"The reason that an ascended species is allowed to influence a species that is not, is only if it is beneficial to the species that is not ascended." Osowl Fitten, the delegate for the abdicated humans of the Azrahool divine royalty stated. "On Azrahool, the humans were largely unaware of their appointment. It was only the most juvenile human that interacted with the natives of Azrahool, and the interaction seemed very brief to the individual human. What followed was a rapid ascent of the native Azrahool, who no longer remained fettered by obsolete taboos. Within the span of time that the humans needed to get rescued, the natives of Azrahool had built their own spaceships. This is significant when we consider that the diminutive creatures of Azrahool had only Neolithic levels of technology, due to their self-limitations, when the humans first arrived.

It was, from the perspective of the human child, merely an afternoon spent playing with her new fur-covered friends. I must mention the well-known peculiarity of human psychology that perceives other sentient species as anthropomorphized animals they are familiar with, and that their instinctive reaction often reflects how their species feels about the animal they are familiar with.

To the individual human, the natives of Azrahool closely resembled talking gerbils wearing flowery lays. Her instinctive reaction was one of delight, and her behavior became playful and nurturing, as are normal reactions of a young human female when she has made new friends. It is important that all of her actions were intended as play and were done in the nature of friendship - since we are holding the entire human species accountable for what happened to the natives of Azrahool. While the disaster that followed was horrifying by any measure - any responsibility placing the blame on humans should be kept in mind that all was done in the name of friendship, regardless of the consequences."

The speaker, Osowl Fitten, was the Grand Defender appointed to argue in favor of the humans. She resembled an elderly sea otter with bony armor growing all over her body in stylized patterns. She had long whiskers that twitched, which is actually how she spoke in her native language. The family of humans sat on the defense side of the space courtroom, and with them was the little girl named Jinar whose gerbils were the natives of Azrahool. She watched Osowl Fitten with fascination, and her quick mind studied the movement of the whiskers that were translated into Language Number Eight of the humans by the servo, speaking in the voice of Park Eun-Bin. During the trial, the little girl named Jinar picked up some of the language of the Frendsikeel, Osowl Fitten's nearly extinct people.

In a conversation that had happened earlier, that is worth mentioning to illustrate the level of Jinar's individual observations:

Jinar: "I've seen three Cave Gods, many Sunder, five Blue Light Watchers and some really weird looking humans, but only one Frendsikeel. Why is that?"

Osowl Fitten: "It is a sad fact that I am probably the only one you will ever see. There are not more than a few of my people left, scattered across the galaxy."

Jinar: "That is sad."

Osowl Fitten: "The Frendsikeel colonies were few in number, and an unknown enemy attacked and destroyed all of them, and also our homeworld."

Jinar: "Someday I am going to destroy whoever did that."

Osowl Fitten: "Why?"

Jinar: "Because they deserve it."

Osowl Fitten: "Always consider otherwise."

Jinar: "Is that what you do?"

Osowl Fitten: "It is ruthful but it is often correct."

Jinar: "What if it isn't?"

Osowl Fitten: "In that case, I cannot object to a human doing what they do."

And Jinar looked into Osowl Fitten's flax eyes, sensing some deep sentience and wisdom. She wanted to be like the Grand Defender, not like the human soldiers her parents were. She evolved as Osowl watched, fascinated by the change in the creature, a seed of true sentience blossoming quickly in a fertile mind.

Back in the courtroom, such a moment recalled sentimentally by both the Grand Defender and the defendant was interrupted, as their attention was drawn to the dramatic entrance of the Exalted Inquisitor. Osowl Fitten was not surprised but noted the pattern when the Exalted Inquisitor who arrived was none other than the Sunder named Eshka Layanna.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the highly respected jury of ambassadors and evangelists, kingmakers, trusted representatives and brave messengers, hear me." She spoke directly in English, with no need of a translator. Her voice was raspy and reptilian, but she articulated herself cleanly. The holographic subtitles appeared around her though, showing all what her words meant. "In the past the Sunder administration has made preparations that have gone unused, due to the behavior of humans. This time, however, there is no way to justify what they have done. It is beyond egregious, the extinction of an entire species! The horror!"

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The Sunder had a strange look in her eyes that Osowl had not seen before. She realized Eshka Layanna had molted since she had seen her before, and the serpent was well hydrated and had fed on loads of protein. The Sunder's level of enthusiasm and the health of her brain were primed for a complex argument. Osowl felt nervous, realizing the Sunder was right, any argument in the defense of the humans causing the extinction of an entire species was futile.

