"Maybe. Do they seem to have a guess about where we're from?"

"I got asked a couple things that might have been placenames and people tried a couple other languages, but not confident guesses. I assume people tried robots-exporter and we are slightly more mysterious for not speaking that one."

"Can you tell if this city self-governs or if it's part of a larger country?"

"If there's a larger country I do not think it exercises a lot of day-to-day authority but I can't imagine cities managing without some kind of structure within which they'd negotiate population. I guess maybe if robots-exporter is enforcing you wouldn't have lots of city-states trying to sneak things past each other."

She nods. "What is it most useful for me to do besides look after Kalatha while you pick up the language?"

"Do you know things about plumbing?"

"Probably more than you but I've never worked as a plumber."

"You probably also know more than me about stretching a food supply...do reds have better coping mechanisms for everything being constantly unclean or are you just mostly hyposensitive..."

"We don't mind each other at all. Plumbers get used to plumbing but it's not appealing - I think we might be hyposensitive to bodies but I'm not sure whether everyone would be if it weren't for acculturation or if there's separate mechanisms and that's one we've bred for enough - garbage smells and may contain unexpected sharp objects so one has to be careful with it but it's just garbage, you've been in rooms with garbage in them if not for long."

"Everyone might be if it weren't for acculturation, I think there were primitive societies that held that touching someone just-dead was fine. We mostly have disposal chutes for garbage."

"Not for long," she repeats, "but nothing magic happens to it except it gets all mixed up. Our collectors give rebates to some businesses who dispose of things separately so there's not kitchen grease on the remaindered clothes or water damage to the electronics; those things are unobjectionable."

He worries a scratched arm. "Uh huh."

She looks at his arm. "You're not making it any less likely that you actually get some ghastly infection."

"I am well aware of that."

"Maybe their diseases can't affect us," she says dubiously.

"Wouldn't count on it."

"If you get me paper I think I can draw up diagrams of basic plumbing structures. Elaborate pumps and water treatment probably need more technology than they have unless they can import robot pumps."

Nod. "I can get you paper."

"I'll apparently need somewhere private if I'm going to try to be able to feed Kalatha, is that next -"

"Yeah, let's go find an inn - preferably somewhere that smells a bit less - and figure out how many nights we can get with this money."

There is a more regularly robot-cleaned area of the city that smells less! They can get two nights including two meals a day if they share a one-bed room. Everyone is confused about the baby.

This is mildly worrying! They can share a one-bed room. "Maybe you could find out if you can pay our board by helping with cleaning and chores and so on."

"I don't have a sling for the baby and I don't think I can turn my sweater into one."

"I can take her out with me language-learning sometimes."

Reluctant nod.