The next morning the whole family Strono sat in front of their TV, like most other humans too, and waited for a statement from the government. They didn't have to wait for long, at 9 am every channel automatically turned on a special live broadcast directly filmed in the United Nations' headquarters, in Manhattan, New York. Normally just one spokesperson would be standing on the podium but today was different and the most influential parties had their leaders assembled there. China, Russia, the USA and the EU had each sent their president there to address the Federation's offer.

"Hello fellow citizens of earth!" began Bill Clinton, president of the United States of America, "As everyone should already be aware yesterday we made the first contact with extraterrestrial lifeforms in human history. The Federation presented us with a choice to join them, be enslaved or fend for ourselves come next week. The most logical choice would of course be to join. But since we couldn't come to an agreement between all of the countries we made the decision to let all the people of earth decide for themselves."

It didn't matter if one was old, young, healthy or crippled, female or male. Everyone stared at their TV completely flabbergasted. Not to mention the people living under totalitarian systems, nobody had expected Earth's leaders to abstain and let every human decide the future of their planet on their own. Before the reporters at the avenue could even regain their composure and formulate their questions, the Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, continued the speech.

"As of today every conflict on earth will cease immediately and any person, group or country who goes against this decree and continues to wage war will be viewed as the unified enemy of every country of this planet. So we advise any rebellious thoughts should subside right this moment, we can, and are going to, use the full force of our collective military might to strike down anyone harbouring such desires."

Before each person on this planet could even comprehend what that implied, the Chinese president's turn to speak came.

Jiang Zemin, "This is necessary due to our decision to let all of Humanity chose the path forward. We are planning to hold a planet-wide referendum and this can only happen if every person is able to vote without fear for their life. Some indigenous tribes will be excluded from this since they have no real notion of technology and would not comply easily with our requests. The referendum will begin in 2 days and will last until Thursday evening since we have to inform the Federation's representative on Friday at the latest."

This was huge news and most humans had already regained their wits after these numerous and mind blowing statements. Many couldn't wrap their head around how such a massive vote would be able to take place and also be counted on time. Their worries weren't wholly formed yet when the representative of the European Union, president Romano Prodi, finally took a step forward and addressed his fellow earthlings.

"We are aware that it's quite the short time frame for such a massive event but the respective governments around the world are already preparing to set up voting booths and a system that should make it easy to count all the votes. We also took the liberty to send every living human a pamphlet of all the information regarding the Intergalactic Federation. At the latest you should receive that package by midday tomorrow. If by chance anyone doesn't, we established an international news channel that is broadcasting all the rules, advantages, obligations and disadvantages throughout day and night. Also each public screen is going to be doing the same, in the case no such equipment can be found in an area we call upon all of you to deliver our message and the Federation's guidebook to those regions. Military personnel from each country will be on it's way to set up booths and televisions in remote areas too."

As soon as the Romano Prodi was done he stepped back and left the podium to the American president again.

"All of us are painfully aware that this is sudden and none of us can handle the situation alone that is why we beseech you to carefully consider your verdict. Although it was unexpected to so abruptly be confronted with alien lifeforms several countries on earth prepared for such a day and we are ready to fight until our last breath in case Humanity wants to take a stand against this forceful inclusion. We want to be as honest as possible with all of you though and thus we feel the need to say that not a single one of us knows the capabilities of these extraterrestrials. We think our atomic bombs could do some damage but are not sure if it will be enough to keep them at bay long enough to develop ourselves amid such a large scale orbital war. Not to mention our limitations in space travel. So all we can do is beseech each one of you to deliberately think through the choices and make an adequate decision in the best interest not of only you but every single human being on this planet."

After Clinton finished with some more pleasantries and words of encouragement each and every leader addressed their nation personally and wished them all good luck in their judgment. Thereafter a list of channels for each timezone and country was displayed where they could view the Federation's guidelines.

Before all presidents could finish their heartfelt incentives many heated discussions were starting all over the globe. The same wasn't the case in the Strono household though, because they had already come to the consensus to vote to join. All they could do now was inform themselves about everything the Intergalactic Federation stood for and all the obligations each inhabitant of a member species had to adhere to.

"As far as I'm concerned this vote's outcome should already be decided. Who on earth would not join if the alternative is to be enslaved, fight against a more advanced and unknown enemy or join some universal death army. They would have to be complete retards to not understand that the invitation isn't some show of weakness but the mercy of the truly powerful, who could just force us to become their slaves or make Humanity go extinct by the end of the week anyway." said Kazimierz after noticing that only shallow words followed the important announcements.

Everyone agreed on that point, not a single one believing they could truly win against a combined force of multiple advanced alien civilizations. Even the skeptical Harald had nothing to say after seeing every head of state appear on television together, particularly after noticing Austria's president, Thomas Klestil, at the avenue too.

"Well there's nothing to add, I suppose we should try to relax for now and gramps and I will go watch the rules. Honey could you warm up something from yesterday for us?" Harald asked his wife and proceeded to switch to the new guidebook channel. Irena and little Alexander were already playing with some Playmobil blocks in the living room so Kazimierz just sighted and agreed to his son-in-law's idea, while his daughter went to prepare some quick grup.

As the hours went by and the pair of men read through the rules while Dorothea sometimes brought them all drinks and food to enjoy both of their expressions turned solemn. Dorothea who often sat down and watched with them knew why their mood turned sour but her mother had no clue and queried what happened.

The men turned toward each other and didn't know where to begin so they just asked, "Do you want to hear the good or the bad news first?"