"Should we work on the teleport? They might look over T'Mir's ship when they're looking for her if they notice we vanished her."

"They might. So we'll have to be able to leave behind people who might be in the ship... Would that maybe put them far enough off the ground to hurt them?"

"Uh, it might actually be docked and in vacuum. If there are people on the ship it's probably better to bring them along with it and then put them back somewhere with air."

Everyone nods earnestly despite only having had a couple weeks to figure out what vacuum is.

"Or maybe send two people, one to clear the occupants off to a location with air and then go home, and one to bring the ship back."

"What kind of reaction should we expect from the Federation, T'Mir?" asks Rúmil, frowning.

"They take the Prime Directive very seriously and will definitely want me in custody. I am almost positive they won't attack Davlia over it. Taking my ship back is only illegal as a direct result of my not being allowed to go places because I'm supposed to be in jail; they don't claim ownership of it per se. So they'd take the opportunity to perform a rearrest if possible but it wouldn't compound the crime of jailbreak. Or is that not what you mean?"

"That's part of what I mean. Do they know already that you're here? Are we wanted as accomplices to your escape, and would we be if they had full information? Can Fëanáro be arrested at all under Federation law?"

"They won't have any idea how I got out and will probably suspect someone in orbit of the moon of having transportered me with a cloaking device or something on the ship to explain why they didn't see it. Taking Prometheus will be more obviously not a stealth transport, especially if there are people aboard to shoo. You three aren't Federation citizens and belong to what is technically a prewarp civilization to which they are unable to practically return you unless you choose to go; that really ties their hands as long as they're obeying the Prime Directive. Visiting a prison moon without leave is technically illegal, probably, but Fëanáro's a minor and he didn't actually break me out so he'd not get more than a warning even if he were their jurisdiction; Bella's probably guilty of a territory violation for unharmonious purposes or something euphemistic like that. You I don't think they could nail on any charges at all except maybe conspiracy and that would be very hard to cause to stick to a non-Federation citizen who is not occupying Federation space. If you go commit crimes on Federation soil or station - of which taking my ship for me with my permission isn't one as far as I know, I'm not illegal to associate with or run errands for or anything - then they can certainly stun you and lock you up while they figure out what to do with you, with Fëanáro much more likely to get away sans arrest with any nonviolent crime than an adult."

"Stun weapons are non-lethal for most known species?"

"Yes. The same weapons have another, lethal setting, but you'd have to seem quite dangerous for it to be authorized against you. Especially Fëanáro."

He nods. "It sounds like establishing a planet here for our pre-warp and therefore untouchable civilization is a good intermediate step towards many of our broader goals."

"It would not be particularly difficult for them to declare you effectively postwarp once they know you can do interstellar teleportation, but it'd give you a head start. And then they'd still be trying to arrange diplomatic contact and treaties rather than enforcing their laws on us."

"And if they make that declaration, any civilizations we teach teleportation are post-warp?"

"Well, yes, but they'd be absolutely lousy with signs of tampering. Trade sanctions et al."

"I don't think I yet have enough context to evaluate trade sanctions as a concern."

"Shouldn't inconvenience us much, we have magic and we can if we like trade with non-Federation people. It might inconvenience the prewarp civilizations we teach to teleport, but probably not more than having to wait until they invent warp drive."

"And sanctions last how long, probably? An Age? Less than that?"

"Oh, all right. Even Fëanáro can be patient for that long."

"...Really?"

"Maybe not if it were something more important to him than trade sanctions, but yeah probably for this purpose."

"I know it's going to take centuries to build a planet that's better than Valinor without the Valar and Maiar to help us and save Materia and become epic. I don't mind it taking a long time as long as it's not taking longer than it has to."

"I will live a little longer than a human but not that long."

"...I don't think I've aged since the Valar booted me and they weren't being sufficiently blatantly malicious to actually strip me of the anti aging protection, so I'm probably good for a thousand years, but it hasn't been long enough that it would be really obvious if I just happened to be one of those people with a young face..."