“Do you still hate Thomas?” Vy struggled to pick her words with care and sensitivity.

Cherise’s voice was quiet as they walked past alien dignitaries in the war palace. “Not really.”

“Not really?” Vy shot her foster sister an annoyed look. No one wanted to talk about the fact that Thomas was a war hero. He had taken over forty minds in a dangerous situation. He was as good as any warrior. Better, really. And he couldn’t even walk. “Didn’t he save your classroom full of students?”

“Yeah,” Cherise admitted. “He’s powerful. He does good deeds. But also…” She shivered. “I can’t ignore what he does to people’s minds.”

Vy rolled her eyes. It wasn’t like Thomas zombified innocent children. He only did it to the worst Torth military ranks.

All the same, she did wonder if Cherise had a point.

“The zombies are gruesome,” Ariock had admitted to Vy when he was in private with her. “And we’re all too reliant on them. Has anyone considered what happens when Thomas hits his limit? His strength isn’t infinite. I’m already having to give him power boosts.”

Thomas mind-twisted hundreds of prisoners every day now. And yes, Vy did secretly wonder what that was doing to his psychology.

But what better options were there?

The Torth Empire needed to stay cautious. Otherwise they would attack on multiple fronts. They would attack Earth.

Vy led Cherise around a corner, towards the meeting chamber which was their destination. She was shocked to see zombies in the hallway.

Cherise jerked to a halt.

“What the hell?” Vy said.

A dozen zombies stood in front of the double doors. They smelled foul.

“Come in!” Garrett’s gruff voice called from the chamber. “The zombies are mine. I figured: Why not?”

As if living beings were toys. A lot of Alashani—and Garrett—seemed to consider the zombies to be like plastic paramilitary figures, fun to play with and easily disposed of.

The zombies shuffled aside at a silent command. They failed to blink enough. Those blank white ocular implants only enhanced their unnerving stares.

Vy knew, from conversations with Ariock, that Garrett hadn’t taken well to being defeated and inhibited for three days. He was more insecure than ever. Now that the pink gas was an obstacle, Jinishta had finally granted Garrett permission to protect himself in whatever ways he saw fit.

“They won’t hurt you,” Garrett called. “They’re just a precaution. We have a lot of military targets sitting in this room.”

Cherise made a disgusted noise.

Vy sneaked past the zombies. Deep down, she admitted that they were creepy. There wasn’t much difference between a brainless stare and a holier-than-thou Torth stare. These creatures looked like Servants of All dressed in shabby uniforms instead of gleaming white armor.

“Is this really a meeting about Earth?” Cherise hurried to catch up.

Ariock’s deep voice rumbled. “It is.”

Vy and Cherise entered a large, airy chamber. Daylight streamed through tall, angular windows. Sea glass was reflective enough to deter ghosting clairvoyants. The war palace now featured a lot of reflective glass, as well as burnished bronze, and granite or marble polished to a sheen. No one could teleport directly inside. Ariock tended to enter from his balcony.

He sat at the head of the conference table, dominating it. To his left sat Garrett. Thomas floated on his right.

The chamber was otherwise empty.

“This concerns you.” Thomas gazed at Cherise, begging. “I promise.”

Judging by Cherise’s face, she was on the verge of striding away. Her iridescent amber eyes had a fiery tint.

“Come on.” Vy gently touched Cherise’s arm. She had no idea what this meeting was really about, either, but Ariock was the one who had scheduled it. She trusted that he had good intentions. “If it’s about Earth, we need to be here.”

Cherise looked reluctant, but she walked to the huge conference table and sat at the far end with stiff dignity. She was apparently not going to risk having her mind read.

Vy took a seat between her foster siblings.

Sometimes she wanted to kick out her prosthetic leg and yell at Cherise, “See? He’s not a bad person!” Thanks to Thomas, she could walk and run with more athleticism than ever. It was almost as if her leg had never been amputated. She just couldn’t quite feel it there anymore.

“Thank you for coming to this meeting.” Ariock offered Vy and Cherise each a kind look.

“All right.” Garrett gestured to the double doors, which obligingly swung shut and clicked into place, sealing them in privacy. “We’ve tabled this matter long enough.”

Ariock held up one huge hand. “I’ll lead this.”

That stopped Garrett from saying whatever he had been about to say. Vy was glad. The old man had a way of stirring up animosity. He just wasn’t the leader that Ariock was.

Ariock let his hand fall on the table. “I’ve asked the five of us here,” he said, “so we can decide the fate of humankind.”

