"They're so gloomy! You don't need to translate that."

He gets out one of the heaters. He holds it without any gloves. Maybe that'll help.

This thing is hot! The scientists spend a while using the equipment in the room, trying to prove that the heat, and the holding it without gloves, are faked somehow. They grow more animated and excited the longer they can't figure out where the trick is.

Liane giggles on the other side of the radio link, watching them bicker. "Classic scientist behavior."

"Of course! It's their magic. What do you think, should I offer to help them hold it bare-handed?"

Liane thinks it's a good idea.

They test Valanda's gloves in various ways. When he can do the same thing to a pair of their gloves, and then to the eager volunteer herself, they seem to start to actually believe him. They ask lots of questions about how magic works, and offer some of Her Majesty's finest canned beans if he's hungry.

"Thanks but I ate today!"

They're so suspicious. He really did not expect it to be this hard to talk them into getting warded against extreme temperatures. The waterbenders weren't this thorough and they were warmer and more used to the cold anyway.

Well, they're scientists. They want to understand. They keep spouting out names of people and theories that Liane can't hope to translate the full meaning of.

...They start asking what exactly his world is like, besides 'does not contain people with morals', soon.

"We have an empire. We have slavery, it's how we deal with criminals and brain-damaged people and children, but people who aren't slaves can vote on who's in charge of the imperial government. We have eight species of people, not just humans. I don't know what else you'd consider important to know."

"Putting the back-alley stabbers and lunatics and your own kids to work... Back to the 17th century, eh?"

"At least they have the vote for free people. We'd be the smallest minority, but it's something."

"What's there in the way of work? I'm sure you can accommodate a third-rate linguist, botanist, geologist, mechanical engineer, and chemist, but having relevant work is always better."

"Children are slaves? This isn't just a, a technical thing where the reality is different, is it, because that sounds rather awful."

"It's not just a technical thing. It's the worst atrocity in history, counting the entire warring states period. Ending it is my second priority, after ending slavery for adults who've done nothing wrong."

"Yes, I think we can all agree that slavery is awful and should be ended. It's just that without a plan or fellow believers, going against the political will to achieve that is tantamount to shouting at the wind to stop blowing."

"You think we should all become his new abolitionists, then?"

"Perhaps. Like Davy said, there's not anything left for us to do here. We could stay here, use that heat core and hold on a while longer, but maybe this way we won't even starve when the beans run out. And the 'magic' is just begging for some proper experimentation and a real explanation."

The other four scientists nod in agreement to this last bit.

"Sir, I think we would like to take our chances with you."

"I'll be glad to have you! Liane, do you think I should bring them back to Milliways and stash them there so they can read our laws while I get other people?"

"Milliways sounds lovely. Maybe even more interesting than Har."

Liane thinks that's probably a good plan.

The scientists pack some of their stuff and install the heat core in their main boiler and turn the radio transmitter on, playing a looping message, in case anyone needs this place later, hopefully they'll have a warm place to sleep and canned beans to eat.

"If you have questions for me or want me to help figure out what kind of work you can do in my world, better if you ask now than once I've got other people to deal with and you've got Milliways to explore."

"Well, we certainly want to read the laws. Davy is a geologist, I'm Kenneth, a linguist, Katherine is a botanist, Rogers is a mechanical engineer, and Jane is a chemist. Do you suppose we could find work in our specialties in your little colony? Perhaps I can learn two or more new languages and make a living translating." He looks doubtful. "Ah, and I don't think you should count on keeping all of us. Milliways sounds like a better deal in several ways, to be perfectly frank."

"Milliways is great and if you wait there a day you'll probably have at least two other options! I have a little work for a geologist, if you can tell me things about my volcano. Once I have immigrants from other worlds I could use a translator if you learn languages faster than other people but other than that there's more work for a translator on the mainland. Which you can get to in a day from my colony. Jane might know some things a structure mage would pay to learn, Katherine should talk to some farmers because I have no idea what they'll want. Rogers might be able to collaborate with another immigrant I've got, but then again I'm not sure if he wants collaborators. To be honest you'll probably have to eventually move to the mainland or change jobs. Or both."

"Hmph. Thank you for being honest about my terrible long-term employment prospects. Still, anything's better than waiting to starve in this bleak place."

"Tell 'em about the pounds thing, maybe they have some old cash," Liane says.

The other scientists are finishing packing up now.

"Bar can change currencies. Including pounds sterling to something that has value now. Using the exchange rate they had when they were worth anything."

Oh, that's useful. They scrounge around and come up with some old paper money.

"Maybe we can visit Masterman's Bank on the west end and make a withdrawal from my account," Katherine jokes sardonically.

"How far is that? Can you give me directions?"

"I wasn't serious. It's under about two hundred feet of ice like the rest of downtown London, now. Let's just go. Onward, to unkown futures."

Onward they go. To Milliways.

On the flight back to the empty factory, Jane asks if they could pay him and other Har-locals to hold the door to Milliways for a day or two, so they can back out if they find Ice Beach not to their liking.

"You can but it won't be cheap, the door's obstructing access to some important government property and you'd be paying someone for entire days of work. Sorry."

"It's clear you want immigrants for your grand moral arc, you want us to go to this grim world and suffer the gloom and doom and morally wrong laws and inflict them on our children, all to contribute to changing it for the better. It's better than starving to death, but then, anything is. Perhaps you could be doing things to make that a more attractive option? Though Milliways does not sound... Predictable."

"The only selling points I have are warm tents, a lot of fruit, and the fact that summer's coming later this year. I don't have enough rings to pay everyone to immigrate, not an amount that would make a difference. If you don't want to come there will be other people who have other offers to make and I can't offer you any good reason not to go with one of them."