“Aggam thinks the Loranna will be grounded for ten thousand years. Standard years, which are a little longer than Earth years.”

I chuckled. “Grounded? Like when I stayed out too late as a kid?”

“Yes, exactly like that.” Nat grinned back. “The Loranna—all Loranna, except for diplomatic staff—will be restricted to their home planet for the duration. Any ships that try to leave will be shot down. Any Loranna caught off-planet will be treated like escaped convicts.”

“Mm. Harsh.”

“Mm-hmm. The idea is to ensure that those involved in these plots will be dead before the Loranna can rejoin polite society.” Nat blinked and hesitated. “I asked about life expectancies, given the expected duration of the sentence. Aggam replied that it wasn’t a subject for discussion with precontact species.”

“Huh.” I stared off into space for a few moments, then refocused on her. “Not the kind of response you’d get unless there was a bombshell coming. I hope humanity eventually qualifies.”

“Oh, and the Loranna will be required to pay compensation to the victim species. Which will include Earth, since they’ve managed to do a lot of damage while they’ve been here. No idea what kind of numbers we’re talking about. Or even how it would translate into our economy. But it gives us a sort of starting point to get into the game.”

Patrick entered and walked straight to the coffee maker. He popped a pod into the single-cup side of the appliance and pressed the button. While the device whirred and gurgled, he turned to me and Nat. “I never, ever want to go through that again.”

Nat grinned. “They are thorough, aren’t they?”

Patrick grunted. “Hopefully we’re near the tail end of this adventure. I need to have a life again. My life. And maybe without the alien interference, it’ll turn out to be a better future overall.”

“Interesting thing … ” Nat mused.

“Uh-huh?”

“Aggam mentioned that in order to pull off their coup, the Loranna only needed to control, or at least influence, about fifteen hundred people. Worldwide. That’s how many people actually have realistic control over our planet.”

“Not really a surprise,” I replied. “Wasn’t there some kind of CIA exposé a few years ago about this? They claimed that they did scenarios from time to time in the department. Usually in order to bring about some sweeping change in national or global politics, they figured they’d have to neutralize anywhere from a few dozen to maybe a hundred people.”

“Neutralize,” Patrick said, while making air quotes.

“It’s a pyramid,” Nat said. “A very small number of people at the top have most of the influence over the things that affect the rest of humanity.”

“So conspiracy theories about cabals running the world are right?” I asked.