"I think he's been explaining repeatedly, actually, but he was on the project for a while before it came up so they do at least know we're trying to do this across the board, not just picking fights on this specific topic on a personal whim."

"And that helps?"

"I don't actually know if they care. It'd make a difference to me, if someone landed on us and said 'okay, you've got to abolish the death penalty...and this tax law has terrible incentives...and you can't fine people in excess of a quarter of their yearly income without an appeal...and you're wrong about how pollution works...' it wouldn't go over well but it seems different."

"Personally until I knew what they meant I might find it very threatening to be told that a different standard of pollution would be imposed," she says dryly.

"Someone recommended me this well-written if too-full-of-itself work of science fiction in which Amentans find an advanced alien civilization which patiently explains that mortal species - ones which will die, even if the individuals haven't gotten to it yet - are inherently unclean."

Shasali giggles.

"I tried to explain to Timothy that we're - growing up a bit - but I suppose it's reasonable for people to expect their alien invaders have already grown up."

"I suppose. We couldn't reasonably have waited in case of judgmental natives, though."

"Yeah, I did get somewhere by explaining that the alternatives to us were not 'left peaceably alone to abolish slavery and invent sanitation at your own pace' and also not 'foreign aid with no corresponding impositions'."

"Do you think I was really chosen at random?" she wonders after a brief silence.

"Quite a coincidence, isn't it?"

"If he's British, less of one, but still."

"He is British. He said they watched until someone got dragged off to be executed and then put a tracking charm on them, not having otherwise identified a blue and not wanting to terrorize non-blues." Sigh. "I can't think how he'd have known your background, or cared - and he wasn't gentler with me, it's not a matter of what they expect to meet with indifference back at home... It's more plausible he knew Inlad, actually, for reasons I am still trying to figure out, but then I don't know why he'd be lying about it, or why he'd have bothered you rather than Inlad himself."

"Why would he know Inlad?"

Sigh. "Timothy can look however he likes but when we met he looked like me, and he said that's his natural appearance. Timothy says he has six younger brothers. The oldest, Michael, is married to a girl named Rebecca, and their children are Catherine, Joanna, and Jeremy. ...I am, to be clear, saying 'Timothy says' to raise to your attention that I am not confident I could tell if he were lying. Anyway, he's not married to his Kan because as previously discussed England frets about that kind of thing, but he knows him, and it follows that he has a cousin corresponding to Inlad though he didn't say so."

"And there's a Peka too, with matching - how - did he propose some explanation?"

"He took the drug himself and promised he had no idea but it'd be easy to fake the drug part. If you correct for being young and dangerous and without a blue education - it's not just the appearances and names, he could be me. First thing he asked was your name?"

"Yes."

"My father's going to meet his corresponding party. Hopefully it's informative. I could try to fly Makel and Peka and the kids out, too, maybe..."

"I'm curious to hear updates but of course if there's any reason not to add an extra informed party I can be left out of the loop."

Nod. "I'm sorry that you went through this and hope that I can someday offer more thorough reassurances."

"If you ever disappear is there someone you'd like me to inform if I can?"

"It seems likely I'd be asked who might have instructions. Just - be careful, maybe take the kids on a vacation back to Anitam."

She nods.

He goes home. 

There's a press conference. Amazing biochemical discovery on the new planet! Locals figured out how to formulate from rare forest plants this compound which elicits useful truthful information. They have strict rules about its use and agreed to supply it under the following conditions. No use in capital cases, judicial oversight, written record of questions asked and strict guidelines about acceptable questions. He's picked an administrative region of Earth which is going to try using this for all criminal justice cases once they're being governed under normal law; they'll compare deterrence and case resolution rates there to a demographically matched administrative region and decide whether to make broader use of it. Distribution will be tightly controlled. He's sending some back to Anitam for their researchers to pick apart (an Earth research team has been unable to artificially synthesize it). And he's delaying operations in ecologically sensitive areas until they've figured out how to artificially synthesize this kind of thing, lest they miss something equally important.