"You see?"
Svan clicked off the listening-machine and turned around. The five others in the room looked apprehensive. "You see?" Svan repeated. "From their own mouths you have heard it. The Council was right."
The younger of the two women sighed. She might have been beautiful, in spite of her dead-white skin, if there had been a scrap of hair on her head. "Svan, I'm afraid," she said. "Who are we to decide if this is a good thing? Our parents came from Earth. Perhaps there will be trouble at first, if colonists come, but we are of the same blood."
Svan laughed harshly. "They don't think so. You heard them. We are not human any more. The officer said it."
The other woman spoke unexpectedly. "The Council was right," she agreed. "Svan, what must we do?"
Svan raised his hand, thoughtfully. "One moment. Ingra, do you still object?"
The younger woman shrank back before the glare in his eyes. She looked around at the others, found them reluctant and uneasy, but visibly convinced by Svan.
"No," she said slowly. "I do not object."
"And the rest of us? Does any of us object?"
Svan eyed them, each in turn. There was a slow but unanimous gesture of assent.