Wow. I loved everything about this.
Epic classic-y space opera, a brand new and interesting little universe where humans are not only not considered to be the best thing to happen to the galaxy, but actually feared for a host of other reasons. Mainly by being omnivores, unpredictable and just all around human beings.
Humans as a minority in space? Yes please.
Modern Earth-bound politics not being magically cured (yes, it's a disease) by contact with the Great And Enlightened Galactic Civilization? Hells yeah.
Topsy-turvy view of predator-prey politics? Lords yes.
Norm Sherman trying to quote Chris Tucker's excellent ghetto-speak? Priceless.
Aside: Norm is an excellent voice actor and I have nothing but the utmost respect for his talents. But ghetto-speak just isn't one of them. For a great showcase of those talents, check out The Guild of the Cowry CatchersThe Green-Disk immediately put me in the mind of Alasdair Reynolds'
Galactic North and I was sort of hoping for a story where our mismatched heroes have to save the galactic civilization from some idiot's folly.
But this, this is better. Just a couple of less-than-average beat cops on a more-than-routine assignment.
Also I like how not every ship is equipped to travel between star systems and that the cops need to hitch rides with larger ships.
And I love the language thing, like sambot, I'm glad that nobody speaks English and that there's is no magical solution. But how can you create a galactic standard language that is pronounceable by every known sentient species, not to mention can be heard by them all? Mind you, this pondering only began after the fact, I was far too caught up in the story to let things like that bother me.
Also, can we discuss the carnivor-omnivore-herbivore thing? I am no biologist, but I've always that that herbivores were weak, having evolved no aggression (it doesn't take much to beat the crap out of standing grasses) and that carnivores are strong. Similarly, herbivores would be compassionate and empathic (we see that behavior with many herbivore species on Earth) and carnivores would be rather ruthless (we see a lot of that as well). One would think that a herbivore society that evolved to be the dominant species on its planet, and then set off into space wouldn't be well equipped to handle it.
On the other hand, a herbivore society that evolved to be the dominant species on its planet, and then set off into space would need some kind of drive, and some way of looking out for itself.
The Animorphs series' Andalites are a good example of herbivores that conquered space, but they have both aggression and compassion.
Larry Niven's Puppeteers are herbivores that conquered space and have zero aggression. They are notorious cowards and prefer to win their wars through centuries-long manipulations that make the results of the (inevitable) war a forgone conclusion. That same universe also contains the Kzin, a carnivore species that not only conquered space, but several other advanced races as well. They had zero compassion, until meddled with by the Puppeteers.
That model seemed to make a lot of sense to me, but so does Bria's theory.
In any event, it makes Humans (omnivores) unpredictable and thus feared.