As I had more than half-expected, the others were waiting for me in the living room. Toni and David were crammed uncomfortably into the loveseat, Jeff looming behind them like a warning. Tahlia was seated on the corner of the couch, while Senator Davis sat in the recliner, utterly relaxed, still smiling.

“Thank you,” he said, when I entered. “I was wondering how we’d get them to leave. I knew you wouldn’t be happy if they had to die, but they couldn’t remain here any longer. Not given the current situation.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I demanded. I had a lifetime of being snotty to people who got in my way. It was time to start putting all that practice to good use. “What is the ‘current situation’? We knew the invasion was coming.”

“As of five o’clock this afternoon, oxygen detectors have been placed in every train station and bus terminal in the United States.” Senator Davis’s usually measured tone flickered for a second, revealing the deep irritation beneath. “The measure was pushed through and funded in special session, and kept quiet until it was time to begin implementation. For our ‘safety,’ of course. Even now, they’re beginning to round up the American side of the invasion.”

“Who aren’t considered human, and hence aren’t considered citizens,” I said. “We’re never going to see them again.” Not that we had seen them in the first place, except in the good green place that we sought out in our shared dreams.

“Some of them will survive long enough to be released,” said Tahlia. “Some of them will have friends or family, as you did. They’ll be able to hide themselves. But yes, many will die for the sake of our cause.”

“We don’t have a cause,” I said. “We have an invasion, and we didn’t volunteer. We were sent here as seeds. This doesn’t have to be our fight.”

“I don’t think there’s ever been an intelligent species which will take the murder of their offspring and the infiltration of their ranks as a peaceful act,” said the senator. “Even if we’d wanted to side with the humans—even if they weren’t so damn delicious—we wouldn’t have been allowed. Not knowing we were the mirrors of their own dead.”