The grownups are all very busy, but the children are all bored.
Bored or having nightmares. But Tasárinon was not on a ship and did not see the people dying and has only heard it thirdhand and can't exactly have nightmares about the look in his mother's eyes - well, he probably could, but he hasn't - so he's bored, and he is drawing on the floor. It is an absurdly intricate drawing. He has been embellishing it for three days.
After a while someone starts shooting at him.
And a while after that speakers crackle to life and say "if you are friendly, you can demonstrate your friendliness by leaving."
"Would it help if I swore I don't work for the Enemy and am not here to hurt you?"
"Not all creatures have the chips for binding oaths. We don't, for example. They don't seem very worth it."
"I agree, but it'd at least rule out 'evil Maia'. Look, I am very unprecedented and you have not considered the possibility of a thing like me coming along in thinking up your isolationist policy."
"We thought about it and concluded that the odds of someone arriving who was able and willing to save us, but required entry to our kingdom, were still lower than the odds it was an elaborate trap by the Enemy."
"I fully admit I'm staggeringly unlikely. I'm willing to have the entire conversation here, if that helps, I don't want to go into your kingdom just to go into it."
"You are welcome to continue talking."
"I am from another universe. I can create arbitrary matter. I have not obliterated Angband yet because expert opinion is this wouldn't necessarily kill the Enemy and it seems likely he'd escalate to a higher tech level in response, but I'm trying to offer supplies to beleaguered settlements here and I'm working on an evacuation plan. Would you like any material objects and/or to have input into the evacuation plan?"
"We would not like either. Thank you for asking."
"I would also like to issue an apology for extracting materials about your language without knowing that was supposed to be private."
"What did you do, and how?"
"'Arbitrary matter' includes sufficiently specified information. I pulled up a bunch of your writing and some people did some data analysis on it. I don't have the language installed on this computer translator nor did I actually learn any of it, and the other people informed me as soon as they found out you don't share your language. Incidentally, if you change your mind about wanting stuff you can tell me by writing a letter entitled 'letter to Cam', and then destroying it immediately if you like."
"It seems likely that you're lying."
"We are designing some appropriate tests. In the meantime, what exactly are you offering and what do you want in exchange?"
"I am concerned about the escalation to a higher tech level thing but I can reinforce supplies of things you were already using or provide things that other people are already using - except uranium since that seems like a terrible idea if you're doing what I think you're doing with it, same escalation reason - and provide you copies of Angband intel, although he's recently stopped recording things in a way I can swipe, and I'd like to know that if things get worse and I expect to be able to get people off the planet you would not all prefer to stay behind and die because that would be awful, and, I repeat, I can make whatever I want and this kind of obviates the need for currency or even barter but traditionally I would be paid with media recommendations but I'm very busy and won't have time to read for fun very much in the foreseeable future so that's not necessary either."
"We are not engaging either side in the war. We're trading with everyone, and if you can supply them that'd obviate the need for them to trade with us, which we do not object to; if you are willing to supply for free and we are not, that is your prerogative. If you're planning on leaving eventually you should be careful about crashing markets for things or disincentivizing people to learn how to make them. Trading in raw materials would make all of those concerns less worrying.
If evacuating the planet would involve all of us leaving our city, I cannot think how you'd demonstrate being trustworthy enough we'd agree to do that. Anyone who desires it of course is free to leave."
"I was not planning to kidnap evacuees," Cam says. "I am mostly giving people things like food and water and I am attentive to economic considerations, although they are not my top priority."
"Where exactly would you be evacuating people to?"
"We have some scientists who are interested in seeing a planet and willing to volunteer, but we're worried they'll be tortured for the location of secret cities and other strategic information. Can you think of a way to demonstrate we shouldn't be worried about this?"
"Sure."
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