Narrator:Aboard the U.N.S. Embassy Ship Terra Firmator. . .
Comm crewman:Ambassador Andreyasn, you have a high-priority call from Presiding Secretary Tofotti J. Mancala.
President Mancala:Ambassador, how are you today?
Ambassador Breya:Shortly very busy, I expect. To what do I owe the pleasure, Mister President?
President Mancala:Our G.I.D. Chief tells me that the Fleetmind has been actively interfering in the affairs of several Sovereign States.
President Mancala:The Tohdfraugs lost an entire fleet, Kestrona's insurgency lost an armor column, and Qlaviql's Tricameral Assembly was destroyed from orbit.
President Mancala:I'll send you the full report. This kind of opportunistic militarism cannot be tolerated. The United Nations of Sol and allied planetary Governments will not stand idly by while sovereign galactic powers are overthrown, crushed, or assimilated by the Fleetmind.
Ambassador Breya:What's our plan, Mister President? Do I need to deliver a declaration of war, and then withdraw to the embassy?
President Mancala:Don't be ridiculous.
President Mancala:Your job is to lodge a protest, using the strongest possible diplomatic language.
Ambassador Breya:Ah.
Ambassador Breya:And how is that different from "standing idly by?"
President Mancala:If we were standing idly by, we would not be lodging a protest.
