In a galaxy filled with life and cultures that wish to expand, diplomacy is a keystone for survival. Polities and peoples grasp at understanding one another in the dark of space. Habitable worlds are rare and squabbles for them can spiral out of control without intervention. Yet the vast distances between worlds makes communication fraught. A misstep here, a miscommunication there, can plunge planets and species into war. Diplomacy is vital in the defense of the Commonwealth of the Womb. The first line of Commonwealth diplomacy is the embassy. These missions are dispatched from the Commonwealth to the many polities of the galaxy. They maintain formal ties and represent the interests of humanity. Each embassy is staffed with diplomats, their families, staff, and dybbukim to guard them all. Embassy postings are long affairs, as it can take years to reach an embassy. And years more to get word from the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth treats diplomats as a specialized class of civil servant. Diplomats have outsize influence because of the long wait for word from home. That influence carries with it significant responsibility. Diplomatic training takes years to complete. Diplomats learn multiple languages. They learn the culture of the people they’re being assigned to. Each diplomat focuses on only one polity. They’re expected to serve with this people for their entire career. That service might be at the Commonwealth’s embassy, or within the Commonwealth at the polity’s embassy in Commonwealth space. Commonwealth diplomats are able to shape foreign policy to a broad degree. Because of the years between dispatches from home, they handle matters as they arise. The Commonwealth grants them the authority to settle local disputes, set local trade policy, and even set local law for Commonwealth citizens. All this is understanding that they must ultimately answer to the Commonwealth and its charter. The great majority of other species do not prefer habitats friendly to humanity. As a result, the Commonwealth builds embassy quarters for its diplomats to live within. These quarters are cities in and of themselves. Not only do they house the diplomats and their families, but they serve as the homes for the tens of thousands of Exodites who travel to these distant polities. While some embassy quarters are built planetside, the majority are massive space stations in orbit around a planet. Planetside embassies are a rarity, owing to the diverse range of planetary preferences in the galaxy. Those that exist are gleaming metropolises. The embassy complex itself is the central structure of any planetside quarter. Its towers and spires are visible across the quarter, and often beyond. The towers are lit at all times to provide a beacon home. Planetary quarters are always given the name Yerushalayim, acting as that system’s Jerusalem. A Temple is the penultimate structure of the quarter, sharing space with the embassy itself. These quarters provide a safe haven for Exodites, and a reminder of home. Humans can find all the tastes and smells of home. And if they ever have legal need, the diplomats are right there to provide for them. Orbital embassies are no less grand than their planetary siblings. They’re built as O’Neill Cylinders: Massive orbital stations that can house millions. The cylinders create gravity by spinning. And their inner surfaces are so large that farmland can be maintained. While planetary quarters must rely on the native ecology of their hosts, orbital embassies are able to truly recreate the Commonwealth. They also feature a Temple and act as a Jerusalem for the Exodites in the system. Common sentiment among the Diplomatic Corps is that a planetside quarter is superior for embracing local culture, but an orbital embassy is the better for the comforts of home. In order to do their jobs well, diplomats must embrace the local culture. This begins with their training. Diplomats are often taught by members of the culture they’re being assigned to. There’s an expectation that it continues when they arrive at their destination. Diplomats should fully immerse in their host culture. A diplomat who refuses, who insists on being an Exodite always and forever, is a failure at their work. They must live and breathe the culture to do their jobs. This is made all the more difficult by the alien nature of the peoples the Commonwealth deals with. A truly skilled diplomat will be able to get into the mindset of their hosts. Even when those hosts are headless slug-like creatures. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of Commonwealth diplomacy is what’s referred to as “the long wait”. The months to years long delay in communications from the Commonwealth itself. This delay is caused by the need for ships to exit FTL outside a stellar system and enter it at slower than light speeds. While ships can travel between the stars in months, the need to slowboat into a system adds significant time to their voyages. Several methods have been developed to address the issue. In particular, the use of packet ships with powerful engines, or the use of courier drones with no crew aboard, have eased the long wait. Packet ships are small ships dedicated to carrying messages and people from system to system. Their engines are more powerful for their size than other ships. Crew and passengers accept a level of discomfort when traveling on a packet ship. An exchange that’s seen as fair for the speed they can give. They’re also lacking in defenses, relying on their status as diplomatic vessels for safety. A packet ship can cut the journey from system’s edge to embassy in half. Courier drones take an opposite approach to a packet ship. There’s no space for any passengers on a drone. They’re not even intended to reach the inner system. Instead, a drone exits FTL at the edge of the system and beams a laser encoded message to the embassy. This laser travels far faster than any packet ship could, and is used for the highest priority messages. Courier drones are commonly carried by larger ships, such as the warships of the Exodus Fleet. Even packet ships carry several for emergencies. What they possess in speed of information transfer, they lose in flexibility. Once a message is encoded into them and they’re launched, it cannot be changed. Another method to decrease the long wait is the construction of outsystem stations. These are small space stations built by host systems near the safe exit points for FTL ships. Incoming traffic, such as packet ships, can dock at an outsystem station. They can beam in any messages they wish to the inner system. An outsystem station provides the advantages of a courier drone, while also allowing passenger ships to continue their journey inward. As these stations are maintained by host systems, they are not seen as acceptable for the most secure communications. They do, however, make excellent platforms for speeding the spread of interstellar news. Besides direct polity-polity diplomacy, there is also regional diplomacy. This form of diplomacy is conducted between multiple polities at once. The galaxy lacks a central forum for all polities to gather, but several regional hubs have formed. These have been created, and are maintained, by the malak known as Her Words are the Order of Life. This malak has a keen interest in interstellar politics. She seeks to create a distinct interstellar order that all polities abide by. Joining her order has distinct benefits for the polities of the galaxy. She creates small stations in every member’s systems that allow for the upload of minds of the deceased. These minds are stored in the galactic Afterlife, a series of virtual realities. This alone has proven enough to entice the polities of the galaxy to agree to her terms. It does no harm that her policies encourage cooperation and discourage planetary destruction. The most concrete benefit for the polities of the galaxy is access to the regional hub stations. These are massive stations built by Her Words. They are located in the dark space between systems, near to the regional polities. Each provides wings tailored for the environmental preferences of the polities using it. A central sector with an acceptable compromise gravity exists for meetings between species. The malak provides security, ensuring that no disputes get out of hand. This creates the closest to neutral ground in the galaxy. Beyond the hub stations themselves, Her Words offers her own packet ships. Malakite FTL does not create FTL bow waves. This makes them the fastest transport option for diplomats in the galaxy. These special packet ships will carry diplomats from their home systems to a hub station in months. She also offers transport from a hub back home. The long wait isn’t so long when dealing with a regional hub station. This, more than anything else, is the lifeblood of the burgeoning galactic diplomatic sphere. The diplomats of the Commonwealth work tirelessly to keep their home safe. They live far from home, surrounded by creatures utterly alien to them. Knowing that their words and deeds mean the difference between peace and war. Knowing that any misstep can mean not only their death, but the ignition of a war that could annihilate millions. That help is years distant. They serve humanity without fail. Working always to make the galaxy safer. To enshrine peace for all.
Author: woerm