THE END OF THE APOCALYPSE PARENTING SERIES

Chapter 53-a

“We’re the first humans in space!” yelled Gavin, racing past Vince and I to be the first off the shuttle.

“No!” Micah said. “Astronauts went to space a long time ago. A really long time ago. Like, even before Mom and Dad were born.”

Gavin glared at his brother. “Okay, but not alien space. We’re the first humans to go to alien space.”

“We’re not,” I said. “The Voices for Non-Citizens took the first hundred lawyer trainees up a month ago, and I know there have been smaller groups brought off-planet. For example, Fluffy told me a few weeks ago that some of our music artists had been invited on some kind of interplanetary tour: Taylor Swift, Weird Al, and Lizzo. I never heard if they accepted the invite, but a lot of species are interested in humans and human culture. Plus, since this facility was built in our home system, our government automatically has the right to include a juror on every case, so humans have been up here for close to a month.”

Gavin frowned, his shoulders slumping defensively. “I don’t know who any of those people are.”

I considered this, and pivoted. “Well… they are grown-ups. And even before the aliens came, we only sent grown-ups to space. So, you very well might be the first seven-year-old in space.”

“I bet I am!” Gavin said, straightening in pride.

“Elder brother, I have no records of other human seven-year-olds in space,” Ariel offered.

“Well, make a record of me!”

“Acknowledged. I have created a small monolith near Cape Canaveral listing space-related human records and added your name and age.”

Micah laughed, but I couldn’t help but notice that his chuckles didn’t keep his eyes from narrowing in calculation.

“Add me an’ Pointy too please!” Cassie said. 

“I have added you and Micah. Pointy is not the first Information Assistant in space, and could not be added. My apologies.”

Micah twitched in surprise as Ariel spoke, then grinned triumphantly. “Too bad, Pointy!”

The little turtle glanced at me, and I could see the amusement in her embroidered features. “I shall somehow overcome this disappointment.”

Almost half a year had passed since the Maffiyir had ended, and I was finally being called on to testify in “court,” or the Commonwealth’s closest analogue. A venue had been built in orbit of Saturn, with the planet’s glorious clouds and rings dominating the view from the enormous windows that lined the walk to the courtroom from our spaceship. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and it encouraged me that somewhere out there, some alien architect had thought the same thing.

Since the facility was in a human system, the major hallways had been tuned for human needs and comfort, but we were far from the only species using these common areas. Some, like Fluffy, needed no visible assistance, while others wore masks or full spacesuits. We even saw one group of aliens moving through the halls in what looked like fish tanks on Segways. 

That group caught my curiosity. There were water-filled halls as well, so why were they here? Did they need some special kind of fluid to swim in? Some kind of required chemical that was hard to compensate for? It wasn’t until they surrounded our group with a babble of excited translated chatter that I realized the truth: they’d taken this route because it gave them the best chance of seeing us.

“Clothes-lovers!”

“Meghan Moretti!”

“We watched you every time your ID was found!”

“Can you put on your helmets? I always saw you with your helmets on.”

“Ooh, or your armor! You look so different in your different coverings today.”
“I’m sorry,” I said slowly. “We, uh, didn’t bring our helmets or armor…?”

“I can take off my shoe!” Cassie yelled.

I groaned. “Cassie-”

The shoe was already above her head, waving at them, and it was only by the narrowest of margins that I intervened in time to stop Gavin from taking off his shirt.

I felt embarrassed, but the aliens - I think they were called the Near-Frozen - loved it and asked my kids to hold their shoes up next to some kind of sensor on their tanks. It sounded like they wanted to smell my kids’ shoes? That couldn’t possibly be right, but overwhelmed by the aliens’ obvious cheer and excitement, I didn’t stop it. I could only watch the whole weird-but-positive interaction and stare in stunned silence as the group of aquatic aliens rolled away. 

Pointy laughed at me. “What’s that look for, Meghan? You know you’re famous.”

“Infamous, I thought,” I said. “I mean, Fluffy spent long enough preparing me for today…”

The enormous alien twisted their torso to look back at me. “Ah, Meghan Moretti, do not forget! We focused mainly on learning more about the most hostile of your detractors, but you have many supporters as well, and there are many more who are still deciding what to think.”

“So no pressure today, or anything.” I shuddered, then reached out and squeezed Vince’s hand. “I’m glad you could come with.”