Well. That was dramatic.

“We want to decide whether or not to involve humankind in the war,” Thomas clarified.

Cherise’s eyebrows shot up.

“You mean, like…” Vy tried to imagine it. “You want to add human fighter pilots to our fleets?”

“That would be one benefit,” Thomas said. “I envision the benefits going both ways.”

Cherise stared around the table. She took in Garrett, Ariock, Thomas, and Vy.

After a moment, she spoke. “You’re saying that you want us … me included … to make a huge, future-altering decision for billions of people?”

Ariock looked guilty. “Yup. Pretty much.”

Vy supposed he was getting used to making such decisions, himself. He was the de facto ruler of three planets and more than ten billion people. He had enormous decisions to make every day, from appointing military mayors to prioritizing garrisons. Earth might just be one more concern upon a heap of concerns, to him.

“Shouldn’t this be a decision just for humans to make?” Cherise shot a pointed glare towards the mind readers.

Vy considered arguing that Thomas and Garrett were pretty much human. Except she supposed that was debatable.

“I know I’m not qualified.” Ariock hunched, looking ashamed. “If you don’t think I deserve input into this decision, I’ll completely understand. I can stay out of it.”

Cherise’s accusing attitude melted. She looked quizzical.

Vy knew all about Ariock’s hidden insecurities. “Of course you’re human!” she assured him.

Ariock looked unconvinced. “Genetically, sort of. But most of what I know about humanity comes from TV.” He indicated the mind readers. “Thomas and Garrett have had human families, and they’ve soaked up human minds. I trust them to know humanity better than me.”

Cherise looked like she wanted to argue.

“We all have reasons to care about the fate of humankind.” Garrett’s gesture included everyone at the table. “All five of us. That’s why we’re making the decision together.”

“The definition of ‘human’ should be for people who biologically originate from the planet Earth,” Cherise dared to say.

Garrett folded his arms and raised one finger, like a flag. “Born and raised.”

“Same,” Thomas said.

Cherise pushed back her chair and stood.

“Humans,” she said, as clearly as if she was teaching a classroom full of students, “don’t automatically assume that their species is superior or inferior to everyone else in the universe.” She gave Thomas a defiant glare. “To a human, Earth isn’t a piece on a chessboard.” Her gaze shifted from Thomas to Ariock to Garrett. “A human won’t treat this decision like a checklist item that needs to be checked off.”

They all stared at her. Inwardly, Vy applauded. Cherise had made some good points.

“Look here.” Garrett unfolded his arms and planted his fists on the table. He stared defiantly at Cherise. “I am painfully aware of my heritage. But I spent most of my life on Earth, and I have a lot of fond memories of my family. My human family,” he emphasized. “And my human wife. You think I don’t care about the fate of Earth? That’s your mistake.”

He sounded so passionately offended, Cherise ended up looking away.

Her accusing gaze landed on Thomas.

“Earth saved my life.” Thomas said it with casual simplicity.

Vy wondered if he felt grateful for getting bounced through numerous group homes. His early experiences in foster care were enough to turn anyone cynical.

“And,” Thomas relented, “I’m trying to get more in touch with the human side of my genetics.”

Cherise looked pained by her own suspicions.

Vy understood the doubt. Thomas had never showed much interest in acting human. He had been emotionally distant even when they’d lived together in the Hollander Home.

But maybe that was the old Thomas? He was so different in a myriad of ways.

He even looked different. A bit lankier? Taller? He was definitely beginning to look more like a teenager than a child.

“I value knowledge,” Thomas said. “And Earth has a lot of it.”

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“Okay.” Cherise took her seat at the table. “You can justify your presence here any way you want. I’ll stay and vote.” She glared at the mind readers. “Because I’m not going to let them win without a challenge.”

“There’s no winning or losing,” Ariock said with forbearance. “This is just a discussion.”

This sounded more momentous than a mere discussion, Vy thought. It was a decision.

A terrifyingly huge decision.

“I guess I’ll start.” Vy wondered if she could appease everyone at the table. “On the one hand, I really want to see my mom again. I’m worried for her, and everyone back home. I hate that Earth is under this constant threat.”

Everyone was nodding.

“But, on the other hand…” Vy grimaced, imagining human-alien conflicts. “I think that in general, adding humans to the mix would cause more problems that it solves.”

“Yup,” Garrett said.

Thomas and Cherise both stared at Vy as if she had gone insane.

