"I am glad you could agree to come commander, with all of the .... Issues with the LFIL, we have had a really difficult time trying to maintain good relations with the rest of the galaxy."

"We are glad we could come, of course, anything to help people understand humans a little bit better, plus Dr. Krill has a speaking engagement at the conference, so my coming here was twofold."

"Ah, yes, your little doctor, when I heard about his particular speech, I have to admit I am very intrigued and excited. Anyway, we are glad that humans could come and help us with our mission. Even with human tourism growing in certain sectors of the galaxy, there are still many places were humans had never been seen, and it is in those areas where we have the most difficulty. They hear the rumors, and they see reports on the news about the worst kind of humans, and they just get scared."

Commander Vir pulled to a stop standing next to the conference director, A Finnari by trade with a relatively trustworthy face despite being an alien, "Well, then they wouldn't be the only ones. Humans have been practicing paranoia against ourselves for thousands of years."

Out in the hallway of the conference center, aliens bustled by many of them staring on at the commander and his group of following humans with wide frightened eyes. Some of them pointed in excitement while others shied away to the other side of the hall.

It was still true that less than 7 percent of all aliens in the galaxy had ever seen a human, and for many of these, that fact was no different.

This would be their first time seeing a human.

The commander had to bite back his innate response to smile at them, seeing as most aliens, like most animals, considered the display of teeth to be a threat. So he simply waved a hand garnering a few flinches, and a number of curious head tilts.

Maybe someone should do a seminar on human body language, perhaps then the general public would feel more comfortable around them.

"Anyway, we thank you for coming, but your friend's lecture is about to begin, and I am very excited to see how it goes." The commander nodded to the Finnari director, and he, and the other three humans with him, Maverick Ramirez and Dr. Katie stepped into the room where doctor Krill was setting up his presentation.

As was becoming routine at the conference, they received a gasp and an eruption of mutterings as they appeared from the doorway.

Dr Krill looked up from his work, as the humans inched to the side of the door trying not to be too disruptive, "Stop right there you four, and come here."

In confusion the humans did as directed.

Dr. Krill stood up voice electronically amplified over the sound of the room, "Can everyone hear me, good, that is very good, now today I am going to be talking about a subject that, as the humans say, is very near and dear to my heart. That translates as, it is very important to me." he motioned the humans to sit down on the stage, and they did as ordered though rather awkwardly, "Now I thought about just speaking to you for today, but have decided that, you aren't going to be able to keep your focus away from the humans anyway, so I might do us all a favor and add them into my lecture as a way to introduce you to them in a controlled environment, and hopefully, after today, you will come to see the humans as I do. Great allies, and an undeniable opportunity for friendship."

"now , I wanted to do something a little different today, something a little off from my normal structured way of speaking about humans because I find it very displeasing the way the rest of the galaxy sees humans, and I want to change that. I tried determining a fact about humans that is the most forgiving and the most empathetic. Something all of you would enjoy."

There was a muttering of intrigue about the room.

"Well I am going to start off with a little bit of a lecture. A lot of you may not know that humans give live birth to their offspring, not eggs like the Vrul, Rundi, or the Celzex, but more like the Tesraki or the Drev. however based on the physical structure of the human, and the slow evolution to walking on two feet. Humans are only capable of producing offspring at a reasonable size generally around six to seven pounds, and arguably no greater than twelve to fifteen pounds, though there may be exceptions. Now, as you know six pounds is very very small compared to the end result of a human, and the size of the head has the greatest bearing on this issue. The human head shape requires offspring to be born extremely underdeveloped, so underdeveloped that when they are born they can barely see or hear and have no ability to coordinate their own movements. It takes almost an entire rotation of their planet around their star in order for a human to walk. In essence it takes as much as eighteen revolutions before the average human is no longer taken care of by their parents."

There was a muttering from the crowd.

"Now based on the surprising helplessness of the human offspring compared to the final product, they tend to be very loud, and very difficult to take care of seeing how underdeveloped they are. Generally if any one of us were saddled with an offspring like that we would probably just give up, but the human brain is so hot wired to love their offspring, that none of those annoying things generally tend to matter. In fact, the power of a human's bonding abilities is so strong that they can even bond to creatures that are NOT human in nature."

Another surprised murmuring around the crowd.

"A human will have the same reaction to a nonhuman than they do to their own young, and in that case, this means that a human will protect the offspring of another species with their own lives. Human parents have been known to kill, lift objects five times their size, and fight off even more dangerous predators for the safety of their offspring, and they will do it for yours too.."

This time the murmuring around the room was almost palpable, it was as if they could hardly believe what they were hearing.

That couldn't be right.

"What if I told you that the safest place our offspring could be, is in the arms of a human."

That caused an absolute uproar of chattering, and Krill had to wait a few minutes before the room calmed down.

The humans were looking between each other with some curiosity hardly believing what they were hearing, not sure where this was going.

"now , I have brought forward a couple of gracious volunteers who trust my judgement enough to help me demonstrate what you are about to witness ."

"Our first volunteer." He motioned to the side of the stage were a Rundi was waiting, as she walked onto the stage, the crowd noticed at least three tiny shapes running around her feet.

The human turned to look eyes wide, to the crowd they almost looked hungry.

"Dr. Katie, can you tell me what you are thinking."

The human looked up her wide brown eyes somewhat magnified through her glasses, "I want to hold one so bad." She turned her head towards the rundi, "Can I hold one.... Am I allowed to do that. I'll wear gloves."