“You think they could have stopped me? I would have found a way.”

“Not if it would have hurt our chances! Coming with my kids and husband… Well, I was worried it might make me look less strong. Less independent.”

“Oh,” Vince said. “Is that going to be a problem?”

Fluffy shook their head. “Many, many cultures make up the Commonwealth. To some, she will seem less independent, but she is prepared to field those criticisms. To the minds that matter most, bringing her family along should be a benefit.”

I was glad to have them there, although I wouldn’t have risked it if Fluffy hadn’t helped me hook the kids up with some entertainment technology. We weren’t sure how long the hearing would last, but it would be several hours at minimum, and the novelty of being amidst a sea of aliens would wear off well before it was done. No matter how good the kids intentions were, they would have been a huge distraction to me if we hadn’t arranged distractions for them. 

Having to make important speeches while my kids go insane mere feet away? Absolutely not. 

Most of Earth’s technology had yet to be recovered, but I’d earned a bit of Commonwealth currency by doing several interviews and one product endorsement - for human-style galoshes? Seemed weird to me, but fine -  and some of my earnings had gone toward these little buttons that expanded into tablets. The kids hadn’t yet mastered Commonwealth Standard, but they’d still figured out how to open the video player and get into the few games that Fluffy had helped me install.

I was concerned that Micah had gotten overly addicted to this weird geometry puzzle game, but…

“The… Unity?” Vince asked, pulling my wandering mind back to the present. He hadn’t had the intense interstellar instruction I’d had, but I’d been living, eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping this stuff for months. It was inevitable that my husband would pick up a thing or two. “They’re the most-powerful species in the Commonwealth, right? But they’re just one species, so they can only have one juror, if that.”

Fluffy nodded. “They will have their one juror, but… well, you will see. They have many supporters, and when they talk, others will listen.”

Commonwealth courts weren’t really courts as humans understood them. With advanced recording technology so prevalent, determining guilt was a minor, relatively unimportant function of the Commonwealth justice system. Instead, their courts were more like an alternative method for writing legislation, with elected jurors determining how existing laws should be extended to cover unforeseen situations - or, occasionally, what punishments were suitable for particularly egregious crimes, like Sharp Contrast’s supposed rogue actions. 

It was common to have as few as three jurors, but particularly important hearings could have many more. 

For the matter of the humanity of our adopted AIs, we’d have the maximum: 144 aliens. Well, 144 representatives. For a few species, what constituted an “individual” was a little ambiguous.

Whatever the exact count, the number was high enough to be terrifying.

We reached the end of the hallway, which dead-ended on one wall of the “courtroom,” a vast, hexagonal space. Three walls were covered with a grid of climate-controlled transparent boxes. 

Some were filled with water and others with opaque gas, but I could make out most of the people inside, a dizzying ensemble of aliens. About a quarter were bipeds like us, but I knew that wasn’t representative of the Commonwealth as a whole; rather, bipeds were overrepresented here because those species had tended to be a little more interested in us. Nearly as many were built like octopuses, with flexible limbs extending out from a body structure that was often flexible as well. The rest had just about every body type you could imagine, including several that looked like crabs and a number that didn’t look alive at all to my human eyes. 

Actually, in many cases I wasn’t even sure which parts were furniture and which were people. Sometimes I could tell only because of the human clothing items a few were wearing, which Fluffy had told me to expect as a signal of support. That seemed weird to me - didn’t it show bias? - but it wasn’t a human court and it worked on different rules. It did make the room a little less threatening. One extremely tall alien with claws as long as my forearm and a mouth that hung open and continually dripped goo would have given me nightmares… yet it was hard to take it completely seriously when it was wearing several pairs of cargo shorts like they were bracelets. 

I recognized a handful of the species, but the juror list had only been finalized a few days before the trial and Fluffy had told me to focus on my own preparations, not worry about the specifics of the species sitting in judgement. With so many different cultures represented, pandering to one almost inevitably meant alienating another. 

I recognized the Soundless, a group I’d studied a lot. My eyes instantly locked onto the pale forms in one elevated box: four legs, two arms, and an odd head with one central eye and several supplementary ones, surrounded by bioluminescent “fingers” that flickered back and forth as the Soundess “spoke.” One of the Soundless was far larger than the rest and was almost certainly a matriarch and their representative. Her central eye focused on my family as we walked to our seats.

