Subject: Ambassador Ulooni

Species: Urakari

Description: Reptilian humanoid, no tail. 5'3" (1.6 m) avg height. 135 lbs (61 kg) avg weight. 105 year life expectancy.

Ship: N/A

Location: Rigara

"Listen, we all want this to work out," Ambassador Helen Altis lied. "This trade agreement will be an absolutely monumental moment in the history of both of our people. However, I cannot sign off on the agreement as it stands."

She gave me a patronizing frown as she slid the tablet containing our offer towards me. My blood boiled, but I managed to keep my cool. She's asking far too much for far too little. At first I thought it was a rather amateurish bargaining tactic, but it's been days and she hasn't budged a bit.

Our original offer had been fair, but tilted somewhat in our favor. An offer intended to leave room for negotiation, but still had plenty of benefit for the United Systems. The offer from Ambassador Altis had been ridiculous. It left no benefit for the Republic, and we would be foolish to even consider it.

Even the damned routes made no sense. For the life of me, I can't figure out what her angle is in all this. Part of me wished that High Ambassador Shuel were here, but that part of me was easily suppressed when I imagined her reaction. It would be absolutely terrible for interstellar relations if Shuel ripped the human ambassador limb from limb.

"I see. Well, we are unlikely to meet your demands, but I will consult with the appropriate officials, once again," I said in my most polite tone as I gathered the tablet from the table.

"That's so good to hear," she said, smiling once again. "I hope we can come to terms soon."

It was a toothy smile, and I'd come to learn that it was intentionally disingenuous. A plausibly deniable insult directed toward those who are in a position requiring politeness. Her alumari assistant wasn't nearly as expressive, but her stillness told me that she was deeply uncomfortable. I nodded a goodbye, not trusting myself to speak, and left the office.

I walked with a purpose down the hallway towards my own office, wondering what I should do about this. Could I report her? To whom? Not a single one of the US officers I passed along my way could help me. Ambassador Helen Altis is a member the United System's Senate Ambassadorial Commission, not the US military. Well, maybe they could get a message to Helen's higher ups at USSAC?

No, that would be a terrible plan that is sure to backfire. If USSAC knows what Helen is doing, then approaching them would only serve to demonstrate that whatever they are doing with Helen is working. Even if they don't know what Helen is doing, using backchannels to resolve the issue would give both the US and the Republic a diplomatic black eye. At least we'd be even, but I should at least talk to my superiors about it first.

Thank the sun the other negotiations are going well. Before Helen had arrived, the US Diplomatic Corps had ironed out the details on our joint-fleet building operations and things were well under way. Plus, representatives from the Ynorinca and the Pwanti had arrived and committed to the offensive action. I wasn't in charge of those negotiations, but sitting in on them had proven somewhat amusing.

The human USSAC diplomat in charge of those negotiations, Charles Hemwight, had been brutally honest regarding the United Systems. He had laid out the entire bloody history of the US, as well as a good chunk of the even bloodier history of humanity, the gont, and the alumari. The various and brutal wars that humanity and the alumari had fought before their space ages, the brutal monarchies and dictatorships of the gont, and even the various genocides that each race had committed against themselves.

It had been a disturbing, yet enlightening, conversation. It inspired Avmra Eghazo, our Oyan diplomatic representative, to do the same. She'd detailed the various unification wars, the piracy age, and several of the crimes against nature that some of our individual species had taken part in. Once these history lessons had been completed, the independent species had opted to deliberate for some time. Understandably so, they'd been given a lot to think about.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Once they returned to the table, the Ynorinca seemed more interested in the Republic and the Pwanti seemed more interested in the US. Both seemed noncommittal, however. It was obvious that they had thought they only had one of two choices. Join the US, or join the Republic. Charles had clarified that they could remain independent or even unify with each other without negative ramifications from the United Systems.

Avmra was quick to clarify that the Republic agreed with this stance, but the fact that Charles had suggested it in the first place raised my respect for him quite a bit. By the warmth of the sun, I wish he'd been assigned Helen's position. Maybe I should ask him for advice? No, it would probably be inappropriate to ask him how to sidestep his colleague...

