"That's just weird," she opines. "Boating from where?"

"Coast of France, supposedly. California might actually work too. It's the going west across an ocean that's important."

"...Just any ocean? That's...weird doesn't even begin to cover it."

"Eru is very hard to comprehend."

"So far I've seen little to no reason to want to try to comprehend him rather than backing away slowly."

"Or running away to the stars, which is what we're doing."

"That is metaphorical backing away slowly!"

"I suppose! Anyway, it's - good to have our family reunited. Or about to be."

"Yeah. Although I probably won't want to stay in Canada all the time, at least not immediately, I have a degree to finish."

"Curufin is doing graduate work at MIT, you two can be out there together."

"...Huh. Wonder why I've never run into him."

"I think he practically sleeps in his lab."

"Ah, that explains it."

"He's flying in to meet you. Everyone's flying in except Nelyafinwe. He would attract suspicion if he left the country without an explanation, and he might be followed."

"See, with anyone else, that would sound worrying."

"He works for the American government's National Security Agency."

"I'm suddenly much less worried about the PATRIOT act."

"Is that the one that gave them license to do loosely whatever they wanted? I think he mostly just abuses the privilege to keep us secret, he's not up to the task of running a country right now."

"I think it only lets them spy on us as much as they want. I'm much more okay with him spying on people than random government goons spying on people."

"He does a lot of spying on people. I assume everyone else spying on people is under his influence sufficiently."

"Hence the being less bothered, yeah."

"We were thinking we might have to covertly or overtly take over the world, but as I said he's not up to it and it hasn't been needed yet."

"If we have to I'm sure we can figure something out. Why is taking over the world on the table when we're planning to flee it?"

"Depending what kind of resources are necessary to successfully colonize another planet."

"Fair enough. Here's hoping it doesn't come to that, it sounds like a pain."