Patrick waved the bag at her. “Cheetos are relaxing. Also, we bought a half dozen bags. I’m not the only one snarfing them down.”

“Yeah, I’m addicted now, and I blame you. But how can you be relaxed?”

Patrick waved a hand dismissively. “This is all churn. Stuff sloshing back and forth. An occupation here, an arrest there, accusations and counteraccusations some other place. The Loranna have to get it under control, and I think it’s interesting to watch the waves of disinformation coming out, as they look for something that will stick. And they have to be worried that the Gen will show up, so it still has to look like human-level bullshit.”

“I should issue a small correction, Patrick,” Sheldon chimed in. “The Gen are the most likely to instigate an investigatory mission, as the Opah Mal Gennan Foundation had the primary surveillance responsibility for the human species. However, a task force is going to be under Covenant authority and is likely to contain other Covenant member species as well, in order to properly categorize it as a police action.”

Patrick nodded slowly. “Okay, so the Covenant task force or whatever will get here eventually, which will for all practical purposes put an end to this operation—”

“So we hope. The Loranna may dig in and refuse to leave, perhaps claiming that they’ve already met the minimum requirements for trusteeship.”

“And we’re not given a say in that?” I said.

“If you mean the human species, I doubt the Loranna will ask for your opinion. The Covenant will of course consider your desires, but their actions will be dictated by Covenant laws. They might be forced to step back and let humanity and the Loranna duke it out. The Gen in particular are punctilious about proper procedure and the rule of law.”

“This is crap!” Nat said. “We could end up doing exactly what the Loranna are trying for while we try to attract the Gen’s attention—obliterating ourselves so they can take over.”

Sheldon replied, “As a method of communicating, I’ll grant that it is not ideal. Equivalent to passing notes in school. However, the system is—Oh, dear.”

Patrick rolled his eyes. “Oh, dear? Oh, dear? That’s worse than uh-oh. Stop doing that!”

“Noted. It appears the cavalry has arrived ahead of schedule. I’ve just received a system-wide broadcast from a Covenant task force. It’s in Gen. Here’s the translation.”