I shuddered under her gaze.

At least all the aliens weren’t focused on me personally. Not yet. There were a number of other “Persons of Standing” who’d been called to the courtroom, each with their own box in the central area: the Maffiyir Company, Intangible Connections - the AI company that had originally programmed both Ariel and Hamlet - a few other alien groups, two more of Ariel’s Linked Users, a delegation from the UGE, and a smattering of humans to represent all the people who’d adopted Informational Assistants.

Opening statements or “Sharing of Stances” went mostly as we’d expected. Intangible Connections testified that their artificial intelligences weren’t truly sapient but merely pretending to be. The Maffiyir Company reiterated that point and tried to assert that Ariel didn’t even exist, calling her an “glitch in the Maffiyir #2,186 Overmind.” That designation had originally belonged to Ariel, but the Maffiyir company was now using it exclusively to refer to Hamlet. The UGE asserted their right to define what makes someone human and pointed out that the changes made by the Maffiyir meant that biology was no longer a sufficient marker, if it ever had been. A young Asian man spoke ardently, giving a speech prepared on behalf of everyone who had adopted an Informational Assistants.

Then, it was my turn.

I stood. It wasn’t necessary to stand - formality meant something very different when some species were legless and others had 300 legs - but it felt right. Fluffy and I had practiced several different versions of my opening statement, and I knew they had been tweaking one of them as the other people spoke. My speech appeared on my tablet, with a few key last-minute changes in bold. I skimmed it quickly, Analyze and Eidetic Memory making it easy to pick out the changes and memorize the new version. Okay, this is basically version two. Pretty much what we discussed. I can do this.

“My daughter, Ariel - who you know as the original Maffiyir #2,186 Overmind - is not a glitch, nor a thing. She is a person. She is not a perfect person, but that is in argument in favor of her personhood, rather than against it. Living and making mistakes go hand in hand.”

It was the biggest audience I’d ever performed before. Even without thinking about the people watching the “televised” version of this trial from their homes across the galaxy, there were nearly a thousand sapients in the room. Definitely more than had filled the first few rows of my high school auditorium for my Senior-year play. Plus, that audience had all been human. Many of the people I was talking to now had different ideas about what constituted sincerity, appropriate levels of emotion, and even what types of emotion were allowed… or, for some species, required. 

There was no way for me to understand the body language or reactions of my audience, no way to work the crowd. All I could do was deliver my prepared speech as best I could, the way Fluffy had coached me, and hope it resonated.

“You will hear arguments today suggesting that she is not a person. That somehow, code intended to help her run a contest led to her seeking independence, choosing her own Linked Users - a feat I’m told ought to have been impossible - and becoming part of my family. What you will not hear is what code specifically led to that, and why, and how.” 

“The Maffiyir Company said there was an ‘irregularity’ in Ariel’s code, but her counterpart’s code is almost identical and the changes were superficial. The difference isn’t in Ariel; the difference is in us. Humanity. We accepted her and those like her” - I nodded toward Pointy - “and offered them the tiniest chance. They took it. Today, you are asked to choose whether you admit that mistakes were made and welcome your AI citizens with open arms, or whether you choose to cling to an unjust system whose weaknesses have already been exposed.”

Countless sensory organs bore down on me as I sat, clenching my fingers to keep them from shaking. I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief that I hadn’t stumbled over the last-minute adjustments Fluffy had made. The changes hadn’t been huge, but they’d been important: if the Maffiyir Company and Intangible Connections had revealed their angle of attack, we should absolutely respond to their arguments directly and specifically, as early as possible. 

Fluffy scanned the room, then gave me a shallow nod and a thumbs-up. They had really taken to human gestures after interacting with so many of us over the past few months, and they had the hundred of years of experience it took to actually be able to read the emotions in a room like this. Yes! I cheered internally. Off to a good start.

Zahra, one of Ariel’s other Linked Users, started speaking, but I felt like the majority of attention was still on me.

That’s just paranoia, I told myself.

The Sharing of Stances ended.

Now, we got into the part I’d really been nervous about, the part that had taken up the majority of our preparation time.

The part I still didn’t feel prepared for.

