“What you’re essentially asking us is if we’re willing sacrifice people and ships defending one alien species from another, but not out of some misguided altruism,” Nelson said, standing up to indicate he wanted the floor. “While this is not something we’ve had to deal with in the last few centuries, it’s not without precedent. Most of Earth’s history in the post-industrial age was defined by the application of military force. The Americans in particular had a very aggressive interventionist doctrine towards the end of their run, and even the reformed North American Union liked to apply pressure with its Navy. This sort of action is always presented to the public as being something other than what it really is: using force to protect something someone has that we want, or to take it from someone else who won’t share. Am I right so far?”

“Yes,” Wellington said, his eyes narrowed with suspicion, but he made no move to stop Nelson.

“The Ushin are willing to pay dearly for our help,” Nelson continued. “Over two dozen habitable worlds and access to their superior technology … I don’t see how we can say no. You all heard the reality we’re faced with: Without help the Federation won’t last long, and the ESA will be able to pluck even more worlds from our control, one by one. This is not something I do lightly, Wellington … but I’ll take your proposal to the floor and push it through.”

****

Pike shut the feed off and leaned back. He’d discreetly planted a listening device on Wellington when he’d brought the President back to New Sierra. It was something he regularly did, and without much guilt, since he worked for Wellington directly and the man was woefully inadequate when it came to briefing his personal intel operative after such a meeting. Pike had learned early on that it was much more efficient to just listen in and get the entire picture so he was ready when Wellington inevitably came to him with some outlandish request afterward.

What he had just listened to, however, disturbed him greatly … but should it? The PMs and the President had basically just colluded to drag humanity into another war for what amounted to payment by the Ushin. Despite having a military organization that was hundreds of years old, the concept of war was largely lost on this generation of humans. The Phage War was a flailing, knee-jerk reaction to being attacked, but what Wellington was proposing was an offensive based on false pretense in order to gain the resources the Ushin were willing to part with. Was he being naive in thinking this was something they should not be considering? He certainly didn’t think of himself as much of an idealist, not given the things he’d seen and done in his lifetime, so what was it about this in particular that made it so repugnant?