“Good. Scio, do you understand what is being debated?”

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. She could feel it, both through the wall between them and through basic human intuition.

“I was not told Esperas would be here.”

“He understands,” she said.

“Okay, so with that in mind, we need to know where you stand on the issue.”

Both Esperas and Brako were watching Ampersand now. They could tell something was wrong, even if none of the other humans in the room picked up on it. Esperas spoke, and the flat-screen translated:

[My stance remains one of noninvolvement. The humans will choose laws which are best for them. I do not seek to sway your lawmakers one way or the other.]

“Okay,” said Sol, looking at Cora. “Rebuttal?”

“I was not told Esperas would be here. He can see the disease.”

She’d never seen Ampersand like this, never felt his emotions so thoroughly override his self-control. She tried to stay focused, but she was having a hard time staying put together herself. He wasn’t answering Sol’s questions, so it was on her to come up with an answer.

“Scio feels that, among other things, he should have the right to control his own space. The problem with the Third Option is that it would preclude, among other things, the ability to own property, the ability to control wealth, the ability to participate in any kind of civic activity. He’d effectively have to have a human chaperone in order to stay within the United States, and if the United States decides that’s how to deal with ETIs, most other countries will follow suit.”

“So he opposes the Third Option.”

“Correct.” She glanced at Ampersand, standing behind her with that slight sway. It was barely an inch in either direction, but noticeable to her and probably blindingly noticeable to Esperas. She had to get him out of here.

“So we have one side that doesn’t care, and one side that opposes the Third Option,” said Sol. “If we have one indifferent, and one in opposition, that tilts to me that we are in opposition.”

“I’m in opposition,” said Stevie, more confident than Cora had ever seen her.

“I’m in opposition, too,” said Luciana.

“I . . . respect Esperas’s stance,” said Dr. Sev. “I think it is something to consider, that ultimately what our laws do is irrelevant to them. However, my concern is that restriction of rights, any restriction of rights, carries with it the potential for abuse. I am in opposition.”

“To state the obvious,” said Luciana, “they are never going to pass full personhood for ETIs as long as they don’t know what they’re dealing with. Do we know why they keep kicking back the official information release deadline?”

“I honestly don’t,” said Sol.

“Sooner or later, the public has to learn what they’re dealing with,” said Luciana. “Have we learned nothing from the last three months?”

The room quieted. Esperas and the others stayed stone still, all but Ampersand. An inch to the left, pause, an inch to the right, and on and on. Cora wanted to say something to soothe him, but there was nothing she could do that everyone in the room wouldn’t see.