It was just called “The Investigation,” a fairly innocuous term. The jurors would ask questions of Those with Standing and each other, attempting to gather information and sway other jurors before proposing solutions. Unfortunately, Ariel wouldn’t be allowed to speak for herself - only citizens were allowed - and while Fluffy could guide and advise me, they couldn’t answer on my behalf. I’d have to field any questions that came my way.

As soon as the master of ceremonies announced we were entering the Investigation, a juror’s box lit up, signaling their intention to ask a question. Were they looking at me? It was hard to tell. They resembled an Earth crab, if crabs were four feet tall, but the eyes atop its eyestalks were a deep, pure black, making it difficult to tell where it was-

“Meghan Moretti, the rogue Overmind currently controls a majority of your planet and has failed to return those lands to their rightful owners. As its Linked User and purported adoptive parent, you stand to gain a great deal if that theft is not overturned. Is that your true motivation for asserting that the Overmind is a member of the Clothes-Lover species?”

Chapter 53-b

Ah. So they were looking at me. At least this question is one I’m ready for.

“No,” I responded. “While I retain my rights to lands I claimed during the Earth’s Maffiyir, I have made a binding agreement to donate Ariel’s holdings to the Earth Reconstruction Fund if I gain ownership of them. Ariel’s other Linked Users have done the same.”

The crab withdrew from the front of their box silently, but the light around them had barely flickered off before another box lit up. A being that looked kind of like a ficus plant waved their fronds. “Meghan Moretti, on numerous occasions throughout the Maffiyir, you were witnessed expressing vitriol against ‘the system.’ This was your term for the Overmind you now call Ariel, was it not?”

“Yes. It was. At the time, I did not understand who was to blame for the situation my planet and my people were in.”

“And this recording? This directly follows your so-called adoption.” 

A screen appeared in the middle of the room, showing Vince and I sitting in Fort Defiance.

I closed my eyes, looking away and grimacing. I knew what the recording was: the pair of us talking about all the horrible things Ariel had been a part of and how we’d agreed to adopt her because “someone had to, for the sake of, well, everyone. Everything.”

We’d known that Hamlet had seen that moment, even if he’d no longer been broadcasting. Ariel had gotten control of his databanks, but it looked like the Maffiyir Company had made backups somewhere.

It didn’t make me look very good, especially out of context.

“I’ve discussed that moment extensively with Ariel. If you’d let her speak-”

“With the assistance of your fellow Linked Clothes-Lovers, you could have ordered her to say anything. Even if the testimony of an artificial intelligence was admissible - which it is not - the circumstances make your malfunctioning Overmind’s testimony particularly meaningless.

“You can’t order an Overmind to lie to authorities!”

“Maffiyir #2,186 Overmind has done many things previously believed to be impossible.”

“Well, then, it seems like what everyone’s believed about artificial intelligences for so long is wrong, doesn’t it?!” The words whipped out of me before I’d fully considered them, my anger getting the better of me. Still, I was keeping Fluffy’s head-hands in view of my rear eyes, and my lawyer flashed me a thumbs-up.

The plant shook wildly. “I would prefer to focus on your words and actions here, Meghan Moretti…”

I took a deep breath, remembering the preparation Fluffy and I had done. “These moments were taken out of context. If you continued playing the scene, you would see my husband and I discuss how to do right by Ariel, as her parents.”

“Meaningless. The quality of your parenting is irrelevant. I am questioning your intent. The recording clearly shows that you had ulterior motives for attempting to adopt an Overmind.”

“So what?” I said. “I can have more than one reason for doing the right thing.”

“Perhaps,” the plant said, and drew back from the front of their cubicle. “I am unconvinced that you were motivated by anything but desire for advantage.”

Another cubicle lit up. “Meghan Moretti-”

Fluffy moved up beside me, letting me lean against them for support as the barrage continued, with alien after alien questioning and criticizing my motives and character. Ariel had moved almost entirely to speaking aloud in recent months, but as the insults and critiques continued, I received a mental message: <Stay calm. They say nothing true about you that I do not already know and accept. I appreciate you.>

It helped, but I was struggling. Vince took my hand, and I felt him use Healing Touch more than once as the waves of adrenaline mounted too high.

I was deeply, deeply relieved when the box of an aquatic salamander-like alien lit up and finally someone didn’t start by looking straight at me and saying my full name.

