[ WP ] Humans are the only intelligent species in the universe to have evolved from predators . Every other sentient species has evolved from a prey species ... and so they are terrified of us . Now it 's up to you to persuade the Galactic Council that we wo n't hunt them down and eat them all .

`` Please. If we wanted you gone, we could do it with a single broadcast.'' 
 
 `` Pardon me?'' 
 
 `` You're herd species. Cooperative and peaceful, that's deep in your ancestry. Safety in numbers.'' 
 
 `` Yes. Meanwhile, your history indicates much violence, territorialism, *factory farming*, and other such lovely things. We should n't be having this discussion. Get to the point.'' 
 
 `` We're peaceful, now, are n't we?'' 
 
 `` A potential loophole we had n't considered, and which will soon be closed.'' 
 
 `` We're peaceful, cooperative, productive, happy, wealthy. In most respects, there's no difference in our instincts and neurology from a few hundred years ago, when we were much closer to the predators you fear, or even tens of thousands of years ago before we first started to till the soil. So what changed?'' 
 
 `` What? You discovered farming, industry, science, and economics, just like everyone else.'' 
 
 `` Sure. Circumstances changed, we take advantage of our instincts to push us in better directions, we know what we are underneath and we know what we need for that to not hold us back and be wasteful. And we've had a lot of experience at figuring out how to behave in ways that are superficially counter to our nature, while fulfilling the genuine, underlying patterns.'' 
 
 `` You think you could do the same to us?'' 
 
 `` Can you confirm for me you have no other outgoing communications?'' 
 
 ``... alright. Alternative channels have been locked.'' 
 
 `` The Nylaxians have an infectious disease which lays dormant for multiple generations before a particularly deadly stage, along with exceptionally high mutation rates. Your biology and theirs is similar enough that your species would be affected, and likely go extinct without their hereditary resistance.'' 
 
 `` What? That's not... that's just an example, right? That's not going to actually happen, you're lying.'' 
 
 `` I am. But you feel that panic, right? Imagine I'd announced that publicly. Imagine how many people would be reconfiguring biofilters to reject Nylaxians, just in case. How many would be repurposing asteroid mines to eliminate their colonies, shooting down their 
 
 `` It would be perfectly understandable, to reduce the risk-'' 
 
 `` Imagine if I'd told them the same thing about *you*.'' 
 
 ``... oh.'' 
 
 `` The risk your species has, that all current Council species have, is a particular kind of risk-aversion. We can shake the hand of a former enemy, knowing they could kill us, and deciding it's worth the risk, knowing we have allies to avenge us. You do n't have that experience. 
 
 `` On top of that, we've got a lot of experience at building institutions and societies that make it *really hard* for us to kill each other en masse. There have been some failures, as I'm sure you know. And if we'd taken a slightly different course, if you'd contacted us a century earlier, we'd have knocked your collective civilizations over like a house of cards, and picked through the scraps. We're not that society now, and you need us to be ready for that species. Can I count on your support for humanity's entry into the council?'' 
 
 `` I'll... you've shown I'll need to take particular care over this. So no, you can not count on it. Future negotiations will take place with added time-lag and through my aide.'' 
 
 `` Fast learner. I look forward to it.''
