February 4th
A Hearing On Human Compassion

Prompt: Tragedy

“Tragedy. Disaster. Calamity. Misfortune. Hardship.” The human standing up on stage before the Galactic Relations Committee on Death Worlders. As was the case with all Galactic Committees the members were hidden only outlines that delineated species obvious through the privacy screens. “Each of those words has a different connotation, memory, or event that you and your species think of when they hear them. Some are war atrocities, others, as rare as it is on garden worlds, are natural disasters, and there are plenty of other examples. But as a general rule each species really has one singular event that comes to mind.”

There were some murmurs and nods from the committee members but most were just waiting to see where this went. “Humanity has been seen as an outlier on the galactic stage since the first delegation was brought back by our diplomatic core to earth for countless reasons that most of you see as mixes of barbarism, insanity, pure unreasonable existence.”

The man hated speaking to committees. He basically had to stop every sentence in order to let translators relay what he was saying, even humanity had better translation tech than this lot. “We are a fractured race, with nine governmental bodies just in regards to earth. As a species I believe the last count was forty seven. The world we inhabit has more danger markers next to its galactic listing than all but two other settled planets and those were research stations before we added a trading post next to them.”

A light on his podium caused him to pause as one of the translators had flagged they needed a moment to catch up so he took a sip. When the light turned off he continued. “Humanity is a divided race even compared to other omnivores and carnivores due to not all starting off developing as one specific species. In fact some of our scientists are saying as many as seven versions of humanity had developed before coming back together and the best genetics making who we are today.” Another light, another pause and then he continued. 

“Because of our governmental divisions there have been rumors circulating that Humans lack compassion, empathy, or the ability to work together. I am here today to show you that is not the case.” The light that illuminated the human speaking went out and the holoscreen turned on.

“This first picture is one of the most famous pre industrial tragedies on earth. The eruption of the volcano of Pompei.” The holoprojection, showing all the telltales of a two dimensional image extruded to a three dimensional hologram showed the mummified remains of a taller human, huddled over the body of a human child. “Genetic testing came to show that the child had no relation to the person doing their best to protect that child from the lava flow that destroyed and buried their town. 

The holoimage dissolved and this time a video feed started playing. An island with obvious human vertical construction was shown engulfed in smoke. On the water around one edge of the island dozens of human boats were pulling up to the docks, jettys, anywhere they could pull safely alongside. The video feed panned around showing people trying to jump to the boats before they were even moored, people swimming to boats that had already pulled away full. “This is 3d rendered footage of a day of terrorism between two groups of our own race. Without knowing the extent of what was going on, what is now commonly known as the first Operation Boatlift took place. Anyone near that island with a boat headed to the shore with no idea of the nature of the tragedy and started helping to evacuate the island. Medical care was being offered, food, blankets, water. Civilians stepped up while governments had yet to understand what was needed.”

There was more murmuring as the human waited for the next image to load. “The Three Gorges Dam Impact.” He paused as everyone felt silent. “For two months Humanity had tracked an incoming meteor and had calculated that it would hit our largest ocean. Well the gravity of our moon changed that trajectory by only a few degrees and made the situation worse.” He loved the reaction he got at this next line. “Some of you know that Dam as your species researched it when we claimed we had managed to slow our rotation with non robot construction buildings.” There was typing and some quiet arguing as the various representatives that didn’t know it already were verifying this claim.

“At the time of the impact the two largest militaries who’s homeland were on either side of the declared impact ocean were constantly on alert and growling at each other, just waiting for one another to make a move. Well when that meteor hit the damn, the Captain of the first Human interplanetary military ship The Icarus broke patrol over the west coast where they’d been expecting a tidal wave and headed to the opposing country to start rescue operations. While governments were screaming and threatening each other, the heads of the two militaries came to a verbal agreement to allow the Icarus to rescue citizens of the disaster area.”

When he looked at his podium half a dozen lights were lit having asked him to pause so he waited taking another drink as he watched the various feeds play out of Humanities first, and at the time only military spaceship doing search and rescue alongside military assets it honestly had been designed to defeat.

As the last light clicked out and he was allowed to speak again he sighed as the holographic projection switched to a significantly higher quality set of footage from the Calistine homeworld. A race of K9, werewolf look alikes that humanity had bent over backwards to befriend. “All of you are familiar with this incident and it is the reason we are now here.” A pause as the footage played. “1.2 solar cycles ago a reactor breach on the Cruise Ship Millis sent it on a decaying orbit of the systems single Gas Giant, worst through its rings from the strip mined 5 moons that had once surrounded it. While emergency procedures were started and who would be in charge of the rescue was decided, a human salvage ship jumped on the public frequence and by simply declaring Operation Boatlift organized over 100 small trade, salvage, military, and civilian luxury ships to help evacuate the Millis.”

A pause allowed everyone to watch as one by one every human transponder equipped ship in the system turned towards the Millis’ location. “Due to the quick response times of human ships, which did include several illegal, risky, and otherwise unwise in system jumps, not only were the passengers, crew and ship saved. Even those exposed to the reactor were able to receive fast enough medical treatment that only radiation scaring and two lost limbs were the consequences. Well and scratched paint.” Another pause for this to sink in. All immediate estimates had expected between 8 and 12% casualties and a 2 solar cycle dry repair for the Millis. “After feedback from several other races humanity today proposes the Operation Boatlift Protocols. No longer should those in need have to wait for politics and such to get rescue. We call on the Galactic Relations Committee on Death Worlders to follow this Death World example, and bring this new protocol to the Galactic Senate for official ratification. Because even if you don’t humanity will continue to show our compassion.”

2025 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 4 - Writer's Digest