[ It takes a stretch of the imagination even for one as brazenly optimistic as Misato to picture this group of half-willing and unwilling people as a cohesive group of professional envoys. And this is only step one.

She raises her hand, again, and keeps it up as she speaks. ]

We need a fourth: some tag-along party outside of the actual envoy, like an ombuds or some kind of jury made of civilians or children of powerful Carbauschians tagging along for the ride. All of the above. It's for those who don't much care about the mission, so they can have their freedom without damaging the envoy's reputation directly -- and, it might help us later on, if we're ever found playing the factions against one another, we can say it was never our official stance.