The bar on SL-7Epsilon station was frequented by a wide variety of races due to the station's location on a convergence of twenty or so trade routes. Tonight was unique though, for the first time in many rotations, there was not a single human present.

"This is weird." A lone Draknik said looking from one empty table to the next, his scaled skin shifting temperature to reflect his mood. "Who knew it would be so quiet without the Humans?"

"Yes, they may be loud and angry drunks, but they have a way of filling a space with joy don't they?" a paired Valn couple said, each one speaking one word and the other saying the next, alternating as their shared hive-mind spoke through them.

"Why are we worried about the Humans?" a young Uld'Iq said, his voice bubbling through his aquatic containment suit with a tone of dislike. "They run a large portion of the galaxy, but they never fight, they only make rules and consume."

"Young one, why do you think that your race now travels the stars?" An ancient-looking Yuld said.

"What does it matter? And why do you care Ent?" The Uld'Iq demanded using the human reference for the Yuld race.

"Ah, Ent, the humans gave my race that moniker. Apparently, we resemble a fantastical creature described in many of their ancient works of fiction. But I do care Young one." The Yuld said, laughing in a deep rolling tone that caused his branchlike appendages to rattle slightly. "The humans have brought us peace. They strove to lift races such as yours up from their homeworlds to join the Galaxy. They don't fight now because, after the last great war, they stepped up to become a force for peace and swore that they would never again turn their weapons on another sentient."

"Weapons?" The Uld'Iq said a giggle carried through its suit. "What weapons? Even their homeworld is policed by the Draknik. Their farming and parks are handled by your own people, and their seas are handled by mine. What do the humans know of war?"

A grizzled chuckle rumbled out from the corner as a being whose very presence spoke of eons of life. "Tell me young Uld'Iq, do you know what I am?"

The Uld'Iq seemed to shiver even through his suit. "I do. you are a Keeper. No one knows your racial name and no one knows how you came to be so few. But all know of the power that you control." The Uld'Iq said and then bowed low in what had been a custom drilled into all the young of many hundreds of races when facing a Keeper.

"The humans as you know them, are at their best. They have no need to fight because the fights that they won centuries ago won them the respect and love of a thousand races, including my own." The keeper stood walked to sit at the same table as the young Uld'Iq. "What weapons you asked, if I told you of the things that I witnessed on the battlefields of humanity you would die of fright. Their worlds is in the care of others you said, and it is not because anyone can do it better, but simply because the Humans decided that they enjoyed the presence of other races on their worlds." The keeper took a deep breath. "You asked what humanity knows of war, and I will tell you young one, the humans that you see playing politician, or working in this very bar, or even the women who tend to the orphans of the station, each and every one of them is more versed in war than any other race."

"Preposterous." The young Uld'Iq said, dismissing the Keeper. As he looked around he realized that all of the patrons in the bar were battle-scared and ancient, it was humans alone who required nanites to live past a measly 70 or 80 rotations.

"This station was once a battle command center." The Yuld said, smiling as his eyes seemed too far in the distant past. "My people, the Draknik, and the...Keepers" He seemed to hesitate, "We all built this station, to use it in an offensive in eliminating the Humans." The Uld'Iq looked shocked, it was true it was only a single jump from here to Earth, as the humans called it.

"We Jumped in, and laid waste to every human we could find." The Draknik said, his eyes staring into the deep amber of a human beer. "It was a mistake."

"We didn't know that the day before, humanity had struck a deal, to let their children and the children of those who had died already escape from the final invasion with, my people." The keeper said in a voice that crackled in emotion. "In that deal, the humans agreed not to use their ultimate weapons that had only just been completed in the coming battle. I remember ordering the strikes that killed those children as if it were yesterday. They brought us to our knees, and in recompense, my people swore never to reproduce and never to let any forget their promises, in return the humans laid down their weapons and gave us the name of Keepers."

The Keeper took a moment and wiped a silvery fluid from his face. "Why are we worried about the humans?" the Keeper took a deep breath of the station's stagnant air. "Because the humans, at their best are merciful and kind. Loyal to a fault, and warriors who any would be honored to have at their side. I worry because even after all that has transpired between our races, the humans implore the Keepers to once again have children and not let our race fall from history. We all worry," he gestured to the room of battle-scarred veterans from several races, "because someone somewhere has stoked the ire and wrath of the human race, and rather than ask for help, humanity has once again taken up their weapons."

The Yuld stepped over and spoke to the Keeper in a language that the translator would not translate before turning to the Uld'Iq. "Young one, you should return home and tell those in power of what you have learned tonight, for those that side with the enemy of the humans have only one saving grace, it is that death will be swift and that humanity will one day return to its best."