Vell answered the Association in writing, at length, and he had Luna file it as a public document rather than a private response. A refusal delivered privately gets described afterward by the institution that received it.
The letter did three separate things across its eleven paragraphs of careful clerical language. It declined the assessment as written, named the conscious human core as the reason, then offered an alternative nobody at the Association had asked for.
"They will read the first two paragraphs and stop," Yenna said.
"They will read the third page," Vell answered, "since the third page saves them a facility budget, and an institution reads anything that saves it money."
The alternative Vell offered was a diagnostic method rather than any kind of engagement. He had built it across four days out of the thirty-eight minutes on the arena floor, which taught him what no controlled test would have.
