As I stand in the dark room, ready to meet my audience, my palms begin to sweat. I wonder how the creatures outside the steel door will interpret this body function.
I stand in the holding chamber almost completely naked. None of the aliens here wear clothing, so they thought it would be distracting for me to wear it. I was totally freaked out at first, but after five days of interacting with them, no one's said anything or even looked at my body that much, so I've kinda gotten used to it.
The only thing I am wearing is a name tag, hanging from a string just like the ones at home. In big letters, printed on electronic sheets that automatically translate to whatever language the alien looking at it speaks, it says 'The Pleader From Earth'. Below that, it says my name. Emma White.
The people (for a while I wouldn't call them people, but now I think that's the best word to use,) who live on this space station are fair. They sent multiple, easy-to-decode messages simply stating that they had conducted a survey of our nations and decided that we would better serve our galaxy as food sources than intelligent beings. They declared that one representative from our species could be sent to persuade them otherwise. We had five years to find our speaker. Nearly every government on Earth got this message. Some chose to share it with their citizens, but most hid it. Those who made the information public fell into chaos almost overnight.
China had a pretty good take on the matter, I think. They sent out several tests; I.Q. tests, public speaking tests, and mental well-being tests. Every citizen had to take them. No one had a clue what it was for. The winner was some rocket scientist, I think.
Soon, America followed China's example and used similar tests. Of all the hundreds of millions, I got the highest score. Me. A high-school girl. True, I take AP everything and have straight A's, but still, I couldn't believe that I turned out smarter than even the workers at NASA, or collage professors.
Seven months after the tests were graded, me, the Chinese scientist, and eight other candidates met via a video chat. We were each stationed in the capitol of our home country. We each took a new round of harder tests, and went head-to-head in games like chess, and debates.
It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I won. I turned out to be the smartest person in the world.
Now, there was four years and five months left before the aliens would take me away. I spent that time flying around the world, seeing everything from the Great Wall to the Hubble space craft to the Mona Lisa. No expense was spared on my education. Everyone knew that the future of Earth depended on me knowing our best points.
And then the time came. The aliens sent a message saying they refused to land on Earth, so I flew to the moon. They said no one could see their ship from the outside. It was hard, but we complied. I was asleep when they came.
I woke up on a big, comfy bed. To my surprise, my room had thick carpet, painted walls, and a plain, wooden door. Nothing futuristic about it at all. I shouldn't have been surprised- I knew they were watching us.
I met a lot of aliens over the next few days. Some were humanoid. Some weren't. Some were microscopic yet still incredibly intelligent. Others were made of electricity or gravity instead of cells.
The whole time, I was careful never to say anything was impossible, or that I didn't believe it. I wanted to seem as open-minded as possible. That was hard when I saw some things, like a species that had more than five genders needed to make an offspring, or a computer that could read minds, but I used to read a lot of fantasy and sci-fy. Nothing was impossible to me.
I took constant mental notes, thinking of what I would say when it was my time to speak in front of so many important aliens. I tried not to think too hard about it, though. I was afraid I would totally freak out.
And now it's time. I take a shuddering breath as I realize that more responsibility is on my shoulders now that has ever been on the shoulders of any human in history. Billions of lives are in my hands.
The doors slide open and I walk out onto a circular stage. Sitting, hovering, or placed all around me are the representatives of all the known intelligent species. Some of them have traveled hundreds of light-years to listen to me.
I have no time limit. I could talk for days if I had enough words. I smile and begin to talk.
"Creatures of the Council. I am deeply grateful for the chance you've given me to speak in front of you today. I have seen things I have never dreamed possible. Thank you so much for bringing me here."
Okay. Time to get down to business.
"I have learned that, a few Center-Years," (the Center is the barren planet almost exactly in the middle of the planets with life. It is used as a universal time-piece.) "Ago you gathered and decided that humans are too war-prone, dumb, and sense-less to contribute to the Council. I am here to tell you this simply isn't true. "
I look around, wondering if any of this is getting through.
"Recently, I have learned much about what your culture has accomplished. I have realized a few facts that I think speak in Earth's favor."
"For one thing, life on Earth has only been evolving for 2 billion years. Many forms of life represented here have been in the works for more that four times that. It simply isn't fair to expect us to be at the same stages as you."
One alien, a wrinkly old thing, only a few feet tall, with no face that I can see, stands up. It begins to speak. All the aliens here seem to speak English. Whether they all learned the language for my visit, or if they installed a translator while I slept, I'm not sure. Both seem possible.
The short alien seems to be laughing.
"Do you think we are unaware of this? We simply do not have the resources to wait billions of year for your kind to catch up. Unless you have something better to say, perhaps we should make you the first human to die."
I do my best to keep calm. I do, in fact, have a much better point. I think it's time I jump to it.
"I have spent a large amount of my time here reading your literature. There is a huge amount of scientific writing. There are even some religious texts. I have noticed one large difference between your writings and ours."
"Never, in your endless catalog of texts, did I see someone thinking more than three decades in advance. Your authors speak of the next day, or the next year, but never so far ahead. Any progress you have made has been prompted by events at that time, or has been entirely for the present. You have done a great deal of watching us on Earth in our daily lifes, but I don't think you have taken the time to read much of our books."
"There is a huge theme in our literature of looking forward, especially in recent years. Whether in politics, religion, or science, we are almost always looking hundreds of years in the future. Like I have said, I have seen many wonders in my time here. But I have seen nothing that hasn't already been imagined by our authors. Not the science, not the life forms, not the computers. I cannot argue that we are as advanced as you. But I can say, with conviction, that we are ready to be as advanced as you. Our minds have been prepared to witness these things."
"Even now, your people have few plans for the future. You know that some day, the stars will run out of hydrogen, and that the Universe will go cold, but you have few ideas on how to prevent or survive this. If you bring humans into your society, then we can help you discover solutions."
The same short alien stands again. I'm starting to think he's in charge here.
"How can you suggest such a thing? Your kind's technology is miles behind ours."
That's all I've got at the moment...
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