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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thesignalandthenoise

"I mean, those are all good points but I'm not sure who exactly you wanted to implement this version of first contact, because it couldn't feasibly have been Amenta. I guess you can get it by driving us away and I'll, uh, be sure to not have any kids, with that in mind?"

"It kind of sucks if the only way we can get it is driving you away, but - it's a thing that sucks about Amenta, and that Amentans don't seem to be asserting they can change, and it's humans who'd be - sacrificing things we have a right to, if our choices are this and making you leave and we were to not make you leave."

thesignalandthenoise

"Does it factor in that we wouldn't have come if we'd expected you to do that? And then no trains and no world government."

"I'm, like, inclined to reason like that to a point, but not when you'd be softly driving my species extinct if there weren't wizards. In a hundred years there wouldn't be humans to enjoy the trains or world government."

thesignalandthenoise

"Well, we'd be trying the crossbreeds thing either way."

"Also won't work without wizards. Or at least I wouldn't expect it to, the species aren't that similar and in particular there are a bunch of distinct things about how we reproduce."

thesignalandthenoise

"They'd be trying it with genetic engineering rather than with sexual congress but perhaps it wouldn't work."

"We are working on potions to let people skip springs."

thesignalandthenoise

"That'd be good."

"Sounds it, yeah."

thesignalandthenoise

"And it'll make not having kids in anticipation of a barely survivable economic crash and overcrowding problem easier. Should I swap abroad, I hear it's real easy to swap from Anitam these days. Only my poor swapmate."

Sigh.

thesignalandthenoise

"Maybe Cene'll have their planet with conveniently nobody on it by then."

"I hope so."

thesignalandthenoise

"Maybe it'll be three percent ocean and have a huge natural cave system and a habitable moon, and they'll take unswapped immigrants."

"I don't think humans, once they've had a chance to get used to it being safe to have goals beyond 'keep your head down', will begrudge you all the uninhabited planets there are."

thesignalandthenoise

"I was not suggesting a likely scenario. So far this is the only one with air, let alone air and some people able to season here."

"Maybe scouts can take Felix while picking destinations or something."

thesignalandthenoise

"Felix?"

chanuphis

"Luck potion but I think warp travel takes too long."

" - oh, yeah, probably. It's great but it doesn't affect things that won't happen until after your dose has run out and being on it for a week straight is both outrageously expensive and a very bad idea."

thesignalandthenoise

"Why a bad idea?"

"It's addictive, and after a while starts suggesting you lucky ways to get more of it, and supposedly awful to come down from. I've never taken more than a sip, this is thirdhand and it's possible someone has found a safe way to use it regularly. - we're not offering that one to Amentans because luck is more - zero-sum - than, say, Veritaserum, which benefits justice and so on."

thesignalandthenoise

"I was gonna say I did learn to fly a ship but okay that's two reasons I can't just find a few hundred empty planets."