He began to dictate, and I repeated his words out loud: “How many people in your clan, Karen? Twenty? Thirty? What’s the minimum number you could leave on your home planet to maintain a presence and keep from having everything stolen or squat-claimed? What are the chances that you’ve got everyone and everything you can spare invested in this operation? Whoever sold you the ACME World Domination Package would have priced it for all the market is worth, because that’s how Loranna work. I think you’re maxed out. And you’re using a conscious A.I., which is a mind-wipeable offense even if you didn’t create it yourself. You’ve got no fallback, no backup plan. This your only viable option, and you’re running at redline.”

Karen’s expression changed to rage in an eyeblink. “Watch your mouth, food, or choking on your own gases will be a death you’ll pray for.”

Sheldon resumed dictating, and I continued, “If you don’t pull this off, your best-case outcome is losing everything. All your assets, gone. Unable to make clan-fee. You’d have to go begging to other tribes to take you in, and you’ll be starting over as chattel slaves.” I smiled at her, hoping I was convincing. “That’s what we have in store for you.”

Turned out I was very convincing. Karen launched into a high-volume tirade of what I had to assume were curses and threats. Interestingly, Loranna became purple in the face when enraged. I made a note to ask about that at some point.

“Shall I translate?” Sheldon asked.

“Naw. I get it. She’s not a fan.”

We were sitting in the conference room again. Sheldon had put up a surveillance window showing Karen and Arley’s cells. At the moment, Karen was lying down, and Arley was holding his head, trying to keep it from toppling right off his neck. From the occasional groans, I surmised that waking up from a zap was like waking up with a hangover, only more so. He hadn’t seemed to be in any discomfort when we were talking to him though. That showed a considerable amount of discipline.

“We can’t ignore Karen’s threat,” Nat said. “Our families are targets. I don’t see what we can do about that.”

“But targets for what?” I asked. “Kidnapping? Assassination? They want something from us, so taking hostages seems a lot more likely. But even then, they have to be able to contact us to tell us what they want.”

Patrick raised his head from his hand, where he’d been cradling it. “You mean we have to disappear.”