It was nighttime when he arrived at Olras. The moment his shuttle docked, Ga’ruk made his way towards the Alliance headquarters with a sense of urgency and purpose—nobody was going to stop him from delivering the news to the Alliance as soon as possible. Any time a sentry attempted to stop him, Ga’ruk flashed his credentials and kept moving forward. He was in no mood to exchange pleasantries.

Upon arriving at the Alliance headquarters, Ga’ruk was informed by a cleric that the members of the Alliance’s governing board were currently deliberating over new rules and regulations and would not be able to meet with him until a month later.

Disappointed, Ga’ruk headed to the doorway with his head down. The closer he got to the doorway, the more irritated Ga’ruk got. The security detail had sacrificed too much. He needed to inform the Alliance of all that had transpired, so he turned around and ran towards the Alliance’s meeting room.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ga’ruk noticed several guards reaching for their weapons and sped up. He couldn’t afford to be brought down. Ga’ruk steamrolled over anybody who got in his way and made a conscious effort to avoid being hit by laser blasts. He had one foot through the doorway to the Alliance’s meeting room before he was finally tackled and cuffed by the guards.

As the guards began dragging Ga’ruk out of the meeting room, Ga’ruk shouted, “Stop, please! I have something I need to report.”

“You broke countless rules when you forced your way in here. Why should we give you an opportunity to speak?” an board member asked.

“Sir, it’s about the humans!” Ga’ruk said.

“What about them?”

“They destroyed all of our ships.”

The members of the governing board sat in stone silence, looking at each other before bursting into laughter.

“That’s a good one, kid! Do you know who is in charge of human extermination this time?”

“Yes, but…”

“Captain Ca’luc is a very capable commander. There is no way this mission would end in disaster. Guards, take him away!”

Ga’ruk shook his shoulders and managed to break free of the guard’s hold.

“Sir, my name is Ga’ruk I’teck. I was part of the security detail sent to subjugate the humans. Please, let me speak.”

“Someone please bring up the roster sheet for the security detail and check to see if a Ga’ruk I’teck is on it,” another board member said.

Ga’ruk couldn’t help but notice a touch of annoyance in the Alliance member’s tone. It took all he could to avoid opening his mouth and retorting.

“Y’Iok, he is on the roster,” another board member said.

“Fine, if the ships are really destroyed, why didn’t you go down with it?” Y’lok asked.

“The humans were jamming our communications devices so we weren’t able to transmit data. As a result, Captain Ca’luc downloaded the data onto a drive and ordered me to deliver it to you.”

“Where is the drive?”

“Here.”

Ga’ruk handed the drive over.

“We will adjourn to review the drive. You will stay here.”

“Understood.”

Ga’ruk struggled to keep himself under control. He didn’t understand the Alliance’s actions. It seemed to him that they didn’t comprehend the true danger the humans posed. The members most likely thought he was fabricating a lie to avoid being court-martialed for running away from battle. He hoped they would set aside all preexisting bias and review the drive.

After some time, members of the governing board slowly made their way back to the room with grim faces. Judging by their reactions, Ga’ruk knew that they had fully analyzed the recordings and understood the danger the humans posed.

“We have analyzed the data, listened to Captain Ca’luc’s log, and reviewed recordings of the battle,” Y’lok began. “Needless to say, the operation was a failure.”

A failure… Ga’ruks temper slowly reached his limit. He curled his fingers to make a fist and squeezed them in an attempt to relieve his anger.

He recollected himself before calmly replying, “As the lone survivor of the security detail, I must state Captain Ca’luc’s final recommendation. He advises the Alliance to begin recruiting and training new officers to prepare for the eventual war. Furthermore, we are to spend more resources to advance our technology and outfit our ships with the latest weaponry.

“What Captain Ca’luc wants us to do is assemble another army and prepare for another war?” a board member interjected. “Do you not understand we are three chaos cycles removed from our last war? The populations of our respective civilizations are still rebuilding. To go to war once more will devastate them. We do not have sufficient resources and have more dire issues to consider. Gearing up for another war would not only decrease morale, but also lay the groundwork for rebellion. From what we have considered, while the humans have advanced far enough to pose a threat, going to war seems to be an overreaction.”

“An overreaction?” Ga’ruk’s self-control began unraveling. “The humans caused the destruction of three of our ships and the deaths of their crew!”

“I understand, you are still in shock. The loss of Captain Ca’luc must have hit you hard,” Hasep—the oldest board member—said gently.

