Amalgam Universe

A 2280-post collection

Challenge #03161-H252: Teaching Gently

Level 1 Havenworlders, and levels one through three Deathworlders, were being trained in how to work in childcare facilities that would have human children there. How to help them burn off the excess energy Human children tended to have, and to keep the Human children, and all other children, as well as themselves, safe. -- Anon Guest

Education in the Galactic Alliance gets... interesting. Class sizes rarely exceed ten. Indeed, eight is when the facility starts looking at ways to divide the group. Age is not relevant. Social skills and capabilities are.

Accepting responsibilities is a large part of the curriculum. It is well and good to know one's rights, but one must also accept the responsibilities that go with them.

Chief among these in early education is the Gentleness Test. Not all children learn how to be careful. Some are just naturally rough. Teaching a child how to not harm things and then people is truly important. Which is why some very smart people invented toys to teach it rather than letting damage and injury ensue.

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Challenge #03160-H251: How to Save Human

Humans are too eager, sometimes, to protect us. We appreciate it, we rely on it, we've become highly dependent on it. Some of us... may have even grown weaker, relying on our living shields far too much. They are far too willing to throw their lives away for us, we must get them to see, their lives are worth just as much as ours are. -- Lessons

It is universally agreed that Humans, as a species, are insane. They have to be.

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Challenge #03159-H250: Gourd-y Display

And some of the decorations were a bit too realistic for them...

Examples -- Tom

[AN: The title you gave this prompt has been ignored. See how much sense it makes now?]

Pirate Captain Mes is about to ask one of the universe's most hated questions. It's the kind of question that earns the answer punched into his softest parts. Watch carefully. See if you can spot it.

"Agrarians, for the most part. Small farms and not a great deal of useful

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Challenge #03158-H249: Instant Friendship

H: Waking up and unable to move, groaning softly. "I hurt, what happened?"

A: "Don't you remember? You were so brave."

H: "Why can't I move?"

A: "You're in a full body brace."

H: "How did I get out?"

A: "er..... Two men you saved were Pax Humanis. Apparently, they said they now owe you their lives and wouldn't let anyone else carry you out."

H: "I'm... so... tired... you and they... are... welcome." -- Anon Guest

Human Ren tried to come

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Challenge #03157-H248: Hypo-crit Fail

The CEOs pushed, they pushed hard, too hard, for too long. Everything has a breaking point, and all the CRC had to do was sit back, relax, then send in mop up teams and medics after the empire collapsed. -- Anon Guest

The thing with Deregger planets is that they're all in favour of business getting their way. They're not in favour of anything related to "individual welfare". They're thoroughly for people pulling themselves up by the bootstraps, and then heavily taxing

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Challenge #03155-H246: The Right Kind of Electronic Babysitter

Several children, Humans, Havenworlders, and other Deathworlders, trapped together in the nursery. The power had gone out and the doors had locked. Everyone was scared, then someone started singing. Soon each youngster took turns singing their favorite lullabies their parentals would sing them to sooth them, and, as a result, when rescue finally got to them, all the kids were contentedly close to each other, peacefully asleep. The first singer? An independant AI nanny who'd just finished charging and unplugged just as

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Challenge #03153-H244: Alternative to What?

A Pure Lifer, whose ancestors had been some of the earliest of the Pure Lifers had gotten very, very sick. They were still quite young, had very small children to raise, and none of the "medicine" on their world was helping them. In fact, they were getting worse quickly, and no one was willing to care for the children if their parent were to perish, and they had no spouse. What were they to do? Only option left, contact the Alliance, it

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Challenge #03151-H242: Change is... Uncomfortable

A companion deeply loves their ship's human. When the human retires due to old age, the companion doesn't know if they can handle it -- Anon Guest

"This has to be my last trip," announced Human Set as she eased herself down into the launch chair. "I'm getting too creaky for everyone's good."

That sudden stab into Companion Elik's heart had to be psychosomatic. "You're... leaving us?" Ze could not keep the anxiety out of hir voice.

"I'm not cut out for

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Challenge #03148-H239: You and Your Hobbies

Humans live in a somewhat rustic colony, though they have contact with their Alliance friends and live happy lives. Some Havenworlders come down to study what life is like on worlds that have decided to eschew most technology, save for the very large, highly advanced, hospital kept well out of sight thanks to the treeline, though easy to access if needed.

Today, several individuals are making homemade soap and decided to show their Havenworlder tourists how such a thing was made in

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Challenge #03147-H238: Some Assembly Required

A traveling human with a few musical instruments with them is going from world to world, station to station, traveling across the alliance and even into the edge and beyond. Their goal? To learn the musical culture of as many various races as they can. To write a book all about a musical universe. -- Lessons

Her luggage wasn't as immense as many might think, given her life's goal. There were three changes of clothes[1] of bland similarity, and the rest

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Challenge #03145-H236: Si Vis Pacem

si vis pacem, para bellum -- Anon Guest

[AN: According to my translator webpage, this means: If you want peace, prepare for war. I believe Sir Pterry (GNU) had much to say about that though the Patrician.]

Humans have said for centuries, for millennia, If you want peace, prepare for war. Given the number of concurrent wars happening anywhere on the planet during those same millennia, one can safely posit that they got this horribly wrong.

They also believed that space travel

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Challenge #03144-H235: Change Cometh From Above

You can open the cage of oppression and break the chains of slavery, but it's up to the individual whenever or not they step outside. For what does freedom really mean when demanded of you by a god? -- Anon Guest

To live was to work. To work was to live. Only the newborn were permitted hours of rest and sloth. All of them spent their time in darkness. The light of the sun was a privilege granted by the one on

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Challenge #03143-H234: Call it an Infrastructure Issue

It was an artificial planet, the makers had kidnapped young Deathworlders, including small human children, as forced labor because they were small and able to get into tight places. Some of the kids died getting trapped in areas where the air would run out. CRC learned of this horror, Pax Humanis was called in. The madmen who kidnapped the kids soon learned WHY you don't mess with children in the alliance. Especially since one of those kids was the little daughter of

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Challenge #03142-H233: Watch Out For the Little Ones

A crew of tough-as-nails space marines finds the lone survivor of a shipwreck that had been sending out distress signals. The planet itself was utterly uninhabitable, it was shocking the kid survived. The child, barely two years of age, became their mascot, and guarded treasure. This little child, a level 2 Deathworlder, would grow up with a large family, and space marines are a bit fierce about protecting those they love. -- Anon Guest

Trouble barely remembered life before they joined up

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Challenge #03141-H232: Human Enrichment Duties

There is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING in this universe that is more dangerous than telling a human that is completely bored out of their mind, that something, anything, is impossible. -- Lessons

There are some cosmic laws that are inviolate. Never ask what can go wrong. Never play finesse games with a cogniscent nicknamed 'Slick'. Never try to eat anything bigger than your own head... and never EVER tell a Human what's impossible.

Nature hates a vacuum, Humans hate monotony. Though some flourish

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