The rundi mother seemed surprisingly calm allowing the human to come over and pick up her little ones holding them gently in their hands running a finger over their tiny heads. One of the humans was holding the tiny creature to his chest. Patting its tiny head with one finger.

"You see the protective nature in which the humans hold young that isn't their own, I picked the rundi first specifically for this reason, simply because they don't look remotely human. Arguably the humans shouldn't even connect them with their own young, and yet this is the posture of a creature that isn't going to let anything happen to their charges." He turned to the humans. "What would you do if someone tried to hurt these little rundi?"

The darker human looked up from the creature he was holding to his chest, "I don't know probably rip their arms off and beat them with them.... But that's probably a bit graphic so... er, i would be very very upset?"

"Great save." The commander muttered, stroking his hand delicately down the little Rundi's back, who seemed to be enjoying it rather happily. Of course all the humans were wearing gloves, considering that the rundi had an aversion to water, and humans had a habit of shedding it wherever they went.

They actually seemed disappointed when they had to let the tiny creatures go.

Not that they were disappointed at the next moment when A dark blue-black tesraki brought out a fuzzy little bundle.

One of the humans made a strange squeaking noise. Again begging to hold it.

The humans seemed to be having even more fun than the rest of the crowd was having watching them.

"You see the younger a creature of a different species is, the more likely humans are to adopt it with their social bonding."

"Look at its little pig nose eep!"

"Hey let me hold it. You don't have to be a hog."

"You can fight me."

"Sharing is caring."

"What if I don't care." The humans jostled with each other for a turn holding, petting or cooing over the creature, though their aggression seemed to terminate at a predetermined distance from the small one, and if it wasn't obayed, there were other humans to make sure they kept in line.

"You see, I would wager to say that your children are safer with humans than they are with you. Not to call you a poor parent. But humans will take falling impacts, jump in front of speeding vehicles, and their bodies are known to be quite durable."

The commander was leaning over Dr. Katie's shoulder stroking the Tesraki's huge ears with one finger, "So soft."

"Though the creature does not have to be fluffy, but for some reason humans really enjoy it, despite their own young being hairless. In fact there are many humans that much prefer to have a creature of a different species than they are interested in having one of their own

"Furbaby." A human whispered as the tiny Tesraki was appropriated back from them.

"My next demonstration we have to thank by way of lord Celzex."

The humans lifted their heads, eyes widening, "No!"

"YES!"

What came next was an excessive spectacle of human happiness characterized by a lot of squealing from both male and female humans, and a ton of tiny, angry little balls of colored fluff with massive eyes and huge feet.

Dr. Katie sat in a corner holding a handful of the little colored fluff balls in her arms, "Guys...." She moaned, "I think I'm gonna cry, this is pure happiness. I want all of them."

Maverick lay on the ground flat on her back as at least ten of the tiny creatures crawled all over her. It was pretty clear they were trying to attack, but to the human it caused nothing more than an eruption of giggling.

The commander and Ramirez sat opposite each other trying to wrangle a small heard of the fluffies who ran about in an angry circle.

Needless to say, the humans were very disappointed when they had to be taken away.

Ramirez held out a hand, "Wait, but, no...."

Maverick was frowning looking down at her empty hands like she was missing a finger.

"And now for my last demonstration." The doctor began." Motioning his last volunteer up.

What came next was a nine foot tall male Drev, cradling a tiny shape in his lower arms.

Excitedly, the humans rushed over, and the Drev seemed to have no problem handing over his young to the pack of cooing humans.

Maverick bumped Katie out of the way, and took the tiny creature in her arms running away with it across the room.

The other humans trailed after Craning their necks over her shoulder and trying to see the tiny creature who opened its little beak like a baby bird chirping and blinking at them.

"I swear if anything happens to this child I will kill everyone in this room and then myself."

"I didn't know they were so frigging adorable. Shit, I want one." The commander grumbled playing with one of the tiny hands.

"Yeah, who wants a human baby anyway, these ones are way cuter., and they don't smell."

"Maverick, if you don't let me hold it, I promise I will have you on bathroom duty for the rest of your foreseeable career."

Maverick frowned, "Just five more minutes."

"Fine, five, but then it's my turn."

The doctor continued to lecture as the humans sat in a circle passing around the tiny drev, "You see in a time of crisis, a human will wrap themselves around their offspring using the rigged bones, and taught muscles of the shoulders, back and ribcage as a shield diffusing impacts and cushioning falls. It is also quite common for an entire pack of humans to form up around younger humans to protect them."

The commander had appropriated the tiny Drev from Maverick and was softly stroking a thumb against its tiny cheek. The small creature opened its mouth like a baby bird, chirping slightly before nuzzling its head against the human's chest growing quite comfortable against the warm, soft human.

"Its official, I am the favorite." The human announced

"But-"

"No no, you see, sleeping, now you can't take him away." The other humans pouted and the commander grinned.

"You see it is all thanks to the annoying and underdeveloped nature of the human offspring, that we can thank for human over protectiveness. Now, this effect lessons somewhat as you grow older, but generally speaking it never goes away entirely. A human will bond with anything, a broken piece of equipment, an item of clothing, and definitely you, for sure. Should you be cautious about which humans you trust? Certainly, but we exercise that caution daily with each other."

He motioned to the group of huddling humans holding the tiny sleeping Drev.

"Just remember this image here the next time some propaganda string tells you humans are monsters."