Free The Ninth Orb by Kaitlyn O'Connor

when they sent the others down, the kzatha, they call them.”
    A thoughtful expression crossed Ivy’s features. “So they’re just beginning space exploration, you think?”
    “It seems that way.”
    Ivy was silent for some time. “What did she have to say that threw you into such a state of disorder then?”
    Eden shrugged. “She said we could have them.”
    Ivy commenced to blinking. “Excuse me?”
    “That’s what I thought. I checked the translator, though, and it seemed to be functioning properly. Besides, she didn’t leave me in any doubt. She made it clear we could have them if we wanted them--or we could send them away if we didn’t, or wipe them out if we felt it was necessary.”
    Ivy laughed, but it was a sound of disbelief. “That isn’t funny, Eden.”
    “I’m not joking. The females have harems. The one I spoke with, Sademeen, seemed to think we were the same as they are, and that we’d … misplaced our men, or something. I told her we didn’t need them for … uh … breeding, but she said they would be useful anyway. I’m telling you, she was trying to give them to me--us.”
    Ivy commenced to pacing. Abruptly, she stopped and turned to stare at Eden again. “The Trojan horse!”
    “What?” Eden asked blankly.
    Ivy shook her head. “This is ancient military lore. An army came up against a city they couldn’t breach. So they built a great wooden horse and left it as a ‘gift’. When the people of the city dragged the ‘gift’ inside, the soldiers came out and destroyed the city from the inside.”
    “You’re saying you think that’s what this gift is? An attempt to get inside to attack us?”
    “It seems just as obvious that they are aware of our force fields as it is that they don’t have the technology to breach them, so, yes, that’s what I’m suggesting.”
    Eden realized that, deep down, she’d harbored the same fear in spite of her sympathy for the aliens who’d apparently been discarded for no other reason than because the older males felt threatened by them. “There is absolutely nothing to support a suggestion that they mean us any harm, however--except the human capacity for deception and treachery and we don’t know that they’re as bad as we are.”
    “From a military standpoint, from a security standpoint--it would still be better to destroy them,” Ivy said forcefully.
    Eden merely gaped at her while that slowly sank in. As it settled in her mind and then the pit of her stomach like something completely loathsome and indigestible, Baen’s image rose before her mind’s eye, and then the faces of the others she’d passed when she’d visited their city. “You can not be serious,” Eden managed faintly.
    Ivy’s expression was impatient. “You can’t allow emotion to color your judgment, Eden! Our future--the future of everyone here--is at stake. From a purely logical standpoint, you know as well as I do that there will be trouble down the line even if we could get relations off to an agreeable start now. We are seriously, scarily, out numbered here, even if our technology does give us an advantage at this point. We could and should destroy them now, while we can, to preserve our future.”
    A wave of nausea washed over Eden. Anger was the backwash. “You’re not just suggesting we annihilate the colony that’s here. You’re talking about attacking their home world, aren’t you? I will not sanction such a thing! I won’t even consider it! They haven’t threatened us in any way. If they had, I might agree with you. If I’d seen anything to suggest they were being less than honest, I might consider it. From everything I’ve seen and heard, they are completely focused on their own concerns and have no real interest in us at all, however. Moreover, we’re not talking about a damned rodent infestation. We’re talking about intelligent beings!”
    “Who have a standing army at least twice the size of ours! If they were a completely peaceful