Vy stared back. Didn’t they remember what humanity was like? Tribalism. Bigotry. Racially motivated genocides. Surely they must understand what she was talking about?

“Our species doesn’t have the best track record,” Vy explained, urging everyone to take reality into account. “Even if a lot of ummins and nussians are welcoming—” and she had her doubts about that—“our species is bound to focus on the fact that they’re weird aliens.”

“Exactly,” Garrett said. “Humans have all kinds of nutty ideas, and plus, they look like Torth. That’s just a bad combination.”

“Right.” Vy huddled inward, somewhat ashamed of her species. “I just don’t think humans are ready for the rest of the universe.”

Ariock gave her a gracious nod.

Cherise, to Vy’s surprise, gave her a critical head shake. “Do you think all of humanity is like the worst bullies in high school?”

“I mean….” Vy wanted time to reconsider.

“If humanity was truly a pack of monsters,” Cherise said, “then they would never value artwork that captures emotional beauty and nuance. They wouldn’t listen to music or make movies.” She stood, planting her hands on the table. “They would all be Torth—useless leeches who create nothing and who pretend to be benevolent rulers while their uncaring greed kills those they rule.”

Vy was speechless. She had not considered the way humanity looked from Cherise’s point of view.

“When I escaped my mother,” Cherise said, “I had no voice. But I found other ways to communicate.” She made sketching motions. “It will take time for humans to learn the slave language, and to learn how to integrate with the rest of the universe. But we can connect instantly through the arts.”

“Exactly.” Thomas sounded excited. That was so unusual, everyone looked at him.

Thomas went on in a more restrained tone. “You’ve all seen what an outsized influence the Alashani have on the culture here. Imagine what an impact humankind would make?”

Former slaves did tend to emulate Alashani culture. Vy had figured it was because they wanted to learn what freedom entailed. Maybe they were starving for new knowledge, and new ways of doing things?

The Alashani, on the other hand, tended to cling to the past. They wanted to preserve the fragments of their civilization which had survived.

Cherise was staring across the table at Thomas. Not with enmity, or exasperation, but something new. She searched his face.

“People are curious about humans,” Thomas said. “Thanks to Cherise and her classes.”

True. Vy sometimes overheard aliens talking about art or music she recognized.

“They see humans in leadership positions.” Thomas indicated Ariock. “So they want to learn more about those people. They’re primed to welcome humans.”

Vy felt strangely off-kilter, as if Thomas and Cherise were unexpectedly attacking reality.

Did people really want humans around? Vy didn’t think so. Some people believed that Earth was a heavenly paradise full of angels, sure. But lots of people suspected that humans were just an offshoot of the Torth species.

Vy heard all kinds of wacky misconceptions about humans. Some people believed that Earth was another version of the Alashani underground, except with evil technology and a nascent version of the Megacosm.

“I agree that it would be nice to help humanity prepare to defend itself.” Vy folded her arms, shielding herself. “But you’re talking about a really volatile situation. We might end up with a civil war on top of everything else.”

“We’ve already got the makings of that,” Thomas said.

Vy gave him a sharp, questioning look.

“Just…” Thomas spread his hands. “Former Torth and former slaves don’t like each other.”

Everyone knew that. Vy nodded, and said, “Then let’s not add a bunch of cocksure humans to the mix.”

Cherise remained standing. She gave Vy a pained look. “Can you look at this from humankind’s point of view, instead of just from Ariock’s perspective?”

Vy gaped, offended.

“If we leave Earth out of this war,” Cherise said, “we put humankind at a disadvantage. Forever.”

“That’s exactly it.” Thomas sat up straighter. “The free people on our side are learning the latest in Torth technology. They’ve already had millenniums in which to learn how to speak a universal language; the slave tongue. Humanity is excluded from those advantages.”

Cherise nodded in agreement. “People move forward with a shared culture. You’ll be relegating humankind to the dustbin of history. They’ll be permanently backwards, culturally and socially.”

“Eh.” Garrett tipped his chair back, so he could thump his boots on the tabletop, one on top of the other. “I vote against it. We have enough to deal with, without adding bumbling human bumpkins to the mix.”

Vy felt like a traitor to Cherise and Thomas, but she inwardly agreed with Garrett. Earth was a Pandora’s Box. It was best to leave that box locked for as long as possible.

“If we’re having a vote,” Thomas said, “then I say that humans deserve to be informed.” He rapped his knuckles lightly on the tabletop. “I vote for integration.”

