Senator Cohen, his time allotment nearly over, put his glasses back on. “Indeed, people did die at Pershing Square, but none of them were at the hands, so to speak, of the ETI. We had three die in a helicopter crash—one pilot and two bystanders—as the direct result of a human-made EMP. Another innocent bystander was shot by the LAPD, and of course the gunman, Tony Cascio, who threatened the human Cora Sabino and the ETIs Jude Atheatos and Nikola Sassanian, was shot and killed by the LAPD. Indeed, I think there is credence to the idea that humanity needs to engage in some deep introspection with regard to how it responds to the foreign, the alien, the unknown. However, I do not see how, especially in a case like this, it makes any sense to place the legal onus on the individuals who were attacked—by men carrying illegal guns, no less—on the basis that humans are intrinsically discriminatory.

“As we all know,” Cohen continued, “it would seem that their government caretakers have lost the two ETIs who were very nearly shot and killed after they were rendered incapacitated. But right now, it strikes me as inherently discriminatory to punish the victim, especially if they have not violated any rules we have in place. From a practical standpoint, given what happened in Pershing Square, I cannot say I blame Nikola Sassanian and Jude Atheatos for assuming the worst about humanity and wanting nothing to do with us. What surprises me, Mr. Miranda, on the subject of having a poor opinion of human nature, you and the ETIs appear to agree.”

And with that, Miranda’s testimony was over. The hearing, done for the day, dispersed. Cora saw Miranda get up, loosen up a bit from all the hours in the uncomfortable chair, and then turn to leave the chamber.

“I don’t get it,” she said. “I just don’t get the appeal of his worldview. His whole platform is based on the idea that people are inherently barbarous and need a boot to hold them down.”

“Well, yeah, baby fascists,” said Kaveh. “They love a police state, because it means party A has control over party B, and they are convinced they are in party A.”

“Ampersand told me something like that once,” she said. “That he believes that if there are two cultures, the dominant one will always try to reshape the less powerful one, and if they can’t do that, they destroy them. And it’s a pattern of human history, of their history, of nature, of everything.”