Bob was having a horrible day. Over the past few hours, his plans, his dreams, had been turned upside down. Six hours ago, a colony ship bound for Alpha Centauri had left Pluto outpost. Four hours later, it had passed through the Oort cloud’s border. One hour after that, they received a transmission from the opposite side of the solar system, apparently from the colony ship.
Bob, the President of the Solar system, had dreamed of being remembered as the man who pioneered the far reaches of space. Now, due to some unseen force, the Human race may never extend its reach beyond the rays of Sol.
He suddenly noticed a man, sitting in the guest’s chair. Startled, Bob jerked himself out of his reclining chair. “Who are you?”
“Forgive my sudden entry, Mr. President. I am pleased to tell you that your race, while possessing sufficient technology to colonize other solar systems, is not culturally advanced enough to be allowed outside of your system of origin.”
“Says who!”
“So states the Federated League of Races. The Treaty of Shigonto, the basis for the League’s foundation, clearly states that no race which is likely to begin wars is to be allowed into the position were it may do so. Humanity has been determined to be warlike, therefore it cannot be allowed to propagate itself beyond this solar system.”
Bob had been growing more and more angry during this speech. He jumped at the opportunity to speak. “A blockade is an act of war, you know. Such things have been forgiven in our past, but the blockade must be removed.”
“Tell me, Human, how do you think any attack by your forces against an enemy capable of erecting such a barrier?”
Bob was defeated on that point, but he was not going to give up yet. “That wasn’t my point. My point was that you don’t approve of war, but you committed an act of war.”
The man smiled. “The solar system you attempted to send your ship to is inhabited. The ship held what constituted an invasion force, as I doubt that you would have allowed the peaceful, plantlike people there to survive. Your colonists would have cut them down, set them on fire, or buried them with buildings.”
“We didn’t know that it was inhabited.”
“No, you didn’t. and that’s yet another reason you cannot be trusted with our universe. You could have colonized and destroyed their entire species before it was noticed that they were just like you.”
Bob had run out of arguments. “What do you want us to do?”
“I would see this decadent species exterminated, but as much as I would like to, my employers’ collective approval of the Treaty of Shigonto forbids me to do so. The barrier will be lifted when the Human race has proved itself by not coming into conflict with itself, on an individual basis or on any scale. Conflict is defined by the use of force to harm someone. If on any one day this happens, my employers will come and announce the quarantine is ended.”
The man picked up his black umbrella and left.
Ten billion years passed. Humanity had spent itself in a grand war that had destroyed three of the four rocky planets, made uninhabitable every colonized moon, and severely destabilized the Sun. before the Sun went nova, the Aliens that had confined Humans so long landed on Earth, the last surviving planet. After many tests, they came to a conclusion. Humans were not the victims of any outside cause which made them aggressive, they were just a bad crop.
The man with the black umbrella could have told them that.
I enjoy sandwiches. 
I apologize beforehand for this gross misuse of a comment.
Why are the only comments out there the ones I put out there? If you’re Bold enough to put a story or poem out here, you should be Bold enough to comment and acknowlege other authors. There’s a parable about two blades scraping together making each other sharper. That’s the reason I’ve got my material out here, because I want some constructive critisim to make my work better.
Hmmm, that sounded extremly selfish. Oh well, its the truth.
Jaik
DONT TWEET I dont like twitter, PLEASE do not put anything I do on that awful site. (I’m trying to hide from them, they keep sending me invites in my mail)
To summarrize, I dont care if you tweet, but do not DO NOT tweet about me.
Thank you
Jaik, The tweets of new entries are automatic. What’s the beef with twitter? Are you one of the last few holdouts :)
I really liked your story. I had actually had the same kind of idea about a story I wanted to write but you did it so much better then I could have.
The reason I wanted to write a story like that was that I had always wondered why everyone assumed that if there were other life forms out there that were smarter then we were that they wanted to start a war. What I realized is this: We expect these other life forms to be no better then us. If we came to a planet that was inhabited by a species weaker then us, or if we think that the species isn’t as intelligent as us, we would certainly try to take their land, culture, and even their lives. We have done it in the past, humans aren’t even able to be peaceful with ourselves (as you point out in your story). But the truth is, if these aliens were any smarter then us then they would realize that war should be something to avoid at all costs. They would realize that taking the land and property of a fellow living thing is not acceptable.
Your story pointed out that humans are the ones who start the wars. I liked that.
Caity, thanks for your comment. The general idea behind this story came from reading David Brin’s uplift series. However, where David Brin had a dystopic and faction ridden alien group, I thought that that was too messy and went for a simplified version, where a number of alien races meet without any conflict in the Federation of Races, based strongly off the founding document.
However, the Umbrella Man stole the story from the utopian civilization passing judgement on humanity, in my mind at least. You can tell that this guy legitimatly hates humanity, but I didn’t really get into his backstory, or why he is so bitter and resentful.
I’m afraid that when I finally bang out all the kinks in my new story, you’ll see that the Federation is not really morally superior to Humanity, they just happen to be more reasonable. I find it hard to write anything less than dystopia.
Anyway, I think it is a great story. I am curious though, why the umbrella man hates humanity so much as to call them completely bad, but in the end I suppose it turns out we are.
Please excuse any misspelling!
There is much more to leadership (and humanity) then treating people who are weaker and less advanced harshly. People are at their best when the best is expected from them. The “dominant” race in your story is uncivilized (or are at least ignorant of humanity) because they expect the worst. How much do you, the author understand humanity? All children begin defiant, argumentitive, and troublesome. What if adults decided to just keep them in their rooms to be on the safe side? God forbid they “sharpen their blades” amongst us. Imagine what that world will be like to live in. Write a story telling us what you would do if your father had come into your room while you were five and told you that children are a threat to civilization. That they have no wisdom. That automation and technology could keep the adults alive forever and that your existance beyond your room was pointless unless all children could be proven to be born with wisdom. What would you do? I think you need to dig deeper.
Also, earth will not be around 10 billion years from now. The sun will turn into a red giant in a few billion years which will engulf the earth. In 10 billion years, our galaxy will not exist as it will collide with our nearest neighboring galaxy, and if the sun is still burning it will be a tiny brown dwarf and the solar system will be very cold.
I really liked the humor of your story, that it wasn’t intended to be taken too seriously. But even then, your science fiction facts need to be solid if you expect to have any credibility.
Keep at it. Sharpen you sword.