We were never treated as badly as we could’ve been. At the time I thought it was because we were spacers. Even someone like me who was “untrained” spoke a few alien languages, could move and live in zero g, space walk, knew basic programming, how to fix common wear and tear issues on all sorts of things, and how to interact with aliens without offending them. The fact is though, we weren’t treated well because we were trained or valuable, it was because the venalia knew other space faring species would find the way they treated us abhorrent. Most aliens have two sexes (with one being by far the next most common) and minimal sexual dimorphism. Us ioe being the “third” sex as well as our extreme sexual dimorphism compared to both venali and nali excused our strange treatment. Hints at abuse, at times outright evidence of it, was hidden away under that “third” sex label. Without that, the venalia would’ve never been able to hide how things really were from the aliens on the sphere.

  The point I am trying to get at is something I’ve told Lee more times than I can count, that it was inevitable. Maybe it would have taken a thousand years, but the way the venalia treated us was unnatural, immoral, and I know Lyrei wasn’t the only one who had the abuses documented, waiting for anyone who could and would fight for us. It ended up being me who handed them over, but that was only by chance, it could have been anyone, and if not to humans, someone else. Maybe we were too cautious and some of the aliens who were on the sphere before humans arrived would’ve helped, not that we’ll ever know.

  There was always going to be a war. So many of us (and a few venalia, though far too few) were willing to die for ioe freedom that it was always going to be bloody. Lee was not the right person for that war, and I will not deny that she made mistakes, honestly, she was probably closer to the wrong person than anything else, but she was the one who happened to be there. Ultimately I don’t think it matters and there was, is, no right or ethical path to freedom. The right thing to do is to win, and we won.

  I’ve spent decades now in politics against my will (not that I mind since it keeps Lee from it), and in that time I have met with countless human politicians who claim the glory of our liberation but refuse any responsibility for what had to be done for that liberation. The accusation of war crimes against Lee and 452 other humans is not a response based on morality or legality, it is a forced exile, an act of political expediency, so humanity doesn’t have to think about what you’ll do if this happens again. The off-world nations are happy to have myself and other ioe give speeches, visit as tourists, move there, become citizens, and you let us in, welcome us, listen to our music, eat our food, marry us, let us enrich your worlds and your lives, and yet because we are aliens, because some amount of your sexism passes on to us, we are dismissed. Our attempts to build a fleet of our own are trivialized because we didn’t have spaceships and missiles and drones, because those ioe that could fight used I.E.D.s, and sometimes small arms. That is something humanity can stomach, something humanity can accept as necessary, the small, desperate violence, the only kind available to us if we were alone, but I, like Lee, like the 452 humans in exile, have had to come to terms with the fact that the fleet’s weapons, the civilian casualties, almost all of it, almost all of the horrors, were necessary, and no one, even in hindsight, can tell the difference between the necessary horrors and the unnecessary ones. I know your history. I know the price the off-world nations paid for their own freedom, and their unwillingness to accept that it was the price of ours as well is xenophobic at best, cowardice at worst. We ioe will one day return to the sphere and the stars, and it will be with a militarized fleet of our own, ready to do for others what was done for us. When that time comes I hope humanity will remember the best of themselves and we can stand together again.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  If the off-world nations and their navies are not willing to pardon Lee and the other exiles out of kindness towards their fellow humans, out of kindness to the ioe who they fought for and are now their allies, out of respect for the legal process of the New Ioe State who pardoned them, out of respect for the sovereignty of the that same state who they are now citizens of, if my position as an elected representative was not enough, if my position as a public figure is not enough, if being Lee’s wife is not enough, then I am left with this. I have kept a diary my entire life, and my account of the war and occupation is obviously valuable and of great public interest. I wanted my portrayal of it to be personal, honest, and emotional, but to save myself and Lee some embarrassment (and to avoid having to answer any questions or make any public appearances), I had planned to have it published after our deaths, but it can’t wait that long.

  For all that I wrote above, my motivations are in truth, personal. Lee is an old woman now who wants to see her home again before she dies, yet she is denied that right. I have pleaded with so many and gotten nowhere (and I will name those who lied to me if it comes to it). This is a public plea for Lee, my wife, who I love with all of myself, to be allowed to return home. I could pretend otherwise, write more about politics, laws, and big ideas, but I am old and tired and have been through too much. I refuse to continue to try to use logic and rhetoric to convince people to be kind, to respect rights everyone should have, to show gratitude to those who fought against injustice and tyranny. Lee is someone who I love and that should be enough. Please let it be enough. Help us, her.