Planet Kruhania
Planet Kruhania had the most prosperous civilization in the (CRP) Collective Republic of Planets, composed of 115 solar systems accessible through a wormhole network.
The Kruhanians contributed the most in science, knowledge, and technological resources.
CRP council representatives convened to elect a new government, as mandated by their constitution, to choose a new president every decade. For centuries they had chosen a Kruhanian.
But fifty-eight of the member civilizations stormed the capitol—located on a planet capable of hosting life but never evolving an advanced intelligence.
"We claim this election invalid! We will not succumb to any more Kruhanian oppression!"
The dissenters claimed Kruhanian culture encouraged too much diversity and dialectic discourse and caused them to lose their species' identities. They also spread a conspiracy theory that the Kruhanian's developed mind-manipulation technology to control the election.
The 'fifty-eight' arrested and imprisoned the Kruhanian representatives, then prepared an armada of military interstellar ships for invasion.
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Meanwhile, on the Kruhanian homeworld ...
"Professor Kerg, will it work?"
"Yes, ma'am, Chancellor Zaten, I think it will. Once activated, the quantum-encapsulator's sphere will protect and cloak our entire solar system, but we won't have the means to shut it down when the chain reaction builds and fortifies."
"Do you mean it'll trap us inside itself forever, Professor?"
"I'm not quite certain of that, ma'am... It might take a while, but the forcefield state should decay."
"Decay?"
"Yes, ma'am, the more it is observed, the longer it stays. If you choose to take that path, it'll be prudent if we erase the memory of this episode and the paradox of our isolation."
"For how long, Professor?"
"I'm guessing about ten generations ..."
Chancellor Zaten watched as the sensor grid detected millions of hostile spaceships enter the wormhole network.
"Activate the sphere right away, Professor. We've got no choice!"
Eons later ...
The Collective Republic of Planets collapsed out of greed, warfare, and scarcity while planet Kruhania and its solar system remained shielded from intruders and outside space phenomena.
Self-sustaining and in total isolation, the Kruhanians developed a culture antithetical to cosmic exploration, encouraging their people to embrace their homeworld, dissuading them from pondering or observing their isolation, for each time that had happened, the decay stopped.
But ...
They hadn't considered that outsider observations of their spherically impenetrable void also halted the decay.
No one ever again visited the Kruhanian's solar system.