Conversation

Sci Fi story prompt:

Humanity overcomes its tendencies for boundless expansion and colonization.
We go as far as Mars and Alpha Centauri, some orbital habitats, but then we calm down and find harmony with our cosmic environment. We're multiplanetary, we're looking long-term at what to do when our sun goes bad, and we have some probes looking further out, purely for science and curiosity.

We've found some neighbors who are equally at peace, we have cordial relations.

Now we or our neighbors find signs of a colonial, extractive force in the galaxy, inevitably growing in our direction. It's an existential crisis and humanity removes its inhibitions. Do we have to become a galactic superpower to keep ourselves safe from galactic superpowers? What if our neighbors disagree? Is it ethically defensible? Will we know when to stop?