That Day in The Senate

Something new I'm working on. Not my usual fantasy business. Just a snippet from the start. An introduction if you will.

 

 “And pray tell why should humans not be allowed the rights to work? They have been out of the enslavement, brought on by our own hands, for over three generations yet still all they can muster is to pollute our streets and collude to commit crime. They have been stripped of all the dignity their race once had when we took their world from them in the Garden Purges, with enemies that have ages since become allies. The only way we can strip our homes of their ilk is to allow them the right to work and embrace them into the galactic community as we do with all sentient species. I move that humans be granted the rights that should have been forthcoming during the dark times of war in the galaxy, when “we” ousted them from their home, and that they be ingratiated into society, like we do with all space faring species we meet.”

The speaker stepped back and moved to his chair, shocked silence etched on the faces of the senators. Whispers came from behind the speaker, the viewers of the summons shocked at the demand brought forth before the Senate of Free People. The senators spread over two rows of seven, speaking to each other in hushed tones, debating the validity of the speaker's idea. Minutes passed in disquiet, the speaker, a smile across his broad face. That someone could bring up such an idea was almost heretical. Finally, the unwanted human masses covering the streets would be free to move and work as they pleased, they would finally be free of the injustice brought upon them over a thousand cycles previous, during the purges of the garden worlds, taking the species living there into slavery or worse so that those planets could be used as industrial farms. Humans, the last remaining of those species, most resilient and rebellious, needed to be brought into the Free Peoples Democratic Galaxy if they were to both survive and possibly thrive again as a species, and most importantly claim a world of their own.

Cameras were flashing around the room, the press from various news networks across all the provinces covering the latest of the summons, the time when the Senate decides on new acts, broadcast live across every planet, seen by every species. It was how everyone knew what took place in the Senate. It was how the mankind would learn of their new fate. It was the first time since the forming of the Free People's Democracy that the question of any species rights had come into question and everyone would likely be tuned in to see what was going on. Every street's network broadcasts would be showing the meeting in the Senate today, and that would mean that every human across the galaxy would see it. But how would everyone react, the speaker thought. How would the thronged human masses react when they learn that they too are one of the Free People? It could be disastrous.

The communing of the senate stopped and the presiding head stood, central and aloft of the others. He shot a look at the speaker, before addressing the whole of the gathered at the summons. Camera flashes stopped as every eye was on the speaker for the Free People. “We find the honourable speaker brings a point across that has been in need of address for too long. The Free People's nominated have discussed this and we find problems with the idea.” He looked down, a sadness, perhaps fear crossing his face. This didn't go unnoticed to the speaker, though he did not know what it would mean.

“In the case against, humans are not and have never been a space faring species. They have no longer a form of governance and their people are scattered wide across the galaxy without their own worlds. How if we give them the rights of the other species will they be able to use it? They breed too fast and they spread across the provinces like rats. However, what we did to the aliens during the Garden Purges was shameful, and we have a chance to atone with humanity that has been lost with those that have passed. They didn't relent and they fought us hard when we took their Earth, but they didn't die out like many of the other native species during the culling and even after enslaving them for a thousand cycles they still thrive, in the muck and the streets. We find that the only recourse,” He paused again, taking a breath. He looked down at the speaker, a hint of remorse in his eye, “is to allow the humans the rights of the Free People. While they can not join the senate, lacking both a home world and a government, they can freely move and work as they please and are granted all the privileges a member of the Democratic Galaxy would be given.” With this he banged down his gavel and turned to leave the seat, as did the other thirteen members of the senate, almost in unison.

Once again flashes came from cameras, presenters on the video feeds erupting into chatter. Pockets of outrage in the court, as members of different class shouted out against the decision. Soon everyone would know. Soon the collective human voice would join the already noisy and garbled voices of the fourteen species. The speaker stood, watching the rest of the summons leave the court, a mix of every feeling comprehensible. Humans finally had the rights they deserved and had the chance to be the people they were meant to be. But it seemed not everyone shared his feeling for this need. He had to move quickly. His people had been planning this move since the abolition of slavery. The Uan would begin the re-homing of mankind and hoped they would be grateful for it. They would put right what they made wrong.