Fiorella de Marco waved her hand dismissively and shook her head in mild amusement.
“Fear not, Don Harabero. Signor Chenzo’s baseless conjectures regarding my loyalty to Malta are precisely that - groundless speculation. After all, in this very room, it was not I who sided with those uninvited Nomad intruders in orbit over planet Malta. It was not I who justified their presence, and it certainly was not I who urged our brethren to lay down their arms in the face of aggressors who, without so much as a second thought, laid claim to our home system, our planet - and, indirectly, to our very selves.”
She paused for a moment, altering both the tone of her voice and the pace of her speech.
“The Nomads infiltrate our society in precisely the same way they do the rest of humanity in Sirius. It makes no difference whether they abduct our people or employ ‘volunteers’; in either case, the outcome is the same. There is someone masquerading as an Outcast, wielding influence over our society despite belonging to the Nomad collective mind, merely feigning loyalty to us at every turn.”
“Should you harbor doubts about the Nomads’ intentions toward us, Don Harabero, simply revisit what was stated - by them or their thralls - while in orbit over planet Malta. Their consciousness is collective, so what transpired there could not have happened without the consent of the whole.”