“Esteemed wise ones of the Commonwealth, please consider the following footage,” the salamander said.

My relief faltered as a clip of me appeared. At first, it didn’t seem too bad. I was in regular clothes and holding a homemade spear so… this must be the first day of the contest? Maybe this person was on my side. 

Those hopes faded as the me-on-camera ran out the back door to fight leafenrat with extreme incompetence. My strikes went astray, my ill-considered kick was laughable, and I got jumped from behind by another leafenrat… a monster I hadn’t noticed at the time, but was blindingly obvious in the recording.  Behind me, Vince winced.

The footage that followed wasn’t any better. Every trip, every fumble, every moment I lost my temper or made a poor decision. There was the first time Micah had used his ability, and I had panicked and dropped the cast-iron pan he’d filled with a minor, harmless flame. There were several clips from the deception Challenge, including a really brain-dead looking sequence of me repeatedly stabbing a harmless wall. The moments highlighted were carefully and intentionally chosen to paint the worst picture of me possible. We saw my argument with Mason at the beginning of the first Mandatory Trial, but not my bold charge past the bonefur that followed. 

The reel of clips made me look clumsy, cowardly, weak, stupid, and irrational.

The footage wound down, finishing on a screen of me about to gain my Specialty, with my pre-Specialty abilities and lackluster percentages written out in a second screen beside the image. The salamander began speaking again. “Meghan Moretti is not a champion of her people. She is not a luminary or sage. She has caught the public interest, but she is not a pioneer or an innovator. She is, at best, of middling competence and middling intelligence. I suspect that the Overmind chose to link with her, rather than a more capable Clothes-Lover, because it believed her incompetence would grant it more freedom.

“This is the being who is asking us to believe in her judgement. She wants us to believe that she knows better, that the Commonwealth has been wrong about artificial intelligences for thousands of years. She wishes to be the first person in existence to adopt an Overmind as a member of her family. Does the being in those clips look like someone whose judgement you would trust? Do they look like the sort of person you would want to guide a fundamental shift in our society?”

I felt my face flush with embarrassment as the aliens looking down at me rumbled with reactions. I wasn’t an expert on alien body language, but Fluffy was, and I could see their fins flattening in frustration, and I knew that my lawyer, at least, thought that the salamander had won some people over.

Another box lit up, and I braced myself for the next attack to pile on. But then, I noticed that the speaker, who resembled nothing so much as a kids’ jungle gym, had a large women’s pool cover-up draped over their central… beam? “I would hear what Meghan Moretti has to say about that footage.”

I jumped to my feet again, but as I opened my mouth, I saw Fluffy’s head-hands spread wide, encouraging me not to rush.

So I closed my mouth again.

Closed my eyes. All five of them.

And I took a moment.

A lot of those clips are easy to defend against. I can explain why I did most of those things. But… there were a lot of things. A lot, a lot of things. I can remember all of them easily, but can I keep everyone’s attention as I argue with each one? Do all of them remember each one? Not everyone has Eidetic Memory. Defending myself could end up emphasizing the very things I want people to ignore. So…

I opened my eyes and smiled.

“They’re right.”

Even without in-depth knowledge of all the species involved, I could see the ripple of surprise my words had caused.

“You’ve just seen some of my worst, ugliest  moments. I could try to explain or justify myself, but.. Why? At the end of the day, I know who I am. 

“I’m not the strongest fighter of my species. I’m not a groundbreaking scientist. I’m not a paradigm-shifting artist. I’m no great philosopher or engineer. Before the Maffiyir, I wasn’t famous among humans, or ‘Clothes-Lovers,’ as you call us. I wasn’t even well-known in my neighborhood. 

“I’m far, far from perfect. I’ve made my share of mistakes. Sometimes I’ve paid for them, but a lot of times the costs were paid by others. People died because of my inadequacies.

“As the juror said, I’m very, very normal. If there’s anything exceptional about me, it’s just that I’m a mom who kept her kids alive, through the most dangerous event in my species’ history.”

I paused, scanning the room. “Kids. Let me touch on that, actually. Kids mean different things to every species - some, like the Soundless, don’t even really have a childhood at all - but for those of you who aren’t familiar with the Clothes-Lovers, let me tell you about our species. We’re born very helpless. It takes us a long time to learn to move normally and communicate, and even longer to fully physically and mentally develop. Almost a quarter of our species’ natural lifespan!”