The opening speech of the Exalted Inquisitor was passionate and long winded, the tribunal actually interrupted her to call a recess. Unprecedented was an opening speech so protracted and sermon-like that it required an intermission. The Sunder had made the last preparation they could, as human development had gotten on-board with their tier of technology. This time, they would put a tariff on all trade done with human worlds that built starships, raising the cost of spacetravel to limit their exploration, possibly indefinitely. They also wanted to implement orbital shoals to make spacetravel between human worlds more hazardous. The jury found these measures to be acceptable, if humans were found guilty of causing the annihilation of an entire species.

The courtroom spent several days reviewing Jinar's interactions with the native Azrahool, who were known as Gerbils, as the individual of an ascended species had dubbed them, and they had accepted the name.

Jinar's family was aboard a system-class starship that crash-landed on Azrahool. They were able to activate a request for help, and camped on Azrahool, awaiting rescue. During their stay, Jinar, their child, wandered into the forest alone.

There she met the natives, who she thought were gerbils, so she called them Gerbils. They spoke in their simple chittering language and Jinar, a human with uncommon mental abilities - picked up much of their talk right away. They showed her a mural that depicted a Gerbil leaping over a massive log and then drinking fruit juice from an enormous cup. There was more, but it was overgrown with vines.

Jinar went and found the largest log she could, passing the ones they said were fine - logs already far too tall for any of them to jump over. Jinar stepped over one of these logs to demonstrate it would not do.

Then she found a log she would actually need a running start. The high priests of the native Azrahool were singing and chanting, evidently a massive religious upheaval was underway. Indeed, their entire society had long awaited a singular leader, united by the sign of the impossible tasks. Their whole civilization had halted, waiting for this day for a long time.

When Jinar ran and jumped over a log that was more impossible to traverse in a single bound than the sacred testing logs themselves, which she had merely stepped over and rejected. The Gerbils cheered with insane enthusiasm, as few had leapt even the smallest logs, and never such a mighty one.

Jinar held her hands up in triumph and accepted the ululations of the Gerbils. Then they brought forth the next test of godhood. Another, even more impossible task. It was twenty-four ounces of juice in a massive ornate cup, large enough to drown one of the Gerbils. Jinar accepted it and held it up as awed silence befell the Gerbils.

Slowly and quietly they began a chittering chant, and they were saying "Drink the flagon, drink the flagon!" believing that maybe this godlike creature could do so. The little girl squared her feet and tipped back the cup and neatly drank the whole twenty-four ounces of delicious fruit juice.

For a second the Gerbils, their eyes wide with astonishment, were in silent awe. Then as she cleared her throat and went 'Ah' and wiped her lips on the back of her uniform's sleeve - the Gerbils went completely wild. They began to party, a massive Jubilee occurred. The day was a holiday, and debts were cleared and the rules about trying to do things beyond what was known to be possible - were out.

While the humans waited for a rescue, the Azrahool technology doubled every day. By the time the humans were being evacuated, their god Jinar ascending to the skies on a spaceship, the Gerbils were ready for launch. They all piled into their massive rockets, leaving not one member of their species behind.

Everything was fine, as they reached orbit. The Gerbils continued to celebrate, leaving no command over their spaceships. One by one, each starship experienced disastrous failures. When it was over, only a burning shower of wreckage remained of the Azrahool natives, as the pieces of their starships rained back down.

The Cave Gods watched as Jinar became inconsolable at the fate of the Gerbils. When the jury found the humans guilty and recommended the Sunder administration's preparations, the Cave Gods intervened.

"We have heard the verdict and recommendation. We also find the defendant to be heartbroken over the destruction of the plaintiff, which was unintentional. Since only one individual acted alone, unknown to the other humans, and the responsibility of her transgressions lie entirely in the unique culture of the Gerbils, we suspend any further sentence. We find the emotional pain suffered by the defendant to be a sufficient consequence. Her soul will never forget what her actions have led."

"This is outrageous!" Eshka Layanna said in Sunder, and stormed out of the courtroom. Osowl anticipated that the Exalted Inquisitor had failed her career. She turned to the bereaved human child.

"It's all my fault." Jinar sobbed. Osowl spoke to her, but the servo was off. It was just some rapid clicking noises made by the sea otter's whiskers on the bony part of her jaw. But Jinar understood, and she felt better:

"No. You didn't want the Gerbils to fall. You were a good girl. They could not have fallen from such height if you had not lifted them up first - true. You were a good friend to your Gerbils."