Writer's note: This takes place in the universe of my homebrewed wargame. The reason for the warning should be obvious soon enough.
Human warship Mah Poy, Year of the Taikun 176 (somewhere between 2220-2260 AD).
Aboard the ship's bridge Harrison Foster observed the ascending shuttle. Abnoard that craft was a trained diplomat sent to conduct talks with the Rong, aliens who had never before shown intrerest in dialogue, had never even seen other species as anything other than resources to be plundered. Upon hearing the craft had docked and the airlock sealed He headed toward the shuttlebay.
The shuttle doors slid open, a walkway touched down. Foster warmly greeted Kyle Teiri, friend and fellow officer who had been sent to inform their superiors of the particular needs of this mission. Upon hearing a second set of footsteps Foster turned to greet the man of the hour...
Who introduced herself as Mercedes Hamilton. Foster returned her salute with the minimum of courtesy before leaning toward Teiri and hissed in his ear, "You were supposed to inform them-"
"I DID tell them," Teiri interrupted, "They said they're not going to change their policies just because these aliens have some backward ideas about gender-their exact words!"
Foster exhaled in frustration, then turned to the envoy. "Come with me," he barked, walking toward the lift doors without pausing to see if she followed.
The conference door hissed shut behind the two. Foster activated the projector on the centre of the table, above it materialized the image of a male Rong. Superfically it resembled how most humans pictured a dinosaur of the raptor family, saved it wore miltary-style garb and upon opening its mouth extended not one but five long, thin and flexible tongues. Foster turned to regard Hamilton, "What have you been told about the Rong?"
Hamilton straightened up, her face wearing an expression of pride, "Their planet of origin is unknown, believed to have been destroyed outright or at least rendered uninhabitable. They have divided themselves into multiple nomadic fleets that cross the Orion arm (the 'arm' of the galaxy Earth resides in), and raid other cultures for supplies they need."
Foster nodded, all that was correct, strictly speaking. He pressed some buttons on the projector; in the image the first Rong was approached by a similar-looking creature except this one was unclothed and did not possess the sickle-shaped claws that were present on the feet of the first. "There is something else about the Rong, something that likely seemed irrelevant to you. Were you informed about the- peculiarities- of their methods of reproduction?"
Hamilton suddenly seemed confused, "They told me it was something akin to terrestrial seahorses, once the female's ova are fertilized the embryos retract into the body of the male who carries them to term."
Again Foster nodded, "Yes, however unlike seahorses the Rong take things a step further." At that he fast-forwarded (sp?) the projection to after the coupling, to show the male Rong savagley slash his mate across the belly and both sides of her throat. Once her body ceased to twitch her 'husband' began clawing her corpse into smaller, bite-sized pieces.
Hamilton's jaw hung open, the blood had drained from her face, "They told me of this this, but the way they said it led me to believe it was a myth, or a very tasteless joke."
"I assure you it is neither. Make no mistake Hamilton, in the eyes of these aliens the female has only one purpose, and is disposed of upon fulfilling that purpose." He shut off the projector, "Now how do you expect they'll react when they see that we have sent a woman to speak for us?"
Only One Purpose (Warning, VERY politically incorrect)
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