---Expulsion---

  ---Walath’s perspective---

  “…shocking and OUTRAGEOUS conduct!…” booms the voice of Klorthrothju, filling the stadial chamber of Parliament, heard by the ears of tens of thousands here and likely hundreds of billions watching the broadcast across the galaxy… maybe trillions?

  My guts writhe and my heart hammers against my ribplate, not at the man’s words but, rather, at the fact that his time is almost up!

  I feel sick!

  Maybe I shouldn’t have requested to speak?

  Everyone will know!

  They will see through me instantly!

  We’re about to lose all our allies and then one of the other great houses will make a play for my father’s throne to ‘restore Batta to greatness’ or some such nonsense!

  I look across the aquatheatre to the lanky deathworld man with Battan claw scars on his cheek.

  Resolve overtakes me as I take a slow, deep, calming breath.

  What I’m about to do will not be easy… but it will be right!

  “IN CONCLUSION!” roars the apoplectic man, throwing his four, strikingly bulky, grey skinned arms over the heads of the Representatives to his sides and curling all twelve fingers “IF THE TERRANS WISH TO FLOUT THE VERY PRINCIPLES OF MUTUAL RESPECT AND PEACEABLE COEXISTENCE ON WHICH THIS UNION WAS FOUNDED AND TO WHICH IT REMAINS DEDICATED, I SAY WE GIVE THEM THE INDEPENDENCE THEY SO CLEARLY CRAVE! THEY WANT THE RIGHT TO INVADE NEUTRAL WORLDS? LET THEM HAVE IT! BUT GIVE THEM THAT SAME ‘INDEPENDENCE’ IN TRADE! IN DIPLOMACY! IN CITIZENSHIP! IN REPRESENTATION! LET THEM BE INDEPENDENT AND LET THEM SEE THAT INDEPENDENCE MEANS SOLITUDE! THIS PARLIAMENT MUST MAKE NO ROOM FOR WARMONGERS!… That is why I shall be casting my vote in favour of the EXPULSION of the United Terran Coalition from. this. Union! I yield the remainder of my time!”

  The enormous man folds his four legs beneath himself to sit back down behind his desk.

  Speaker Krim’s cranium sweeps through the air behind her head as she turns her eyes to me and my heart skips a beat.

  “The Honourable Representative of the Thlundthvugun Stratocracy has yielded the remainder of his time. I next call on the Honourable Representative of the Battan Kingdom to speak.” she says with brisk proceduralism.

  A light illuminates on the desk in front of me, indicating that I may speak.

  I choke for a moment on a ragged, panicked breath… then, my focus takes over once more.

  With outward determination suppressing my inward anxiety, my hand reaches out and presses the button to accept.

  A [378 second] timer begins counting down.

  “My fellow Representatives…” I start, calmly, my amplified voice booming across the chamber, more for theatricality than utility as no one else here speaks Battan “…those who have spoken before me have raised many fine points. Outrage is justified and, whatever their reasons for doing so, the United Terran Coalition must face consequences for military action against a sovereign species’ nation, even and perhaps especially one who is not here represented and cannot seek redress on their own account!”

  I pause here to let my introduction sit for a moment.

  “As Klorthrothju and others have said, the Galactic Union’s policies of disallowing any member from maintaining an independent military and requiring all military action to receive this Parliament’s approval were intended as safeguards against exactly this kind of action; large, powerful polities using their military might to dominate their neighbours and carve out empires for themselves within the GU!… We must condemn this!… There must be accountability!… The Terrans must understand that we will not stand idly by and watch as they manufacture rumours of terrorists to justify the use of their superior military to bully those who have no defence against them into subjugation and vassalhood!”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I look sternly around, both to channel my aunts antiTerran vitriol and to allow my stomach acid to stop burning the back of my throat in protest of the lies I’m speaking.

  I catch Representative Rain’s eyes, in the front row, across the aquatheatre and give a silent apology for the hateful glare I direct at him.

  I raise a blunt clawed finger to snarl “However…!” letting the word echo for a moment before I continue “…there is one measure I simply cannot bring myself to support and will therefore be voting against!… The Terrans must not be expelled from the Union.”

