Two hours before the meeting began, while Strange was still happily scavenging equipment across the universe, Nick entered Schiller's office with a grave expression.
"What is it?" Schiller stopped typing and asked.
Nick let out a heavy sigh, dropped into a chair, and sighed again without saying a word.
"If you have something to say, say it. I'm busy."
"At a time like this, you're still busy with other things? The meeting starts in two hours. If we still can't decide today, we might as well hand the Speaker's seat over to someone else."
"What are you so anxious about?" Schiller kept looking at the computer screen. "Don't we still have two hours?"
"You make it sound easy. Two hours—where am I supposed to find some sucker willing to be Speaker? I haven't been turned away this many times in my entire life as I have this past month!" Nick was clearly full of resentment.
Schiller finally stopped what he was doing and turned around. "You asked the Mutants too? They don't want it either?"
"Of course I did. Professor X had a pretty good attitude, but even after drinking a bellyful of British black tea, I still couldn't persuade him. Magneto wouldn't even see me. Sigh."
"If nobody wants the job, then don't make anyone do it."
"Don't talk nonsense." Nick glared at him. "That's the Speaker of the Interstellar Council! Even if it's a difficult job, it has to be a human. We absolutely can't let the aliens have it again. Besides, this might be the greatest improvement in humanity's interstellar standing in a century. Someone has to take it!"
"You said it yourself—the Speaker's job is hard." Schiller shook his head. "They have to balance more than humans and aliens. They have to balance aliens against aliens,