Bestial Planet

Chapter 51: Declaration

Draconisis had poked us, prodded us and found us to be some amusing thing that he was above, they all did really. We've met friends and allies sure, but things had to be done or else we would remain the butt of every joke. The last planet in our galaxy to achieve intergalactic capabilities and only because we were pitied. Still, it didn't stop me from taking one final measurement.

Whether I liked it or not the other Ambassadors looked to me as sort of a leader. Since I started trying to answer questions in front of Section 6 nearly two years ago a lot of people saw me as a leader. Like Ioana who was from the area around Section 8 and she had the pleasure of living with Bob. One of the Androids who happened to be the most stubborn strategic analyst Mom said she'd ever met. But he was also one of the best so when Ioana had asked me to talk with him about the final preparations and going over numbers mom said I should say yes, but Bob didn't make it easy.

"Bob what are the metrics?"

"You're an engineer. You can understand my graphs and charts without my help."

"You mean 'lack of', right?"

He glared at me and I stared right back at him just as defiantly. Mei-lin kicked the table and Nik stifled a laugh before she spoke. "Will one of you read the damn thing before I go to bed. Tomorrow is a big day and I don't want to be tired for it!"

Frantz walks past us and quickly swipes through the projections.

"The stats seem to have leveled out over the last 3 weeks. 78% say we should join, 7% are undecided 11% are against and the last 4 don't care as long as we continue to get tech and medical aid."

"See it wasn't that hard was it?" Bob said to me in a mocking tone.

"I think I'm starting to want Vould here instead."

Bob smiled before he continued. "The numbers seem pretty clear to me, 82 percent are essentially in favour of Earth joining the war, not a surprise. The rest may change their minds later on but I expect they will move onto other means for pulling out of the war including parading other causes that are tangent to their personal goals."

"That's some pretty hard speculation Bob." I was surprised that he'd gone so far ahead in thought.

"A political landscape, no matter where in the universe, is always the same. Sentient beings for the most part are selfish and when they feel strongly about change they will see it happen lest compromises are met."

I understood now why Emmeth said Bob and I sounded the same.

"I guess you're right but we have to stick to the now for the time being. We're essentially talking about sending a third of the human race to the front-lines and the rest staying here and defending our home world. That's..."

"Insanity."

Emmeth spoke for the first time in two days which caught me off guard.

"I... I didn't want us to do this."

He stood up and opened the window before walking to the holo-table. "What you need to do is realize that as an Ambassador you are at the will of the people, we forgot that before and you remember how fucked up things got. If we say we want to go to war the best thing you can do is remind us that war comes with a body count. You Ambassadors have to make us understand the serious nature of an entire fucking planet agreeing to send their people to die!" Emmeth started breathing heavily but no one dared to say anything as his hand gripped the table. "We CANNOT let the Halgred or ANYONE else think they can do and say whatever they want to us. They say we're barbaric? We'll show them barbaric when we kill Halgred by the thousands! We'll show people that if they want to keep us as allies they WILL show us respect!"