I wiped my forehead with my hand. The session with the interviewer wasn’t an interrogation, strictly speaking. Certainly there were no harsh lights or hovering thugs with clubs in hand. It had nevertheless been a thorough grilling. But it did seem to be wrapping up, and I still had all my body parts.

I hadn’t run into Karen again, although I had seen a couple of other Loranna in cuffs, being escorted to unknown locations. Apparently the roundup was still underway.

The interviewer, who had introduced himself as Aggam, was jotting notes on a pad with a stylus. That was interesting, in that it seemed low-tech for an interstellar civilization. However, when I watched closely, I could see that it was some form of e-paper. The sheet scrolled up as necessary to make room for new notes, and on a couple of occasions, Aggam had scrolled back down to reference an earlier notation. I resolved to ask Nat what she thought of it.

And even more interestingly, Aggam was not Gen. He had introduced himself as a Ka’Hai, which I vaguely remembered Sheldon having mentioned in passing. He wore clothes, which made me think they might be the makers of the intelligent cloth. Ka’Hai were not easily identifiable in terms of taxonomy. Of course, there was no reason to believe that alien biosystems would neatly divide themselves into reptiles, mammals, insects, and so on, but even so, I kept trying to categorize him. The closest I could come to an analogy was the alien prawns in District 9, but cuter somehow.

Aggam made a final note with a flourish and put down his stylus. “Thank you, Jack. This has been most helpful. Our governing council is enacting emergency executive orders to define any continued Lorannic presence on Earth as an act of predatory colonialism, which carries significant penalties in addition to anything else they’re likely to be hit with. Any Loranna not yet rooted out will most likely surrender eventually.”

“You’re sure they won’t just go deeper underground and try to keep sabotaging us?”

Aggam made the same sideways head motion as Nond, but to the left this time. “The sanctions for being caught doing so would be sweeping and expensive. I wouldn’t put it past the Loranna to make the attempt if it seemed cost-effective. Or doable. We have severed their contact with their A.I., disassembled their infrastructure, and incarcerated most of their personnel. Their choices are to surrender or spend the rest of their lives hiding out on an alien planet.”

“If you say so. What happens now?”

“In the short term, you go back to your ship and get some rest until Commander Nond is ready to speak to all of you. In the longer term, that will depend on what the commander and the High Council decide. As you say in Human, that’s way above my pay grade.”