"How long is that going to take?"

"Uncertain."

"Ballpark."

"Between one and four hours."

"I can wait that long." He looks at the assembled humans. "Are your suits good for that long? I can also just make air."

"They're good. Assuming factory condition. Filters are good for - 97816 thinks at least 52 hours before they should be swapped out."

"They're brand new. And I can make more filters if it comes up. Anybody hungry or thirsty or anything? Who's - I'm never going to remember that string of numbers - who's nine-and-stuff -"

Parael points to Imrainai, who is quieter now but still mostly doubled over.

"Hi nine-and-stuff. I wish we'd met under better circumstances."

She laughs. Still seems to be having some difficulty actually producing words.

"Since we have a few hours to kill anyone want to tell me more things about - here?"

"Earth is the only known planet that has free Liars," says Imrainai, after another moment of getting herself together. "So that's cool."

"Why are you calling the species 'Liars', what a rude name."

Half-shrug. "It's what we do."

"Says who?" Is it the evil aliens, he bets it's evil aliens.

"Pretty much everyone. We do disagree on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing."

"Are the other species incapable of lying or something?" He doubts it very much, he thinks the character of the negotiation with the bugs would have differed in some way if they were constitutionally unable to bluff.

"They can't do it the way we do. But no, the Alteri are totally capable of bullshitting you. The Carthons... may or may not be able to."

"Okay..." Heck he doesn't have an immediate enough crisis to keep his mind off the mindreader four score and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal annnnnd he doesn't have the rest of this memorized...

"Do you wanna just knock me out or something?"

"I don't know if you being psychic affects your reactions to drugs but if it doesn't and if it would be okay with you and I could just wake you up to confirm occasional statements for the bugs as necessary that would be great please I'm sorry it's probably not your fault this is a me thing."

- see, this is complicated because if something happens then she won't be able to do anything, and she doesn't know if she trusts everyone else in this room to make good decisions when it counts, and if they pass in range of the psyon network at any point then it's important that she be able to negotiate with the other psyons, and - on the other hand Cam is the best shot they've had in a long time and it would be great if he were not super compromised right now.

"Wake me up if anything interesting happens?"

"Is 'interesting enough I think I can stop thinking about you listening' a good threshold -"

"I think the things I'm thinking of are not ambiguous."

"Okay. Thanks so much I apologize for the inconvenience," and she's out. He makes his computer. "I have a heartbeat monitor on her, no funny business," he adds to the walls.