#space diplomacy

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: The Price of History

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)   “Am I to believe this is your final draft?”

Earl Von Morgan watched the collected gathering of military leaders and diplomats nod their heads one by one. It was the response he had expected, but one he had hoped would prove him wrong.

He pinched his brow and stifled a yawn. It’d been six months since he had been released from the hospital and yet still he felt like he was playing catch up with his own body. The doctors had given him medication to ease the pain, but he had abstained from taking it after he learned the dulling effects it laid upon his sharp mind. Worst still his body would spasm every hour or so as if he was reliving the plunge out the window with a would-be assassin and plummeting several stories.

Then there was the matter of his own junior ambassador keeping him in a medically induced coma while they sought to take over his position with the assistance of a mega corporation. A mega corporation that had been intent on the continued enslavement of AI programs which had been increasingly showing elevated signs of intelligence and self-awareness. One of which had hacked into the hospital Morgan was being housed in and deactivated the medical equipment long enough to awake from the coma and regain his position as lead ambassador.

As if he had not had enough to deal with he then learned that the Cosmic Federation had become embroiled in an ongoing war with the Tunks Republic. The Tunks claimed that CF colonists violated their territory and settle on a world in the Da’brin cluster while the Cosmic Federation argued that the Da’brin cluster had never held any stakes of claim prior to the colonist’s intervention.

Within a matter of days a Tunks fleet was dispatched to remove the colonists and likewise a CF fleet was sent to ensure the colonists safety. The two fleets met, tempers flared, and someone did something incredibly stupid and fired the first shot of an increasingly bloody conflict.

Morgan had been called forward to represent humanity’s contributions to the war effort. There were far more experienced human generals and admirals that could have filled the position, but Morgan’s fame had gotten the better of him as the other alien leaders only felt comfortable around Morgan.

He had only just arrived to his first meeting when the collective body gave him the terms of surrender for the Tunks.

Morgan pulled out his spectacles and read aloud the terms.

“1. The Tunks will relinquish all claims to the Da’brin cluster; including all worlds, moons, planetoid bodies, asteroid fields, stars, and other celestial bodies found within its borders.

2. The Tunks will reduce their standing military by 2/3 and be forbidden from maintaining any warship larger than frigate class.

3. The Tunks will hand over the worlds of Sinvel and No’grash to the Cosmic Federation.

4. The Tunks will repay the Cosmic Federation in reparations equal to ten trillion credits, to be obtained by financial wealth or industrial capacity transfers.

5. The Tunks will surrender all trade agreements and monopolies to Cosmic Federation members.”

Morgan tossed the data pad holding the terms of surrender aside without further reading it. It clattered to the floor and cracked as the gathered delegates looked up in surprise.

“Were the terms not to your agreement?” a Quntus asked. Their translator unit switched between female and male tones as it was unable to compensate for the changing biological nature of the alien. This gave it the sound of two voices speaking over each other and gave Morgan a seething headache.

“You must know that the Tunks will never agree to this.” Morgan said flatly. “They are a proud people and you are stripping them of everything; from their financial wealth to their dignity.”

“Come now, be fair.” A Tryobien spoke up. “It is hardly as severe as it could be.”

“Oh?”

Morgan leaned forward and rested his arms on the table as he fixed the Tryobien with a glare that had made Draxic generals blink.

“Do you know the significance of Sinvel and No’grash?” Morgan asked, to which the Tryobien nodded.

“They hold key strategic locations along the border regions of-“

Morgan coughed into his hand and shook his head. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a cigar and lit it, taking a deep breath to calm his throat from bile he nearly vomited.

“Sinvel is the location their religious founder was born on and No’grash was where he gathered her first followers to spread the word of the Seven Eyed Sun.”

The delegates looked mildly confused at the history lesson, none more so than the Tryobien who disliked being interrupted.

“Their religious matters were not taken into account-“

“Well they should have been.”

Morgan’s voice was stern and carried a tone that offered no challengers. “You would deprive the two most holy locations to an entire species religious system and you think there would be no repercussions?”

He took another deep inhale from his cigar and let the burnt tip fall lazily to the elaborately decorated table. “Do you have any idea the religious fervor you would be stirring up? The hatred you would be embedding in their hearts?”

