Humanist President Vivien Ancelet braved the Senate floor last and alone. “This is not a reform proposal,” he declared as he placed on the Speaker’s desk a sleek white packet, with the Humanist flag bright upon it, the six Olympic rings each paired with one flying V. “It is a defense of the current Humanist Constitution, which I and my fellows on the reform committee believe to be the best and soundest form of government ever created by the human species. As this report makes plain, there is no unsoundness at the heart of the Humanists. Rather an unsoundness in the times drove my predecessors to respond. If O.S. was an extreme means, it was not chosen selfishly. Those who used O.S. used it to preserve this age of peace and prosperity. I agree that O.S. and those who used it must now answer to Romanova’s law, but the Hive itself is not flawed for electing leaders who were so faithful to their mandate that they were willing to take painful steps to preserve World Peace. We all hope to move beyond depending on O.S., but, as we strive to do so, we should not throw away the proven stability and flexibility of the Humanist Constitution, we should instead fall back on it. This is not the moment to rashly reject the one institution which has done the most to protect the best age yet forged by humankind. It is the moment to use that institution as we forge a better one.”

Screams across the House demanded that the Humanists be expelled from the Alliance at once for defying the Senate’s order to reform, and that Ancelet stand trial with Prospero and Ganymede for “murders they condoned.” Speaker Jin Im-Jin, in his authority as Grandpa, made everyone shut up. “A proposal of no change is still a proposal. We will consider it as seriously as the others, and thank Human Ancelet for presenting it so articulately.” Jin then browbeat the Senate into voting to cool its heels a while, while experts evaluated the four proposals’ viability. If the Senate judges the changes sufficient to make these four unstable Hives stable again then all is well; if any proposal is rejected, then we will learn what happens when the Alliance declares a member Hive a danger to the human race, Nature, and the Produce of Civilization.