"Then we can have you sit out for secret meetings starting sooner. It's not about wanting it private, it's about the law."

"Huh?"

"It is against the law to discuss classified information in an environment where it might be overheard by persons not authorized to hear it. There is an exception for small children because they don't want to prohibit people having meetings with a baby sleeping on their lap, that'd be silly."

"Oh."

"It is important because secrets could hurt people if they got out."

"I'm not going to tell anyone."

"I know."

"I guess it's not as big a deal if they aren't private about it..."

"No one is having private conversations at work."

"Good."

"It is good of you to care about that."

"I care about my stuff being private."

"Yes, but it's thoughtful of you to extend that to other people."

"...okay."

"Kids your age often don't do that."

"Oh. Well, we don't know how old I actually am. I hope I grow as fast as a not plant from here."

"Yes, I hope so too."

"What if I don't?"

"We could maybe fudge it a little, say you were probably two seasons instead of one year. At some point we'd have to tell the government."

"And then they will know I am a plant."

"Yep. They will not want to offend the aliens but we're still not confident they'll handle it well."

"What might they do?"

"Monitor us a lot, probably."

"That would not be very good for privacy."

"It would not. Nor for scheming related to reds."