Are You Sure?

This is as close to scifi as I get! I'm branching out into other genres this month :)

From the prompt: The galaxy is a dark and lonely place. “First Strike Diplomacy” reigns out of fear. Few species survive even 300 years after developing interstellar travel. When humans entered the galaxy, we were the first species confident enough in war to ask someone “Are you sure you want to do this?” (X)  - writing-prompt-s

------------

Stephanie looks down at her hands so she doesn’t have to meet the gaze of the ambassadors sitting around the table. She knows that it makes her look weak, submissive even, but letting them see the look in her eyes would be just as bad.

Everything was going so well. Her team had managed to form alliances and establish trade with nearby civilizations against all odds. In the short 150 years that Earth has been on the intergalactic stage, things have improved. For everybody.

“I thought our exchange of agricultural technology was mutually beneficial,” she murmurs, still not looking up.

“It was,” Ambassador Krakin says almost carelessly. His species is humanoid but possesses a hard insect-like exoskeleton that clicks when he waves a hand, the equivalent of a shrug. “However, our needs have expanded. You have thirty sols to evacuate your planet.”

He planned this from the beginning, Stephanie realizes. The cultural exchange between their planets means that she knows about their fast growth rate, their language, their customs. Their history. She assumed that, by offering them technology, their relationship would remain mutually beneficial. She should have known that conquerors stay conquerors no matter what tribute you offer.

Stephanie looks up.

The other ambassadors, an array of alien species Earth never imagined encountering, refuse to acknowledge her. They’re making themselves smaller, desperate to not be dragged into the newest war. Too many planets have ended like this - stripped of information and crushed under the parasitic demands of Ambassador Krakin’s planet.

Anger rises in Stephanie’s breast. It’s no secret that Earth has the most fertile lands and the Ambassador used her and her trust to learn about them. He dares to make a fool out of her trust, her people’s trust, after they’ve extended a helping hand.

At the same time anger rises, so does betrayal. As much as Earth helped them, they helped Earth. Was the compassion offered to them through medicines and flight technology a lie? She feels likes she’s learned more about the galaxy in the past year than she’s learned in her entire life. She made friends here, she thought. Allies.

But those are personal feelings. Stephanie packages them away as quickly as they rise so that she can look at Ambassador Krakin with cool eyes. There’s murmuring around the table, the other ambassadors surprised by her lack of panic, maybe.

What they don’t know is that this? This has always been a possible outcome. And her team - her planet - always prepares for those.

“Are you,” she says, voice careful and measured, “sure you want to do this?”

If Ambassador Krakin senses the shift in her, the shock to the careful watching of a predator, he doesn’t show it. His armor clicks as rises. “This was merely a formality. The deadline has already been submitted to your pathetic leaders.” His talons scrape the smooth metal floor. He pauses just before exiting the deliberation room. “It will be a shame to bury you, Ambassador Stephanie.” The doors slide shut behind him before she can answer.

The other ambassadors begin to file out, sending her looks and gestures filled with pity. None will speak to her now, not when she’s got the target on her back. They can’t risk drawing attention to their weaker worlds by so much as speaking to her.

Stephanie watches them go, lips pressed into a thin line. She’d thought that they’d been gaining confidence under the new treaties but it’s clear that was a façade. They’re still thinking like prey, the history of crushed planets wrapped around their throats like a noose.

They’re also thinking that Earth is lost and Stephanie is a dead human walking. There’s no doubt in their minds that Krakin’s words are a prophecy, one that’s begun to unfold. Krakin and his planet say that Stephanie and her planet will die, so they’ll die.

She’s...saddened by what must come next.

-----------------------.

No one is surprised when Earth does not evacuate. No planet in this quadrant of the galaxy has the technology to move an entire population into space, 30 sol warning or not.

“If Earth was going to fight back,” one watcher murmurs to another, “they would have done it by now. It will be a slaughter.”

And that’s true. Other victims of Krakin have launched their ships into space to combat the invading force while others have sought to infilitrate Krakin’s planet before had a chance to overwhelm theirs. But Earth does neither of those things. It simple sits and spins, waiting and waiting and waiting.

It doesn’t even activate its shields when Krakin’s army descends through the atmosphere.

The spectators turn away.

Earth dies silently.

----------------------.

The ambassadors meeting arrives and every representative is afraid. Without Ambassador Stephanie and her bright presence, there will be no barrier between them and Krakin. He will once again take hold of this quadrant, pressing and prodding at their defenses until he finds a new victim. A new sacrifice.

A new tribute.

The doors slide open and the ambassadors flinch, gazes locked onto the table in front of them. Krakin always seems to suck the air out of the room when he arrives, the menace in his aura enough to freeze even those of predatory descent.

His heavy footsteps circle behind them all, each one leading him to the chair - the throne - at the front of the room. Only when he sits do the representatives finally gain the courage to look up.

And freeze.

Ambassador Stephanie is sitting in Krakin’s chair, thin, wraith-like hands clasped in front of her. She grins and it’s with a thrill that many remember that, like Krakin, the humans are a predatory species.

“Unfortunately,” she says in the same, measured voice she used to ask if Krakin was sure he wanted war. “Krakin has chosen to withdraw from his ambassadorial duties. I am now the acting representative in his stead as well as continuing to be the ambassador for Earth. Any objections?”

There are none.

Stephanie grins wider. “Then let’s move on. Let’s talk about peace, hmmm?”

The future is still scary but, for the first time, there is a hard-edged hope.