T. Harris - The Legend of Earth

“Then my announcement shall give you a challenge like never before.”

“Indeed. And speaking of the announcement, the representatives should all be assembled by now. Are you ready to turn the galaxy upside down, my friend?”

Adam suddenly felt knots twist in his stomach. He had never been comfortable with public speaking; his only consolation came from knowing that only about thirty beings would be present — and nearly all of them would be aliens.

Adam’s ‘announcement’ would take place in a room resembling a small college lecture hall. There were several rows of seats rising up to the back of the room and all facing a small stage. A lectern had been set up on the stage.

Adam had had a year to prepare for this announcement, even though he had long ago decided not to follow any formal structure. He wasn’t a public speaker, so instead he would simply state the facts as best he knew them and then play it by ear. For far too long he had made himself sick wondering how his presentation would turn out, but then one day, months ago, he came to a liberating realization: He didn’t give a damn what they thought! This was something the Human race was doing for their own benefit, and not for the Expansion’s.

If the aliens didn’t like it — then tough.

Adam and Kroekus entered the hall from a side door. There was a cacophony of alien chatter filling the room when they entered that quickly dropped to a hush as they were noticed. The Administrator took a seat off to the side of the audience while Adam climbed the three short steps to the stage and moved behind the podium.

He placed notes down on the small surface before him and then took a quick glance at his audience. There was a menagerie of aliens of nearly all shapes and sizes sitting before him, but since ninety percent of the members of the Expansion were Primes — meaning Humanoid to Adam — they all followed the same basic physicality. Even then, some wore pressure suits and helmets, while still others had small tubes running to their noses, providing supplemental breathing atmosphere they required.

These were the appointed representatives of the twenty-three sectors of the Expansion, along with a few VIP’s from manufacturing and commerce. It would have been impractical to hold such a meeting with representatives from every planet in the Expansion, nearly eight thousand worlds. Now that would have really tied Adam’s stomach up in knots. Eight thousand aliens all in one room — and imagine the smell!

There was a familiar face smiling at him from the front row. Adam immediately recognized the two dangling appendages below his ears and knew it to be Kaylor. So he’s entered politics? I didn’t see that coming, Adam thought. Better him than the emotional little bear, Jym. But even as he nodded at the tall Belsonian, he caught himself. Just look at me! I’ve entered the political arena myself, so I can’t be critical of anyone else. I wonder if he’s having as shitty a time doing this as I am?

He cleared his throat and the chatter in the room began to diminish. It took a couple more ah-hems before it was quiet.

Adam had no idea what the formal welcoming would be for all these various races, so he chose something very basic and generic.

“Greetings to all,” he began. “I am Adam Cain, Special Ambassador from the planet Earth and representing the interests of the Human race.” The one thing that actually allowed him to remain somewhat calm during his presentation was that he was sure most of the creatures here couldn’t discern Human body language, so no matter how much he screwed up, he was sure they wouldn’t notice. Maybe a shaky voice and redness in the cheeks was normal for a Human….

“I come before you today to make a very important announcement regarding the continued Human involvement in the affairs of the Expansion. Yet before I make the formal statement, I would like to summarize what my race has experienced during the past seven years, since the time we first assumed control of the Expansion.

“As all of you should be aware by now, our conflict with the Juireans was thrust upon us. At the time, my race was not planning some great invasion of Juirean territory, and therefore was not a threat to the Juireans, or to the Expansion and any of its members. It was the Klin who circulated these rumors, causing the Juireans to take action against us. The Klin needed a war between the Humans and Juireans to further their ambitions — and they got one. However, the results of this conflict were not as they had planned.”

A murmur ran through the crowd. Many of the delegates present were still loyal to the Juireans; many were not, yet they all missed the stability the Juireans had brought to their sectors. For the most part, Humans were resented by the majority of the delegates, even though all those present knew there was no viable alternative at the time.

“After the war, and the destruction of Juir, we Humans found ourselves deluged with calls for leadership from the members of the Expansion. For thousands of years, there had always been one central race to set the rules and maintained peace and stability in the galaxy. Now that the Juireans were gone, that job fell to the Humans.”

Adam paused to take a sip of water. He caught Kaylor’s eye, who was watching him intently with a frown. Adam sent him a quick wink as he finished with the water.

“Now the thing you have to realize about Humans is that we enjoy being in charge, so the opportunity to govern a galaxy was quite appealing to many of us, even though we didn’t have a clue about what we were doing. Luckily for us — and for all of you — none of the members sought to challenge us militarily for that position. That would have been a mistake.

“However, it wasn’t long before we began to realize just how involved the Juireans had been in the day-to-day operations of the Expansion. The rules and regulations that had evolved over time — along with their enforcement — came as second-nature to the Juireans, and it appeared at first that the Expansion functioned pretty much on its own, with very little outside influence or direction.

“We were wrong. It turned out that running a thing as big as a galaxy takes a total commitment from those attempting it. Over the past seven years, the Human race has tried to embrace that commitment, not only for the good of the Expansion, but also for ourselves, for without this total commitment, we were doomed to fail.

“As you’re probably already aware, Humanity is very good at certain things, and primary among these is the fighting of wars. This was the main reason the Klin chose us to go up against the Juireans. However, we also pride ourselves on being good administrators. This is a talent, however, that we may have been fooling ourselves about.

“Most of the governmental systems on Earth consist mainly of an accumulation of past laws and regulations all stacked one on top the other, with very few of the old, inefficient or outdated laws ever being purged from the system. We simply write new laws to try and correct the effects of the old ones.

“But now we found ourselves in control of a galaxy, and just like before, our leaders jumped right in and starting setting down thousands upon thousands of new laws, regulations, and guidelines regarding how the Expansion should be managed, even though we had no idea what we were doing. Unfortunately, a lot of these early efforts didn’t work and only made things worse — to say the least. The feedback from many of you in this room has helped us gain our footing, but it’s still a mess.

“Most of what I’m saying is just a lead up to what has been our greatest revelation. On the Earth, our land is divided into about two hundred separate and distinct countries . I know most of you cannot grasp this concept, but you must understand we are new to the galactic community. Before now, we had not looked upon ourselves as one race or one planet among many. We do now — and things are changing — but old habits die hard.