Diplomatic Immunity

Diplomatic Immunity is by Robert Sheckley. A line under the title says that he said he wasn't immortal but nothing could kill him, and that if the Earth was to live as a free world, he had to die. Colonel Cercy accepts a chair, trying to size up the individual who had all Washington chewing its fingernails, a man of medium height and slight build, dressed in a conservative brown tweed suit that the State Department had given him.

The alien says he has come as an ambassador-at-large, representing an empire that stretches half-way across the Galaxy, to extend the welcome of his people and invite the listeners to join their organization. Cercy replies that some of the scientists got the impression that participation was compulsory, and the Ambassador says, "You will join." The Ambassador says Alfern had to die sometime, adding that there is no immortality, yet. Cercy says the disrupters are Harrison's idea and that he told Harrison he wanted an electrical current with absolutely no coherent pattern.