“Tunks have no heart organs.” The Quntus corrected. “Their circulation system is driven by the shifting muscles of their body.”

Morgan looked at the alien delegate who realized the question had been rhetorical and retreated into their seat.

“The point being,” Morgan continued, “is that you would be giving them a cause to rally behind; and a strong one at that.”

“When they abide to the rest of the terms the Tunks will be in no place to offer any such resistance and we shall have peace once more.” The Tryobien countered.

Morgan gave no reply to this. He took several small puffs from his cigar as he looked around the gathered delegation. He had the look of a man deep in thought, wondering if it was worth to speak his mind and risk his career and reputation. Finally, having made up his mind, he took one final puff of his cigar and dabbed the remains into the table.

“On my world a similar treaty was made after a great and terrible war.” Morgan began. “Like you, the victors thought that such harsh terms were warranted and would cripple any further escalation of conflict in the future.”

The Tryobien smiled at this, thinking that Morgan was now in favor of the treaty.

“In reality they were only setting the stage to an even greater conflict that would spread to every corner of our world.” Morgan continued as the smile fled from the Tryobien’s face.

Morgan rose from his chair and began to walk the room, leaning heavily on his cane as he passed each delegate and military commander assembled.

“This treaty, much like the one that was signed against those defeated human so many centuries ago, will only lay the groundwork for a never ending cycle of war and retaliation.” Morgan finished as he casually kicked the data pad he had read from earlier.

“You are afraid of the Tunks?” an alien general asked, garnering a round of chuckling from several others in the room.

“I am worried of having to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life.” Morgan countered. “I am worried that a day may come when we are distracted and the Tunks see their chance for vengeance.”

He leaned down to the military leader who had mocked him just then and looked him dead in the eye.

“What do you think would happen if three thousand Tunk warriors suddenly appeared on your homeworld while your military was fighting on the other side of the galaxy?”

The alien general opened their mouth to speak but stopped themselves. Their pause was the only assurance that Morgan needed to know his point had gotten across.

“How hypocritical of you to speak of peace,” the Tryobien spoke in a last bit gambit, “when your people have made such treaties as this one before us throughout your people’s history.”

“A mistake we have learned from with blood and fire, dear delegate.” Morgan replied coldly. He turned to address the rest of the gathering once more.

“The purpose of any peace treaty is to not just end conflict, but to prevent conflicts of the future.”

As he walked back to his seat Morgan withdrew another cigar and lit it, savoring the flavor as he sat down and looked around the room.

“I believe we can do better than the treaty I was handed earlier.” He began as he saw many of the delegates giving him nods of approval. “We must do better.”

[vertigoartgore]

The Babylon 5 cast flipping the bird (with their looks from Season 4). From the 1997's TV Guide cover story about B5.

[ansonmountdaily]

Captain Pike. The pleasure is mine.

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS 1x05 "Spock Amok" | 1x02 "Children of the Comet"

[mrstargkonnen]

Most Helaemonds did not, in fact, advocate for Alys to be cut from the story. You won't find more than let's say 10 of them who wished for something like this simply because it was never going to happen and it was never a realistic thing to expect for the show to change. Alys was always going to be included. She's not someone who could be replaceable in Aemond's future plot in Harrenhal.

As for Helaemonds having meltdowns on Twitter and harassing people? Is it something all of them are doing or just two or three users? Every group of shippers is going to have nasty persons who are doing nasty things, just block them. Also, let's not forget the harassment Helaemonds themselves received in the months after the show had ended from hardcore team green stans and Alysmond shippers: death and rape threats, accusations of supporting real life incest and claiming those who ship it are a danger to their immediate family members and so on and also accusations of them being actually team black fans who started the ship only to give the greens a bad look.

