Formal Contact Between the Crucible and the Colonial Corps

[The Clans]

Once translators had been trained to an acceptable level, it was time to solidify the relationship between human and yuxu. The proposed measure by the translators, still up for negotiation, additions, and approval, called for a military parade so that those who fought against the bug ship could march side by side and see what they had risked themselves to protect. They could be negotiated down to separate marches with the Freemen in front leading the parade. The parade would end in front of a stage where Nizam, or Governor, Ziral would meet with Model Citizen Clayrse where Ziral would declare that the Yuxun people and the Colonial Corps would fight so that the Freemen would stay free from external threats. A meeting with Awakener Mysha and the Herald would be held in private and recorded so that whatever happened within could be edited and censored out of a later broadcast.

[Offizier Necro]

The Freeman representatives agreed that a military parade would be great, but figured it would be best that the military parade would have the Freemen lead, so as to put the native audience at subconscious ease over the nature of the protective agreement. Many Havenites, including in the high government and legislature, were very wary about allowing themselves to be shielded by another nation, since numerous relationships and treaties in the history of Haven had resulted (by design or accident) in the larger and more established empire turning the smaller nation into a puppet government or some other proxy for Realpolitik. The Herald helped spearhead the efforts to 'comfort' Haven about Yuxu-Havenite relations. Among the Havenites with more Xenophobe tendencies, they were told that in a galaxy with reptilian pirates and flesh-rending hordes of bugs seeking to infest the stars, it was absolutely necessary to be able to defend oneself from the horrors of the void. Among the Havenites with more Xenophile tendencies, they were assured that these were people who behaved like humanity of just another culture and that standing side by side would help mankind get on its feet and gain its bearings in a galaxy full of adventure and wonder. The Herald neglected to mention that the views and tactics of the alien public relations campaign were just copied from various old fictional nations' propaganda and doctrines.

In any case, the plans for the separate meetings between Ziram and Claryse then Mysha and Addy were considered ideal due to their respective personalities and positions. For the public meeting of Ziram and Claryse, the Freeman organizers proposed that the preceding parade of the defense of Haven should be accompanied by a Freeman orchestra playing an instrumental of the anthem of the Crucible of Freemen, potentially followed by the anthem of the Colonial Corps if they so desired. It was explicitly desired that the Freeman anthem not be sung to avoid risking the attending human audience getting riled up over foreign power and the paranoia surrounding the protection agreement. The parade was proposed to be held in the capital city of the Crucible of Freemen and end infront of the capitol building, where the meeting would take place on a stage with microphones.

The meeting for Awakener Mysha and the Herald could be held anywhere due to not being a live event, but the Freemen preferred it to be in space due to how inconvenient having to get people back into space was and how inconvenient it was to have the Herald committing public disturbances on Haven, such as the incident where the Herald protested the poorly-worded law regarding bicycles and bicycle lanes by having a car get its back wheels removed and then driving dangerously around in the bike lane without a car-driving license to go with his "bicycle". The Freemen organizers weren't very picky regarding where exactly the Herald-Awakener meeting should be, since it wouldn't matter much to a camera between the meeting room of one spacecraft or another. The Freeman space station, Yuxun itself (assuming Yuxu craft ferrying the Herald in and out of orbit), or just a Yuxu spacecraft (likely the bridge, meeting area, or other open room) were all suggested as potential locations. The Freeman organizers requested what the dress code for the Herald-Awakener meeting should be (assuming they can reign in the two enough to enforce it), such as formal attire, casual clothing, or more martial gear.

[The Clans]

(I've been worn down from frequent page timeouts while posting.)

The parade arrangements are approved, and ask for an additional meeting between Clayrse and Ziral just before the parade.

The negotiators off handedly ask why they don't just kill the Herald if he's such a menace, despite knowing that he is their only ally on the planet.

They state that the atmosphere of the station is congested with cancerous particles, and given Mysha's desires to not wear an envirosuit, meeting aboard a Crucible space structure is flatly declined. They further ask if a Crucible or Corps colony would make a better meeting place.

[Offizier Necro]

The additional preliminary meeting was approved by the Freeman planners in kind, but it was asked whether the Yuxu desired it to be recorded or if it was just to sort out what would be said, agreed upon, and so on during the main event.

