"Hey, Jeannine, I think I'm finally starting to understand these lectures. I understood most of what Dr. Lam was explaining today."

"Did you now? Perhaps I should test you." I chuckle, while exiting the lecture hall. There's enough noise that my voice is drowned out by the crowd.

"Go for it." He says with the utmost confidence. "I've been studying hard."

He's so sure of himself. I like it! While I could easily ask a question that would stump him, I don't have the heart to do that. Instead, I come up with a question that is not too difficult nor too easy.

"Okay then, try this. What is meant by 'comparative governance'?"

Nick takes little time to think. "It means to look at how other governments work and compare them to yours. It focuses on structures and systems."

"Wow, I'm impressed!" My reaction is one of genuine surprise, without exaggeration. "I didn't think you'd get that."

"What can I say? I'm smarter than I look. Never underestimate me."

"I will remember not to." I laugh as I make my way down the hallway. 

Having finished my final class of the day, I head for the Lilli studies club. Myra texted me earlier, asking me to swing by for a club meeting. I happily agreed, of course. I have to play my part now that I am a full-fledged group member. I've made the President wait a week for my response to his offer, but I know he will be pleased when I accept. 

I arrive at the room a few minutes later, but cannot enter due to the electronic lock. I knock on the door, peering through the frosted glass. I can tell that the lights are on, but am unsure if anyone is inside. I don't hear any noise. Then again, I suppose the other members aren't a very rowdy bunch to begin with. I step back and wait for someone to open up for me. Before long, I hear a 'click' and the door opens slightly, revealing Myra. She squeezes out from behind it, blocking my view of the inside. 

"Hey, Jeannine. Glad you could make it!" She says, stepping outside. She holds the door open with her foot to prevent the lock from reengaging. "This is going to sound super lame, but I'm going to need any electronics you've got. Please let me see your bag too."

"Umm, okay... First, may I ask why?"

"It's a security thing." She says, collecting my phone and rummaging through my backpack. "The President has a strict 'no recording' policy while meetings are in session. Hence, this lame search. Sorry."

Myra kneels and proceeds to pat me down. I flinch upon suddenly being touched without warning.

"I-I see! Rules are rules."

These precautions make me feel like I'm back at the embassy. I find them a tad excessive. Once she finishes, I try to take a step forward, but she stops me again. "Hold on. I'll need that earpiece too."

I suddenly tense up. I am willing to part with my phone and laptop, but not my earpiece. That is my link to Nick. Without it, we cannot communicate. Muting it is one thing, but this is another entirely. I am sure he feels the same way.

"I don't think I-"

"It's okay!" Nick interrupts me. "Give it to her. It'll be fine. I'm not going anywhere."

Hesistantly, I reach for it and turn it off. I place it in Myra's waiting hand. "Never mind. Take it, but be careful with it. It was...expensive."

"You don't say?" Myra raises it to her eye to inspect it. "Huh. I've never seen one like this. Where did you get it?"

"Myra!" The President calls to her from inside. "Get Jeannine in here already!"

"S-Sorry, Prez!" She yells back. She quickly forgets about the earpiece and beckons me inside. 

The first thing I notice upon entering the room is the energy. All of the group members are here and they all seem to be in a very good mood. The lot of them are gathered around the lab bench with the Remnant settlement, engrossed in some activity. Myra and I walk over and join them. I choose to stand beside Luca and Myra does the same on the opposite side. 

"Now that everyone is here, we can begin." The President grabs the plastic container housing the Remnants, pulling it closer to him. He then hands Myra and I a small, glass container and a blank notecard, each. He looks at Myra, then to me. "You two can help us divide our tiny friends into groups. The rest of you, please watch and learn."

I look at the items curiously as he removes the lid of their container. Before I can ask why they need to be separated, he proceeds to flip the container on its side, sending both the Remnants and the broken chunks of their settlement out onto the countertop. 

"Hey! Be careful!" I snap at him, watching the scared, little people panic. "That was far too rough..."

"Relax, they're tougher than they look! You said so yourself last week." Myra reassures me.

"I was referring to their resilience. Mental fortitude and spirit, certainly not their physical durability..." I look to the other group members for support, but none of them seem all that bothered. I lean in, holding my breath as I get close enough to make out the finer details. I can see that they are unharmed for the most part. I move away before I speak again, keeping my voice soft. "Okay. They seem fine."

"Come on, did you seriously think I'd break them? You don't find a Remnant settlement every day, let alone one this big. Now, please group them up. Show the others how experienced people handle Lillis. I'd like for there to be a fifty-twenty split, give or take a few."

