<it’s not the same,> Eureka objected.

Kat or Robin snorted. “¿No?”

<our ba’pas wanted the set-sets to start choosing targets for o.s. themselves instead of following the commanders-in-chief. this isn’t choosing a target, it’s refusing a hit for the defense of o.s. and the whole hive.>

“Yeah,” the twin agreed, “but the thinking is the same. They wanted to take O.S. into their own hands. ¿Why? Because five years ago the three Commanders-in-Chief were all crappy leaders. Perry’s Special Means Committee was so paranoid about P.M. Spain catching on that Perry hardly dared to come to meetings, Andō was having so much trouble with the Chinese blocs it took a month to get the Directorate to agree on anything, and Ganymede was flipping insane.”

“President Ganymede,” Ockham corrected firmly.

Kat or Robin frowned. “Regardless, O.S. wasn’t getting any orders worth following; that’s what our parents said. Here we are five years later. Andō is on the verge of losing control again, Casimir Perry’s turned out to be a dickhead, and President Ganymede is still flipping insane. Fess up, Ockham. ¿Do you want to disobey this order because it’s stupid or do you want to disobey it because they’re stupid?”

“¡That’s too much!” Lesley scolded. “Ockham wants to disobey the order because it puts the entire Hive in danger, nothing else. ¿Can we check this off as the point in the meeting when you gripe again about Sniper not being President and move on?”

“Hear, hear,” the celebrity agreed.

“Wait.”

Lesley and Sniper looked up, startled to have Ockham rein them in. “¿What?”

“I don’t approve of Typer’s tone, nor do I agree with their opinions of the three Commanders-in-Chief, particularly the President, whom I might add Typer has never met in person, while I have, and I deem them competent. Nevertheless, Typer’s question is valid if rephrased. ¿Do the current leaders, competent or no, have the right to jeopardize, not just the generation that elected them, but all the past and future generations of Humanists?”

<and europe and sanling,> the set-set added, using the Chinese name for the Mitsubishi; perhaps this is Eureka after all.

Ockham took a slow breath. “O.S. was created to serve the Humanists. If subsequent Humanist leaders judged that the Hive was best served by lending this power to two allied Hives, that does not add those Hives to our mandate. I want you to think only of our main Hive as you vote on this. ¿Do our leaders have the right to order O.S. to put itself in danger of exposure? ¿Lesley?”

“No.” She swallowed as she said it, bright eyes apologizing for voicing what her spouse would not want to hear. “In chess you’re not allowed to move the king into check, even if it’ll check the opponent, too. In a few days, maybe, if something makes Guildbreaker and Seneschal back off then sure, but not now, and”—she raised her voice as she saw Kat or Robin preparing to jump in—“I don’t think it’s a matter of disobeying the President. It doesn’t sound to me like the President wants us to do this. It was Perry’s idea. You said the President told us to prepare the hit but do nothing, probably because they didn’t want to refuse outright with Perry there. We can send Cardie to meet with the President tomorrow and verify, but my money says the President doesn’t want to give this order, not until the heat’s off.”