Gråk versus Gereж,
Road Warrior meets Flash Gordon!
The Nebulon envoy came.
They were received by the security troops at Gate 1, the main gate.
The Nebulon speaker was clad in the finest plated robe.
Gråk (pronounced grAWk), raised a conspicuous eyebrow as he measured him up, head to toe.
But he was not to speak, that was the job of the Zebulon envoy:
“Greetings my friend” – he offered his hand.
“Greetings my dear friend” said the Nebulon envoy as he took the other’s hand and affirmed the meeting.
“—I would first like to say that we come in peace and my leader is honored that you have accepted us.”
“The honor is ours –my friend, but…we are very surprised at the latest—“
“—yes yes! Let me explain! Our leader is greatly concerned, his exact words are ‘The People of Zebulon deserve an ethical and honest government’. But before you get angry or do something emotional please let me explain further.”
Gråk’s anger was indeed rising.
The battle between the two people and schools of thought was old, and he knew that the Nebulon envoy was saying precisely these words to evoke an emotinal response from the Zebulons.
It was a favorite hobby of the Nebulons to constantly chide the Zebulons into some kind of show of emotion.
For the Nebulons this was of prime importance. It signaled affirmation, much like a hand shake did to the ancients.
It was so important for the Nebulons that if there was no show of emotion, it was considered a serious rebuff, and every form of communication would degrade from there into a constant search for approval.
This was also known to the Zebulons and they thought it was ridiculous. It actually defined their school of thought: Emotion is useless, why bother?
Gråk revisited this fact and his brief mini-spike of anger vanished as quickly as it came.
The Nebulon looked with prying eyes, and for a millionth of a second, saw deep in Gråk’s eyes – the faint sign of anger.
He was affirmed.
It was custom between the two people that only one emotion probe would be made – the meeting could commence.
The Nebulon went on about how their leader wishes to excuse himself, he takes full responsibility for his people, even though it was the action of a renegade Colonel named Gereж (pronounced gerEK).
He never spoke for himself, always for his leader.
Gråk and the other Zebulons were fighting the impulse to enter an eye-open-trance. [EOT]
The Zebulon envoy was ready to speak, he fought the impulse to interrupt the meaningless babble. The Nebulon’s excuses and drivel from “our leader” were so transparent that he thought it was another emotion-probe.
“—Thank you…thank you honorable Nebulon. It is obvious a mistake was made. Now what—let’s enter the next round of talks please, in our antechamber.
Fighting the impulse to get to the point, this would have been a fatal blow to the Nebulon’s sense of diplomacy, the Zebulon envoy lead the visitors to the antechamber inside the first wall of the compound.
Reading the situation and it obvious transparency, the Zebulons were secretly laughing inside.
There was something wrong, something too obvious in this conversation.
Were these really emotion-probes or just pure nonsense?
Both tactics were used by the Nebulons. They were used to the point where they became traits.
Gråk thought, ‘But if that is so…then they came here for no reason at all!’
The meeting proceed in the antechamber.
The Nebulon ejaculated meaningless ploys of forgiveness interspersed with ‘great plans for the future’.
The Zebulon tried to look interested but was completely bored.
This diplomacy assignment did not meet his requirements. It did not meet the requirements of any Zebulon on the planet.
But it was necessary, so he fought the impulse to interrupt the Nebulon’s meaningless banter.
Finally, when the Nebulon was finished speaking, the Zebulon took the reigns and went straight to the point:
“Dear friend, we will share the technology for transforming the hybrid-graphite with you. We will not leave this planet without you. For the last 1,000 Nebulon years we have worked with you and we are happy to take you along to the next level. This you have as a promise directly from our highest in command. – I know that this requires you to take further action and we welcome the next envoy at the earliest possible moment.”
The last sentence was a master stroke of diplomacy.
Besides that, for the last 1,000 Nebulon years everything said is recorded on the AOE [Annals of Ebulon] crystals embedded in their headsets, so verbal promises are simultaneously recorded…forever.
But they knew they had to speak the sentence anyway, to appease the Nebulon.
To perform an unneccessary inefficiency actual hurts a Zebulon.
Nothing can evoke more emotion from them than an unneccessary inefficiency. Identifying “UI’s” and eliminating them is the cornerstone of the Zebulons’ philosophy.
And the Nebulons know this.
Once the exact phrase is spoken, the meeting is considered succesful.
It was done.
The Nebulon envoy turned and left the room abruptly.
Only his coattails left a small swirl of wind behind him.
Gråk turned to his captain.
“Wait a parsec… they think we are ahead in the race to level two.”
“If they only knew the problems we’re having with the hybrid graphite.”
“Or...the meeting really was for nothing. But if it was for nothing, what was it really for?”
The Nebulon envoy fought his impulse to smile until he got to the foot of his transporter.
There his smile broke into an ear to ear teath bearing grin.
As the transporter’s doors closed – laughter was heard.
