Galactic Diplomacy

Samantha Williams rushed from her quarters to her office, both on the space station called by humans Babel.

Calling the place a “space station” didn’t really do it justice, as it was almost the size of Earth’s moon, with everything the diplomats of dozens of species might need to be comfortable while dealing the bumps that are probably inevitable when so many different people are part of the same union, the Galactic Collective.

Samantha was in a hurry because today was the first day she would be the official liaison for humans who had volunteered to serve on alien spaceships.

She had protested this might be challenging to do on her own, so apparently they would be sending her an assistant - but from one of the alien races.

Fortunately the transportation system within the station was extremely efficient, and she arrived at her office early.

Which turned out to be be a good thing because she was just getting organized when there was a buzz at her door.

She activated the door, and in stepped a creature who at first appeared to have been assembled from random Earth animals.

It stood about five feet tall, and had what resembled porcupine spines on its back. It also had a trunk-like nose that ended in something like fingers. Its actual fingers were long, flexible, and had suckers on them. Its eyes were multifaceted, and its legs were short but very muscular.

“Madam Ambassador?” it said, “I am called Agustus, I am here to be your assistant”

“That name has some connotations in my language,” Sam replied.

“It's as close as the translator can come” the creature stated.

“Well, then, sit down.” Sam said, indicating the nearby chair. “May I ask why you wanted to work with a human?”

“Curiousity. I understand that is a quality our species share.”

“Indeed. I take it you got a briefing on humans?”

“Somewhat. There were parts I did not understand. What does it mean that your species is a persistence predator?” Augustus asked.

“Well, humans are biologically designed to get maximum results with minimum effort. We have the endurance to follow prey until it can't run anymore.” Samantha replied, “But why it is in your briefing is because we took the basic idea of persistence in pursuit of prey, and applied it to basically everything. Give us a problem to solve, even if you tell us it's impossible, and we will keep trying to solve it, coming up with some remarkable ideas along the way.”

“Interesting,” Augustus stated.

Just then, Samantha’s PDA pinged.

“First report on the exchange program” She said, and by pressing a couple of buttons she shared the report with Augustus.

“Injury to human while on an alien planet” Augustus said, reading the report, “It says he tried to ... interact with a hostile native species?”

“Yes.” Samantha replied, “I saw this back on Earth. We called it the ‘if not friend, why friend shaped’ disease. Some idiot tries to pet a wild animal, and learns the hard way why that is not a good idea.”

“Why would they do that?” Augustus asked.

“Humans are extremely social. Not like a hive mind, but still we thrive on being able to connect with others. And not just our fellow humans. We can form strong bonds with pets, wild animals, even inanimate objects.”
Samantha replied.

“So you think this person was trying to bond with an alien creature?”

“More than likely”

Samantha’s computer pinged again, and once more she shared what came on her screen with Augustus.

Augustus asked, “Why would the captain of a starship want information about human genders?”

Samantha replied, “It doesn’t say, but I bet it is because they have a human who is transgender on their ship. A surprising number of the human volunteers for this exchange program are transgender.”

“I’m afraid that word did not show up in my information packet,” Augustus said.

“I will send you the same information I plan to send to the starship captain,” Samantha replied, “but to try and give you the simplest version I can. In humans, there is a difference between biological sex, and how an individual might relate to their biological sex. We call that sense of self as it relates to biology as gender identity. Along with this is how a person wants those around them to perceive their relationship with gender, which we call gender expression. Most of the time, all these things align, but when they don’t, sometimes, you get a transgender person. Like I said, it's actually a lot more complicated, but hopefully the info I can give you will help.”

“I see,” Augustus stated, “if such individuals made up a significant portion of the volunteers, I can understand why you would need to research the subject.”

“Well, yes,” Samantha admitted, “but I also have personal knowledge, because I am transgender.”

“In that case I will make an extra effort to understand,” Augustus replied.

“That’s all anybody can ask” Samantha said with a smile.

End