The question as to why the Herald wasn't just killed off provoked some concern, since bloody murder was still fairly taboo with real life people even if a bloody revolution was still in living memory. Murder's a crime, don'tcha know. That doesn't mean that the crime wasn't still attempted on multiple occasions against the Herald, it's just that proper attempts by organized groups to assassinate Revolutionary Committee members hadn't occurred since the revolutionary war and random individuals had a very low success rate assassinating veterans of killing important officials. The whole thing about due process and other aspects of an ethical justice system prevented the government from citing "Look, we all know he's an ass" as a valid reason to have someone executed. The combination of factors made it fairly difficult for the public to simply remove the public menace in a conventional manner, hence the unconventional "bus to nowhere" plan. It was as close to public exile as they could get on with a globe-spanning nation, and was effectively guaranteed since the fiction-obsessed Herald was eager to sign up for the originally-meaningless position of negotiating with entities that weren't believed to exist and manning military vessels in the (almost literal) middle of nowhere during peacetime. The plan only backfired when it turned out the void of space wasn't as void as previously believed.

The ignorant Freemen merely assumed that the strange Yuxu aversion to Freeman vessels' atmospheres was just an alien thing, like dogs with chocolate, rather than the correct assumption that asbestos was as notoriously dangerous to higher life in general as it used to be known as before the prehistoric collapse of Haven. A few grew suspect of if it was something dangerous across species borders, but they were in the minority since the people breathing the Freeman vessels' air on a daily basis were "completely fine" at the moment. As such, the refusal to hold the meeting aboard Freeman vessels was accepted without question or comment. As the Crucible lacked any colonies, it was deemed best that the Herald visit one of the Yuxu's worlds instead. Finally, it was again asked what the attempted dress code should be for the Herald-Awakener meeting, whether casual, formal civilian, or martial attire would be best.

[The Clans]

The Yuxu negotiators sit in perplexed silence as their off-hand comment is explained to them in detail. The level of awkwardness they feel is that of listening to an awkward person giving an indepth analysis about something only they care about that no one else in the room understands.

They decline to say anything further on the matter like how grossly irresponsible such a use of space craft is considering how deadly and expensive they are to produce and maintain. They do however, state that the prelimenary meeting for Ziral and Claryse is to be informal and to just speak with each other completely off the record. Haven is also marked by Command as being either highly mineral and energy rich to accomodate such a frivolous expenditure, or that the Freemen have very poor judgement of priorities. Given that their military structures are full of asbestos particles, intelligence suggests the latter and that this race should be carefully shepherded.

They point out that the continental world of Suxur would be an ideal meeting place due to lacking intense radiation on the surface and not requiring a radiation suit to be comfortable on, noting that the Freemen seem to have trluble with their suits with how bulky they are for their bodies. They further say that the dress code does not matter as the Awakener will likely start off in her battle armor then change out into something more casual.

[Offizier Necro]

The political rant aside, the proposals for the two meetings were accepted by the Freemen. Freeman hazmat suits were primitive and inconvenient, and Freeman camera crews would particularly be inconvenienced by it and would risk damaging the film reels or other clumsy blunders. Radiation could also corrupt the film reels or the land-to-ship broadcast. The dress code plan seemed fine as well, but the Herald's exact outfit was to be decided later. He might go with miming the armor idea or go with more "normal" clothing. In any case, it was requested that Yuxu shuttles would ferry the Herald and the Freeman crews between orbit and the ground since the Crucible's low tech level made getting stuff back into orbit impractical without the industry of home available. Freeman engineers speculated among themselves elsewhere that antigravity technology demonstrated in the Yuxu model vehicles would eventually get rid of this issue, but that was a tale for another time and another place.

[The Clans]

Several days before the parade one of many Corps shuttles lands at a Crucible military base just outside of the capital. While the other shuttles ferry ship crewmen and marines that participated in the Battle of the Bugs along with miscelanious equipment, this shuttle transported a very specific individual. Nizam Ziral descends from her shuttle under the escort of several guards in colorful full body armor and followed by an entourage of other Yuxu.

After it had been established that bacterial infection was not possible, all except for the guards did away with their envirosuits. However from the uncomfortable humidity, many wished they still wore them. Rather than dress in a loose robe, as seen worn by science personnel, the female governor's clothes were almost dresslike without showing any of her arms, legs, shoulders, or chest.

Elsewhere an escort of ships awaits to ferry the Herald to the colony world of Suxur.

