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

"Or maybe that humans would if there were no unintended babies around in the first place."

planetarium

"How are you going to explain having the transmitter off?"

too-early-and-too-late

" - I don't really know. I -" Sigh.

planetarium

"Forgot, didn't need translation during the conversation so it didn't occur to you?"

too-early-and-too-late

"Yeah, that works. It's going to come out eventually, though."

planetarium

"...well, your hair colors don't match?"

too-early-and-too-late

"I can argue that it's some weird skyperson thing, but if we covered it up that's weirder."

planetarium

"...okay, you were suspicious about how much you matched, wanted to have a really personal conversation, and sent me out in the hall?"

too-early-and-too-late

"Or his presumed-wife was still at work and he was home alone and we forgot the thingy."

planetarium

"If you think that's better, sure, more your thing than mine."

too-early-and-too-late

"I don't really know. I guess we could just tell people - if only Amentans didn't suck and 'Amentans think it's fine' was more compelling -"

planetarium

"A bit."

too-early-and-too-late

"What do you think of telling people that we forgot to turn it on and then taking them aside and telling them privately that, weird, he had a husband, I don't know what that means, and seeing how they react?"

planetarium

"Well, Miranda won't be surprised - I don't know about anyone else -"

too-early-and-too-late

"I don't either but if they're going to find out eventually, this way lets us gauge reactions and if the reaction is 'wow, another way Amentans are super evil and terrible', then, okay, we can go with that."

planetarium

Sigh. "Yeah."

too-early-and-too-late

They head out.

chanuphis

"How'd it go? We didn't get anything back - "

too-early-and-too-late

"Yeah, I'm sorry, we didn't need translation and I never turned it on. It was - informative. The - bizarre resemblance - is not superficial, and extends to the rest of the family - well, to their Michael and Theodore and Aaron and my father, I didn't specifically ask about everyone else. He is the person who decided to order executions for attacking colorful people. Amentans are possibly going to conquer lots of planets and he's trying to set what Amentans consider a good example and the more weird things he does the less likely he'll be emulated, probably for the worse. They haven't conquered other planets yet. He doesn't think we can stop them even with our resources."

chanuphis

"...the tomato thing is them on an unusually good day?"

too-early-and-too-late

"Their planetary history is of society after society repeatedly wiping out all its neighbors so their expanding population can live there itself. That's why he wants to do the population controls, it was the way they stopped."

chanuphis

"Wow."

too-early-and-too-late

"These people have no business having space travel but it's too late for that - it's Aitim's father's fault, he invented it."

chanuphis

"- isn't that not how their caste thing works?"

too-early-and-too-late