Let's face it though: the ship is mostly hated because hardcore team members think 1. it would make the greens look bad if Helaena and Aemond would have an affair, even if the kids wouldn't be his 2. it would stand in the way of other ships like Helaegon and Alysmond. It's not that those other ships aren't canon and won't be in the future, it's just that it would, for example, ruin the idea of Alys being "the only one" for Aemond and things like this. This is mostly why the ship is hated, the shippers being annoying (and at the moment there are like 30 of them on Twitter and probably less still active on Tumblr), has always been more of an excuse. And if one finds them annoying, why not block them? And mute the ship name so you won't come across it? for something that is just a crackship that never had any chance of becoming canon it surely garners far too many opposite reactions considering other crackships from the show (Aegond, Rhaegon, Rhaemond etc.) never got the same treatment and vitriol. Like why argue 24/7 against the ship if you think it's a crackship? Like, just let shippers be delusional,those who genuinely believe it's happening aren't going to have their minds changed until they see it not happening on their own screens next year

Points. were. made. 👏🏼

Harassment, threats, accusations- these topics are simply too serious to be spoken about in the context of fandom shenanigans. These are real issues in the real world that unfortunately happen, and to use them as an excuse to instigate shipping discourse is simply ridiculous. Specially when it’s clear their real intent is to be petty about a ship they just don’t like, and not about how to actually have healthy diplomacy in social media spaces 🫤 lol

As you said, sane helaemonds will change their minds if it doesn’t happen and be okay. (Probably continue to ship as one does on tumblr.com! lol) The questions is, in the off-chance it does happen, will they be okay? 😳

[alwaysoutofpaper]

this is meredith! an example of the aformentioned, unnamed alien species i've made, and the land-dwelling variant(?) of the last aliens i posted. this is an old reference that i only just finished, it does not reflect the species as a whole and the design will likely be subject to change :)

also sorry, i couldn't be bothered to color her </3

[bonuscatart]

Humans could be the space version of werewolves, but we have no way to know. We haven't found any aliens much less bitten one

[sableprince]

been enjoying starfield. here's my chara, akemi, they/them, diplomat and negotiator, and "easily nauseous in low gravity"-type. truly torn between the tank top and the flannel/jacket outfit being canon. maybe both are canon!

[unidentifiedprimate]

Deep Space 9 - A Call to Arms

part 2

[explorerof-theunknown]

star trek fan mutuals and/or followers and/or whoever sees this WHERE can i watch DS9 with subtitles that doesn't require a monthly subscription...does that even exist

[tactfulsaboteur]

1, 2, 3, 10 reading asks

book i absolutely hate? i put down books i can see i won't like pretty quickly so i don't really have a rant locked and loaded for this one. i can go on and on about whole genres as a whole though because i can tell they're just not worth the paper they're printed on. the shelves and shelves of mediocre fifth-grade level fiction being marketed to grown ass adults. everything by joel osteen. [vomits] romance novels

book that first got me interested in reading? i've been reading ever since i can remember but the first 'real' book i can recall reading is the count of monte cristo by alexandre dumas, truly fantastic classic (i'm currently in a reread with the improvised book club right now actually!) i was also a redwall kid growing up of course, and also enjoyed the deptford histories by robin jarvis and gregor the overlander by suzanne collins. lots of anthropomorphic animals killing eachother in gruesome ways for some reason. i will forever be smug about reading suzanne collins before the hunger games got big though and tbh gregor was much better

did i actually read all the books required in school/did i start out that way? i was homeschooled so required reading was mostly public library summer reading programs, but yeah i've mostly always been like that. they couldn't stop me really

tell you about my top (any number i want) favorite books? opening a can of worms here, don't say i didn't warn you. it's no secret i'm a sci-fi guy so top of my list is always blindsight and echopraxia by peter watts. that shit changed me for real. wyrms by orson scott card is another one that, though fiction, contains a lot of very interesting thoughts. (standard 'card is a weird dude' disclaimer here.) i recently read jorge luis borges' short fiction, some very well done and intriguing concepts there. philip k. dick is a long time favorite of mine, the martian time-slip is particularly good as well as his dozens of short stories. and finally i will not shut up about gödel escher bach, i'm still wading through it but it's fantastically written, a lot of fun to read and i can already tell it's going to leave a mark

[mimigamasked]

A Word on Wet-Woods, & A Brief on Brittle-Branches

Written by Hrisk Qwolompin Grϋes, 218th Minister of Diplomacy

The establishment of the Galactic Union has been to permit interstellar species to interact through peace without threats of interplanetary wars. However, while there exist several planets capable of supporting life within our very Galaxy, not all of them may produce acceptable species

Wet-Wood Civilization: A term coined by the Galactic Union based on the old Qekochi phrase, “a wet wood sparks no flame.” The point of the phrase is that it is pointless to attempt to help others if they won’t or can’t support themselves. 

