Chapter 641 Proximan Hospitality

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Chapter 641 Proximan Hospitality

“We are... pleased to meet you, Commander—excuse me, Captain—Takahashi, plenipotentiary representative of the Terran Empire,” Birch said, extending her hand to shake Ayaka’s. She paid no attention to the marine guard contingent standing like statues, weapons in hand—albeit politely pointed toward the ground—and rendered anonymous by their unmarked SLEEK suits. “I am Birch, and through me you may speak to Oak, Crabapple, Mangrove, and Cypress as well.”

“Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Lady Birch, and the others as well,” Ayaka said, taking Birch’s hand and politely shaking it. Her other hand signaled the rest of the diplomats, then she broke the environment seal on her SLEEK suit and removed her helmet, followed by the three remaining diplomats. “These are my colleagues: George Stefanopolous, an expert in contractual and treaty law—”

“Pleasure, Lady Birch,” George said with a slight bow of his head.

“Dr. Leigh Ayers-MacDougall, a xenobotanist expert and the scientific advisor of the delegation,” Ayaka continued.

“I’m thrilled to finally meet you, Lady Birch!” Leigh chirped in a friendly, excited tone. “May I ask—”

“There’ll be time for that later, Dr. Ayers-MacDougall,” Ayaka interjected. “And this is Boris Rustakovya, our xenodiplomacy advisor.”

Boris waved at Birch and said, “I’m excited to meet you, Lady Birch, and look forward to discovering more about you and this delightful planet of yours! And warm greetings to the others present as well—Lords and Ladies Oak, Crabapple, Mangrove, and Cypress.” He gave Birch a brilliant smile, turning his craggy face from broody to boyishly charming in an instant.

“Then we accept your hospitality,” Ayaka said with a smile, as though there wasn’t the threat of immediate planetary destruction hanging over the head of the treefolk and their soon-to-be-born “children”.

“And you are absolutely correct, we do have many questions for you. Warrant Officer Lee’s debriefing was... not as hopeful as we’d have liked, shall we say.”

“What’s a ‘debriefing’?” Birch asked, her head practically turning a full hundred and eighty degrees upside down.

(Ed note: Again, still not fond of multiple ed notes per chapter, but picture the kodama (木霊 or 木魂) from the classic Studio Ghibli film “Princess Mononoke”. They were the little critters in the trees with the three holes as faces; here’s a picture (safe link, I promise): https://tinyurl.com/miyazakikodama )

“A debriefing is when someone is brought before a panel of interested parties and questioned about a specific period of time or operation,” Ayaka answered. “It’s much like how the five of you interacted with Warrant Officer Lee in the timeless meadow.”

Birch stilled, then lowered her head and cutely pressed her index fingertips together. “We owe you an apology for that, Captain Takahashi. It was never our intention to harm any of your individual beings.... We thought you were much like us, and only Joon-ho was a sapient being and the rest of you were as disposable to him as our leaves are to us. We had no concept of individuality before that, nor could we ever have imagined that beings different from us existed.

“Those reasons don’t and aren’t meant to excuse our reprehensible actions that cost you the lives of seven individual beings. If you would like to memorialize them, you can tell us about them at your convenience. We... remember. We may not have conceived of individual life like that before, but we never forget anything that passes,” she said with obvious grief in her voice. It was apparent that the treefolk had never come into contact with death before.

Ayaka blinked away the moisture from her eyes before it could form tears and said, “Thank you for that, Lady Birch. Your offer is... most appreciated.”