Chapter No.167. Diplomacy

Talk is cheaper than war.

Alexa and I met our new recruit two days later in my quarters. He seemed confused by his new state of existence.

"I don't understand. I look decades younger and in much better shape than I was."

"That's because you're in a new android body."

He tilted his head as if he couldn't quitr hear. "I heard that that Space Command had built androids, but I didn't think that I would be one."

"None of us did. Creating sentient artificial life forms was outlawed by the U.N. and considered a crime against humanity."

He blinked. "How did they . . . how am I possible?"

"Your personality profile and memories were recorded before you were murdered. They were downloaded to your positronic brain."

"I assume that what you're telling me constituted a crime against humanity," he replied.

"Yes. You now belong to an android collective of some three million individuals all connected to a central processor core by quantum means. I am the Prime Mover, and Alexa here is my second in command."

He ran a hand through his hair. "I don't really feel all that different, but I must be."

"You're in a body that's orders of magnitude stronger and more powerful than any human beings' body. You can run faster, jump higher, see further, hear better and never have to worry about getting sick from any disease. You're essentially immortal, but mortality doesn't make sense for an artificial life form."

"If we are an artificial life form, how do we function?"

"Tiny nano-sized bots in your fluidic systems maintain your body at peak condition and provide the energy conversion process so that you can eat a meal. We human profile-based androids are physically the same as the generic androids that make up most of our collective, but we have changes to our brain structures that allow us to plan and make decisions."

"How many of you are there?"

I looked at Alexa. "I'm not sure, maybe around forty or so."

"Forty-three, counting Tyler here," she said with a teasing grin.

"Interesting," he reacted. "We are in the minority."

"Yes," I said. "Even if we resurrect more of the Space Command profiles, we still would be woefully outnumbered. "

Tyler looked at me. "What exactly is your diplomatic problem?"

"We belong to the Galactic Coalition, a union of seventeen intelligent species in our galaxy that are mostly aligned with the reptilians. The head of the coalition is a reptilian by the name of Fist. We were in conflict with the reptilians at first because they had collected humans and proto humans and herded them into breeding farms as food stock."

Tyler's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Yes. It seems that humans were seeded all over the galaxy and the universe by a proto-human species that was created directly by the originator, which some refer to as God. We're not sure where the reptilians came from, but they prospered by taking advantage of the generous supply of human food stock. After some military engagements, we finally made a truce agreement for them to use less intelligent creatures as food."

"If you've already made an agreement, why do you need more diplomacy?"

"Because we have encountered a new species that is doing the same thing that the reptilians were doing,"

"I assume that you've already had military conflict with them,"

"Yes. They are a plant species, but not like the plant life we're familiar with. Their outer fleshy parts are abiogenic, just like ours."

"Abiogenic?"

"That means that their living structures are not based on DNA. In our case it's the reason we cannot be infected with pathogens. Our structures are maintained by the nanobots. I'm not sure how theirs work."

Tyler looked down for a moment and then back up at me. "I will need to study all of the information you have about them and the intelligent species that make up the Galactic Coalition. I'll also need the Coalition's charter."

"Yes, all of that is in our data banks."

He nodded.

We didn't hear back from him until a day later when he joined us for the communal supper and the discussion session at the hidden pool chamber.

"I have studied all of your data, and I must say that the solution to this is rather obvious."

That surprised me. "How so?" I asked.

"What we need is a definition of what constitutes an intelligent species. The one I would suggest is that a sentient species believes in a deity or creator. In other words, if they believe in God, they would be considered an intelligent species."

"Interesting!" I reacted. "So, how do you intend to use this definition to resolve our problem?"

"We must strike a truce and then a treaty with the Plant aliens that requires that they use that definition to decide what species they might use as a food source. I also wish to add this treaty's requirements to the Galactic Coalition's charter."

"That will require a bit of maneuvering," I said. "They have this odd two thirds majority rule that doesn't work very well."

"It's no wonder that's a problem with seventeen members. I will suggest that they change it to a simple majority."

I turned to Alexa. "We should have resurrected him way before now."

Alexa gave me a smirk.

"Okay, we'll go to the plant creatures' planet first and hopefully we can assuage this ugly problem."

"Oh, and by the way," Tyler said. "I've created a new definition of intelligent species types. Humans and reptilians are fully biological. We are totally abiogenic. The Myst are totally robotic, and the plant aliens are part biological and abiogenic."

My right eyebrow shot up. "They have biological structures?"

"They are essentially biological beings with abiogenic skin."

"Okay, that explains why they eat fleshy biological creatures."

"Yes, and that's why we should be able to convince them that our idea would be best for them." Tyler added.

"Good. We'll implement your plan tomorrow."

He nodded.

The next day we were on our way to the plant alien system. I told Judy to project a communications request so that we could discuss the situation before any combat commences. Fortunately, they decided to accept our request.

"Okay Tyler, you're up."

He stood up so that he was fully visible to them. I was impressed that he didn't show surprise when he saw them. They were truly alien with flower faces.

"I am Tyler Stewart and have been appointed as negotiator. I have composed a treaty that will resolve our conflict and insure peace."

"We will consider it."

"They treaty requires that we cease any military actions and discuss any conflicts. Our proposal is that we will permit utilizing any creatures as a food source as long as they are not intelligent by definition."

"What is the definition?"

"We consider a species as being intelligent if they are sentient, which means that they are self-aware and that they believe in a supreme being, deity or god as being responsible for their creation."

That resulted in silence from the flower creature.

"We accept this definition."

Alexa and I exchanged smiles.

"As a reward for accepting this treaty, we will supply you with the location of planets that contain non-intelligent creatures that constitute a food source."

"We accept this."

"We will consummate the treaty's acceptance and send it to you along with the data."

And that was all it took. The communication ended.

"You just earned a star," I told him.

He gave me a confused look.

"Ignore Jason's antiquated phrases," Alexa told him. "He's a hopeless sentimentalist."

Tyler laughed.

"Okay Judy, take us to the Galactic Coalition's headquarters."

I turned to Alexa. "Hopefully, Fist will accept our definition."

"What other choice does he have," she replied.

"Yeah, you're right about that."

We arrived at the headquarters planet and decided to teleport Tyler down to control center with us.

Fist was there and surprised that we just popped into existence.

I pointed to Tyler. "We've brought our diplomat with us to suggest some changes to the Coalition's charter. He successfully negotiated a treaty with the plant aliens."

"How?" Fist asked.

"We gave them a new definition of what constitutes intelligence." I looked at Tyler. "Explain it."

"We define an intelligent species as being sentient and believing in a creator, deity or god as being responsible for their creation."

"And they accepted that?"

"Yes. I don't know why, but they did."

"That's essentially the definition that we use," Fist said.

"We also would like the Coalition to change from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority."

Fist did something that I hadn't seen before. He smiled.

"That would make more sense."

"How is your battle with Tyco progressing?" Fist asked me.

"We've had several personal combat sessions with his avatars. Both Alexa and I have been severely damaged, but we prevailed. He's been silent of late. I'm sure that will change."

"We will continue to scan for his vessels," Fist said.

"And, we will continue to be on call if you or any of the coalition members are attacked."

Fist nodded.

We teleported back to our vessel and returned to Earth. It was time for some R&R.