“Not this motion again” Cruurqrix roared, his large lupine mouth giving extra weight to his anger. ‘The Humans are just too stupid to be let in. They need another few hundred years before they are ready.’

The millions of viewers were mostly spamming disagreement in the main log. The Intergalactic Council sessions were usually a dull, boring affair and only the most invested bothered to watch the holo’s beamed to all the worlds in the Federation.

Whenever Humans were involved the viewership exploded. I mused that the driving force behind a lot of these motions to make contact with the Humans were to bring in more viewers.

Cruurqrix finished out his tirade but didn’t say anything new there. I looked over to the Semi-liquid form of Dhammuns as he flowed upright, taking his turn.

‘This is unprecedented. The Council has never been in this situation before, we are aware of the Species due to Portal #70H32D and now we know of them we cannot sit idly by! If we made contact and guided them into the Council it would stop them slaughtering each other.’

I tuned out, he was going the magnanimous route claiming that we should do it to save lives. Dhammuns knew as well as everyone else listening that this was false, Humans seemed to be the kind of species that killed each other over made up reasons constantly. They were like the Storm Sentinels, they fought because that was what they wanted and figured out the reasons halfway through. If they even bothered too. No, Dhammuns wanted them in because Humans, as far as we could tell, were insane. They invented like it was second nature, they would constantly throw themselves into terrible situations for what seemed like fun. Sure, sometimes Humans would die but that never stopped them! Another group would be trying to succeed before the first were cold, almost as if to spite them.

The Dhammuns needed inventors and they needed new planets. Their own home System was being bled dry as they did not have many usable planets. They figured that the Humans would take over the Exploration from the Argovinians and do it in what could only be a uniquely Human way. Hopefully they would speed up the Exploration as everything we knew about Humans so far we would just need to show them Portal technology and they will start flinging themselves around the Universe without second thought.

As each Councillor took their time making their case I knew it was not going anywhere. All the votes would be cast the same way. The viewers watching knew as well, mostly still spamming that Humans should be let in. The Council puts forward a united face, that every species on the Council is equal but of course reality is never that easy. The Old Guard, the Species that established the first Council always held more sway, especially the Argovinians as the inventors of Portals.

Most viewers wanted the Humans in ever since they were discovered by Portal #70H32D. As Portal end points are completely random, the opening of a Portal that close to another sentient Species was such an amazing stroke of luck, good or bad. Usually End Points were light years away from a Species so by the time they found the End Point they were ready to join the Federation.

One had never been opened literally in the same Solar System as another Species. It had been the talk of the entire Federation ever since. It was supposed to be locked down by the Argovinians but information of the Humans trickled out into the greater Network. Turns out the Humans were an incredibly noisy species, they had not bothered to invent targeted communication. Instead they just spewed everything out across their Planet. Which of course, with the End Point on the other side of their local moon meant it all got picked up and spread to Network. Before the Argovinians had realised what Humans were like as a species so much of their culture had already flooded through the Portal and people were hungry for more. It did not help that the Argovinians believe that nothing should be done fast, so it had been a long time before the End Point was locked down.

Checking back on the feed I could see the final Councillors were going through the motions, the Old Guard was going to vote it down and nothing would change.

Leenois, the Councillor for the Argovinians hauled his massive frame upright and begun his slow speech. I was only half listening to his drawling voice ‘too presumptuous….not be hasty…..caution above all…..’

I was pulled back as his rumbling baritone was cut short, he was looking off to someone not physically present in the meeting. Why was someone interrupting Leenois’ greatest hits?

Leenois looked like he was going pale, it was hard to tell as his face is a mass of overlapping plates of flesh harder than titanium, his little eyes which I could only just make out looked scared.

‘Member Leenois. You are almost out of time. Are we holding you up from more important business?’ The voice of the First Seat cut across my thoughts, of course First Seat sounded annoyed, this whole thing was a farce and now Leenois was not even keeping up the act.

‘My apologies First Seat’ Leenois quickly replied. Argovinians never did anything quickly. ‘I have just received news. The, well…, it seems there was an unexpected issue with the cloaking of EndPoint #70H32D. We are still not…’

I brought up the viewers. It was going insane. Even with the full Council moderation team it was out of control. ‘Cloaking Down!’ Was repeated millions of times. ‘They Know!’ Started to slowly make more head way and drown out everything else. I looked in disbelief back to Leenois as he said the words I knew would change the course of the entire Federation.

‘The Humans have found EndPoint #70H32D.’