[Offizier Necro]

The military base received the ship like it had the others, but the presence of an especially important representative warranted a higher amount of personnel on guard than the other shuttle landings. Nizam Ziral was welcomed with salutes as many other Yuxu shuttles had been according to standard foreign procedure, but the presence of Model Citizen Claryse Garalson made this landing stand out further. Non-soldiers in suits and sunglasses occasionally flashing covert hand signals to each other also made this different, but they followed the national leader everywhere so it wasn't surprising to the humans and culturally-privy Yuxu. Once Ziral had exited the shuttle and the salutes were done with, Claryse began speaking professionally followed by his interpreter reciting it in translated form.

"Nizam Ziral, I presume. We welcome you to Haven. Care to speak inside, or elsewhere?"

After the interpreter finished speaking, Claryse gestured to an aluminum-sided building that looked the same as almost every other building on the base, but was different in that it stored a secured bunker-like room for emergency protection of vital assets (such as the leaders from the neighboring capital). It still had asbestos insulation like most buildings, but the ventilation was sealed and filtered for the possibility of chemical or radiological weapons so it's not like the asbestos particles would have been a problem to begin with even if the Freemen did know about its true nature.


In space, the Herald's ship's warp drive was spooled and prepped for launch. It was only the Freeman science vessel and not any of the military ships, but it's not like they were needed with the escort and all. A message was transmitted to the Yuxu escorts that they were ready to launch, and would be making a stop in an uninhabited system in Yuxu space in order to go the rest of the way. The particular system's coordinates were transmitted to the escort fleet so that they could move ahead and guard the system that would be hosting the "connecting flight" before the Freeman vessel could jump from there and finally arrive at the destination of Suxur's system.

[The Clans]

Ziral merely takes a glance at the structure before speaking through her translator. "Is it your home, First Citizen Clayrse? Or an apartment? Thank you for welcoming me in such a secure location. I'm sure it must have taken a great deal of maneuvering to orchestrate this event so smoothly."

Despite being briefed on the basics of the scientists' findings on the Freemen, Ziral was still primarily a Yuxun Nizam, a title originally meant for what could be equated to be a mayor of a city-state who juggled relations between the different clans within a city-state, now applied to that of a planetary governor. She was a Yuxun politician through and through, an older one than she was in an alternate timeline and had trouble seeing the world through anything other than a Yuxun lens if she even thought to look at the world differently.

To her, meeting someone on a military base required a great deal of string pulling and gift and favor exchanges with the local brass, and each warrior that she brough with her was an individual warrior with legal standing as her equal that she had to either gift, cajole, or otherwise convince that the experience of being in her honor guard was worthwhile. Clayrse's suited sunglass wearing entourage were considered some form of guard or escort based on how close they were to him, while her own entourage stood several yards behind her. Every soldier was also considered to be an equal despite their uniforms, because greeting someone so mundanely with anyone other than equals bribed or otherwise convinced through a network of social connections was unthinkable. If her slaves greeted anyone it would have been through some elabkrate song and dance routine or having her guest's every need catered to them, but only explicitly in her absence if she was running late.

Ziral was impressed with the number of salutes by the Freeman honor guard. She thought that she was truly meeting with someone with as much, if not more so, reach and personal power as herself.

Meanwhile in space the escort confusingly acknowledges the science ship, given how the connecting system was not connected by a hyperlane. Given that the ship was a science vessel it was assumed that they meant to scout out their space in transit, disguised as a diplomatic mission. The escort still makes it to the connecting system, confusingly, before the vessel they're supposed to be escorting.

[Offizier Necro]

Given the republican form of governance wherein the military was subservient to the civilian government, Ziral's comments were somewhat odd to Claryse in kind. Living in a military base and needing to maneuver in order to orchestrate a simple parade? The implications weren't comforting to him. He bowed his head forward slightly to politely acknowledge whatever alien nonsense it was that the alien was talking about ontop of getting the two-word title wrong, then spoke a few words again that the interpreter translated.

"You're welcome; a foreign representative such as yourself warrants a welcome, especially on such an important day. And no, it is not my home, I live elsewhere. This is simply an emergency refuge for taking cover in the event of weapons of mass destruction targeting the capital, but there's nothing stopping it from being a safe and secure location to discuss any terms or ideas you may want to get sorted out before the ceremonies begin."


Elsewhere in the universe, the Herald's ship fired its warp drive and sailed into interstellar space before eventually arriving directly at the system from a direction without any hyperlane connection. The Yuxu ships had already arrived before the Freemen, but that wasn't a surprise to the humans given how they had seen this earlier just before the Battle of the Bugs. They didn't understand the whole business about hyperlanes, so they simply communicated with their escorts to meet them at the final destination system once the warp drive had finished spooling up again and the ship had lined up its target.

