no strangers to warfare. The three races, along with the Din-sauri, formed Congress's Military Council. Perhaps if he appealed to their warrior spirit. Pierce thought to himself.

"Councilors, we are met with an unprecedented opportunity. You ordered Earth to provide soldiers and now we meet the Vord at every battlefront and world. You asked for pilots capable of withstanding the Terror. We sacrificed the lives of millions of men and women to provide you pilots." Seeing the frown on both the Reecevark and Rhizon changing to a glare, he decided to rush.

"With these men and women in support of the valiant Rhizon in space, and on the ground alongside our brave Ungalit commanders, why should we fear the Vord?" Looking about the room, the representative fell silent with a defiant expression on his face.

Rh`emar grimaced. The human was laying it on thickly. Across him, he could see Sur-Gamar's frown lessening. No Ungalit was immune to flattery. That aside, it was embarrassing. On top of the shocks received this day, to see his colleague played like a damn firzali-box was unbearable. Eyeing his heftier companion, he knew he would receive no support from that quarter. He also could not count on the Reecevark who, ashamed at being unable to provide the Union with pilots, were among the first to push for Earth's membership. The inscrutable Din-sauri were the only ones whose vote could tip the balance now. Should they vote to execute the human agitator, it would only be a matter of time before Congress scrapped the entire project.

Another electronic voice rang out. "It is not our belief that the human deserves death. It is our belief that the human was provoked. It is our belief that the humans proceed with training."

Communication was difficult for the Din-sauri. Shaped similar to primeval predator found the darkest water worlds, the Din-sauri were a peaceful race when left alone. Massive, with some measuring over a four hundred furlong, the Din-sauri were the greatest space-faring race in the known universe. Not even the D`harsid, with their massive trading fleets, came close to matching them. Indeed, it was Din-sauri who stopped the Rhizon during the Wars of Expansion.

"Very well then. If you do not see the danger these humans present then we will not stand in your way. When the blade turns in your hand please try NOT to come to us screaming for help." With that, the aging Rhizon paced waved his hand and ended the conference call.

Pierce breathed a sigh of relief. The leonine councilor for the Rhizon was a powerful and influential figure. In any other gathering, the mere hint of Rhizon displeasure was enough to turn opinion his way. Here, among the most powerful races of the known universe, they were but equals. Earth had weathered another attack. More would come in future but for today, she was victorious.

Best milk it for all its worth… A cunning thought crossed the human representative's mind.

"I ask the committee to consider the immediate inclusion of Earth fighters in the Union Navy. I believe most well trained and disciplined." Pierce did not want them to linger too much over the case. As it was, test scores looked dubious.

Pierce begun his campaign like a virtuoso. "Councilor Artan-Artvul, due to increased Vord activity on the edges of D`harsid space we see less transports making their way off D`harsid planets." A dig at Reecevark impotence... "It is obvious the Rhizon are doing all they can to ensure the safety of convoys but we can help." Quickly now, we don't want a reminder we screwed the Rhizon over… "I believe that even with the minimal training they received they are capable of providing adequate protective detail and escort service for supply convoys and troop transports." Pierce went silent after this. If they thought through his request, they would see the appeal behind his offer.

"We concur." That was the Din-sauri councilor. The taciturn neuter-gendered leviathan said no more. Transmitted over the HyperNet and into the council chambers, the mechanical voice of the Din-sauri sent a shiver down Pierce's spine. Despite repeated assurances that the Din-sauri were non-carnivorous, he still felt a shiver of dread move down his spine. If millennia of human existence on Earth said man was master over land, a different master, an older power, reigned the seas.

"I agree. The humans can serve. Their talents will be wasted as pilots though. Perhaps, they will all be killed and we will not revisit this in future." Obviously, the Ungalit representative was not past his race's humiliation. The fact that he withdrew his objections only served to display Ungalit valor. Inasmuch as he was upset over the death of the Ungalit commander, the fact that his Rhizon counterpart felt greater shock was enough for him. The thought gave the councilor pleasure. Let the damned Velch-spawn contend with a challenger for their power.

"We offer no objection. Let them serve. Perhaps the prospect of combat will satiate their hunger for death." Though Artan-Artvul said this out aloud, he was highly doubtful. Unlike the others, he had followed reports on the progress of the human pilots during training. They took every opportunity to frustrate their tutors and invited pain and punishment with a glee that shamed Ungkalor sex-slaves.

"In that case, I move to adjourn. The human pilots will be graduated and they will be tasked with providing protection and escort services to the fleet." With that, the Davii`d representative ended the conference call and withdrew to its own quarters. It was already sporing and wished to do so at leisure.