“We’ve detected the use of weapons of mass destruction, sir.”
“How many times is that?”
“At least the third noted instance, sir.”
“Run through them for me, would you?”
“Yes sir. Let’s see,
first was the use of a chemical weapon by an aggressor against a defending
force. Second, the use of two nuclear
warheads, fairly low yield. Finally, and
most recently, the use of chemical weapons against rebelling forces during a
civil war.”
“Well that’s it then.
Prepare to invoke the Wolfram Protocol. Third strike and they’re out, to use their
metaphor.”
“Sir, if I may, there has been some debate that the use of
the nuclear weapons may have actually saved tens of thousands of more lives
than they cost.”
“Noted. However, we
can’t take a utilitarian view of these things, and you know it. Once they’ve unleashed that beast, there’s no
putting it back in its cage. Just look
at the way it’s affected the last half century.”
“Yes, sir, of course you’re right, but can’t we do something
less drastic? Perhaps if we put in an
appearance—“
“And what good would that do? You’ve seen their cultural output. There’s every likelihood they’d turn their
weapons on us.”
“Yes sir, but with their primitive technology—“
“Enough arguing, Ensign.
The Treaty of Magrathea is clear.
Unchecked aggression cannot be allowed to expand beyond the confines of
the planet’s surface. If they are
willing to use such weapons on themselves, they’ll have no qualms about
unleashing them on others. They were
given nearly a century to reign themselves in, and multiple chances. According to the logs, the Protocol was
almost unleashed 30 of their cycles ago, when they planned to weaponize space
with these things. But they managed to
agree to keep them terrestrially based.
That was the only reason they were allowed to go on this long.
“They have failed to check themselves and so it is our responsibility
to do it for them. It’s the reason we
were stationed here. Now, prepare the
Protocol!”
“Yes sir.” The ensign
straightened up and saluted before turning to a nearby panel. “There appears to be a suitably large
asteroid in the belt out between the fourth and fifth planets of this
system. We’ll begin altering its
trajectory in towards their orbit.”
The captain nodded. “Any
chance they’ll be able to avoid it?”
The ensign shook his head.
“No sir. They may not even detect
it until it’s too late. They haven’t
invested the resources into planetary defense.
I’m sure they’ll spot it. But
even if they were to detect it as soon as we’ve completed the shift, they lack
the technology to do anything about it, their cultural output
notwithstanding. Ironically, the best
data we have indicates they’ll probably launch their nuclear weapons at
it. But the asteroid we’re targeting
will be too large.”
“Well then,” the captain said, “the only thing for us to do
is to make sure that any weapons they do launch either hit the asteroid or some
other body within this system.”
“Yes, sir. By my
calculations, the asteroid will hit in this time, next cycle. It will be an extinction level event.”
“Very well, Ensign.
See to it. We’ll stick around
long enough to make sure everything goes according to plan, then request a new
assignment.”
“Yes sir.”
