Horizon

The fighter flew directly to the dock without resistance. They landed in the dock without resistance. The three began moving through the colossal structure without resistance. There appeared to be no aliens on board, yet scanners showed that the entire structure contained life. As massive as the ship was, the corridors where quite linear, and there were no diverging paths. The corridors were peaceful and serene, the air seamed fresh, with the sweet smell of rain. Bright lights gave the hallways a bright, yet calming appearance. This place was good. Banson, Rathchild, and the pilot were awed at how welcoming the place seemed. They came to a door, not a futuristic door, just an average earth-like door. Rathchild looked at both of his companions then grabbed the doorknob and twisted. A long corridor waited on the other side. Three speakers stood on both sides, standing quietly and peacefully, with their heads down in a sort of bow. The three moved carefully down the hallway, staying vigilant of the speakers' actions. However they remained completely still, almost as if they didn't even know the humans were there. At the end if the hallway was a large alien door, and Läkvör stood in front of it.
"Hello, Rathchild,"
Rathchild drew his gun and fired. Läkvör just warped slightly to the left to dodge the bullet, then used his powers to take the gun out of Rathchild's hand, and return it to his holster. "I am not here for conflict. I am here to introduce you,"
"To 'Horizon'?"
"To Horizon, to your future, to your beginning, and to your end,"
"Why do you call him Horizon?"
"As does the horizon, he begins and ends every new day,"
"So this is our end?"
"No, this is merely your beginning. Come, he is eager to meet you,"
The group approached the door, and it began opening slowly from the bottom. It revealed an immense room, so large it was nearly impossible to see the other side, and the bottom was nowhere in sight. In the middle of the room was a massive sphere flesh, with a single huge eye in the middle. Long organic tendrils clung from the being, and went into holes in the wall, and hundred of large cables were connected to it. A platform floated up from the darkness beneath them, and Läkvör motioned them onto the platform. As they stepped on, it began to lift them up in front of the eye, and the creature spoke, "Hello,"
Rathchild shuttered, then drew his gun and began to weep, "Why?! We could have negotiated peacefully but you killed so many!"
"I had plenty of reasons, Rathchild,"
"What?! What are they?"
"Would you believe me if I said it was to better your world and species?"
Rathchild began laugh-sobbing, and Horizon sighed, "Truly, that was my intention since the very beginning. Think about it, your technological achievements are now centuries ahead, humanity is united, and now you are part of a galaxy wide empire,"
"But you killed millions!"
"3.961 billion. All sacrifices to the betterment of your species and future,"
"Why did you not make peacefully contact and do those things peacefully?!"
"I put decades if calculation and planning into each planet I choose to incorporate into my unified empire. Humans are... stubborn, and frankly lazy. If I appeared and encouraged world unity, you would not heed me and you would continue in your childlike squabbles. I had to give you an enemy to unify against. If I just appeared baring gifts of interstellar travel and advanced weaponry, you would simply embrace the gift as Earth's new technology, and you would no strive to better your technology as 'you already have the best you can get'. I've witnessed humans and other species do this multiple times. This way, you got your technology to where it is, and you still have the strive to continue improving it,"
"But why did you have to kill so many?"
"I needed to reinforce the idea that your earthly conflicts are nothing, they have no purpose. The only way to do that was to provide a conflict with a purpose, and after decades of calculation I decided that was a good number to create the conflict on the scale I needed to,"
Rathchild stood aiming his pistol at the eye. Horizon spoke the truth. He really had benefited humanity in the long run. The new technology was beyond any previous human's imagination, and this alien creature had done something that no human had ever come close to doing before. He had unified Earth. United toward a common goal, we no longer had our petty and meaningless conflicts that separated the many squabbling sibling nation. We were one. Not only one as a species, but now one as a galaxy. But was it worth the price? Was bringing man into a new era of unified peace and interstellar travel worth the lives of 3.961 billion people? Was there another way to achieve this new era? Rathchild pondered these questions as he decided whether or not to pull the trigger. Would this start a new war? Would the other species understand the vengeance? After several minutes, Rathchild finally decided.