I took up the narrative. “I’ve read about this. Increased global warming produces higher temps, decreased rainfall, and quicker drying of vegetation, which creates the conditions for more and bigger wildfires, which are triggered by increased incidences of lightning storms brought on by the hotter, dryer air. Those, plus all the burning and clearing of jungles in South America, not only burn massive amounts of existing oxygen, but also produce more CO2, further lowering the oxygen percentage.” I paused and looked around. “Ocean pollution and acidification kill off phytoplankton. Guess where more than half of the oxygen recycling comes from? And warming oceans absorb less CO2—so y’know, more for us.”

“It’s more than that, Jack,” Sheldon said. “The oxygen in the atmosphere is actually an imbalance created by all the carbon that has been sequestered over geological time as coal and oil, before it had the chance to be burned. Humans have been working diligently to add that fuel back into the equation, further reducing the imbalance.”

Now Nat covered her face completely with her hands. Her voice came out slightly muffled. “Jesus. We have to break this.”

“Sure,” I replied. “But how? We can’t fight an entire alien civilization.”

“You may not have to,” said Sheldon. “Based on what’s in the documents, this actually does look like a small operation, bolstered by an A.I. And Karen and Arley are almost certainly in charge. In fact, this might even be a single, rogue clan engineering the whole thing.”

“Again, how?”

“Jack, if they are small and resource-constrained, it would explain their almost exclusive use of Earth-based technology and resources. Your civilization is still primitive enough to value things like gold and platinum, which, other than their industrial uses, are virtually waste products from antimatter generators. A group could pick up a large inventory of so-called precious metals for not very much in Covenant credits. Then, using the Earth-based wealth that this represents, they could buy, bribe, and blackmail their way into positions with high leverage without having to use much in the way of Covenant-level technology or resources, which they probably couldn’t afford anyway.”

“The FTL detector?”

“That and a couple of older-model, low-end ships might be literally all they have to their collective name.”

“Huh.” I stared into space, thinking for a few moments. “So, okay, we don’t have to be concerned about an Independence Day kind of a scenario, but we’re still outmatched. No offense, Sheldon, but you are unarmed.”

“And I have a best-before date hanging over my head, and cannot call for help.”

“That too. Plus, they’ve been working on this for, what? Years? Decades?”

“I would guess decades, Jack. The payoff from acquiring trusteeship of an entire untouched system would justify any amount of investment. They would go from being small fry to a major player in Lorannic society in one leap.”