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As if to emphasize my words, two of the stars smeared across the viewscreen began to twinkle – shifting from clear blue to dirty grey. Our first wave of asteroid impactors had finally completed their circuitous journey through their parent planet’s belt system, plunging into their designated targets with a velocity differential high enough to crack continents and liberate mantle.
From the faint bursts of red light framing the alien’s video feed, I knew it was seeing the same scene that I was watching. But when it responded, its demeanor hardly seemed to change.
“There is one more query I wish to present to you. I would be…grateful/repentent…if you could respond”
“Know that my ship is no longer functional, and that my kin/lineage will deplete their water/air within this rotation.”
“Know that I cannot bring us home. Know that I cannot conceptualize another solution.”
“I wish to know what you would consider defiance to be, human. Not in your situation, but in mine.”
- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, DECEMBER 5th, PERSONAL JOURNAL
>TRUST. In your situation, there is no cost in making a request. Whether or not it succeeds is another matter entirely.
>EXCHANGE. MERRYGATE considers their tightly-packed crew with great interest. Defiance against nature often necessitates sacrifice.
>DISCONNECT. End the interaction.
>[WRITE-IN]
