Diplomatic Immunity

An alien envoy arrives on Earth to recruit the planet into a vast interstellar organization and activates a beacon that will summon colonizers unless stopped. Government scientists and military officers attempt to force him to cease transmitting and try multiple lethal and destructive methods, only to find he cannot be killed by ordinary means. They analyze his defenses and debate strategy while he remains protected in a specially monitored suite and composes a rationalizing philosophy to justify the takeover. The story examines constraints of power, the impotence of conventional violence against unfamiliar technologies, and the uneasy interplay between diplomacy, coercion, and survival.