[The Clans]

She regards him with a stony face as she's spoken to through an earpiece before her features soften. "Is your title First Citizen or Model Citizen? I have been told the first and just now been told the latter. I apologize if I've gotten it wrong, please, correct me if that is the case. But... If I may ask... If there is a threat of mass destruction, why is there only a bunker here and not the rest of the buildings or capital?"

[Offizier Necro]

"Model Citizen. It was likely a translation mistake of some sort, I apologize."

In regards to the bunker comment... Claryse had to think for a bit. The idea of making an entire city a bunker seemed outright silly, but he kept the comment to himself and simply explained the reasoning politely.

"As for the bunker, first of all, that would be extremely expensive to remake every major city underground to the point of bankrupting the government and causing anarchy, so we aren't capable of doing day-to-day operations in such a manner to begin with. Secondly, the threat isn't active. The existence of emergency shelters is for just that: emergencies. Events particularly out of the ordinary. As we are in an economic boom, we have the money available to spend on 'just in case' projects. If we didn't have an emergency shelter and something were to happen, in the unlikely chance, then that would cause countless deaths. If we do have one, then we can save those countless lives and just rebuild. It's not very expensive to build buildings above ground, especially with modern equipment and techniques. There's even currently a growing fad near some major cities for businesses to simply mass produce houses to the point of having more homes than families to fill them."

Despite his ignorance to him providing a description of the birth of suburbia, he hoped he had made the ideas clear. Even if the concepts of the free market, nuclear families, and said nuclear families not needing to take constant shelter from nuclear fallout were unknowingly risking further confusion.

[The Clans]

Ziral listens to her translator, who stalls midway through Clayrse's explanation. There was no direct translation for the word "money" in the language commonly spoke by the Corps, so the translator waited for the rest of the context of the sentence and said "resources" instead. Similarly "businesses" was translated as "company" which was taken to mean a subdivision of a military formation.

"So... Your Council has not approved for resources to be distributed, that is understandable," she says in acknowledgement of why it has not been done, but not actually acknowledging that this is in any way sound reasoning.

"That sounds like what is happening across the Corps worlds. For the first time in our... Not species, but our... Culture's history our people can find permanent shelter outside of clan strongholds. There is so much space on the frontier that Corps personnel are able to live in individual homes on the periphery of compounds by choice. Shelter construction is not a fad for us, personal land is the #5 most requested payment for Corps personnel. Shelter construction has been part of Corps policy for at least a decade."

Though she gestures with her hands ans she speaks she makes no motion toward the bunker from actually enjoying her conversation through translator, not finding it near as awkward as she initially thought.

[Offizier Necro]

Claryse was interested to hear that they similarly were experiencing the birth of suburbia, even if not in the same way. However, being born in a desperate communist nation that fell into a prolonged and bloody war with the Endless Empire, it wasn't very comforting for Claryse to hear Ziral's misunderstandings that implied a collectivist culture or nation. Thankfully this gave Claryse some perspective on how to explain the difference between the types of government.

"It's interesting to hear that our different cultures and forms of government have created such a similar situation. However, I'm afraid there may have been another misunderstanding. Our government is regulatory, not distributive. It regulates, it doesn't handle the majority of distribution. Individuals and non-government organizations formed from more adventurous citizens trading and brokering do the majority of distribution. The government watches over the economic activities of individuals and groups to make sure that people aren't selling fraudulent products or doing anything else underhanded, and then takes a cut of what everyone makes at the end of the year to fund government projects such as police forces, firefighting, and the space program. It's like... uh..."

Claryse took a moment glancing at Ziral before whispering with his interpreter for a moment, trying to figure out a metaphor that would work since "taking hair trimmings" might not work so well for a reptilian species with unknown history of domesticated animals. After some deliberation, he went with fruits since the simple concept of fruits would probably be shared among worlds, even if they were of different types of flora such as from cacti, trees, or mushrooms.

"It's like picking some fruit to put in storage for later consumption and also to plant them elsewhere so that even more fruit can be grown. No killing the source of the fruit after each harvest, just letting it grow on its own unless it's in danger or tries to put roots in something it shouldn't, in which case it gets some careful tending or pruning. This is opposed to raising a ranch of animals for eating their meat, wherein their movements, feedings, and so on is all managed by the owners."

