"I'm sorry," Norma said again.
Dr. Haenlingen's shoulders moved, up and down. It might have been a sigh. "Of course you are," she said in a gentler voice. "I'm sorry, too. It's just that matters aren't getting any better—and one false move could crack us wide open."
"I know," Norma said. "You'd think people would understand—"
"People," Dr. Haenlingen said, "understand very little. That's what we're here for, Norma: to make them understand a little more. To make them understand, in fact, what we want them to understand."
"The truth," Norma said.
"Of course," Dr. Haenlingen said, almost absently. "The truth."
This time there was a longer pause.
"Shall we get on with it, then?" Dr. Haenlingen said.
"I'm ready," Norma said. "'Complete and continuing silence.'"
Dr. Haenlingen paused. "What?... Oh. It should be perfectly obvious that the average Confederation citizen, regardless of his training or information, would not understand the project under development here no matter how carefully it was explained to him. The very concepts of freedom, justice, equality under the law, which form the cornerstone of Confederation law and, more importantly, Confederation societal patterns, will prevent him from judging with any real degree of objectivity our actions on Fruyling's World, or our motives."