Subalantha Thallan
"Attention!"
"Commanding General of the Terran Meritocracy Forces, Subalantha Thallan VII arriving."
"Welcome, I am Adian Stammler, Ambassador of the Sol System."
"I'm sorry, but you are not accredited to welcome me here, in fact, your polity is legally prohibited here..."
"What? Sol III is not welcome here?"
"Err, that was not well-phrased of me, but, we remember The cutting of the light."
"Obviously, we remember it a little differently. Hopefully, we can at least speak to those differences, if we cannot alleviate them directly."
"I'd like that. Meet my staff, Geneticist-General Redot Chillipeper, Four-Brand General Phil Mandrill, and Three-Brand General, Venga Base, my operations officer.
"With me is Rachel Wraith, my under-consul."
"You've come to represent everything wrong with the current arrangement for me, I'm afraid."
"How so?"
"When the cutting of the light happened, my ancestor, Subalantha Thallan, the first, made the impossible decision to ban your people, when you cut us off..."
"I'm sorry, but first things first, do you recognize my embassy?"
"I don't have to, Hierarch Fuchs 3341416b-365f-4d95-98a7-96fac99c6b8e recognized your embassy and you are legally involate. Perhaps it is a message to me, that I cannot let the past rule me."
"I'm sure we can find a modus operandi here."
"So, what exactly happened on Terra in 2245?"
"We suffered a massive cyberattack, systems were compromised, and were cut until they could be certified, which took some months."
"Oh, so you were also a victim?"
"We've come to identify the attack as having been performed by the Tlalor, but not which faction or subspecies within has actually performed the attack."
"I see."
"What did you see? From this side of the link, I mean?"
"It looked like a cyberattack, origin unknown, it didn't bear the markers we'll come to identify with Tlalor or Vrinti in the year following this..."
"Obviously, you thought we'd attacked you?"
"Yes, and since your ambassador to us died the day before the attack, there was no one else to argue for caution nor peace."
"It took Dad years to even get us this audience..."
"And your father is?"
"Kristof Wraith, prior ambassador for Sol System."
"So you were born on Sol III?"
"I was born on Terra, yes."
"Ugh, we eschew calling it that..."
"Let me guess, your ancestor made it a law not to call it 'earth' nor 'terra' since you felt so betrayed."
"Got it in one. We call it Sol III, it's still the most hallowed place in the universe, but adding a number makes it sound less intimidating somehow."
"Adian was also born there."
"Yes, but I was born to two natives..."
"What, you?"
"Rachel is born to a native terran and what you'd call a genemix, Mila Slafkovsky."
"She's part TERRAN?"
"There's irony calling someone that when they're born on Sol III to a native Solian, especially when talking to someone born to two parents born on Sol III, you know..."
"Ugh, urr... You got a point."
"..."
"Apologies."
"I'm part genemix from the terran meritocracy, happy now?"
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to make this any more onerous than it should be."
"Understood."
"Let's just try to understand what happened. When we were hacked, and shut down all traffic from Sol III to here, what steps were taken here?"
"My ancestor, who was Governor of Thallax III at the time, ordered a full interdiction of traffic from Sol III, as it was believed you'd abandoned us, especially since the hour after the traffic was cut, the Tlalor attack on Thallax III was in full swing."
"So you presumed we'd HELPED?"
"No, but you never apologized, never presented your side of the story... My ancestor was already not a friend, he did not get better..."
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