Birthright

Determined to prove to Mankind that pacifism was a viable alternative to a bitter series of wars that

could end only in the extermination of the race, he went over the heads of his constituency and approached the aliens directly.

If he could arrange a conference between all the races of the galaxy, Man included, would they be willing to participate?

The aliens were in the driver's seat, and they knew it. Only if certain conditions were met, they answered, would they consent to such a meeting. The conditions?

All delegates would speak with T-packs. Not modified Terran T-packs, but Galactic ones. Thome agreed.

The meeting would be held on Doradus IV, symbolic of the first worldwide population that Man had wiped out through sheer carelessness, rather than malice. Thome agreed.

The delegation of Men must be empowered to speak for the entire race. They'd had enough experience in signing agreements with one representative of the race and then having other Men deny that anyone had spoken for their specific interest groups. Thome agreed.

The race of Man must totally disarm prior to the meeting. Thome explained, time and again, that he did not have the influence or the power to make his race lay down its arms. That, after all, was one of the hoped-for goals of the meeting. However, he would guarantee that no Man attending the conference would bear arms. After considerable procrastination, the aliens agreed. There were, including Man, 13,042 intelligent races in the galaxy. Some of these, such as the insectoids of Procyon II, who had no interest in the affairs of other races, or the ichthyoids of Gamma Leporis IV, who bore Man no ill will, were not invited to the conference. But of the 11,039 races invited to send delegations, 9,844 had responded favorably. Even such far-flung and exotic beings as the Vasorites, who spent their entire lives following their small red sun over the horizon on incredibly long, untiring legs, agreed to attend. In fact, Thome had more trouble getting Man to agree to the meeting than any of the aliens. After all, Men were the reason for the meeting. They would be expected to disarm, to make territorial concessions, to pay economic tributes, and they weren't happy about it. Thome kept hitting away at the only alternative—racial death—and at long last the leaders of the loosely-knit Interstellar Union of Man, a conservative government that ruled more by consent than any effective manifestation of real political power, agreed.

There had been a lot of stipulations. The aliens must be informed that Man's presence should not be