"Getting to the point: We fought a long and bloody series of wars to avoid being treated like cattle, so in our public ceremony I recommend minimizing references to having a distributive government if possible. We already have people on Haven that are uncomfortable about receiving protection from a foreign power due to bad historical situations, so I would appreciate some help in calming down the situation. I personally know, and deeply appreciate, that you are helping us if the 'Bugs' are any indication, but not everyone is so trusting and privy so I would like to request that part of our presentation be dedicated to alleviating these fears that some of our people have."

[The Clans]

Ziral was a little miffed at not having been invited anywhere yet to get off of her feet. Most of what Clayrse said to her went completely over her head, and what she understood felt like she was being talked down to with information that was unsolicited. Rather than act offended she flashes him a knowing toothy smile, because humans liked smiles? and quickly cleared the gap between them to lean on Clayrse's side and playfully nudge him in his side with her elbow. "Have you been getting intoxicated without me, Clayrse? Take me to your home, or into this bunker, so we can together and be more comfortable from this humidity and speak freely."

[Offizier Necro]

Ziral's chumminess was not appreciated by Claryse, including being on a first-name basis. The toothy grin was not helping him feel any more comfortable, and being offended by the question of intoxication was not helping either. He kept this to himself and did not act on his emotions or let them out, and instead remained professional about it. He politely gave a toothless smile back at the Yuxu, but was poked by the interpreter as a reminder that this was a cultural no-no which led to him resuming a neutral expression to maintain professionalism. The closest thing he did to showing his true state was passive-aggressively informing her of his earlier question regarding the bunker.

"Well, you were welcomed to hold our conversation inside of the bunker already. I assumed you wanted to remain out here, given how you didn't move when offered. We can go inside if that's what you want."

He avoided asking if she simply didn't understand how to operate of a door knob. One of the bodyguards took the cue and opened the door revealing the open shelter entrance and the stairway down which eventually led to a large meeting room with dozens of chairs, a stack of clipboards, a slightly-elevated stage infront of the chairs, and a few other miscellaneous features.

[The Clans]

She nods to him with her hands clasped at her waist, following him and accompanied by a few members of her entourage that walk several yards behind her. During the walk she chides him like a hen. "Yes, and then we had a small conversation about your cities and population booms, during which I expected you to lead me to where we are going instead of talking of politics without a drink first. You are the host and the area is unfamiliar to me. I cannot imagine that diplomats live very long on this world if they go into dark rooms before their hosts or wander where they are nit supposed to wander."

[Offizier Necro]

Claryse quietly did a breathing exercise to simmer down. He has dealt with the Herald for a long time, he can deal with this. He did his best to avoid mentioning specific issues for fear of risking further offense, including his complaint related to the concept of diplomatic immunity.

"I apologize; I assumed too much. Sadly we don't have any refreshments present, but we can fetch some for you. While we wait, is there anything you would like to start discussing pertaining to today's plans?"

A bodyguard moved two of the folding chairs to face each other for seating, then went back upstairs to presumably acquire the mentioned drinks. The bodyguard then returned with a nervous man in fatigues carrying tray with a water pitcher, a few empty glasses, some bottles of beer, and a bottle opener. The bodyguard pulled up another chair near the two others for the server to place the tray on and allow him to open two bottles of beer and pour two glasses of water for the two representatives. Claryse ignored it for the moment and didn't make the first move as he didn't actually want the refreshments to begin with want to impose.

[The Clans]

Ziral watches the chairs be moved abd the jittery nervousness of the guard. She contemplates whether sitting down is her most beneficial move or not for the words she was about to say. She did not feel like storming out would be the best response, and so she sits down on the smooth metal chair that not even clan Sleepers are made to sit on.

She clasps her hands in her lap, a sign of sincerity and looks into his eyes, darting back and forth from his eyes to his lap. "I wanted to expediate our diplomatic channels by becoming friends with you. Speaking through our translators to orchestrate this meeting has served its purpose under these unique circumstances, but if two leaders are going to speak to each other about matters of state they must know and trust each other."

She motions toward the nervous uniformed man holding the drink tray. "This soldier male does not want to be here, and yet he is." She motions again to the bodyguard that opened the folding chairs. "This one carries arms, presumably in your protection, but his uniform clothes and behavior says he is servile and not your lawful equal." She holds her arms out as if to motion to the room "This bunker of protection, as you say is for an unlikely threat. It is unlived in, it is bare, it is dead. This room is dead as if we are the first to use and decorate it."