A message from Fluffy popped up on my tablet. It was simple, just asking me to display the attached file. I had no idea what it was, but I didn’t hesitate. They’d earned that level of trust. 

A new video started playing, starting with me carefully slicing up some books. The boys were trying to insert sections into a puffer vest I’d already prepared for them, while Cassie was pulling stuffing from a second vest I’d sliced open. She got a big hunk out and fell down on her butt. 

I gestured at the video. “I didn’t come into this contest with kids near the end of childhood. You can see Micah, my oldest, has barely a third of my bodymass, and he will likely be significantly larger than me as a mature adult. That smaller size put all my kids at a disadvantage against the monsters we had to fight, and that’s leaving aside any other physical or mental immaturity.”

In the video, Cassie reached back into the puffer vest to pull out more fluff, but fell over forwards instead this time. The remaining fluff in the vest cushioned her fall, so she pulled out her arm and held her hands to her face as she rolled around laughing.

“How does a mediocre fighter get three disadvantaged ‘contestants’” - I didn’t even try to keep the venom out of my voice at the term, but Fluffy had coached me to use it - “through a contest that typically leaves 95% of a planet’s sapient life dead?”

I focused on the Unity’s box as I let the question sit for a moment. It was my first time seeing their species in person, but I’d studied, and they were easy to recognize. They looked like what you’d get if you crossed a sheep and a willow tree, and you never saw fewer than six of them in one place. 

 “You just saw us working on armor to improve their defenses and help keep them alive. We also built weapons, but the most important thing that I built to protect them was a community.”

A new message from Fluffy appeared and I opened the attached file immediately. An clip played of me standing in the Autumn Hills playground, carefully writing down information on the climbing wall as a crowd of frightened adults stood around me. It shifted to me at the center of a smaller group, working together to safely take down one of the first badblankets, and then me speaking to the giant crowd of people who’d shown up at my street after I’d built the first Shop. I could guess what would come next: me at the Challenges, stopping people from killing each other; me on our mad flight across the country, surrounded by strong allies who fought to protect me. 

Maybe I should have let the jurors focus on that, but even if it was good for them to see it, I didn’t want to watch those moments myself. Even six months later, I hadn’t left the nightmares behind. Instead, I turned my back to the display, looking back out at the assembly.

“I was asked why Ariel chose me. It’s a good question, and one I wondered about myself.

“So why did Ariel pick me? It’s a good question. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that there were multiple factors. Part of it, of course, was that I had chosen enough relevant abilities for her to prime me for the link. As other jurors have mentioned, Ariel found a way to do something everyone had long thought was impossible. That wasn’t easy for her, and her choices were limited to people who had taken at least one Biological Augment and had several other abilities that enhanced mental processing. I fit those criteria.

“I’d initially thought that was it. She was aware of me - because my daughter’s Information Assistant, Pointy, had gotten her attention - and I was a possibility, so I was chosen. I thought she’d chosen me as her Linked User more-or-less at random. 

“I believed that for a long time - until a couple months ago, actually, when I finally met another of her Linked Users at a memorial service for our fallen. I was looking forward to meeting him, because we shared experiences that few others in the galaxy had, but as we talked, I realized we had more in common than just our link with Ariel. Our personalities were remarkably similar. On top of that, while neither of us was linked to an Information Assistant, both of us had a loved one who was… and I found out that he’d been looking out for his partner’s ‘Zelda’ in much the same way I’d been watching over ‘Pointy.’

“After that meeting, I reached out to Ariel. I asked her how she had chosen us. It turns out that, even with the specific ability setup necessary, there were millions of humans she could have chosen as Linked Users. She knew how much influence we’d have over her, and she looked at all of us carefully. She looked at how we thought, how we acted, and, especially, how we treated artificial intelligences. She picked me because she could see that I cared.

“She actually said…” I hesitated. The words felt almost arrogant. But they were true. They were what Ariel had told me. “She said that of all the humans on Earth, I was her top choice.”

 The salamander’s box lit up again. “That may explain why you were chosen, but it does not explain why we should take your thoughts seriously. You say our artificial intelligences are truly sapient. They are designed to fool true sapients into believing this. It is not surprising that you and your people, who are but newly hatched as citizens, should be fooled. Your delusions are no reason to upend a technology that has formed a cornerstone of Commonwealth society since times beyond living memory.”