Cherise looked as if she had swallowed something bitter. She stared at Thomas, but she nodded in reluctant solidarity. “I vote for integration.”

“What do you think, Vy?” Ariock gave her an encouraging look.

Vy avoided Cherise’s hard scrutiny. She avoided Thomas’s intense gaze. She hated to betray her foster siblings, but she was worried about the safety of her mother and friends on Earth.

“I’m against it,” she admitted. “Let’s just protect Earth from afar, like we’ve been doing.”

Ariock had to be the tie-breaker.

Everyone looked towards him, expectant.

“If we bring Earth into this war,” Ariock said with heavy reluctance, “then we would be obligated to defend it. And I’m struggling to defend three planets as it is.”

“Your thinking is too small scale,” Thomas said. “We want to win the whole galaxy, not just a handful of planets.”

“Eventually,” Ariock agreed. “But for right now? Our people have enough to police, without the added strain of human-alien relationships.”

He looked across the table towards Vy, and she saw that he understood her misgivings. Of course he did. They used to watch the same TV shows.

“I hate to bring this up,” Thomas said. “But I personally believe that Earth is fated to become a battlefront whether we like it or not, whether they know about us or not.”

Everyone looked at him, questioning.

“Humankind,” Thomas said, “has a monopoly over a precious natural resource that no other population has.”

Vy tried to imagine what he was talking about. She was pretty sure that her home planet was a worthless backwater.

“No one else has figured it out yet.” Thomas directed his explanation towards Ariock, almost as if challenging him. “Although the Alashani are starting to put two and two together. They’re talking about hybrids.”

Cherise gasped.

Vy wondered if she had heard Thomas correctly. “What do you mean? Hybrid Torth?”

“Hybrid Yeresunsa.” Thomas turned to her. “Some of the more astute Alashani are whispering that human genetics are a power augmenter. And they are correct.” He gestured towards Ariock. “There’s proof right there.”

Ariock turned red. He avoided looking at Vy.

He might as well have ravished her with his purple gaze. Neither of them had spoken of the possibility of raising a family, but this was an unspoken wrench.

Or a catalyst.

Or something.

“Yeah, yeah,” Garrett said in a bland tone. “There have been human hybrids among the Torth, as well.” Including his family. “A lot of Torth suspect that human genes are an augmentation factor. After the war, if they win, they’ll probably start trying to crossbreed with humans.”

The implications made Vy want to shrivel up and hide.

Servants of All and Rosy Recruits were going to want to use her, and other humans, as breeding stock.

And they could teleport.

Some might already be self-exiled on Earth, trying to impregnate humans.

“Anyway.” Thomas cleared his throat. “I’m just saying, Earth is more than just a wilderness preserve, the way Torth leadership always pretended it was. Humankind may become a vitally important asset.”

Trust Thomas to sound clinical about the possibility of human hybrid breeding farms all over the place.

“Well.” Cherise slumped down in her chair. “That’s just great.”

“As far as I’m concerned,” Garrett said, “this is a solid point against integration. Remember, we have an Alashani population who fear extinction.”

Albino matchmakers were everywhere, scheming to bring certain families together in order to raise a new generation of war heroes. The Alashani were desperate to rebuild their population. If they learned that human genetics could augment their warrior population…

Vy nodded fiercely. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Why not allow them to mingle?” Thomas asked.

“Oh, come on,” Garrett said. “Human genetics are, like, a golden ticket. Can you imagine all the rape and coercion that will go on?”

Garrett made that cruel assumption, but Vy recalled that he had not coerced his human wife. He had loved her.

She tried not to be obvious about reassessing Ariock.

If he impregnated her—and was sex even physically possible for them? She had yet to find out—any children they had together were likely to be ludicrously powerful. They would be legit demigods.

Was Vy prepared to mother a demigod?

She reminded herself that her window of physical compatibility with Ariock might be very limited, or nonexistent. Surely children were beyond the realm of possibility for them.

The other day, she had persuaded Ariock to allow her to measure him for custom tailored clothes. She had climbed a stepladder so she could reach the top of his head. From there, she had unfurled a tape measure, with help from an assistant to hold it taut.

Vy had measured the spread of his arms, and his shoulders, and so forth. It was a good thing that Ariock had not shown the slightest curiosity about his measurements. Then she would have felt obligated to inform him that he had grown quite a lot since the last time he had been measured.

He was nearly ten feet tall.

It doesn’t matter, Vy had kept telling herself. It’s just a number. It’s meaningless.