Her arms return to her lap "My guards are all my equals, as equal in the art of killing and combat as I am at administration and diplomacy, they are not servile but here for the experience to be here. My only servile servants are my gift bearers to your honor, but you do not escort me, you do not serve me, your guest, as a host but have others who do not wish to be here to serve me instead. You bring me to this dead room instead of your home, you explain things to me that I neither understand nor asked for without context... Every sign is telling me that I am unwelcome here when we have only just met."

She turns to the soldier "I apologize, I do not fully understand what is happening, but if you are to be executed for failure, I apologize again, but if you do not want to be here I do not want you here." She turns back to Claryse wuth her hands again clasped "You are a leader on this planet, yes?" She says out of desperation, not knowing if there was an error in translation or not. She waits for his response, waiting to see if this was a misunderstanding, if her complaints will be addressed, if her counterpart's rudeness will give her reason to rough him up before leaving to make her point known, or if she'll have to shoot her way out to the surface.

[Offizier Necro]

The speech wasn't very touching to Claryse or the other humans present. In fact, it was very concerning. Ziral's words seemed to imply that their people worked on personal favors, reputation, and bondage rather than transactions and professionalism, making them seem even more uncomfortably similar to the overthrown Endless Empire. Ziral's behavior in general made her seem to Claryse like she was a cocky fool who thought herself much more brilliant than warranted, especially with getting offended by getting talked down to but still not understanding the dumbed-down explanation. Overall, it was a diplomatic trainwreck on both sides.

Once the speech was done with, the nervous off-duty soldier glanced between Ziral's interpreter and Claryse. Claryse closed his eyes for a moment then nodded to the soldier. With that cue, the nervous soldier speed-walked the hell out of there to avoid being killed by lizard space-Hitlers, especially when he wasn't allowed to bring a sidearm.

Despite the grunt's poorly-veiled emotions, the other humans in the room maintained their boring composure. Claryse sat down in his chair in an attempt to deescalate the situation before responding.

"I am the elected leader, yes, but almost everyone on this planet is my equal in terms of legal rights. Everyone here chose and worked towards having their jobs here, and this is our assignment of the day. However, I have been trying to accommodate you by bringing you drinks and shelter when asked, but it seems we've been having issues due to our different cultures and contexts. This is would be a fairly standard first meeting among foreign leaders among humans under similar circumstances, actually significantly greater than standard given the parade and speech, but clearly this isn't what your culture would deem standard or great. I could have brought you to my home, but I did not do that as the parade will lead to the capitol building, which contains my home, so it would be redundant. I do not personally prepare you food, we have people here specifically for such tasks. I do not personally carry a weapon to protect myself and you, as we have these gentlemen specifically trained for that task. While the signs you are seeing are that I am being rude, from my standpoint I am having all resources granted to you as available and am trying my best."

"I did not tell the soldiers to all leave the living areas and invite you to the officers' quarters or some other more warm and 'lived-in' place as I am doing my best to ensure your safety. As I told you earlier at the end of that long explanation, there are humans who are afraid of the Yuxu. I am trying to do my best to ensure that you can speak infront of Haven and reassure everyone you're not evil. Letting random people where you are and being in insecure locations unnecessarily increases the risks of some random recruit or pedestrian pulling out a pistol and ruining the day. I'm trying to keep things calm and safe, such as by not taking a stroll through the public streets to my high-profile home before the main event."

Claryse sighed quietly before finishing off: "Once the well-guarded and -secured ceremonies are finished and my entire species isn't so tense, then I can show you my home. Deal?"

[The Clans]

Everything Claryse thought about Ziral, she thought of him and more. From her perspective, he was looking down on her just because she was an alien and was being rushed to be accomodated as an afterthought rather than with any real sincerity. This implied that Claryse either wielded great power without the grace of leader and was deliberately treating her poorly as an abuse of power, or whatever position he held was not gained with talent or skill but by appointment. To those who grew up under Mysha's and the Corps' reforms both of these were the cardinal sins of ruinous tyrants.

