Many of us wanted the assignment – to watch how Earthlings will do the inevitable. How they will waste the Great Gift that we have given them.
It happens every time that we do a favor for a young race, following rules laid down long ago by the absent Law-Givers. We are bound by ancient oaths, to fulfill obligations. Bound … but if we fulfill the letter of the law, in our own way? The Law-Givers are gone, and we now satisfy our debts in whatever way might amuse the Garubis Polity.
On Earth, I bared this body of mine for capture and abuse by foolish human grubs. And their larvae behaved mostly as-predicted, with savage insensitivity to possible consequences. But some of them … a few … acted with surprising grace, saving this one’s life. Saving my life. And so they spared their species from our fore-planned trap. Our retribution would have been justified and fierce –
— but instead, I lived. I was returned to the Garubis Bosom. And Retribution had to be set aside for a time, in favor of Reward. And from the list of prizes, we chose to give them a colony.
A settlement-refuge, for several hundred brooding-age human females and their attendant drones. For them to make the best of. Or to fail, according to their talents and moral character.
Having spent months among them, I know how the human adults and sages would complain over this gift. Had they been given just one day of warning, they might have gathered two thousand volunteers with a myriad skills and equipped with every clever tool to make this colony a success. And perhaps that is the way a Law-Giver would do things.
But the Law-Givers are gone. Leaving us behind, shackled by their laws.
Oh, but we Garubis have become fine lawyers!
Let the humans scream, mourning their lost spawn. Their rage will only make them more prone to error, when next we meet.
Meanwhile, we will watch this experimental brood nest of their soft, ill-disciplined hatchlings. Our simulations predict some amusing failure modes, as we observed happen to other gift-recipients, in the past.
Humiliated by my failure to be killed on Earth – shamed by receiving their kindness – I did not think I would win the prize I next sought — this assignment to watch the children fail, close-at-hand. But blood counts and my high caste prevailed, one more time. And so, I will supervise from shadows, relishing the painful ironies.
For revenge is the highest art. And we take payback seriously. And so we retaliate, time and again, against our Masters. By living according to the letter of their laws – but never the spirit.
So come now, human teens. Do not disappoint me.
As you would say: blow it.
End of Book One