Aliens Vs. Humans (Aliens Series Book 4) by T. Jackson King

streaks stopped.
    The Arbitor stepped back a few paces so his full image, standing seven meters tall from black-clawed dino feet up to the red-scaled crest that ran between its eyes. The red and yellow-scaled tail slithered over the metal floor of the room in which the Alien stood. A long red tongue licked against its white shark teeth.
    “Do you accept my judgment?” grunted the Arbitor.
    Jack looked to Maureen’s holo. The woman looked furious. Inflamed actually. Her fingers were curled like claws ready to rip out the eyes of their dino opponent. “Combat Commander, we can’t harm that ship with any weapon we now have.” He looked at the motion-eye. “Arbitor MakMakGor, on behalf of humanity, I accept your judgment. No Human ship will contact a juvenile species before we receive a signal from your Sentry probe.”
    The T-rex opened its toothy mouth. “You lied just moments earlier. Why should I believe you now?”
    “It is in the nature of any predator to lie for advantage,” Jack said calmly. “Any predator will attack when it senses weakness on the part of prey. Or a competing predator. You are not weak. So I accept your judgment.”
    The Arbitor nodded slowly. “Stage Three is therefore complete. Be warned. If you violate again this Rule of Engagement, this ship will travel to your Sol system, emplace an Isolation Globe next to your star, and Isolate all Humans for eternity.”
    Jack felt intense frustration. As surely everyone else did. But this outcome was what he had expected. They had learned a few things. And Max and Archibald had seen the activation of the shield multiple times. Hopefully that was enough to let them figure out what it was. Which might give them a chance to defeat it. There was one last option.
    “Any attempt to Isolate Sol system will be considered an attack on humanity,” Jack said bluntly. “The five non-human ships that are part of our fleet belong to our Freedom Alliance. As do two other species that we liberated from Hunter dominance.” He paused, wishing his mouth was not so dry his tongue felt like a rag. Time to finish. “An attack on one species is an attack on all members of the Alliance! Do you Arbitors really wish to motivate attacks on you by seven species in addition to our human fleet?”
    The third dino in the background tossed a black ball to the T-rex. Without looking back it reached out, caught the ball with talon fingers, and inserted it into its control pedestal. MakMakGor looked down at the pedestal, then up. “Those seven species are all new to the Great Dark. As are you Humans. None of you know the true extent of the domains included within the Hunter system. Nor will any species ever know the location of our Hunt territory and Hunt star. We fear nothing that exists in your universe.”
    Maybe so. For the moment. “As I said, no Human ship will contact a juvenile species until your Sentry probe alerts all Hunters. However, we will attack other subject people systems as we see fit. And we will attack the cometary outposts of other Hunters in any system that we find them in. If our battles draw the attention of a local juvenile species, do you agree we are not violating the Rules of Engagement?”
    The Arbitor dino looked down at the new databall, glanced back at its two fellow Arbitors, then faced him. “Alpha Human Jack Munroe, no Arbitor ship will interfere with your conquest of other subject peoples. Such combat is normal among Hunters. Nor will any Arbitor ship intervene in any fight among Hunters waiting in a cometary system for the local juvenile species to reach its outermost planet. Such fights happened in your Sol system before your Uhuru ship was challenged by the Rizen.”
    Well, that was something. Jack wondered if zapping a Hunter comet outpost with a thermonuke torp set for a 50 megatons blast would suffice to draw the attention of the local juvenile species. It was something they might explore in the future.
    “Thank you for your guidance on