When he says the word "evil" something clicks in her brain. Something deeply unsettling. "Evil? What do you mean evil? We have risked our own lives and space ships (translated from the common word rig) to protect you from the giant ship insects. We blanketed the surface in emergency broadcasts detailing evacuation routes and real-time points of impact of the crashing ship. We removed radioactives from the wreck so the farmland would not become poisoned. Relations between soldiers and your scientists were amicable, ugh, our translators are the best of friends. What have we done to prove otherwise? Is that... Is that why the uniformed male did not want to be in here? That he thinks I'm evil, that I'm going to just sink my claws into his throat, rip it out, and drink his blood as if from a hatchling's horror story? "

She leans forward with her elbows on her thighs to support her upper body, looking him dead in the eyes with her sudden unblinking ones. "What kind of a staged ambush am I about to walk into? Is there even any possibility that I can undo this sabotage? If a people's leaders cannot convince their people, or have convinced them of the opposite... What are the chances that they will listen to the monster they've been made to fear?"

[Offizier Necro]

The situation was simply getting more and more frustrating for Claryse as it went on, with the mutual relations deteriorating further. Claryse massaged his temples gently before forming a response to it all.

"I am fully aware of what your people did for us. You went above and beyond for a bunch of strangers and saved countless lives. But that doesn't stop the ignorant. This is a problem with having a free society that we cannot really control what people say and think with a simple snap of our fingers. While I think your kind deserves recognition for saving possibly our entire species from the Bugs' possible invasion, hence the parade, that doesn't mean the non-government people owning radio stations and newspapers agree with me, and it doesn't mean the half-literate bum condemning my fair election and wanting the genocidal emperor back will trust my words either. These media corporations... they get money for having people tuning in and consuming their media. People tend to pay closer attention to big groups talk about how there is danger afoot and not when everything is mundane and fine."

"So while I'm not a mind-reading magician, I think the man does think you are some sort of horror story villain because of the media frenzies and the sympathizers of the tyrannical Empire that preceded us that are sabotaging our attempts at cooperation, despite how clearly absurd these people are being. They're thrashing at the firefighters that just dragged them out of a blaze."

"However, a large part of the problem stems from cultural differences as I have been saying. For example, the mounting of sapient skulls on vehicles is considered a big taboo that is considered an overly cliché gimmick of savages and villains of fiction and ancient history. Your kind employs people smaller than your average adult, which implies, whether or not it is true, that you use child labor: something that has been outlawed for our people for being considered cruel and unfair. A more innocent and subtle thing is simple attire. Many of your people wear robes instead of pants, which brings up bad memories of the genocidal emperor in recent history and the fashion of his underlings. The media can smell juicy stories to spin for personal benefit from a mile away, but having a previously-unknown culture that accidentally crosses lines it didn't know existed leaves those potential stories within arms' reach."

"What I want to accomplish today, with the whole world listening, is to have a representative of the Yuxu personally calm everyone down. My supporters will trust me and my detractors won't, but having a representative of the Yuxu will make it so that I'm not just trying to defend the Yuxu on mere hearsay just like 'the enemy'. If this speech goes well, we'll have reassurance from the Yuxu directly and in-quotation without it being able to be spun before it reaches everyone."

"With how important this speech is to ensuring the cooperation of the people, we've been taking every precaution to make this not an ambush, up to and including holding our preliminary conversation inside of a bunker without letting the majority of soldiers here know you specifically are the VIP. They don't know who's just a translator, a servant, or an honor guard, but they need to protect the entourage I'm with no matter what. This ensures that even the craziest xenophobe around can't jump out of a formation and do anything, as even if someone were so crazy to do so, they would not be capable of distinguishing who it is they would be targeting. And that's assuming there is even someone who would be near and able enough to do such a thing, which we have been further preventing. We have many other layers of security in place to ensure that this is not an 'ambush'."

"While we haven't received any indication that there would even be a attempt, we have ensured that there cannot be one. We have everyone attending patted down and checked, and have undercover people in the crowds doubly ensuring protection, and we further have people in position for detecting and countering snipers even if they did somehow breach the checkpoints. You're officially receiving better protection than me today, and I was the leader of all known life before our kinds met."

[The Clans]

Ziral lowers her head and massages her own temples out of frustration at what her translator is telling her. "Everyone in the crowd is to be disarmed for my safety, as if my safety is any more important than anyone else in the audience. And the media, you do not know the media on a first name basis?" She lets out a long exhausted sigh. "I feel like I am about to speak to a crowd of disarmed Sleepers/slaves (human translation could go either way). Even the lowest of our society are permitted arms... I'm not understanding how a leader becomes a leader without a supermajority of support or why active resistance is allowed to persist without being shot."

