In the jungles of the doomed ice planet....
Though it isn't much of a jungle, Earth Unity Ambassador Chanda Kasmira reflected as she and the valley dweller D'jirar neared the atrocity site. She'd arrived here aboard the Unity diplomatic starcraft Nivara, now orbiting Splendor.
Most Splendorian trees barely topped three meters, essentially huddling close to the ground to capture its warmth. The vegetation between the trees had thick, almost leathery leaves that retained water well, and were splashed red, yellow, and orange to entice Splendor's scarce insectile flyers into spreading their seeds.
"We're getting close," D'jirar said. "I can smell burned trees." The valley dweller's skin had a greenish cast and was lightly scaled. One of Chanda's colleagues had even told her D'jirar's hue complemented Chanda's own creamy brown skin nicely, and boded well for their relationship.
She'd see. D'jirar had been the first valley dweller Humans had contacted eight years earlier, and since then had helped dozens of Splendorian tribes come to terms with the simple fact that they must leave this planet or future generations would die. The Unity starcraft Erasmus had spent the last eight years spreading the word about the danger and ferrying valley dwellers and highlanders to their new, and it was hoped, temporary, homeworlds. It was orbiting Splendor during the attack, but didn't detect anything until the village was destroyed.
The Sobrenian craft that now orbited Splendor had also gone unnoticed until after the attack. Sobrenians were an aggressive species and weapons tech was their highest art form. When the starcraft wouldn't respond to the Erasmus's captain, the Unity dispatched Chanda aboard the Nivara. Though the Sobrenians hadn't yet responded to the Nivara, either.
Sometimes it was frustrating, this hopping from one planet to another, "putting out fires," as diplomats sometimes called it. Chanda preferred no other life, though. No sitting in an embassy for her.
Chanda and D'jirar had landed in a clearing half a kilometer away to avoid disturbing the attack site. Now Chanda climbed over a mass of thickvine half a meter high and too wide to walk around. She wasn't used to the heat. For Splendor, 28 degrees was pretty warm. The planet's grav, a third again that of Earth, didn't help either.
She looked back at D'jirar, wondering if she needed help getting over the thickvine. The valley dweller's head was barely level with Chanda's shoulders, and Chanda herself was only 180 centimeters tall. Should have known better, she thought, as D'jirar used her strong thick legs and sharp-clawed toes to scramble over the mass, with her thick tail waving from side to side for balance.
The valley dwellers were one of two intelligent species Splendor boasted. D'jirar's people lived within volcanically-heated valleys in the icy regions that dominated Splendor's land area, or here in the warmer climes of the equator. They were proficient in crafting metal tools and weapons. The other Splendorian species, the highlanders, lived only in the icy areas, and traded furs for valley dweller tools.
It would have seemed an idyllic existence to Chanda, except for one problem, a big one. In just over ninety years, a nebula of hot gas from a star gone supernova over ten thousand years earlier would render Splendor uninhabitable. Worse, no one had yet found a world that could accommodate both species. The highlanders were being relocated to a planet in the Socrates system, the valley dwellers to a world in the Kardashev system.
Chanda told D'jirar, "You didn't have to come along." She heard the valley dweller's translated reply over her datalink: "If I want to become a spacer, I must learn all I can. That includes learning what happened here."
One moment, Chanda was walking through a forest with the rays from Splendor's primary, Pinpoint, barely glimpsed as they danced among tree leaves. The next, she was squinting against Pinpoint's steady glare as it shone down unimpeded from an empty sky.
The destruction stretched nearly a kilometer across, its edge disturbingly neat and surgical. The landscape was barren; scattered stumps of trees, bits of thickvine, a shard of a valley dweller's cup or bowl were all that lay upon the earth before them. After a recorder drone from the Nivara that resembled a silvery baseball passed overhead, all was quiet. Splendor's equivalents of insects and birds were less prevalent on Splendor than on Earth, but Chanda hadn't realized how much the occasional flutter of wings or chirruping of tiny legs were part of the background noise you took for granted. The skies seemed ... empty, washed clean of life.
Chanda had viewed the destruction from the orbiting Nivara, and knew it extended another nine and a half kilometers from their position.
D'jirar said, "Many sixteens of valley dwellers lived here. What did they do, that the Sobrenians would kill them?"
Chanda said, "I think they were just in the way. The Sobrenians may consider this planet already dead."
D'jirar looked toward the sky, as if the wisps of cloud there might spell out an answer. "It is not. And should not be before its time." The valley dweller's gaze returned to Chanda. "Do you expect to hear from the Sobrenians soon?"
"They're not given to rapid replies, in what little experience Humanity has with them."
"Then I must ask you a favor."
)
Earth Ambassador Chanda Kasmira must figure out how to negotiate with the Sobrenians, a Galactic species she considers guilty of genocide on the planet Splendor. The only problem is that the Sobrenians barely consider humans to be an intelligent species, and have no desire to talk to Chanda.