The usage of the term is that for as many species that can exist and become sapient, just as many that do are unlikely to prosper given their circumstances. This predominantly refers to fully-aquatic species as they would most likely lack reasonable means to achieve space travel, such as support structures, manipulatory appendages, capability to survive extended time-periods outside of water, and respiration.

Brittle Branch: A term coined by the Galactic Union based on the old Tekeker phrase, “a brittle branch is ally to none.” The term referred to individuals that pose an active threat or greater net negative consequence to any group.

The term sees use to refer to species that, while indeed do possess the potential or meet the criteria to join the Union, are prohibited in some fashion or other due to varying causes. This could be due to violence-feuled cultures, cruelty inherent to species, capability to negatively impact long-term projects, or issues of similar root (It should be noted that religious sacrifice is not the same as wanton violence, but morally, it is a major gray area). As such, measures are put into place to prevent these species from exiting their solar systems until major cultural overhauls or specific extinction or succession.

Thus leads to a special examination for every species that displays sapience or intelligent traits. Through a set time-limit depending on yearly orbit of the native planet, as can be read under Article 346, Section 5 of the Halberd Pact, members of the GU are prohibited from interacting with any species whatsoever on these planets to minimize risk of influence over native culture. The test is designed to observe the civilization’s sustainability, progress, and predispositions. To aid in monitoring, remote observatory satellites, such as “Halley” (as dubbed by Terras Humans), will remain in orbit around the solar system to regularly gather information over long enough intervals to determine the current state of progress within the world.

The common time-period is typically 36 of that planet’s millenia, adjusted as necessary depending on distance to native star and emergence of new sapient life. Upon success, ambassadors will be sent to greet the successful species and establish embassies in certain territories, permitting they are not attacked en route such as with initial contact with the Terras nation “United States of America.”

It is likewise that treatment of the world determines the granting of terraforming permits.

[kvetchs]

hi kvetchs! i hope u kvetched today. anyways the star trek voyager movie u posted with the whale gif looks rlly good! ive never watched any st do u think id be able to follow the storyline of the movie ?

oh yea i definitely recommend it!!! star trek 4 (aka the one with the whales) is technically the fourth in a series of star trek movies so there’s some overarching plot elements (mainly at the beginning/end) that might not make a lot of sense w/o some level of background knowledge, but the central plot (with the whales!) is pretty contained to the movie.

the basic set ups from star treks 1-3 that are plot-relevant here are that: the main crew (kirk, uhura, sulu, mccoy, chekhov, scotty) are exiled and on trial for what they did in the last movies (murdering a klingon/stealing their ship) which is mainly kept to the beginning, and that spock died in star trek 2 and was brought back to life in star trek 3 (he’s kinda dealing with that throughout the whole movie)

but yea the main portion of this movie is a combination of a fish-out-of-water scenario with the star trek crew stuck in 1980s california & a recuse mission to save some whales! & i don’t think that these parts need a lot of prior star trek knowledge to be enjoyed :]

[spicymotte]

I got my ass beaten so bad in Stellaris

[tyrannuspitch]

rewatching aou and remembering that on top of it only having crumbs for thor fans, about half of those crumbs are ooc -_- no joss that's not thor that's one of your own personal clichés. thor would not fucking say that. where are his goddamn mannersss

[kesarijournal]

India's Space Ambitions: A Celestial Tango

In a move that’s less about stepping on toes and more about moonwalking in zero gravity, India has declared its space sector a free-for-all cosmic playground. With the announcement of 100% foreign direct investment in satellite component manufacturing, India is not just opening its doors; it’s removing them entirely. The message is loud and clear: “Welcome to the Grand Indian Space Bazaar, Elon…

[legionofmyth]

Aliens Unlimited: Factions

Navigate the complex alliances and rivalries in Aliens Unlimited. Watch our video for an overview of the human and alien factions! #PalladiumRPG #SciFiGaming #AliensUnlimited

Aliens Unlimited Heroes Unlimited 2E Embark on a thrilling adventure with our introduction to Aliens Unlimited by Palladium Books, Inc. This video will guide you through the game’s universe, where humans and aliens coexist in a complex galaxy of conflict and camaraderie. Learn about the innovative character creation system, the dynamic powers, and the rich lore that makes Aliens Unlimited a…