  There is an instant of shocked gasps and disgusted murmuring from all my species’ allies as, for this moment, they correctly perceive me to be doing exactly what I am; defending the Terrans.

  I don’t try and speak until the Speaker calls “Order! ORDER!!!” and the room quiets for her “Representative Walath is entitled to speak and will be heard without interruption! [18 seconds] shall be restored to her time!”

  The timer in front of me ticks up with the added time.

  I continue, lying “You must none of you misunderstand me! I do not here mean to defend the Terrans from the just consequences of their shameless behaviour!… My reason to oppose their expulsion is far more grave than that!”

  There is no interruption now as I allow my words to sit and let every Representative’s curiosity build as to what this reason could possibly be!

  “Whyever they do, it cannot be denied that the Terrans wish to be here! They wish their citizens to have the same freedom to move through the galaxy as all of ours have. They wish to trade with us. They wish to have their Representative sit in this chamber and introduce motions, speak on those motions and vote on those motions. They wish us to believe that they are as civilised as any of the rest of us!… These wishes of theirs give us power!… For as long as they wish to be here, we have some power we can exercise in restraint of their…*hrk*… baser nature!”

  I choked a little on the most damnable lie I’ve yet told but, thank Gods, I think it will likely look as if my disgust was with them instead of myself!

  I recover enough to continue “What we currently have, Honourable Representatives, is leverage! Though they may often chafe against our rules, they do still, for the most part, abide by them!… To expel them from the Union is to give up the most powerful tool we have for keeping the Terrans in check! It’s to take the last thing we have to take from them! It is to unleash a deathworld polity who no longer has any reason to hold restraint of themselves!… The thought of a Terrankind with nothing left to lose should send a chill down the back of any old enough to remember the War…”

  Every Representative in the room does their respective species’ equivalent of sitting up straight as they realise the truth I’m finally speaking… as those of every alignment realise how monumentally unwise it would be to cut the UTC loose for this!

  “…My fellow Representatives… I implore you; sanction the Terrans for their misconduct, censure the Terrans for their aggression… but, for the love of all that is good and fragile in this life, do not give the Terrans nothing to lose… or we may all come to rue this day… I yield the remainder of my time.”

  I press the button and look to Speaker Krim who has an extremely brief loss of composure as she hesitates for a moment, staring at me in disbelief, before coming back to herself enough to say “The… the Honourable Representative of the Battan Kingdom has yielded the remainder of her time… I next call upon the Honourable…”

  ---Klorthrothju’s perspective---

  Voting begins and my lower right hand immediately extends to smack the ‘Aye’ button while I glare defiantly at the Terran.

  If they want to make a Second War of their ejection, let them!

  My people would relish the opportunity to show all that we have learned from the last [30 years] of studying the last one while we redress the shame of it!

  ---Ltah’tvek’s perspective---

  My hand hovers over my desk, claws splayed.

  I’m crippled by indecision!

  This morning, I wouldn’t have guessed that there would be a moment’s hesitation when the time came to vote but… Brathala’s niece's words… they’ve shaken me…

  My hand comes down on the ‘Abstention’ button.

  ---The Hive of Ziwalit’s perspective---

  A hundred thousand of us are piled against the left side of our tank.

  Those of our parts on the top of the pile are angrily dancing and buzzing their elytra at those few thousand gathered in the centre and on the right to cease their foolishness and come here! Do they want War with the Terrans!?

  It is unnecessary, however.

  Sensing the overwhelming consensus amongst us, our tank extends its left arm and presses the ‘Nay’ button.

  A momentary relief… possibly only to last until we see what the Parliament at large voted!

  ---Krim’s perspective---

  I’ve never seen so many abstentions in all my time as Speaker before as a Representative or before as a diplomatic aid!

  “With 10,311 in favour, 11,574 abstaining and 11,746 opposed, the nays have it and the motion does not pass. Accordingly, the United Terran Coalition remains a member of the Galactic Union.” I announce, feeling a slightly biased wash of relief for a moment, before continuing “We will now proceed to the next motion: whether to initiate sanctions proceedings against the United Terran Coalition.”

  Given how narrowly full on expulsion from the GU was just defeated, I fully expect sanctions to pass.