Patterns of pride and satisfaction danced on Ama'sel's smooth face as he looked down his creation.

It was most elaborate installation created yet by any sentient species in this galaxy, an entire star system. The star was at a temperature of 15000 Kelvins, a deep azure blue. Seemingly random spots and flares danced on its surface in predetermined arrangement. Devoid of any planets, the star system had only an asteroid belt. Each rock in the belt was composed of materials of unique optical properties. Ranging from diamond and titanium, to various gases and liquids encased in thin diamond shells, each asymmetric polyhedron reflected and refracted the rays of the star to form a kaleidoscopic shroud. Put in carefully shepherded orbits, the celestial lenses would be in constant motion around each other. Visitors over the next millennium will be reveling in beauty of the system, each guaranteed his, her or its own unique visual experience.

Ama'sel looked at Bahloth, his mentor, standing next to him. "You have done well!", communicated the older Numerian. They were giving the installation a final inspection before they could let visitors bathe in its beauty.

A sudden clamor of light from his instruction panel demanded Ama'sel's attention.

"Energy eruptions! I thought all the work is complete ?"

"It is. These visitors are unscheduled."

Ama'sel checked his sensors. There was an ugly, inelegant mining craft near the asteroid belt, using laser cutters to shave chunks off of a diamond rock. While he could guess who they were, a scan of life signs confirmed his fear.

"Humans!" he said. His face crawled with patterns of disgust so thickly it almost hid the intent of his communication.

Humans were one of the younger spacefaring races of the galaxy. Having discovered star travel during the last century, they promptly spread to multiple star systems, found reasons to hate each other, and fired towards each other the biggest weapons they had. All major colonies were lost simultaneously, and the rest of the galaxy breathed a collective sigh of relief at being rid of the most callous species amongst them.

Much to their chagrin, humans have become much more of a pest since then. Devoid of a homeworld, they force themselves in every star system, welcome or not; infiltrate every galactic hive of scum and villainy; and live in clobbered together space flotsam that they call their "metropolis".

A more wretched species the galaxy has never seen.

The worst part about them, thought Ama'sel, was how blank their faces were. They could only use their face to express a limited range of emotion, and communicated primarily via sound. How much more despicable could they be ?

"Do not agitate yourself, Ama'sel. They are primitive and easily dealt with" communicated Bahloth with a patient expression.

"True." said Ama'sel. He teleported the humans to his cargo hold, then blew up the mining ship threatening his beloved work. There were six of them. Humans have lost most of their numbers, yet there were more and more of them each day!

"Attention, humans!" spoke Ama'sel to his ship's interpreter unit. "You have been caught trespassing and vandalizing in Numerian space. Your ship has been disabled. Lawkeepers will arrive to deal with you shortly!" He was not sure if all his intent could even be understood by humans, but it did not matter. They were stuck in his cargo hold until the Lawkeepers arrived.

"They have defaced a two ton piece of diamond." Ama'sel said sadly. "It will take months to replace!"

Bahloth said "Do not worry, Ama'sel. I will ensure everything is restored to exactly match your vision. This work, your swan song, will be immortalized the galactic hall of fame!"

"Swan song, Mentor?" he did not understand. Creating an entire solar system as a form of art has been a mighty achievement, but he had much bigger plans. He was definitely not planning retirement!

"Your ship is going to explode in 1 minute. I will barely escape, but you, sadly, are going to be too close to the source of the explosion, another sacrifice to human belligerence. The tragedy of your death will make your creation immortal!"

"You hired the humans for this?"

"No, they are just a convenient scapegoat."

Ama'sel's face could only display a confusion of raw emotions, unable to form the patterns of concrete words. Then he at last could communicate, out of anger at this betrayal. "But why, Bahloth ? You loathed my success? You desired my fortune? Why?"

Bahloth's face was completely devoid of the colors of emotion as he formed the pattern for his words. "I do this for Art. Your Art. Goodbye, Ama'sel."

Bahloth vanished in a flash of some teleportation device. Ama'sel's instruments indicated a nearby ship drop it's stealth shroud and warp away. Simultaneously, there was something severely wrong with the engines, which would overload in seconds. He had to run, but where ? He could not launch his lifeboat in the time that was left. In desperation, he activated his personal shield and turned on his teleporter with maximum settings, throwing himself as far away from the ship as possible. His force shield will hold up for a couple of minutes against cold harsh space, then he will die in midst of the psychedelic clouds of his creation ...

He woke up inside his lifeboat. Confused, he looked around. The autopilot on his lifeboat somehow escaped the blast and picked him up, maybe ? However, his sense of smell gave him the answer. The boat overflowed with the stench of humans!

"Welcome back, Numerian. We followed your teleporter signature and picked up your frozen ass floating in space. We thought you were a goner!", the boat's interpreter system signaled. The humans must be communicating with him.

"How did you escape out of the cargo hold? How did you get aboard the lifeboat ?"

A quick look around gave him the answer to that puzzle. The humans had broken into the boats systems to disable the security and hijack the boat. The inside of the boat was a covered in debris, probably caused by the humans trying to hijack the ship. Of course. Destruction always followed in human's wake.

"We had to borrow the boat. The whole place was gonna blow!"

"Now what ? You will hold me for ransom?"

"Nah, we will wait for your rescuers and give you back. In return you will let us go."

"What if I charge you with vandalism and send you to the asteroid mines anyways?"

"No you wont. You Numerians have honor and such, we heard."

It was true, he was obligated to accept their request out of gratitude for his life. Even though they had defaced his sculpture. He nodded his assent.

"Sorry we tried to break your pretty rocks, must be very important to you."

"Yes they are." He was too tired to put any colors to his words. "They are the greatest piece of art I ever created. Probably anyone ever created."

"Art, huh ? Sure is pretty out there. What do you call it ?"

Ama'sel's face shone with pride as he said "I call it 'Hope'."