Not
all of the encounters between the races were hostile, however. Though
the Humans claim that they discovered the Reln, the Reln insist they
discovered the Humans. When they met, both began a cultural exchange
of ideas and technologies, and it is likely that the two felt most at ease with each other because of their physical similarities. The
Humans, however, still had to contend with their warlike Krissethi
neighbors, and many say it was the Humans that decided to form the
Interstellar Union (ISU) to try to form a lasting peace. Both the
Reln and Humans put together a council and invited the other races to
join. With promises of fair borders and fair trade, the other
races—even the Krissethi and Chiraktis—joined the ISU and worked
together to find ways to co-exist. The plant-like Erwani were glad to
join the ISU so that the Omuls would be held accountable for their
frequent raids on Erwani planets. The Chiraktis seemed to be the only
race that was ready to violate ISU agreements, however, because the
mandate of their Queen was to expand their kind. As a result, the ISU
put forth restrictions upon their expansionist tendencies through a
law known as the Non-Proliferation Addendum. Many believe the
supposed compliance of the Chiraktis Empire was only due to the
combined threat of all the other races.
The
six races finally found a tentative peace and expanded trade, shared
cultural ideas, and enjoyed a growing prosperity. During joint
explorations of unknown space, the Archaeloids were discovered in the
Zeta 1 quadrant. They were a peaceful, aquatic race that had not yet
ventured out of their system, though they had also coincidentally
attained light-speed travel when the other races had. The Archaeloids
seemed quite caught off guard to learn of everyone else, and though
they were kind and welcoming, the surge in their military production
gave everyone pause. The Archaeloids joined the ISU and assured
everyone that they desired peace, but also indicated that they
thought it was foolish to assume the treaty would last forever, or
that the seven races were the only intelligent life in the galaxy.
How right they were…
No comments:
Post a Comment