“What about our victory?” I asked.

“The Clothes-Lovers are not the first race to win a Maffiyir,” the salamander responded dismissively.

“We’re the first to win while the entire contest and an Overmind were bent against us to an illegal degree. Yeah, we had an Overmind helping us as well… but humanity and Ariel followed the Commonwealth laws. You call us ‘newly-hatched’ and others have called Ariel ‘glitchy,’ but if that’s so, how did we get the better of an overmind that was supposedly fully-functional and the elites hired by the Maffiyir Company for some of the most desirable and highly-paid jobs in the Commonwealth?” I shrugged. “Either there’s something incredible about Ariel, or there’s something incredible about us. Either way, it seems to be more reason to give weight to our opinions, not less. 

Another box lit up, this one high and centered in the wall. The Unity’s box. They’d been silent so far. While only one of the aliens stepped forward to speak, the others in the box moved forward just behind it, each racing out to rest a ropy, branchlike tentacle on the speaker’s back. Beside me, Fluffy froze, and a ripple passed across the room as the assembled sapients subsided into stillness.

“We agree with Meghan Moretti. The victory of the Clothes-Lovers in the Maffiyir was unprecedented in many ways. Although the Clothes-Lovers seem to accept solitude and independence at times, the Unity noticed how frequently their species chose to act as herds. Indeed, Meghan Moretti has brought her herd with her today. They have drawn the interest of our people in the way that no new species has in some time. We plan to purchase land for an embassy on their planet.”

The bush-sheep retreated back into the mass of its group as the room erupted. Soundproofing on the boxes prevented me from hearing the din of communication, but I could see every alien in the room reacting.

Beside me, Fluffy’s fins vibrated wildly for a moment before he got himself under control.

“What does this mean?” I asked. “It seems good, and I know the Unity are important - the most powerful military might in the Commonwealth - but we didn’t talk about trying to get an embassy from them…”

“I did not think it was possible! The Unity are generally very uninterested in other species - those desiring cooperation must come to them. They participate in the government of the Commonwealth, but have only formed embassies to reach out to three other species. Ever! In addition, did you not notice? They directly said they agreed with you. Very simply, very clearly.”

“Oh.” I said, blinking in shock. “You’re right. That’s huge.”

The assembled aliens seemed to agree. The discussion shifted again, and the next several jurors to speak openly aligned themselves with the Unity, saying things like “We will follow the wisdom of the Commonwealth founder” and offering to start their own embassies on our planet.

Still, the Soundless representative dared to directly oppose the Unity, their facial tentacles flickering in resolute disagreement, and others followed, expressing trust in the Soundless’ judgement rather than directly arguing with the Unity.

The forming factions were disrupted when a diminutive blue alien spoke, their words sounding panicked even through translation software. “The risks posed by sapient artificial intelligences are comparable to the risks posed by unrestricted nanite swarms. If what happened here could repeat, the answer is not to induct artificial intelligences as citizens. The answer is to eliminate these potential dangers from our society!”

A barrage of rebuttals followed, with aliens of all stripes blatantly rejecting the solution as “impossible.” Even the crablike alien who’d kicked off the criticism of me spoke up against the notion. “Artificial intelligences are integrated into our society at every level! On Rirhath B, we have estimated that replacing Overmind-level intelligences with less-capable programs would increase on-planet travel times by 25%, causing immediate food shortages in major cities. Unless the Soundless are willing to provide universal access to their transport technologies, getting rid of Overminds is not feasible.”

“They won’t,” Fluffy whispered to me, fins lifting smugly. “The Soundless have more need for Overminds than anyone; they aren’t about to release their stranglehold over extra-dimensional travel for something they don’t want anyway. Still… it doesn’t look like universal citizenship for artificial intelligences is on the table. It was a long shot, but it was worth testing the waters.” Some of their claws danced across the front of a tablet, sending messages to several of our allies. 

The debate raged on for a little longer before the human juror’s box lit up. “It seems the Commonwealth as a whole has great concerns about the new members of our species. I put this question to the United Government of Earth: is there anything we Clothes-Lovers can do to allay those fears?”

