Rapprochement

The event when the Pelted rediscovered humanity and welcomed them into the Alliance.

History

• Discovery (140 BA? Possibly as much as 139 BA.)
• Invitation to Starbase Alpha
• Signing of humanity into the Alliance as a member (not as an allied power; this was a condition of continued interaction) (141 BA)

The successful negotiation was conducted by Dar Allen, the Chair of the Alliance Council at that time, on the Starbase in a specially created chamber where the humans could enter the water with Dar Allen. "When the negotiations with the humans were not looking good. I asked for a space where I could communicate with them. Someplace we could be equal."

"I won’t pretend there wasn’t a lot of debate when they showed up. Or, I guess, to be accurate, I should say... when we ran into them again. There are questions about that, too—very convenient for those scouts to happen onto humanity. Did we engineer the Rapprochement? The people involved aren’t telling."

“It was important to us to forgive them. For our sake,” Amacitia said. “We had to, to be whole again. And also...” She laughed. “I guess to be brutally honest—” Such a strange thing to say. Did ‘brutality’ not imply damage? “—they couldn’t hurt us anymore. While they’ve been wasting resources and lives fighting one another, we’ve been devel- oping the technology we escaped with. Our makers are still puttering around their solar system, barely sending out feelers elsewhere, and we’ve already colonized multiple planets and linked them together with a communications and travel network. We have bigger guns, and they know it.” The Other tilted her head. “I think it had to be that way. I don’t think we could have forgiven them if we’d still felt threatened by them.”

Amacitia goes on to explain that "We had Fleet" and they had "a battered old navy with barely any ships... what was left of it after their wars."

When Dar Allen spoke of his role, he said: "“My decision was the final decision. And my terms were the final terms. The Naysha had a different relationship with the humans. Better. We could see them as complex people. On their own terms. It was too hard on the other Pelted. They will be glad, later. That we were fair. They aren’t yet.” He goes on to say that he tried to negotiate for a good outcome for humanity, knowing that a best outcome for them wasn't possible: "It could have gone much worse. But we put our interests above theirs. That was our job... we make the best provisions for our people. Usually that means a good thing for the other party. There was no way to give Earth that good thing. Not unequivocally."

Timeline

• The events of the Rapprochement begin in 2611 (or 140 to 141 BA), and thus, 140 years after the founding of the Alliance, and 240 years after the Pelted leave Earth in 2341. This is 270 years after the first Pelted was created on Earth.
• The Eldritch ally with the Pelted in 2549 (78 BA), which means at the time of the Rapprochement, the Eldritch have been part of the Alliance for 62 years. Maraesa is still queen; Liolesa is her heir at 322 years old and is only 43 years away from taking the throne when Maraesa steps down early. Jeasa, Surela, Hirianthial, Fassiana, all are already alive.
• So is Zafiil, who was born before the Pelted left Earth, though she won't discover the Alliance until 175 BA, 35 years after the Rapprochement.
• The Chatcaava are discovered, and sign their truce, in 2630, only 19 years after humanity is rediscovered.
• Fleet is formally established in 2474, and has been kicking around for 137 years when they run into humans, with the first Fleet Academe (on Selnor) is 114 years old.
• Well technology is 151 years old, though its initial manifestation was for communication. It takes a bit over a decade to produce a working Well drive for starships, so that technology is 139 years old when the Rapprochement rolls around. The Pelted also have Pad technology, but Pads are only 38 years old and not as broadly available as they will be later.
• On the human side, the end of the 13-year conflict between Earth and Mars (itself a colony almost 267 years old at the time of that war) 2132 is 199 years old; it is not clear whether there were other conflicts following it, but there probably were. It is worth noting that the Martian colony is older than the lunar colony by 32 years.

Redactions

The Timeline puts it in 2611, or 141 BA. However, the first edition introduction of Alysha's Fall quotes the reestablishment of contact with humanity as 2377. This date (and other date references) were removed in the second edition, leading to questions of canonicity. The author notes that the timeline was shifted later, however, to make events more plausible and give more space for events prior to the Alliance's formation, so the 141 BA date is currently regarded as the canonical one.

Treaty Stipulations

• Humans were to be accepted as a member species of the Alliance, not an ally
• Humans were not allowed to serve in Fleet in any capacity (including R&D and contracting to firms that built ships or supplied them).

The second condition was considered onerous, and amended to add that the provision would be revisited in a century. This 'Hundred Years Proof' would supposedly give the Pelted enough data to know whether humans could be trusted in the military. When 241 BA rolled around, though, no one made any changes; it wasn't until 167 years later, in 308 BA, that it was challenged by a teen boy who wanted to join, who'd been born on a Pelted world and never known any other. After that, humans were permitted to join. Transfers didn't become a thing until 388 BA, when it was decided that some human guidance wouldn't go amiss. Matthew Brighthaven would be the first human commandant to serve in that post, about 62 years later.