Rain pounded against the tall windows of the meeting chamber, and many of the delegates were still dripping after making their way here. They all sat around a circular metal table that ran along the circumference of the room. It was large enough to seat all one hundred delegates of the Provisional Council, but Veronica guessed that a little over half of them were present for this emergency session. They were likely away from the Atrium, attending duties. Or at least that was what the ones who cared enough to give an excuse would say.

“You had no right to inventory those supply caches!” Representative Wilson’s fat nose looked like an apple, ready to be picked. Or smashed.

Veronica raised an eyebrow. “Then who does, Edgar? International boundaries aren’t exactly defined at the moment. And unless something has changed, we are all guests here. Our hosts saw the reasoning in my request, so why can’t you?”.

Wilson slapped the metallic table with an ear-splitting bang. Several delegates flinched, others just shook their heads, but nonetheless, all eyes were now on them. Veronica couldn’t tell if Wilson was just being petulant or if he really did have some hidden strategy under the cloak of a tantrum. It was hard to tell with a Washington politician, even one as obscure as Edgar Wilson.

“They’re not even the same species as us! What right do they have to chime in on our business? Don’t hide behind their metal skirts just because you got your hand caught in the cookie jar.”

He had a point. The Penitent had no right to interfere in human affairs by their own admission. And yet, humanity owed its continued existence to the very fact that they had interfered already. Just as they had interfered with the other displaced species that now called this world home, perhaps it all really was just part of their oath or philosophy or whatever word they chose for it. But all the same, what remained of her species, her people, was entirely at their mercy.

And Veronica despised one-sided relationships.

Finally, the old general stirred. “Edgar, what’s done is done. I see no issue in simply assessing our combined supply stockpiles. For Christ’s sake, you saw the reports. It was for raw materials and medical equipment, not guns and ammo.”

Veronica hadn’t entirely been sure he’d been awake. His wrinkly eyes had been pinched shut for most of the session. Not that she could blame him, given that the emergency session had been called before the sun had even thought about coming up. Even still, he had shown up on time and in his crisp, blue uniform, still in mint condition despite his years of retirement even before the Exodus.

“Give me some credit, sir. If I had needed to know about your weapons stockpiles, I would’ve made at least some effort to hide it.” She appreciated the General’s assistance, but now was not the time to lie. Unfortunately, Wilson didn’t seem to appreciate her transparency.

“You aren’t in Lima anymore, Mrs. Quispe. And this isn’t the confederation or alliance you seem to think it is. The primary aim of this provisional council is just to make sure that we don’t end up killing each other before those goddamn things do. How you feed your people is your own problem, not mine.” Wilson shoved his oily glasses up his nose and back against his fat head, bending the rims as if they were about to either snap or pop off.

“It’s Miss. Quispe, senator.” She had nearly drawn blood from biting her cheek to keep from interrupting him. “And again, if you can tell me where we’re defining our international boundaries, I’ll be happy to remember them so that I don’t step on any toes in the future. But given that our populations are scattered and mixed in with all of the other refugees, I’d imagine you’d have better luck wrangling cats.”

There wasn’t much Wilson could say to deny that. One only had to go out into the streets to see a dozen different species speaking just as many languages.

She continued, “The truth is, Edgar, that you are right. This isn’t Peru. This isn’t even Earth. And that’s why it’s all the more important that we form a unified front, and we don’t have the time to sit around debating about it.”

 Wilson exhaled and looked up at the ceiling. “You just don’t take no for an answer, do you? “

“Soon, we won’t have the option. Not if what Ithlin has told me is true.”

The fatigue disappeared from the General’s face as if he had been doused with ice water. “What did she say?”.

See, boys, sharing goes both ways.

“Her contacts among the Pyreborn have told her that the Idex have ceased their offensives in the galactic south. It seems that they’ve pulled back to fortify their lines.”

Veronica noticed Wilson twitch ever so slightly at the mention of their name, but to his credit, he knew they couldn’t afford to brush anything concerning the Idex aside. “Why does this concern her?”

“The consensus among the Pyreborn is that there are two major hierarchies within the Idex. One focuses on territorial expansion and conquest while the other is concerned with internal development and economics.” That was a gross simplification of what Ithlin had explained, but she didn’t need to bore to bore them with the minutia. “And the last time they made such a sudden halt was three and a half years ago.”

The General grimaced in understanding. “They’re redirecting their war effort.”

If one were to look at a two-dimensional map of the Milky Way, Earth’s location would be roughly in the middle of the western portion, the primary focus of the Idex’s last round of crusades. Akkaven would be found in the northwest.

“That’s what she believes, yes. The only reason that Akkaven has remained hidden for so long is simply because the Idex haven’t been looking in its direction. Neither she, the Pyreborn, nor any of the other galactic powers have an inkling as to where they’re shifting their focus, but I’d rather not gamble on the chance that they attack somewhere else.” She instinctively moved to flick her hair back but then remembered that she had put it into a bun.

Wilson rubbed his eyes. “We don’t have the infrastructure or organization to mobilize, Veronica. Even if it was just to run somewhere else, we would just end up back-”

“Who said anything about running?” She stood and leaned against the cold, steel surface of the table.

