I've got a list of names | Glowfic Constellation

Afen is disappointed in the universe. He bounds back and forth across his room explaining why to his wife, his infant granddaughter, the end table, and a reporter flabbergasted by her good luck and cringing silently against the wall in the hopes he won't remember she's there.

"There is no reason to suppose that a species evolving independently of Amentans, with their own evolutionary history and living mammalian species likely related to theirs, would end up looking like us. None. Every explanation every scientist has ventured to the press has been unimaginative and unconvincing retroactive refitting of bad models to baffling data. Aliens shouldn't look like us but with different hair colors. Aliens that are not made out of carbon at all would be unsurprising; aliens with only as much physiological dissimilarity as exists between us and animal species on our planet would be mildly surprising; aliens with opposable thumbs would be truly remarkable. This is not remarkable and biologically enlightening; this is just inconsistent with everything we understand about the universe. It doesn't teach us new things about evolution; it should make us rethink evolution. - don't quote that part, they'll take it out of context."

Reporter nods rapidly.

"All of that said, I've picked up three of the languages and I'm working on building a good machine translator, it's a challenge with as little as they've produced in the way of electronic records. I'm absolutely going there to meet them as soon as the politicians figure out what to do with themselves."

"Do you have any predictions about that?"

"About politics? Why would I have predictions about politics? They deliberately obscure relevant information, for one thing, and for another it's deathly boring."

"- I mean, sir, surely you hear from your son about -"

"I have seven children and some of them are very dense indeed but not quite dense enough to try to interest me in politics."

"I was referring to -"

"I know who you were referring to. If you want a statement from Aitim go bother Aitim."

"Thank you for your time."

"I did not alter my activities in response to your presence and therefore you can't yet be said to have wasted any of my time though you should go before you do."

...out skitters the reporter.

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"Good," says Thomas.

Michael Cyrus Way

"Yep." He hugs Jeremy.

Beth and Thomas coo over the children.

Michael Cyrus Way

Michael returns home gloomy. "You'd better be sure you can stop it, Timothy."

too-early-and-too-late

"Fredrick and I have been visiting the sites, trying to figure out who won't mind if their birth control fails and also if there's anyone who'd take it in stride if the kid had inexplicable spots or something else that'll worry the doctors."

Rebecca Way

waylaid

"And that'll stop them?"

too-early-and-too-late

"Aitim says that he can't start enforcement until they've got something that's near-perfectly reliable, it'd be perverse and easy enough to argue that it'd undermine acceptance of the program. So he can send the researchers back to the drawing board and buy us a few more years and then -" he glances around for observing Amentan anthropologists -

Hala over there quiet as a mouse!

too-early-and-too-late

"And then we'll see."

Hala sighs very softly.

too-early-and-too-late

"Yes?"

"If you change what you're saying because I'm here it will affect the quality of my research."

too-early-and-too-late

"Well, inconveniently I think Anitam has laws about reporting certain kinds of information."

Tiny sigh.

too-early-and-too-late

"It'll be okay," he tells Rebecca. "I'm not going to let innocent humans get sterilized or robbed of their children because other people can't manage their own population."

waylaid

"Thank you."

"If this involves any duelling, I'm so in."

too-early-and-too-late

"Honestly it probably involves making Aitim call a secret international conference, showing up there in the most terrifying fashion possible, explaining their mistake to them, and then explaining that when the human population reaches ten billion we will cooperate with the imposition of controls but that anyone who tries it beforehand will fling themselves off a bridge the next day if they're lucky."

Hala takes notes.

Minor Finis Way

Minor thinks he knows what wards to redo to give the house internet access and wants to redo them; Aaron agrees this is an acceptable use of money. They start trying to hire people.

On a small island that makes a safe test run and doesn't have internet yet, Amentans check how making school attendance mandatory goes.

Some children still do not go to school.

Social workers come round them up.

The children are needed to work or care for siblings or elders! They are not to do as the invaders say! They are being punished, or rewarded! They are sick or feebleminded or runaways! They are of indeterminate age and probably don't need to go yet! They are girls and shouldn't be in school!