"They get to ask you questions. I presume they would ask what kind of arrest you conceived yourself to be making at the time, why you didn't inform them they were under arrest, how this would have played out up to and after their deaths if they had not been extracted..."

"Their deaths?"

"Elves experience confinement as torturous and die of stress inside a day or so. That's why the law is that we prosecute anywhere in the universe for rape, murder, torture, and kidnapping - because to a substantial body of our citizens, those are all the same degree of crime."

"I see."

"So you can anticipate they will ask you how this arrest would have played out without a rescue."

"What does the truth effect do?"

"It makes it apparent to listeners when a false claim is made. It doesn't do anything about misleading or irrelevant claims, but questioners are very experienced at operating within it and at framing questions appropriately."

"It would have been startling and embarrassing and I probably would have assumed the greys had injured them somehow."

"They used to try to explain it to people, but turns out no one believes them. What was the plan if they didn't die and didn't get rescued?"

"I was working on convincing them to talk to me."

"What kind of arrest are you claiming this was, again?"

"This is the first time you've asked that. Security."

"Presuming they didn't talk to you -?"

"I hadn't decided what to do if they couldn't be persuaded."

"They will certainly ask what the possibilities were."

"I might have offered them to another senator."

"An exhaustive list, please."

"I don't have one."

"If we ask Calado to comment on whether the arrest was lawful and in accordance with local procedure, will we get an answer supportive of our case -"

"Depends on who you ask."

"Who should I ask?"

She names some other blues.

"I'll write them."

"What are you going to say?"

"That I'm representing you in a legal case which may turn on the question of whether the events describes occurred in the context of a lawful arrest, and that I'm soliciting comment from them as a local expert on the Calador legal system."