“So the structure of the Confederation actually contradicts its claims to legitimacy: it does not provide equal and full representation.”
“With respect, Speaker-to-Nestless, that is not what the Confederation claims. You cited the key passage yourself just minutes ago: the Confederation is-” he checked the paper that Visser had pushed into his hand-“the means whereby the ‘will of humankind is solicited, represented, and made manifest.’ There is no promise made regarding precisely equal representation.”
“Your terms are misleading.”
“Our terms are precise in what they claim and in what they do not.” Visser made a motion to stand alongside Caine: he nodded.
She leaned inward. “Honored delegates, pardon my intrusion. I am Ambassador Visser. As one of those who helped craft our Confederation, allow me to assure you that the language was not intended to be misleading. We could not claim equal representation at the global level because we cannot ensure it at the national level. Many nations have different limitations upon voting: age, sex, cognitive competency, group affiliation. If the political voice of each state is therefore created by excluding and including different segments of their society, how could we claim that the Confederation offered uniformly equal representation? Our objective was to produce the most representative, and yet workable, government that we could, with minimal intrusions upon each nation’s sovereignty. I thank you.”
Alnduul cycled his lids once, slowly. “Thank you, Ambassador Visser.” They waited for a similarly polite response from the Arat Kur. After a second, Elena-eyes no longer rounded but oddly angular-shook her head: “Don’t wait; they’re not going to acknowledge her.”
When the Arat Kur resumed, the simulated voice was slower, more cautious. “We are curious: was there a world organization before your current Confederation?”
“Yes.”
“And what became of it?”
Caine looked around the gallery; there were frowns on the faces of Visser, Downing, Durniak, and Elena. They see where this could go. Visser shook a hand at Thandla: she waited until he had cut the connection. “I think we must decline to answer.”
Elena spoke before Caine could open his mouth. “Madame Ambassador, I do not think that is wise. They are clearly seeking to indict our credibility and integrity.”
“So we must not allow them to. We must convince them that we are worthy of their vote.”
“With respect, Ms. Visser, their vote no longer matters.”
“What?”
Caine nodded. “The Arat Kur have already decided against us. So our strategy must focus on how our actions make us look to the other member states.”
Visser narrowed her eyes, nodded, gestured toward Thandla.
Caine resumed. “Our apologies for the brief silence. The organization which preceded the World Confederation was called the United Nations. We are currently in the process of shifting most of its responsibilities and activities to the Confederation.”
“So the United Nations elected to willingly transfer its authority to the World Confederation?”
Damn. The Arat Kur had smelled the blood of human political discord and were on the scent-but how? Their questions were not just precise and penetrating-they were too precise, too penetrating, almost as if-
Visser had once again instructed Thandla to cut the connection. “This is over. We should never have agreed to respond to this line of questioning.”
Caine looked at where the Arat Kur’s blinking yellow quatrefoil had been. “No-we’re fine.”
“How can you say that? If we continue to answer their questions, they will soon be claiming that the United Nations was illegally sidestepped. They will thus decide that the World Confederation is illegitimate, and that Earth is too politically factious to be a member state.”
Caine shook his head. “No: the Arat Kur are already well past that point.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that we’ve been wrong about the Arat Kur. Their questions aren’t an attempt to acquire knowledge about us, or even to discover flaws or contradictions in our dossier.”
“Then why are they asking these questions?”
“Because they already know the answers and hope that when pressed, we’ll lie. Somehow, the Arat Kur already know about the uproar over how the Confederation usurped the power and prerogatives of the UN.”
“How could they know?”
Downing had moved toward the center of the gallery. “It’s impossible to know how they got the information. But we do know that it’s illegal for them to have it. And that’s a weapon we can use against them. We can expose them in front of the whole-”
“No.” Visser’s voice was unusually calm. Arms folded tightly, she was completely still, eyes closed.
“With all due respect, Ambassador, you said it yourself: we have to stop this line of questioning. I put it to you that this is the only way to really put an end to it. If we-”
“No. I am no longer concerned with ending this line of questioning.” She opened her eyes. “The Arat Kur have laid a deeper trap.”
Chapter Forty-Three
ODYSSEUS
Downing blinked. “A deeper trap?”
Visser nodded. “They know we will realize that their questions arise from illegally acquired knowledge.”
“And that is precisely why we must expose them.”
“Mr. Downing, they want us to expose them.”
Durniak forgot her composure and her English in the same instant: “Shto?”
Visser shrugged. “It is the only reasonable conclusion. They knew we would figure this out. And they must logically presume that we will then expose their violations. But if they foresee this course of events, then it follows that they must welcome it.”
“But why? What could they achieve?”
Elena’s response to Durniak was slow but certain. “Discord.”
Visser was nodding again. “Ja. Discord. This Accord is not so stable, I think.”
Caine found himself nodding, too. “During our first contact, Alnduul mentioned the possibility of ‘specious’ actions by other member states. And then there was his reaction to our question about what would happen if we declined membership: his gills snapped shut with a sound like a popgun going off.”
Downing chimed in. “And then there’s the anxiety over us blundering into someone else’s ‘pathway of expansion.’ That should merely be awkward, not a crisis.”
Visser furnished the deductive capstone. “If the Accord was politically coherent, then this entire candidacy process would simply have been a pro forma exercise. No: the Arat Kur’s line of questioning is an attempt to use us to widen the rifts already present in the organization.”
“And to put our candidacy in the trashcan.” Elena was looking directly at Caine as she said it.
Caine forced himself not to be distracted by her eyes and pressed on. “What we really need are answers about why the Arat Kur are trying to spoil the party.”
Lemuel rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure-but what the hell do we do about the Arat Kur? If we let them keep asking questions, they uncover Earth’s dirty laundry for everyone else to see. And if we tell them we’re on to them, they call us liars and everyone goes home angry. Or, we can simply lie about the UN. Then they’ll expose our lies, we’ll expose theirs-and we all go to hell together, anyway. So with choices like those-hey, Riordan; what’re you doing?”
Caine had moved to the very end of the gallery, the tip of the teardrop’s sharp tail. He touched the canopy. “Dr. Thandla, the Dornaani gave us the opacity for privacy. Do we have an override?”
“Er…yes, we do.”
“Please restore the transparency.”
“Wha-?” Visser gasped. Wasserman brayed a counterorder, but it was too late: the opalescent curve above them faded away.