Upon hearing his words, Sah’ra—the only female board member—frowned and opened her mouth to disagree.

Noticing this, Hasep raised his voice and said, “But you need to realize, the Alliance has more important things to worry about. While it is surprising that the humans managed to gain the upper hand, it is our belief that the sacrifices made by Captain Ca’luc and the others—in detonating their own ships—dealt a huge blow to humanity’s forces. We feel that sending another security detail with a few more ships to the human’s home world would rectify this failure.”

The Captain was right. The Alliance has become too entrenched in their ways. They don’t see the humans as a true threat. They believe that no other species can compete with them.

The Alliance’s governing board consisted of ten members—representatives from each sentient species that had joined. In the event of a tie, His Imperial Majesty served as the tiebreaking vote. Many of these seats were like a revolving door—the representatives were always changing.

As of now, very few individuals from previous deployments were still alive and would be willing to back up Ca’luc’s claims about the danger the humans posed. Thinking back, it took Ca’luc two chaos cycles to convince the Alliance to send three ships with the latest weaponry to the humans’ home world. It truly appeared the Alliance had truly forgotten how seriously their predecessors had taken the human threat as.

We must proceed with caution and respect the humans for the threat they pose… these words kept reverberating in Ga’ruk’s mind. Why can’t these idiots understand? The humans are the greatest threat to their civilization since the beginning of time!

“We have lost a valuable asset in Captain Ca’luc. Thousands of our own men have died in a mere skirmish with the humans. The humans accomplished this much in an additional two chaos cycles. While this is shocking, it is not cause for alarm. As stated previously, we will deploy another security detail—this time consisting of ten ships equipped with both our newest weaponry and our experimental ones. We will convene with His Imperial Majesty and recommend that you take control of the flagship for this expedition. You will choose the captains of each ship.”

“…”

“Ga’ruk, you may be young, but your experience with dealing with the humans is one-of-a-kind. That is why we are recommending you as the leader of this expedition.”

The governing board’s unconcerned tone baffled Ga’ruk. It seemed they believed the humans would easily be put down with an additional seven ships. The death of Captain Ca’luc was supposed to emphasize the threat the humans posed; however, the Alliance treated his death as a mere footnote in the history books.

“You will lead the next expedition to crush the humans,” another board member began. “In the past, it took a single ship to send the humans back to the Stone Age. Based off of our calculations of the human’s trajectory path, ten ships will be more than enough to eliminate the humans. This time, you must put an end to their civilization.”

“With all due respect, I disagree with your analysis,” Ga’ruk responded angrily. “It will take a chaos cycle or two to properly brief and train the crews for the ten ships. Three chaos cycles ago, Captain Ca’luc stood here and begged for a formal deployment order to be issued to quell the human threat. He reminded you of the dangers humanity posed to the rest of the world. Instead of listening to him, you blew him off! It took another two chaos cycles before you would relent to sending a force to the human’s home planet. When we set out for the human’s home world, we were outnumbered, outgunned, and exterminated. Imagine what the humans could accomplish in a chaos cycle or two. It would be the equivalent of sending us to our deaths and wasting the key opportunity Captain Ca’luc gave us!”

“And you think preparing for war and assembling an army would be even faster? It seems to me that we must strike while the iron is hot—destroy their confidence as fast as possible,” Y’lok said.

“You don’t understand. The humans are advancing more quickly than we imagined. They could discover the formulas to achieve hyper drive at any moment! When they accomplish this, entire galaxies would be at their mercy. I believe it’s a better use of time, to gear up for war and fend off any human attack that can come,” Ga’ruk pleaded.

“The key word in your statement is could. You are basing your thought process off of potential scenarios and not offering us cold, hard facts. Why should we believe you?”

“I was there. I saw what happened.”

“You are blinded by rage. You see, but you don’t see,” Hasep said.

“…”

“We will meet with His Imperial Majesty about giving you command of the flagship. Upon receiving confirmation of your new title, Captain, you will also receive a list of commanding officers. You will be free to choose who you want as your fellow captains on this excursion. You are dismissed.”

“But…”

“Guards, show him out!” Y’lok shouted.

Ga’ruk’s mouth was covered as he was forcefully dragged out of the room. He wanted to tell them one last thing—You are overconfident in your abilities. Believe it or not, the human threat is real. They will seek to destroy us for what we have done to them in the past…