Wilson laughed mirthlessly. “Running and hiding are about our only options. At least right now, the Pyreborn and the others in the Compact are drawing their attention. If the bastards even know that we survived, I doubt they would even care.”

The General shook his head. “Never assume the enemy will not come, but rather rely on one’s readiness to meet him.”

Veronica smirked. “Who are you quoting?”

“Sun Tzu. And it applies now just as much as it did in his time. We didn’t even know there was an enemy out there the first time around. Now we do. We have no right to just sit and do nothing.”

“Actually, we did.” Veronica could feel every eye in the room fall onto her.

“What?” The General gripped the table as if he was about to tear a chunk out of it.

“Yes, if Ithlin can be trusted, and I believe we can. She confided with me that the Penitent had revealed themselves to a few within the governments of the major powers about a year before the attack on Earth. That was the only reason that the evacuation was as successful as it was.” The council erupted into chaos.

“Why didn’t they tell all of us? We could’ve saved more!”

“They wanted to take us here! This is all the Penitent’s doing!”

Veronica felt a pang of regret for breaking it this way, but this outcome was likely unavoidable. Could none of them really have known, or at least suspected? Ithlin revealed little about the Penitent’s warning, but surely the secret couldn’t have been that well-kept. And even if it had been, had none of those who had been told made it off Earth? Most of the assault had been carried out from orbit. She knew that the major world capitals had been heavily targeted at the onset of the Idex’s invasion, with even some ground forces getting involved, but information as to what exactly occurred was hard to come by these days. There simply weren’t enough eyewitnesses.

“ENOUGH!” the General’s gravelly voice reverberated throughout the chamber. “Veronica, what else did she tell you?”

“She said that when they warned the powers that be, they were…skeptical. They had the same worries as all of you that the Penitent were trying to play an angle, although they didn’t come outright and say it. But-”

The German delegate, a portly old woman, spat back. “How do we know they still aren’t? We talk of these Idex, but have any of us actually seen them? All I saw that day, what my family saw, was the sky set afire and a strange ship to take us away. The only aliens I saw that day are the ones that brought us here!”

That was all Veronica had seen, too. Whenever she heard the name “Idex,” the image that came into her head was the metallic faceplate of Ithlin. It was why she always felt a faint spark of rage whenever she saw one of the Penitent, and when that dissipated, the weight of grief.

Veronica shoved her doubts deep down; now was not the time for them. “But what do they have to gain from sheltering us here? They’ve given us food, medical care, and housing without asking much from us other than to not kill each other or our neighbors.”

Wilson broke his long silence. “So, you’re saying that we owe them a debt, then? Maybe that’s their angle, to get us to work off that debt over the generations it’ll take us to recover.”

She needed to steer them away from that theory. Not if she was going to have any hope of convincing them to accept Ithlin’s offer. “I’m saying that we’re reliant on them. And whether or not they want us to be, I believe we need to begin taking the necessary steps to change that.”

She tapped the packet of paper in front of her. “Those leaders they did tell didn’t just plan the evacuations ahead of time. They made sure to pack before the trip, too.”

Wilson rested his elbows on the table. His face had faded from fire engine red back to its usual color. “So that’s why you made the inventory request. What did you find?”

She smiled. “Read it for yourself.”

She walked the packet over to him and watched as he picked through it like a kid with a toy catalog.

“How…how is this possible? How were they able to get this much steel, copper… all of it, off-world?”

“Apparently, they believed the Penitent enough to begin sending it here in small batches over the course of that year. But what’s more important is what we can do with it now. We have the building blocks to build something new here. Yes, you were right when you said I wanted a confederation between all of us.” She waved her hand to the delegates encircling her. “We have the material, we have the numbers, we just need the organization. I propose that we immediately begin restructuring the Provisional Council into a new union.”

She waited to hear the outpouring of resistance, but it didn’t come.

Finally, Wilson sighed. “I’ve never been a fan of globalism, Veronica, but I can’t deny that the current system hasn’t exactly accomplished much. Your argument has some meat to it.”

She could feel her heart pound in anticipation. She could finally begin to make some real progress here for the betterment of humanity and herself.

“But, at the same time, this is…a lot to ask for. We can’t jump into this without thinking it over, especially when these resources are distributed amongst each of us. I don’t have the right to sign away American materials on just a whim.”

No, you idiots, there’s no time to debate this.

Her eye twitched. “I’m not suggesting that you just give everything away. But we do need to do something now. Debating for a month could be gambling with time that we may not have.”

 “Veronica, a third of the council isn’t even present. We can’t do anything until everyone’s had their say," the General interjected.

Then, that’s their fault for not showing up to an emergency session.

She bit her lip. “Fine. Wait then.”

Once the date and time of the next meeting was decided, they adjourned. By that time, the sun was peaking from behind the central spire of the Atrium. Veronica tried to speak as little as possible. She had come very close to saying something that would jeopardize everything. She stormed out of the building and onto the terrace towards her apartment. Her black heels clicked against the old stone road. Each impact drove her further up the wall. She was glad that she hadn’t mentioned Ithlin’s offer. Clearly, if these fools were this skittish about working with each other, then they certainly wouldn’t be able to stomach what was to come.