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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too-early-and-too-late

"You're under the influence of a drug that's keeping you informative, honest and on topic. Your family is alive. I have no idea why we look alike. I'm going to ask you questions about the invasion and you're going to answer them. Is there anything that you think would be of interest to me first?"

"You have a lot more options tomorrow if no one gets hurt, and I sincerely don't think that hurting them serves your goals."

too-early-and-too-late

"Summarize the current status of plans to impose population controls on Earth."

"We're testing long term reversible birth control on consenting volunteers from a range of human phenotypes. The clinics will provide barrier methods of contraception as soon as they open their doors next month but that's not reliable enough to impose population controls off. We are optimistic we will have something by the end of the year, though we would then wait another six local years to check for long-term side effects, infertility after removal, birth defects in subsequent pregnancies, etcetera. The duration 'six local years' is subject to change mostly off changes in the state of the evidence. When we have long-term reversible birth control we are planning to inform humans through a series of information campaigns, advertisements, etcetera that they are permitted by law to have two children per family without a credit and must purchase a credit for subsequent children. Children are put up for adoption and the parents sterilized if the children are born without a credit. We are discussing adjustments to credit schedules since humans can have children at any time; it might make sense to have credits allotted by auction per-quarter instead of per-year. We are actively working to attain rulings from human religious authorities compatible with population control; eventually, we will probably outlaw teachings that encourage illegal activities and if noncompliance is high, sterilize people after their second child."

too-early-and-too-late

"If you wanted to not impose population controls on Earth what would you do."

"Report a high rate of long-term side effects in the test population and make the scientists go back to the drawing board."

too-early-and-too-late

"Where is the test population located."

"There are several. For the range of phenotypes, it wasn't clear if it'd alter effectiveness. Cahokia, Čechy, Aotearoa, Kandahar, Chengdu, Katanga. About four hundred people in each."

too-early-and-too-late

"How long would that delay the imposition of population controls?"

"Depends what you did to the kids. There'd be extraordinary pressure at that point to just do without, give out condoms everywhere and sterilize people after two even though it's not very good."

too-early-and-too-late

"Could you handle it?"

"Depends on a lot of things - what human birthrates are with voluntary access to contraception, how much the population spikes because of the fall in infant mortality and whether that causes unrest and various other problems, how well I'm doing with the planet generally, how the elections go, who else has found planets, who else has found aliens."

too-early-and-too-late

"What happens if people disagree with your handling of this planet?"

"The rest of the council could recall me. I could lose re-election."

too-early-and-too-late

"If the rest of the council agreed with you and your successor pursued the same policies?"

"Anitam or Earth would eventually be invaded."

too-early-and-too-late

"By who?"

"Almost certainly a coalition. Of the other countries on Amenta, which take population control very seriously."

too-early-and-too-late

"Describe some other ways you might try to evade imposing population controls."

"Could delay a bit by making us poorly equipped to handle unrest, bungling the rollout, mishandling the unrest, and having to back off. They'd send someone else in to do better."

too-early-and-too-late

"Do you decide how many babies to allow?"

"No. There are treaties that decide that. They're being renegotiated but they're going to allow humans some growth rate."

too-early-and-too-late

"What resources would be required to win a war against the people coming to war with us for not imposing population controls?"

"Couldn't. ...more ships than them, can't even build ships here at all. More soldiers than them. Better bombs. We don't have any weapons development here because they don't want to worry about the colony suddenly declaring independence. There'll be a process for that eventually but once things are stabler."

too-early-and-too-late