Space Law!
There was a sign on the wall in three of the Universal languages used in the sector:
[Do not tell the Humans something is Impossible]
Ipsquib read it in two of the Universal languages he knew how to read and then said to Atrix Attomyar Denoue, “What the heck?”
Atto, in Passable Tsin, said: “You know the Humans. You tell them they can't do something, and it just encourages them.”
Ipsquib, pondered this. “Like... doing things that aren't physically possible, like that one EVA guy who forgot his suit who ran outside a space station nude to talk to their friend?”
Atto thought about it. “Pretty sure that's just made up,” she said, “But yeah I guess, or more worsely, they're rules lawyers.”
“Eh?”
“Remember that legal case on Epsilon Eridani - The one with the jewellery?”
“The Glitter Band?”
“Yeah. They caught someone stealing it, but it belonged to their family before the Intercine, and it was stolen, but because the other side won they upheld it as owned by the thieves, but then the regime fell and... anyway, everyone had a claim to it.”
“Right. I still don't follow it. How did it work out?”
“One of the human lawyers,” said Atto, “Managed to prove the entire species didn't exist and thus by the wording of the law, it could never have been owned by any party, and therefore it must be an artifact of a non-native species, and as the only representative of a non-native species in the courtroom, he awarded it to the family of the original owners. Nobody could figure out how to legally prove them wrong.”
Ipsquib paused and thought about that for a moment. “OK, that's… Ugh. Humans.”
“Yeah. The uh, Diogenese defence they call it. The Galactic Federated worlds would ban it, but they're terrified the Humans will come up with something worse.”