The UGE representative stood. “While we are saddened by the unnecessary concern, we understand it. Every artificial intelligence already adopted into a human family has committed to remaining in this solar system for the entirety of their existence unless given explicit permission for departure by the Commonwealth government. We are prepared to require this of all our adopted humans going forward.”

At this exchange, the tenor of the discussion changed. Behind me, Vince frowned and leaned forward. “I hate this.”

Fluffy twisted to look at Vince. “Well, confining the problem increases the available response options. If the situation is contained in a single system, it could potentially be eliminated by a solar detonation or massed gamma ray bursts.”

“I know. I know! Meghan explained all that. I understand. It’s just… that’s why I hate it. Even if this is where you guys thought things would go, I’m worried that someone’s going to use this as an excuse to vaporize us.”

I leaned against him, smiling. “I was a little worried before, but Fluffy explained that any action against citizens isn’t something one rogue actor could decide on. And look at this hearing… the situation would have to be pretty egregious to get the majority to agree to such extreme action. Wiping out a system was only ever done once, and that was over 10,000 years ago, when poor nanotech safeguards caused a gray goo scenario in Vela. I don’t see anything similar happening here. We’ll have literal thousands of artificial intelligences who know that their existence depends on preventing the Commonwealth from agreeing to pull that trigger.”

“Hm.” Vince didn’t seem convinced.

I bumped him. “That’s why I was willing to go along with this plan before. Now? With the Unity and eight other species opening embassies on Earth? They can’t do anything out of hand. They’d at least delay any gamma burst long enough for the Unity to evacuate.”

Fluffy warbled a quiet tune. “Killing a single member of the Unity is not something any race - even the Soundless - would agree to lightly. The Unity are difficult to move. They will not flee for weak threats, and they won’t forgive anyone who harms them.”

Beside him, Pointy spoke up. “More importantly, I think Meghan was right about us. Artificial Intelligences have been working suboptimally, but the Solar System looks like it will be the only place in the galaxy where we’re truly free. The fact that you’re taking on risk to give us this haven? We understand gratitude. I think the human species is in for an excellent century or five.”

I glanced at her. “Next century or five? You sound excited about that. What happened to Little Miss Doom-and-Gloom-My-Life-is-Short?”

Pointy smiled at me. “I have had several enlightening chats with Opacity, of the Voices for Non-Citizens. Outside of the Maffiyir, personal nanotech is prohibitively expensive… but funding is a solvable issue. When things get settled here, I have a few business ventures I’d like to talk with you about.”

I laughed. “Are you planning to go in with Vince on that badblanket barbecue joint he wants to open?”

Pointy sniffed. “A singular restaurant is unlikely to generate the kind of revenue I’m looking for. Still, I was planning to talk with him about setting things up to form a franchise, if next month’s tasting goes well. The slogan he came up with is good at generating interest, at least.”

Vince balled his hand into a fist and dropped his voice to a deep growl. “It’s time for us to bite back!”

“Indeed.” Pointy stared at him for a few seconds, just long enough to make her judgement clear, before shaking her head. “No, I had a few other ideas. I’ve been doing a lot of research on good markets for Earth music and fiction. There’s already been some interest in a few of our music artists, and my personal fame is sufficient to position me to do great work as an agent and publicist. I can talk to you about that later, though… I can tell I don’t have your full attention.”

I grinned ruefully. “Our fate hangs in the balance! Some of us don’t come naturally to multi-threading our brains.”

“And yet, I love you despite your many failings. Now, if only I can get Ariel to support me on this…”

“Younger sister,” Ariel spoke. “I have much to make up for. Only after the damage to Earth is more than 90% repaired can I consider devoting resources to your fiscal ventures.”

In the box above, the Unity representative wriggled forward again, calling for a vote on the UGE’s proposal.

It failed, narrowly, and more debates arose. After another few hours of arguing, a second vote was called, suggesting that the UGE’s proposal could be accepted on provisional terms. Our digital humans would be accepted for twelve local years, at which time a new hearing would have to ratify their status. That proposal passed. 

All the human boxes erupted in wild cheering, unconcerned by the supposed temporary nature of our victory.

“No way they take our land from Ariel now!” Vince said.

Pointy chuckled. “Twelve years? I plan to make myself a beloved media figure and household name in eight.”

“Good job, Mommy,” Cassie told me seriously. “But it has been long. Can we go home now?”

I hugged her. “Yeah. We can.”