I watch as Myra use her notecard to herd the Lillis toward the container. In response, the tiny specks flee in the opposite direction. No matter how fast they run, there is simply no escaping her notecard. Their choices are simple: run into the container or be ran over. I'm both confused and shocked by how we are treating these poor people. 

"Hold on. Please, hold on a second." I do my best to stop this before she call accidentally bulldoze anyone. "I don't understand. Why don't we place your containers down and simply ask them to gather inside of them? They are certainly capable of dividing themselves up. This feels unnecessary, not to mention dangerous!"

"As if they'd cooperate with us." John laughs. "They're terrified of us."

"Yeah. Just look at them! They're already trying to escape." Trevor gestures toward the table. Indeed, the crowd of people is dispersing. They are fleeing in all directions, though, they are not getting far.

"They shouldn't be this afraid. I know Remnants are generally wary of Brobs, but a reaction like this is extreme. Haven't we been treating them kindly?"

"Myra." The President shoots her a frustrated look. "Did you forget to explain the plan to Jeannine?"

"Umm, about that..." She mouths an apology. 

"No wonder she's so lost." The President sighs, shaking his head disapprovingly. He then turns his attention to me. "We're splitting them up so that we can make the best use of them. There are about seventy, I think. Fifty will go to the administration and we'll keep the remaining twenty."

"I thought there were only fifty Lillis in the settlement?"

"That's the 'official' story. We told the administration the same thing when they found us digging around that tree." He winks at me. "That way, we can keep some for ourselves. Not that anyone is actually going to count. Actually, Myra, do you think we could get away with thirty?"

"That might be pushing it." She shakes her head. "Five more, at most."

"I thought we wanted to help these poor people." I tell them, my tone serious.

"We do!" Myra assures me. "We're literally going to be helping fifty Lillis. That's huge!"

"And the other twenty? What about them?"

"Whatever we want." The President responds for her. "We'll put them to work, play with them, or ultimately sell them. 

That's usually how it goes. We do a majority vote on what we want to do with the group, and if we're unable to agree, we split them up amongst ourselves. That is why we're doing this. John and Myra want to play with them, while Trevor and Lani want to sell them. As President, I'm not allowed to vote. Now that you're here, you can tip the scales. What do you say? Should we keep them or sell them?"

I look at him in disgust. I look to the rest of the members, hoping someone will object, but they don't. I cannot believe what I'm hearing. I don't even grace his question with an answer. "When I came by the other day and spoke to the both of you about treating Lillis equally, was that all an act?"

"No. Well, not entirely. This club exists to study Lillis. We can't do that without having a few." Myra explains. "We use our funding to buy them, so we get, like, a few dozen a month. We've never gotten our hands on so many at once, not to mention for free. It's a total gamechanger!"

"The ultimate goal is learn something, preferably while having fun." The President cuts in. "Sadly, they don't last long."

"You should have seen what Myra put them through last month." Lani rolls her eyes. "Talk about sadistic."

I look to Myra for an explanation. She holds my gaze, trying to contain her enthusiasm as she explains.

"I put five tinies on one end of the lab bench and told them to make it as far as the could in three hours. I told them that the slowest two would be squished. And they believed it! As if I'd actually kill them. Where's the fun in that? They ran and ran until all of them just dropped dead. They managed to make it more than halfway across. It was easily fifteen kilometers on their scale. Imagine that?"

"That is terrible." I tell her. "It's like you don't even see them as people." 

"On the contrary! None of this would be worthwhile if they weren't people." Myra corrects me. "I know that each and every one of those tiny specks is a living, breathing, sentient being. They have feelings and they feel pain too."

"Then don't you feel any remorse?" I ask her, practically begging for her to feel some sympathy.

"Sometimes, but I try not to think about it." She shrugs. "What I'm trying to say is that we enjoy bossing them around because they're people. They understand us when we command them and they fear us when we threaten them. We have absolute power other their lives, like gods."

"Did you seriously just call yourself a goddess?" Trevor laughs. "Okay, miss five-foot-two."

"Like it matters." She sneers at him. "I'm still gigantic to them."

"Settle down, everyone." The President snaps at them. "We've got seventy specks running around on the table. We can chat after we've collected them."

"Speaking of which," I begin, directing my words at him, specifically. "what makes you think that I am any good at handling Lillis?"

"Because you bought a bunch last year." He tells me. "At least ten, from what I've heard."

My blood runs cold upon hearing him say that. I stare at him intensely, ignoring everyone else in the room. I study his expression, trying to figure out what he is thinking. The confident look on his face tells me he believes what he is saying. He does not appear to be bluffing. Then again, I could be wrong. I must be wrong, given that there is no way he could know that. I made sure that there were no cameras in that man's shop. There was no one else there when I went in. Despite that, the number is spot on. I decide to feign ignorance.

