I was rather less than thrilled when the details of my posting came down the pipe.

Don’t get me wrong, of course I was excited to’ve made the cut. After so many years of hard work I had finally passed selection, I had been looking forward to this day for my entire career, and most of my life. Not because the promotion came with a sizable pay increase—well yes, that too, but also, mostly, for the honor that the rank would bestow.

So I was proud, my father was proud. Their fathers before them were proud. I had brought a great honor upon my family and I now had the opportunity to serve my people in the highest of capacities.

It was a great day, I should be happy I knew. No doubt it was the highlight of my life thus far, it’s just that I had hoped my diplomatic posting would’ve been with the Bloorkäm or the Chluuryns or something like that—even an assignment with the Skythtaayr would’ve been fine by me, but alas…

I still remember the feeling of excitement as the Grand Speaker began reading off my assignment, as I stood there in formation, filled with pride, in front of all my peers and family during the Grand Reveal.

“Sergeant First Class Chakky, because of the integrity and competence you have displayed in the course of your duties, and because High Command believes you an exemplary representative of our people, it is with great honor that The Council bestows upon you the rank and responsibilities of Vice District Ambassador to our trusted friends and allies—“

And then the feeling of both of my stomachs dropping as he finished.

“—the Human race”

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Although they would deny it, I swear I heard the low rolling chirp of disappointment from my father and mother.

It took all my years of training to conceal my own dismay as the Grand Speaker placed the bright red epaulettes on my shoulders and handed me my ceremonial saber. I kept my forelegs spread broad and crest-barbs flared high in defiance of my disappointment.

Since our deployments were the following day, I forced myself to enjoy the remainder of the celebrations. After all, it would be the last time I saw my family for at least 3 Cycles, and, despite my subpar posting, I knew that they were proud of me—especially Grandmother. Her carapace had grown rather hunched in her old age, but with all her might she had straightened up as I descended the dais and approached her and the rest of my family. As everyone else was slapping me on the back and congratulating me with all their superfluous chirping, Grandmother had looked me right in the eyes and simply smiled. And in that moment I was content.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The Gala afterwards had managed to lift my spirits some. The music, the hors d'oeuvres—and, especially, the inebriants—had helped take my mind off of the situation. My comrades had also tactfully avoided bringing up anything related to my posting. This was further simplified by the fact that our valedictorian had received the most coveted posting with the Julrietens, and, as the most boastful and ostentatious of our graduating class, he had left little room for discussion of anything other than those things pertaining directly to him.

So, I managed to enjoy myself for the most part. I said my see-you-laters to friends and family, and the next day I was headed offworld on the Visp Class diplomatic cruiser, Placating Gesture of Humility, toward Human occupied space to serve my term and contribute to the strength of The Collective alongside our new allies.

The station I was assigned to, The Benevolent Hands Of Friendship Clasped Firm, was still almost a thirtieth-of-a-Cycle away via Hyperspace transit, so I took advantage of the time to refresh myself on the history of this species I would be working so closely with.

They were relatively new allies, having been formally incorporated into The Collective only 20 Cycles ago. As the textbooks recount it, initial contact had been… complicated.

It turns out that The Collective hadn’t been the first extrasolar race to contact Humans. In fact, roughly 10 Cycles prior to our discovery of the Human Homeworld, The Hegemony had already made themselves known to the Humans, and, as most encounters with The Hegemony tend to go, it was not to the benefit of Humanity.

A war had ensued between the two, although ‘war’ wasn’t really the right word for it. Humanity could barely have been considered a spacefaring race at the time, having only partially terraformed and colonized their Homeworld’s moon and the next farthest satellite from their Homesun. They’d had a handful of automated mining colonies in their Homesystem’s asteroid belt and on a few moons of the more distant gas planets, but they had no presence whatsoever beyond their Homesun’s heliopause, and, at the rate they were going, it seemed unlikely that they would survive long enough to discover Jump-Drives, Gravity-Damping, Brane-physics, or anything else necessary for interstellar civilization.

They were hopelessly outmatched by The Hegemony and its vastly superior tech, so the ‘war’ was really more of a futile resistance movement. Their extinction was imminent.

Fortunately for them, The Collective became aware of the situation and stepped in. It was not the first time we had stepped in on behalf of a nascent race under The Hegemony’s claw, and unfortunately I doubt it will be the last.

Via strategic blockading of key Jump-points and material assistance to the Human resistance, The Hegemony was forced to withdraw from the entire sector, upon whence we helped Humanity rebuild and readied them for membership in The Collective.

At least that’s the official account.

The one we learn in primary school as Nymphs.

But behind closed doors, at least a few scholars suggest that it was the Human’s unparalleled aggression against the invaders that really turned the tide of the conflict. That Humanity posed far greater a threat to The Hegemony than their Grand Regent might wish to admit. Indeed some go so far as to claim, in hushed tones, that Humanity could have posed a threat to even The Collective, had they opted to decline our offer of alliance in the few Cycles after their liberation.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

But I wasn’t really interested in all that. I didn’t care about the exact details of first contact. Over its long history, The Collective has encountered plenty of similar such situations, fought a multitude of proxy wars on behalf of oppressed civilizations, most of whom chose to integrate into The Collective afterwards.

So I knew the general shape of the Human’s interaction with The Collective. Their decidedly less-than-pleasant first contact, their initial misapprehensions regarding us, their wary acceptance of membership, and the subsequent generations of a Humanity growing ever more acclimated to an existence spread amongst the stars.

Therefore, I hadn’t given more than a cursory glance to any of those topics.

What I was really interested in was their biology, customs, and that particularly hostile world from which they hailed.

I—like every Nymph in primary school during their superficial forays into the anatomies, cultures, and origins of The Collective’s many member species—wanted to know about all of the things that made these Humans so damn terrifying.