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to their
sheer numbers. 
    “The Regency
is waiting, Representative Mullich,” the Watcher reminded him.
    “Just screw the
Regency a moment, all right?” Fred snapped.  “I have an important diplomatic
issue to deal with.”
    The Watcher
sighed.
    Fred ignored
it.  If Earth ever got reprimanded, the Dhasha would take over.  They would use
its incredibly high life-supporting resources to transform the planet into a
breeding ground for slaves, which they would then ship back to their home
planets for sale. 
    War.  It looked
like Humans were preparing for war.
    They could not be that stupid.
    “Representative
Mullich, I understand that you have limited resources from which to draw, but
generally, if an esteemed Representative such as yourself is summoned through
direct-node, it is a reasonable assumption that someone on the Tribunal is
demanding their presence.”  The Watcher paused for that to sink in.  “Further,
it can be assumed that if the summonee does not respond appropriately
in…fifteen seconds, now…the messenger—that would be me—has been given special
instructions to retrieve said Representative for the sake of expediency and not
displeasing the Tribunal.”
    Frustrated, Fred
closed the file and said, “Fine, goddamn it.”  He shoved his chair away from
his desk.  He hated going to the Regency.  Nothing ever happened at the
Regency.  The alien equivalent of fat old men in suits would sit around and
argue for hours on end and not accomplish anything.  There was nothing
to accomplish.  Every political breakthrough that could have been worked out by
Fred and his peers had been worked out millions of turns before he was born. 
The system was already perfect.  There was no point.  Especially not for him , a Representative of a species of absolutely no import.  The Bajna
ran the banking.  The Jreet ran security.  The Ooreiki made art.  The Jahul
traded.  The Ueshi ran the Space Force.  The Dhasha ran the Ground Force.  The
Huouyt stole property, lied casually, ran an Assassins’ Guild that the Regency
was too terrified to shut down, stole people’s identities, made and smuggled
illicit weapons, defrauded the government, stole patents, randomly poisoned
strangers, and collectively made an ass out of themselves—but were balanced out
by the rest of Congress.  It was sheer formalities, and it bored him to tears. 
    “Five
seconds, Representative,” the Watcher said pleasantly.
    Irritated, now,
Fred growled, “Let’s get this over with.” 
    No sooner had he
finished voicing the words than his vision grayed out and he felt an instant of
pinprick discomfort throughout his body as the Watcher transferred him into the
Congressional seat of power.
    Built by the
legendary Geuji, the Regency was an enormous spherical room whose interior was
completely covered in seats, over seven thousand of them, only half of which
were occupied in the anticipation of finding more members.  Though it was
unnerving to Humans, this had been the standard Congressional meeting-place for
over one and a half million years, since it left no member higher than any
other member.  It was much like the mythical Round Table, except taken one step
further.  A specialized hologram hovered in the center of the room, made to be
right-side-up to every creature in the room.  Right now, the picture showed
that of First Citizen Aliphei, who was older than some planets.
    The First
Citizen was the very last of his race.  He was about the size of an elephant,
with wrinkled, furry blue skin covering his body.  If it weren’t for his red
eyes and four sharp black tusks, he would almost have looked much like a cross
between an elephant and a polar bear.  Fred could pick him out amongst the
seats, his revered chair taking up the space of a dozen. 
    The fact that
the First Citizen had taken it upon himself to make an appearance did not bode
well for whatever poor planet had broken Congress’s laws this time.   Fred