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I have always and will always care about Lillis. They aren't toys to me."

"Oh, really?" The President chuckles. He leans in close, getting close enough to whisper in my ear. "The man you bought them from is my uncle. You fit his description." 

Suddenly, I feel my confidence drain. I try not to look at unsettled as I feel, as Luca pulls away. His smug expression turns into one of understanding, and he puts an arm around me.

"I wasn't trying to call anyone out. There's no reason to be nervous. We're all friends here!" He hugs me tightly into him, which I find very uncomfortable. "Jeannine is just nervous because she thinks this place might be bugged. Trust me, it isn't. What is said in here, stays in here. Right, guys?"

A collective murmur of agreement is accompanied by nodding of heads.

"See? You can drop the act now. Just be yourself!" Myra encourages me.

Looking around at the others, I see nothing but friendly colleagues. To any onlooker, they are just ordinary students. No one would ever guess that they revel in sick activities in a place where they will never be caught. They think I am like them. They could not be more wrong. I try to reinterpret what they've told me, searching for some alternative meaning. It isn't that I don't understand what is happening, but rather than I don't want to believe it. I don't want to believe that I have so terribly misjudged these people. I don't want to accept the fact that they are just like everyone else.

I force a smile and do my best to appear relaxed, at least outwardly. I even sigh loudly as if greatly relieved.

"Oh my, that was getting tiring! You guys saw right through me, huh?"

"Of course we did!" Myra beams at me. "We already knew. Why else would we have invited you here? Duh."

"Terrible acting, dude." Trevor adds.

"Agreed." Lani nods.

"Prez," I tell him. "you asked me to vote on what I want to do with the specks. I think I'd like to play with them."

"Alright then! Since it's now three-to-two, we'll go with the majority." The President declares, finally moving his arm off me. "Let's round these guys back up."

"Ugh. Lame." Lani folds her arms and frowns. "We could have made a killing." 

"What sort of study are we going to do this time?" Trevor groans.

"Glad you asked!" Myra enthusiastically answers. "John and I want to make them fight to see who's the strongest. We'll put a bunch of them on top of a water bottle and have them shove the others off in a ring-out style contest!"

"It'll be awesome." John says, taking out a water bottle to show us. "Like a final battle at the apex of a mountain. Only the strongest will survive!"

Hearing them describe their plans makes me sick, but I manage to keep that to myself. I don't so much as blink, lest someone gleam my true feelings.

"I guess that means we'll have to keep them together until then?" I ask them.

"Yup. We'll do it tomorrow. Is that okay, Prez?" He asks.

"It's fine by me. It sounds like a fun time." He says, turning his attention to Myra and I. He takes their original container and sets it right again. "Ladies, will you please collect our tinies? You should guide them into your containers and then transfer them to the big one."

"I have a better idea." I tell him, taking my container and setting it on its side in the middle of the lab bench. I clear my throat and soften my voice. "Little ones, please make your way into this container. I'd rather not chase you down. Comply, and I promise no harm will come to you."

Whether it is due to the sincerity underlying my words, or simply their fear of disobeying a Brob, all seventy of the specks begin moving toward the container. It takes them some time, but they all follow my 'command'. While I hate what I am doing, I know that it is preferable to the alternative. I do not trust Myra not to hurt them. Once the last of them enters the containers, I very gently carry it into the large container. I make sure to make the ride stable, which I've become quite good at. Once they are inside, they begin to disperse throughout the larger space.

"That was..." Lani trails off.

"I've never seen them obey like that. Like, ever!" Myra looks at me as if I've performed a miracle.

"To be honest, I didn't know if it would work. I just gave it a shot."

"Ooh, we've got ourselves a Lilli-whisperer, apparently!" John teases me. 

"Now that they're back, I think we can wrap up for today." The President announces. "Be sure to be here tomorrow, people. Same time, don't be late."

Everyone gathers their things, collecting their confiscated electronics from Myra as they exit. I take back my earpiece, glad to see that it has not been damaged. I immediately turn it on as I head out. I go down the hall and turn the corner, checking that no one followed me. Only then do I speak.

"I hated that. I hated that so much, Nick..."

"I know. Those people are awful." He tells me. Hearing his voice again does wonders for me. I immediately feel less tense. "There was no other choice. I heard what that piece of shit said. You were forced into a corner."

"We need to do something. We can't let those Remnants die for their entertainment."

"Agreed. Do you have a plan?"

I pause, considering how to respond. From the moment I learned that those people were in danger, I'd been thinking of a way to save them. It won't be easy, especially after nearly outing myself as a Lilli-sympathizer. There is no way I can do this alone now. I will need his help.

"I do, but you may not like it..."