Dedo often pondered about the Humans. Even though there were 312 intelligent species in the galactic federation, this one held a fascination for him.

He had to study all 312, of course, as part of his studies to qualify to become a senatorial candidate. The wise Founding Fathers had seen a day when merely being elected to high office by popular vote would not be enough to ensure sufficient wisdom to create laws to rule all species. The Founding Fathers feared that a prolific species would dominate the federation and push their views on all the other species.

Thus was born the College for Senators. Only those who graduated from its long and difficult educational program could become candidates for the Senate.

The Galactic Federation held an election every five years for senators. Each species would elect one High Senator and as many Low Senators as their population qualified for. For their lone High Senate seat, each voter could select only from candidates of another species, thus greatly reducing interspecies prejudice. For the Low Senate, the voters could vote for anyone from the qualified list of candidates.

Such a system of cross-species cooperation had resulted in a near absence of wars. The last war between species had occurred over three hundred millennia ago. And with peace had come a slow down in the cost of developing the tools of war and of wars themselves. Peace reigned throughout the Milky Way and quadrillions of its citizens were grateful.

Dedo fervently wanted to become a High Senator, the most prestigious role, especially since the High Senate elected the president of the federation from its membership.

His father had been a president and Dedo dreamt of following in his podsteps and maybe even surpassing him in his performance. His father was one of only four presidents in history forced to resign and Dedo longed to repair his family’s reputation.

He sighed. Ambitious thoughts must be set aside for now. In two weeks he would take his first exam on Extinct Species and there was much to learn. He returned his attention to the Humans.

Only those new species that had achieved faster than light (FTL) travel and also had overcome any tendency to war would be invited into the federation. Of course, acceptance of such an invitation was not totally voluntary. Any species which refused would soon find itself surrounded by a million warships. They would be locked out of using interstellar travel and would become non-citizen subjects of the federation.

Humans weren’t considered viable. They were still a young species with a recent history of wars. They never got the chance to overcome their urge to war because they disappeared from the Milky Way a little over a millennium ago, when a nearby star exploded as a nova and flooded their star system with deadly gamma rays.

Their strange disappearance drew his attention. Dedo glanced at his study schedule. He could afford to spend a little more time on this species. Sensors placed by the federation had watched the human home world for several millennia, so he had a lot of information at his disposal.

This young species had not achieved FTL before the first indications of the potential nova had reached them. Dedo admired how humans survived the chaos after they learned their planet would soon be bathed in toxic radiation.

Much to the surprise of federation observers, the surviving humans had overcome their prejudices against each other in record time. Because the federation had begun withdrawing its observers for their own safety, the information Dedo had available became sketchy and then ran out completely. The leading theory of the observers was that fear of their impending death had overcome the humans’ prejudices just long enough for them to cooperate. But it had been too late. When the last observer left, there were only twenty revolutions remaining of the planet around its star before the first gamma rays were due.

Since no species had ever developed FTL in that time and their planet was close to the nova, historians placed humanity on their list of over 500 extinct species.

Dedo reflected on his own species’ evolution. His home world was a desert planet with little water. Maybe that was one reason why he was so enthralled by the human planet with its abundant oceans. What a paradise that must have been! Everyone could have enough water to swim in whenever they wished, unlike on his home world where only the elite had swimming pools. Almost all the available water was rationed in order to maintain their population’s drinking water, food supplies, and industrial needs. There were no public parks near bodies of open water.

He leaned back in his chair. Of course that had led to many wars until Nethar came to power. Nethar, the first Wise Ruler, guided his species out of their adolescence and into their early adulthood phase. And Nethar did it by promising a way to travel between stars so they could find more water and better places to live. Still, it took almost a hundred years to develop FTL. And then federation representatives presented themselves and offered membership.

Dedo sighed. That was over a millennium ago. His own species had come almost as close to extinction as the humans. Maybe that was part of why he was so keenly interested in them.

#

On Earth, after news spread of the impending nova, the worst kind of chaos ensued. Riots burst out in every major city. With only a few years left to live, most people experienced such extreme personal shock that primitive instincts took hold. As hundreds of millions of people walked off their jobs, panic developed over food and water supplies.

One man, Gustav Miller of Switzerland, rallied the scientists and engineers of the world to offer the first viable solution to extinction. If we all cooperated on the development of an FTL drive, it would be possible for millions to survive. Of course, that created a new problem—who would go and who would have to stay behind?

Politicians saw the need to cooperate on the technology and used the discussions on the selection of who would get tickets to go as a diversion from the strife. Enough people calmed down and focused on the selection process that the scientists and engineers could get to work. And if enough people cooperated, they could build a lot more ships.

With more resources applied to the problem than any in human history, the development of an FTL drive and the designing and building of hundreds of space ships proceeded quickly. It took less time than expected to send the first probe via FTL to Alpha Proxima, the nearest star, a little over four light years away.

When evidence came in that the nova would threaten all the nearby star systems as well, a second wave of riots occurred. It was Gustav Miller again who came up with a solution—leave the Milky Way and head toward the nearest galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Cloud, as they called it, was a small galaxy that orbited the Milky Way in a string-like filament below the plane of the Milky Way. The major problem they faced was the distance—over 160,000 light years of travel.

#

In the 200 years since the fleet of ships left Earth, they learned much. Living in such limited quarters forced their leaders to teach cooperation.

When they reached the outer stars of the Cloud, they quickly identified three with planets which could support them. It didn’t take long for wars to break out again and it wasn’t until almost one hundred years later that humanity was reunited under one government for the second time it its history. In the meantime, the wars had prompted the development of many new technologies. By then, humans lived on over forty planets in the Cloud.

#

Deep in his studies, Dedo was annoyed when a message interrupted him. But since it was rated First Priority for All Planets and was on all communication channels, he could hardly ignore it. What in heaven’s name could have prompted such a message?

He closed his links to the college library, took a sip of water, always a pleasant experience, and turned his attention to the monitor. A new species had entered the galaxy and had overcome two member species already. The truth was shocking. War had returned to the Milky Way.

Fifteen minutes later, an image of the offending species appeared on the screen. Dedo jumped backwards when he saw the fuzzy picture. Apparently the humans had not gone extinct after all.