"They're supposed to, and there's also supposed to be a social worker right there who can do this kind of thing. I'll check where they were."

"I was crying a lot but they didn't even ask, I could have nodded."

"I'll make sure there's an investigation."

"An investigation," she snorts. "Like the one over the plumber? I can't trust this - alien monstrous thing you work for to - do anything, your priorities are literally from space."

"I think you'd have about accurate expectations if you thought we cared about the same things as Amentans except we thought reds are people and killing them is murder."

"But that's bizarre."

She does not comment.

"It's just not something I can assume would come out of an otherwise sane morality. I wouldn't have been any more surprised if you'd said 'oh it's all right that your parents are going to hurt her children aren't people' or - 'we consider grandparents' rights very important' or - or - 'she's in their house and it's a windy day so' -"

"I understand how you could have been confused but now that you have an explanation, can you just - imagine you had met an Elf in the hallway getting back from your stressful day and murdered them with a nearby sword, and assume we're thinking of it exactly like that?"

"Did the Elf show up ten hours late for planned work necessary to make my home habitable?"

"Yes. Everything is the same except Elf instead of red."

"I'm not sure yet if Elves are people in addition to being alien monsters."

"I see."

"I wouldn't kill a person or even an Elf because I'm not sure."

"You did kill a person, because you were sure and wrong."

The green looks at her with disgusted resignation.

"Anything else I can do for you?"

"Probably not."

"Well, there are contact instructions on your computer for your lawyer, various civil rights organizations, various media outlets, my office, and the prison complaint office."

Sigh.

The Orvara team asks if their theologians have a take on whether resurrected reds are polluted. It would be great if they were not, because then reds could be resurrected and the galactic community would be less horrified about how they're being treated. Still horrified but, like, a little less so, and anyone who wanted to resettle reds could be given resurrected ones.

Orvaran theologians will mull this over and write papers.

Great. 

How many Yvalta Houses are looking interested in membership?

Only the one is interested in membership regardless of which way the wind blows in the rest of them.

Fair enough. 

"Can we decide we want to host the shuttleport on your land or would that cause you trouble by being hard to explain?"