“It might go the other way,” Thomas said, beyond Vy’s range and oblivious to her thoughts. “Humans might just attempt to seduce Alashani warriors. The warriors are in much shorter supply.”

Garrett huffed. “Can’t we just leave the whole issue alone? Let’s allow Earth to remain the idyllic paradise it’s been for the last twenty-plus thousand years. It’s a beautiful place. I’d rather not corrupt it.”

“That’s wishful thinking,” Thomas said with an edge to his tone. “You and Ariock have proven to the galaxy at large that hybrids are a force to be reckoned with.”

Cherise stood again. “Exactly. People will get interested in Earth anyway. We have a moral obligation to tell humanity what’s coming.”

Vy gazed at her hands, so like her mother’s hands.

Her mother was blissfully unaware of the Torth Empire. Ignorance was, perhaps, the only thing keeping her safe. Didn’t Cherise comprehend that?

“If we show interest,” Vy said, “aren’t we just inviting the Torth to get interested?”

“Knowledge is always better than ignorance.” Cherise planted her hands on the table. “Knowledge is worth pain.”

Everyone knew that slave proverb. Vy swallowed. She felt small and ashamed.

“I was left in the dark for most of my childhood.” Cherise sounded passionate. “I wasn’t allowed to speak, and no one spoke to me. So I didn’t know that freedom was even possible for me. But if I had known I had a choice? I would have taken it.”

Vy could hardly meet Cherise’s eyes. Maybe she should reconsider her vote.

“Please?” Cherise’s voice trembled. “Let’s give humans the freedom, and the dignity, of having a choice?”

Thomas nodded.

Even Garrett looked as if he was reconsidering.

Everyone turned to the big guy.

Ariock looked as if the weight of a galaxy draped over his shoulders. He leaned on the table, huge hands clasped, brow furrowed.

He clearly did not want to be the deciding vote. He had arranged this meeting, but Vy recalled that he was uncertain about whether he had any right to even call himself human. He had tried to outsource the decision to trusted friends.

Ariock made gigantic life-or-death decisions every day. Did he have to take this on, as well?

“Why don’t we postpone it?” Vy asked everyone at the table. “We can decide at a later date.”

“Postponing this decision is a decision,” Thomas said testily.

Ariock offered Thomas and Cherise both a look of apology. “It doesn’t seem like a crucial emergency right now.” He glanced at his supercom wristwatch, and showed them a scrolling list of alerts. “In the time we’ve been talking, two cities were raided. I have places I need to be.”

Thomas and Cherise wore nearly identical looks of crushed disappointment.

“If someone had told me about my powers when I was a child,” Ariock said gently, speaking to Cherise, “I could have saved my father’s life. And my mother. Knowledge is always worth pain, as the nussians say. I understand that.”

Garrett hid a look of guilt. He had purposely kept his family in the dark. That had led to their deaths.

“So I agree that Earth needs to be told,” Ariock said. “Eventually.”

But not yet.

“So you vote ‘no?’” Garrett sounded relieved.

“For now.” Ariock looked anguished about it. “Only because I don’t feel like I can do justice to defending them, and I don’t want to draw too much attention their way. If the Torth start attacking them? Then of course we’ll reveal ourselves and give humankind every means to defend themselves.”

Cherise stood, ready to leave. She did not look entirely dissatisfied.

“I want human representatives on the war council, though,” Ariock said. “We should have made that official a long time ago.”

Cherise looked at him, startled.

“Cherise,” Ariock said, “and Vy? Would you be willing to take on that duty?”

The responsibility sounded so enormous as to be mythical. It seemed unreal. Vy sat there, stunned.

“I guess we’re the only possible candidates,” Cherise said. But she sounded thoughtful rather than bitter.

“Yes.” Vy tried to imagine herself being addressed with the honorific of Councilor.

“Thank you.” Cherise seemed to appreciate being included.

After the others had left, Vy remained in the meeting chamber with Ariock. She put her arms around his huge shoulders, leaning into his thick neck.

Her mother seemed so far away.

Elaine Hollander must believe that her daughter was dead. Meanwhile, Ariock had just casually entrusted that daughter with acting as a voice for home; for billions of strangers on Earth.

An alert chimed. Ariock sighed and sat up, preparing to teleport away.

“I’ll see you tonight.” Vy stood on tiptoes and kissed him.

She felt the burden of this responsibility. But she also understood that it was a sliver of what he coped with all the time.