“Spacers? They're spacers?” Nivok turned his gaze towards the aliens. They were short ape-like monstrosities, a clan unit of a few dozen huddled together on the deck. Human spacers.
Devak tried to hold him back, “Sir, they know not what they do!”
“Everyone knows what's important in life!” The hulking brute stalked toward them. “You stupid, idiotic, selfish, morons,” he snarled, “How can you be so cruel? How can you live with yourselves?”
“Excuse me?” their leader said. “I'm Captain James Robert of the ship Niven–”
Nivok slapped him. His massive and wide frame, fitting for beings evolved in a heavy atmosphere. Robert tumbled to the deck. His family cried out. The guns trained on them kept them from running. Nivok looked around the cargo bay. He felt sick to his stomach. “None of you have ever seen the sun!” He snarled, “Nor seen the waves! You make me sick.”
Robert coughed, and got to his feet. His mate helped him up. “I saw the sea once. The Atlantic. I didn't care much for it.”
Nivok hit him again. He put his hands behind his back, looking smart in his silver uniform. His big mandibles stretched to either side of his wide brown face. “You are cowards and weaklings.” He gestured around, “We retrieved you from your void-born ship.”
“You attacked us!”
Nivok held up a finger, “No,” he turned and glared at Robert, “We recovered escaped convicts.”
“What?”
“Nothing in life is more important than house and home. And nothing matters more than what is here right now. You're ruining your world! You void-born scum,” he spat the word, “Make me sick!”
“...I don't understand.”
Nivok snarled, “You are cowardly, impatient, stupid, and cruel monsters. Scum like you only ever build rockets to escape.”
“You son of a–” one of the other apes tried to launch forward but a few restrained him.
Nivok shook his head, “All void born are criminals.”
“What do you mean?”
“Life bearing worlds are the only worlds that matter. Any who settle beyond them are criminals and will be punished accordingly,” Nivok said matter of factly, “And as sinners against the Edicts of Life, you have no rights.”
“But you're out here! This is ridiculous!” Robert spat.
Nivok knew primitives didn't have the Edicts of Life but this was ridiculous. “The Edicts of Life are: the void is anathema to life. We have no business being out here. Life in space is worthless, unworthy of living, and completely irrelevant to life on a planet. Any who attempt to settle a world without life that fits their own is void born and must pay the tithes.”
“What the fuck…?” one human asked.
“Space travel is reserved for the rich and the civilized. It is unnecessary and does not apply to life on the surface in any way. By putting resources into space, you are killing billions. It is a waste, and utterly worthless,” Nivok recited. “Leaving your planet is reserved only for when you are ready.”
He looked out into space, from his own ship hangar to see the primitive ramshackle human starship drifting in the gravitational pull of the local star. “Hate to tell you,” Roberts said, “You're in space.”
“We were ready,” Nivok growled. “We have the Edict of Life. We made sure we were ready after centuries of preparation. And none of us are Void Born scum. You are cowards who refuse to focus on the here and now and instead on running away to ruin another planet!” He leaned down into Robert's face, “You make me sick. You ran into space before you were ready. You weren't willing to be patient. You ruined everyone's lives by running away. You wouldn't allow nature to take its course.”
He expected the male to be awed, or at least cowed. Instead, he spat at Nivok's boots. “I pity you.”
Nivok blinked. “What?”
“That's just planetary chauvinism you're talking.” Nivok blinked. “What?”
“You're so sad I pity you,” Robert said. “I can't imagine what world you live in. I can't imagine what your astronauts would think if they could see you now!”
Nivok smacked him again, “You're only making things worse for yourself, heretic!”
Robert stood up again. “There must've been people in your history who had pride in astronauts.” rifles were leveled at him. “Who saw the future was for the taking. And you mock them.”
“The cost wasn't worth it!” Nivok snapped, “We had to be patient! You couldn't be! How dare you settle any world that isn't a life bearing planet! How many died to get you to your moon? I presume you have one?”
Robert glared. “Gus, Ed, Roger, Vladimir, and Valentin. And it cost less to get to the moon than it cost to develop our atomic bomb.”
“All worthless,” Nivok spat, “Worthless men! Fit only to die!”
Robert had to be held back this time. One of his compatriots demanded, “How do you know when you're civilized enough?”
“When scum like you are eradicated! Scum like you want people to go into space to find new worlds to ruin!”
“You failed your children!” Robert snapped, “From what I hear, you had the chance to go out a lot earlier! Tell me, who was first into space for you? Who reached another planetary body? Do you even know any of them?”
“They were fools,” Nivok growled, “They were idiots who should never have left home!”
“We had the guts to explore! We settled on space stations and moons, airless places no one has been!”
“They admit their crimes!” Nivok cried to the whole cargo bay. He looked at his fellows. “You see why the young cannot be trusted! They climb out of the gravity well long before they are ready! they sit on wild worlds to escape their responsibilities!”
“You think I don’t understand you,” Robert snarled. Nivok turned back to him. “Believe me. We had people like you. They all say we're worthless, that we need to stay on the ground. And this is what they're saying. They dress it up nicer than you. They say it's about resources. But every time, they spit on the graves of everyone who went to space, and turn their backs on those with the courage to explore. Courage you never had.” The man stiffened to a position of dignity. “I can’t imagine how much your ancestors would weep to see you saying this. But the Eagle has landed. And you'll never take that away from us. When we proved all of you wrong, all of you chained to dust. When we proved there was something more important than goddamn coal.”
Nivok shot him. Robert flew back. “Kill the rest! Kill the heretics!”