"Hello Ambassador Ulooni," a familiarly vague voice said from behind me as I turned a corner.

I spun around and saw three marines, an unfamiliar human dignitary, and a figure in a familiar black suit of armor.

"Warm greetings, Director 3," I said with a smile. "At least, I hope that's Director 3 under there."

"It is," Director 3 nodded. "Your inability to tell means the suit's doing its job. It's good that I ran into you, I was about to go to your office. May we speak in private?"

It's highly irregular for a member of a military to wish to privately speak to a foreign diplomat, but then hardly anything can be considered regular for the group that the United Systems call the directorate. They're the anonymous overseers of the US military, who are themselves overseen by an exceedingly capable Artificial Intelligence. All this had been in a briefing packet, and the transparency had made me wonder what they could be hiding.

"It must be quite important. Yes, we can speak in my office," I gestured down the hall.

Director 3 nodded to the dignitary, who returned the gesture and began traveling down the hallway that I'd come from with one of the marines. I tried not to wonder who he was or where he was going as I led the director to my office. We entered the somewhat cozy room, and I gestured for the director to take a seat. As he did so, one of the marines stood in front of the outside of my door, and the other stood in front of the inside of my door. Anyone who would want to interrupt this discussion was going to have a fairly anxious time of it.

"Thank you for meeting with me, ambassador," Director 3 began. "How's your brother been?"

"You would likely know more about that than I would," I chuckled. "Last I heard he was on the USSS Thanatos acting as a military ambassador to the Ynorinca. Personally, I think he should have joined the Ynorincan delegation and travelled here, taking over for Ambassador Avmra, but the powers that be disagree."

"Indeed they do. Well, I'm happy to inform you that your brother is still alive, well, and doing a good job as far as the US is concerned. Turning to a more serious matter, what is your opinion of Ambassador Helen Altis?"

"It would be inappropriate for me to share my personal opinion of the ambassador with a representative of her government," I replied.

"Yes, I suppose it would be. The reason I wanted to meet with you is because we'll be replacing Ambassador Helen," the director explained. "I wanted to explain why, to alleviate any concerns you may have regarding her... treatment of our trade discussions."

I had secretly been hoping that was the case, but the news still shocked me. I managed to catch my jaw before it dropped, but my surprise had to have been obvious.

"Helen Altis is a covert member of an organization known as The Front of Humanity. It is a xenophobic organization that believes that humanity would be better served by being alone in the universe. Helen's mission from them was to sabotage the trade agreement in such a way that would harm relations between the US and Republic."

"Well, she very nearly did just that," I held up my tablet. "If I'd had to give this to my superiors, there's no doubt they'd be displeased."

"Indeed. Her assistant noted her... tough negotiation strategy and reported it. Unfortunately, Helen's direct superior is also a member of TFH and kept the report from the rest of USSAC. The Bureau of United Systems Intelligence caught wind of this report, though, and began covertly observing Helen and her boss," Director 3 said.

"I see."

"It was fairly easy to confirm that her boss is a member of TFH, but Helen was stealthier. It took time to catch her in a mistake, which was that she sent a coded message bragging about her success to her superiors in TFH. She was likely unaware that she was under surveillance, and this gave us the actionable intelligence required to remove her from her current position."

"What's going to happen to her?"

"I cannot divulge that information. However, Helen will be immediately replaced by Ambassador Charles Hemwight, and we will be accepting your original trade proposal," Director 3 explained. "Assuming it's still on the table?"

"I can make sure it is," I said with a warm smile and a nod.

"That's good to hear. I'm glad we..." Director 3 froze for a moment, as if listening to something. "Apologies, I have to take my leave."

"What's going on?"

"I cannot divulge that information, but you'll hear about it soon enough," the director said as he stood. "Thank you for your time, Ambassador Ulooni. I hope you accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience that Ambassador Altis may have caused. Goodbye."

I was left without words as Director 3 hurriedly left my office. I was bemused at first, but then I felt the icy stab of fear in my chest as I realized the gravity of a situation that could cause someone as powerful as a Director to cut a meeting short. I'll hear about it soon enough?

What could that mean?