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The council leader approached the lizard delegate: “The galactic council granted you the rights to a fairly big concession of space. Where did you find this ’human’ species first?“

The lizard looked back to his delegation, unsure of what to answer. After a nod from the lizards‘ President, he responded: “Well, it was an old solar system in sector B3, very close to the center of the galaxy“.

“What did you do with them?“

“First, we only observed them. They were primitive, but strong. Then, we gave them tasks. We created natural catastrophies and analyzed their reactions, we created illnesses decimating their food, we directed them into hostile environments. Surprisingly, they passed all the tests. No matter what we did, they always found a solution. Really ingenious hairy creatures.“

“So that‘s when you decided to use them for your mines?“

“Exactly. We sent ships down to the planet, each took one of the isolated tribes and brought them to a new planet. We trained them, gave them instructions and expectations, and let them work.“

The council leader nodded silently. The lizards had breached the galactic contract by not sharing their findings with the other species of the council, but their approach was reasonable. A primitive species that could work without supervision, overcoming obstacles on their own, that was a valuable asset. Their resource production had increased tremendously and made them one of the wealthiest species in the galaxy. Strengthening their position in the council worked well, until The Alarm.

The Alarm happened three days ago. The galactic council received a broadcast from an unknown species, calling themselves ’humans‘, from the space sector granted to the lizards. The other species of the council were infuriated, and requested today‘s questioning of the lizards in front of the council.

He continued the interrogation:

“You told us that you did not give any humans more tools than some mining equipment, and that you never faced major problems over the several hundred thousand years since you found them. How could The Alarm happen?“

The lizard minister looked uncomfortable.

“There was a series of unfortunate events. Fifty thousand years ago, one of the transport ships failed and landed on a planet we did not target. You remember the one were we found those dinosaurs, before the comet extinguished them? Yeah, that one. The ship crashed, and we did not expect any survivors. Also, after the comet, that planet was a total mess, no way they could survive there.“

“But apparently, they did. We located that solar system as the origin of the broadcast.“

“We‘re still not sure they‘re the same species. They don‘t have fur on their bodies anymore. They only use two of their limbs to move. They developed real language to communicate. If they would not have said what they‘ve said, we would never have made the connection to our worker species.“

The council leader interrupted the lizard: “They used a different name for your worker species in their message, how was it again?“

„Apes. They called them apes. And said they were their brothers, and that this warrants their actions“.

The council leader shook his head in disbelief. Normally, when new species discovered the galactic council, they made contact to ask for cooperation and offered labor in exchange. These humans were different. Their first and only message to the galactic council was simple, and clear: They wanted to free the apes. And if the galactic council refused, they had prepared an army of ships to liberate their brothers from the mines. What seemed like a bad joke was however quickly confirmed by the lizards: The humans had put some strange-looking, oval-shaped metal boxes in their orbit, and despite their primitive construction, the particle readings showed that they could travel at light speed.

The council leader looked at the lizard delegation and announced the end of the interrogation: “The council will decide over your fate. You have breached the contract, hidden a species for your own advantage, and lost control over their offsprings. I doubt we will renew your space concessions. But first, we will have a look at this planet and what happened in the fifty thousand years without our supervision.“

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Submitted by europeanguy99 on Thu, Mar 24, 2022 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

“So you abducted humans and forced them to create mining colonies on hellish planets?” “Yes, we came around once every five years to demand tribute under threat of annihilation. Perfect scheme, very low maintenance.” “So what went wrong?” “We misplaced one of the colonies”.