Flash Fic Redux - The Last Supper

"Fleetlord! Unidentified contact bearing 326 by 073!"

Fleetlord Caol-dhin, Master of the Eighth Great Exploratory Armada, looked over at the tactical section. "Mass and energy readings?" He began to pick his teeth with a shard of an arm bone.

"Small, Fleetlord. Comparable to a fast courier vessel of our own manufacture. Drive signature is completely different from any previously encountered vessel."

Caol-dhin shifted in his chair slightly. Prior to the last planetfall, they had captured a small number of ships from the prey they now knew as "humans." If this ship was human in manufacture, might there have been a discrepancy? Perhaps a fundamental difference in design and construction priorities? "What is the contact doing?"

"They're taking up a position at relative rest just off the bow. No indication of weapons or defensive systems."

"Fleetlord, we're receiving a communication laser from the contact," reports the comms officer. "Live feed, Lord."

"Not wasting time, I see. Put them on." The communication officer tapped in commands and brought up the comm feed on the main screen. Standing behind a small translucent podium was a slender looking alien. Definitely not a human. The head was long and narrowly triangular, eyes set widely apart but still binocular and mostly aimed forward. The limbs incredibly slender, two of the six digits on the hand ending in slightly curved spikes of some sort. On top of the alien's head were thin branching extensions of some hard organic material inlaid with complex geometric patterns rendered in precious metals. When the alien spoke, there was a slightly bugling quality to its voice.

"Am I speaking to the leader of the hostile force who recently attacked the human colony of Appledore?"

"I am Fleetlord Caol-dhin. It is my honor and pleasure to command this Exploratory Armada for the glory of the Frunx Gastrarchy. To whom am I speaking?"

The alien tilted its head down slightly in acknowledgement. "I am Assistant Deputy Consular Envoy Porfuli, late of the Teg'qo Confederation, here at the request of the Pan-Terran Sphere to negotiate your unconditional surrender."

Caol-dhin laughed harshly. He knew he shouldn't (not yet, at any rate). But the statement was so absurd on its face he couldn't help himself. After a few moments, trying to keep himself under control, he replied, "That's a very...assertive statement. Which begs the question of why you believe you can make it and survive more than the five minutes it would take to warm up our forward batteries and obliterate you."

"I have been sent here mostly as a token effort on the part of the Sphere's leadership to at least project the pretense of a diplomatic solution to the situation you have created." There wasn't a lot of mobility in the envoy's face, but Caol-dhin thought there was a note of contempt in Porfuli's voice. And it didn't sound like it was aimed at his own superiors. A holographic timer began to count down from the front of the lectern. "I have been given one Earth Standard hour to convince you to surrender and follow my ship to the nearest Sphere Navy base, whereupon you will surrender your ships, your crews, and your officers including yourself to Sphere authorities to stand trial for crimes against humanity. If I fail to return to the base within three Earth Standard days for any reason, or if I return without you in my provisional custody, the Sphere's political leadership will declare that a state of war exists between the Sphere and the Frunx Gastrarchy. Within a day of that declaration, it is my understanding the Sphere Parliament will vote to activate the Nemesis Protocols and conduct their offensives with the aim of your complete and total extermination as a species."

Murmurs of surprise and consternation rippled through the flag bridge. Caol-dhin snorted dismissively. "An even more assertive statement than your initial one. You'll forgive me if I don't immediately find it compelling, or even particularly convincing."

"My forgiveness is meaningless," Porfuli said flatly. "And you'll find none from the humans. They have enacted the Nemesis Protocols only twice in their roughly eight century existence as a spacefaring species. Curiously enough, one of those instances was for much the same reason they will activate them against you and your kind. Xenosapiophagy is considered abhorrent outside of what are deemed extremely dire survival situations. The only other species which practiced it, what the humans referred to as 'The Edacity,' was exterminated completely. Humans evolved as persistence hunters, and they made sure the Edacity was unquestionably wiped out. It took them almost a generation, but they did it. I have archival footage for you to view on the way to the Sphere Navy base."

"What makes you think we have any intention of following you?" asked Caol-dhin scornfully. "For that matter, what makes you think you will somehow secure our surrender?"

"I believe it's a fool's errand, and I'm certainly the best possible fool they could send." Porfuli leaned forward slightly against the lectern. "My own people almost became the third species on the list of systematically destroyed lifeforms by the Sphere. Our conduct was shameful. Atrocious. We conducted horrific experiments on captured prisoners of war and civilians alike. We deployed biological and chemical weapons of such persistent lethality that half a dozen worlds were scorched clear of all life by the Sphere rather than risk having those toxins and those bioweapons spread outside the star systems we used them on. Our leaders didn't seem to care, but the bulk of us did once we learned the truth. That was probably the only thing that saved us in the end. But the fighting beforehand was terrible. Particularly since my people bear a striking resemblance to a certain genus of herbivorous animals on the human homeworld." Porfuli closed his eyes briefly and shuddered. "After all we did to them, I cannot blame them for taking the ghono from the heads of our fallen as trophies. Mounting them on plaques is far less ghoulish than what we did to them."

"Fascinating," Caol-dhin said acidly.

"I think it will be worse for you, in the end, Fleetlord. Your people bear a strong resemblance to another genus of herbivores from the human homeworld. One they domesticated. And if humans weren't shy about 'going to settle up with Bambi' when they fought my people, I can very easily see them referring to the impending conflict with you as 'mutton busting.' But I can guarantee you that they will not reciprocate the grotesque actions you committed and stupidly broadcast to the entire civilized galaxy. They will burn you out of existence, gather up whatever records and cultural artifacts might remain, and build museums to mark your passage. They will institutionalize your extinction as a reminder to themselves and others that civilization demands conditions." Porfuli looked at Caol-dhin with cold loathing. "Forty-two minutes left, Fleetlord. Kill me or request navigation data from my ship. Just know this is the only chance you'll have to survive. Once humanity activates the Nemesis Protocols, nothing will be able to save you."

(Originally written on r/humansarespaceorcs)