(Ahmed wants it confirmed that he's still supposed to stand by. Aegis tells him, tells them all, yes, hold position, stand by, wait.)
"Higher-ups want a detailed proposal," earpiece guy.
"Sure," Aegis says. "The buggers land their ships on their planet. The human fleet that's there lands too, the buggers give them a place to set up their colony -"
Earpiece guy sputters. "How did you -"
"Of course they're set up to start a colony, I'm not an idiot, there's no other reason to have people on those ships - and they get to be the human outpost on the bugger homeworld and report independently so not everything humans know about what's going on is filtered through what the queens push at Sue. They can keep the Little Doctor with them, ready to blow, in case of foul play, although hopefully it'll be possible to do without after a few years of peace. You give me and Sue desk jobs linking and negotiating with the buggers about all the details as they come up, at least until some other way to communicate with them is developed - perhaps they can learn to write in English - and we our species acquires 'little sisters' who'll teach us to build their tech and live in their prepared biomes. It is a good deal, and you should take it."
no subject
(Minutes pass.)
(Ahmed wants it confirmed that he's still supposed to stand by. Aegis tells him, tells them all, yes, hold position, stand by, wait.)
"Higher-ups want a detailed proposal," earpiece guy.
"Sure," Aegis says. "The buggers land their ships on their planet. The human fleet that's there lands too, the buggers give them a place to set up their colony -"
Earpiece guy sputters. "How did you -"
"Of course they're set up to start a colony, I'm not an idiot, there's no other reason to have people on those ships - and they get to be the human outpost on the bugger homeworld and report independently so not everything humans know about what's going on is filtered through what the queens push at Sue. They can keep the Little Doctor with them, ready to blow, in case of foul play, although hopefully it'll be possible to do without after a few years of peace. You give me and Sue desk jobs linking and negotiating with the buggers about all the details as they come up, at least until some other way to communicate with them is developed - perhaps they can learn to write in English - and we our species acquires 'little sisters' who'll teach us to build their tech and live in their prepared biomes. It is a good deal, and you should take it."