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“Uh… just a moment…” said the UN ambassador as she noticed the strange device locking up completely, while her counterparts from the Unified Zartal Empire began undoing the laces of her footwear. “Hey, what is this...? If I’ve made some kind of protocol mistake without realizing it or offended you in any way, I apologize. We can talk this through.”
The alien looked up after removing her shoe.
“Protocol mistake?”
“I don’t know! Maybe I offended someone with a greeting, or I sat where I shouldn’t have… We can sort it out by talking, okay?”
The alien exchanged a glance with his partner, who was beginning to secure each of the ambassador’s toes to the device, before replying:
“You are not being punished. This is part of our first-contact protocol. Don’t worry, we just want to ask you a series of questions—but we need to make sure you are as truthful as possible.”
She tried unsuccessfully to move the foot the alien had already immobilized and swallowed hard.
“…I don’t want to imagine how you treat your enemies.”