“Don’t give me that crap. A number of you nachos have visited Earth. You’ve met with humans, talked with humans. You’ve tried to spread your ideology. You’ve already colonized a major planetary body in our system. We can’t be sure you’re not gathering information about humanity or using some kind of technologically advanced info-weapon. My friends in world leadership think that what you’re doing is a tremendous threat to the Earth. We’ve taken steps to prevent that threat. You owe us for that. We expect to recover our investment.”

Caurvex again entangled its sensory appendages with those of its companions before replying. “Our species is composed of clusters of modular communalist hive-minds. The concept of individuality is fascinating to us. We simply wished t...

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