She pauses for a moment before speaking again. "On Yuxun or on any of our colonies, we would speak to an audience where anyone who wanted to carry arms would and the only people who would be searched and disarmed would be adolescents. The media would only state the facts of the meeting and joke publications would be understood as satire... These comparisons to the previous regime are taken seriously? Do they not understand how statistically unlikely it is for aliens to have the exact same style of dress and government as the previous regime? Are these superficial comparisons? I cannot i.agine that side by side we are the exact same consideri g how little information about each others' cultures exist between us. That was the secondary purpose of this meeting.. I used to keep several clans and city-states cooperating without killing each other, each with their own customs and laws and what ai am heari g sounds so foreign and... alien that it does not make sense. It sounds as if you do not rely on each other for your own survival, but surely you do? You've formed a complex planet spanning government without cooperating?"

[Offizier Necro]

The human translator fed his superior the translation of "Sleeper" meaning "slave", as "Sleeper" wouldn't be interpreted correctly due to Claryse not having the preexisting cultural understanding that it wasn't literal. The implication of slavery didn't do much to help relieve tension. On the bright side, at least Ziral seemed to be a bit selfless in her consideration for the common man. He decided to move from the point about guns to just discuss the media and public support instead of gun licenses.

"We determine our leaders through whoever has the most votes from the represented area, and given that there are several candidates vying for the positions, this means that no one has a majority. We don't allow murdering people, regardless of social standing, but being vocal against leaders or policies is allowed as we view freedom of speech as a vital right to allow an informed voting populace and to prevent tyranny. There are thousands of major news companies of wildly varying standards, so I cannot personally visit every last one and ensure they're supporting my views when all of the other parties, interest groups, activists, and politicians are trying to do the same for their own. They are merely speculating and discussing rumors, so no laws are being violated, and thus there isn't much I can personally do outside of hosting events such as this. Some publications side with cooperation and learning, others support isolationism and xenophobia. I cannot do my job and simultaneously negotiate with thousands of publishers individually, which is why I pay people to do the job of handling public relations and negotiating with the media. Every other politician on Haven does this as well."

"I agree that it is very unlikely that your culture and the Empire's are the same given that you have had no interaction, but as I said, speculation and rumors exist in spite of the extreme odds against this. The public is still in a sort of 'first impressions' phase right now, which again is part of the purpose of this event."

"So because of this freedom, low amount of government control, and nonviolent dissent, I guess you could say that we don't directly rely on each other for survival and we work without cooperating. But we write strongly worded articles and boycott industries instead of having clans or city-states 'killing each other', and we use competing private actors trying to use anything they can to succeed to create a balance like prey and predators reaching an equilibrium, so in a way our lack of cooperation is what lets us be a 'complex planet spanning government'."

[The Clans]

Ziral waves her hand in front of her face to signal Claryse to stop. Everything she was hearing was complete nonsense to her, it was almost as if humans still used 'first past the post voting'. If that was the case she did not realize just how advanced her badlands dwelling people were by comparison. "Please, no more. We do not kill each other, it was a phrase meant to save time. No one in my position kills, conflict is a military matter. My job is to ensure diplomatic matters do not turn into military ones. Let us leave cultural understanding to our scientists or to a time when we do not have speeches to prepare. Let us rehearse."

Ziral lines out that the Freemen will parade through the city while playing their anthem while the Corps marines follow behind just far enough so their anthem does not drown out or interfere with the Freemen's. At the end the soldiers will fill out in front of a stage where she and Claryse will give their speeches. She places a rectangle with an illuminated piece of glass on the table and scrolls through it to view each individual speech card with a click of a notched scroll wheel on the side of the device. She opens by saying that her species has only been in space for a few decades and has never come across another intelligent species except for the crew of an unknown ship and the crews of, she then lists the name of every vessel part of the Herald's fleet, who they became fast friends with through the sharing of music and mathematical principles. She goes on to detail the battle with the uncommunicative bugs in space and its eventual crippling just before it reached Haven. She then goes on to highlight the few friendships made vetween the translators and the scientists at the bug ship crash site, who she calls by name, as examples that their species can live together as friends and in light of the known hostile insects and the unknown ship, the Corps and the Yuxu people will allow unrestricted access to their technology for scientific research to better bootstrap Haven's spaceborne military to hannot external threats. She concludes by describing the wondets that space flight has brought to her own people and hopes that they will rewards. to reap the same rewards.

"Have I mispoken and said anything offensive to your people?"

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