"That's different."

She cannot actually articulate, in terms comprehensible to an outsider, why it's different. But it is. She knows it is.

    "Maybe. But if it is, it's the context that makes the difference, not the act."

Context. Okay. She can provide context. Right?

"They don't think like we do. They don't value freedom. They think that just because they're bigger and stronger than us, that they should be in charge. When we rescue people from the Draco Territories, we set them free. They get to build lives on their own terms: we assist them, help them get back on their feet, but don't control them. When the secessionists take our children it's..." (Emotional Read: trying not to tear up.) "...they wanted Adita and I because we'd scored so high in flight simulations. They wanted us to be their slave-pilots, to kill other humans on their behalf. I don't think I would have let myself become that, if they'd got me but... I don't know? I was so young."

"Hmm," goes Deskyl.

    "Did you know that there aren't any children on the dragons' stations? At least the one, but Culamine had very little opportunity to arrange to fake that, and no way of knowing what she would have had to do to do it successfully. They have a place called the unpledged holdings, where children and those who haven't chosen to follow a dragon live. We haven't been to it, but one of the first things Culamine did was offer to have us taken there."

"So you mean they've got a prison where they keep the young ones and the ones that don't submit? That makes sense."

She'd never heard specific tell of such a thing before, but if it exists that fills in a few blanks.

    "It didn't sound like a prison. Deskyl asked Culamine about it, later, and she said - we dragons think that servitude to a higher power is something that should be aspired to and carefully chosen, rather than something people should be yoked with from birth. All of our children grow up in the Unpledged Holdings so that they meaningfully understand that self-sovereignty is an option for them, and so that they are not unduly prejudiced towards serving any particular master if they do elect to give that sovereignty up. And she wasn't lying, Deskyl checked.”

That doesn't match up well with what happened to her and her friend.

But the primary objective says the dragon wasn't lying, and it doesn't seem like it'd be possible to convince the primary objective otherwise.

Unable to dismiss the dragon's words as lies out of hand, she carefully considers the quotation just recited to her.

"That could all technically be true without the place Not Being A Prison."

    "Yes; it would be better if we'd had a chance to see it for ourselves. But it's a piece of the puzzle, and it says something about what they're like - if they didn't care about humans except as slaves, they could more easily just not do that at all, she expects."

"They don't just want us to obey them. They want us to think it's for our own good?"

    "Or they want it to actually be good, and for it to not happen if it isn't. Deskyl, for example, would be incredibly valuable as a vassal, and Culamine put no pressure on her whatsoever to be one, even after she made it clear that that was the case, and even after she told her she wanted to go to the unpledged holdings instead - in fact she approved of that decision."

    "It's still possible that something's wrong, that we've been deceived or that the dragons aren't as good at coexisting with humans as they seem to be. Deskyl still wants to hear your perspective. But she's going to need something more solid than what you've all given us so far."

"It's definitely a trick. They must have realized, with the way that you are, that pressuring you... um... doesn't work well..?"

    "That's possible, but we don't have any reason to believe it's true. They haven't actually seen very much of what she's like; she's been keeping to herself, mostly, and they haven't pressed her."

Their journey back through the dysofrag fields is not entirely tranquil.

Plasma discharges from electromagnetically active chunks of dysofrag have to be navigated around, micrometeorites have to be dodged or deflected, treacherous regions of more densely packed orbital detritus have to be avoided or threaded through.

And as they pass by a larger dysofrag (1km length, stable orbital) they nearly get flattened by a cluster of mid-sized fragments cutting across the debris field at an anomalous trajectory.

Her SLAYER's instruments would have usually picked them up from an appreciable distance, but with all the electromagnetic interference it's easy to make mistakes.

"--Incoming!"

She throws up a shield, though it's tough at any real distance from the ship.

    "Get close to us, she's shielding."

No time to question that.

She complies with DZ's instruction.

The incoming fragments crash across the telekinetic shield, throwing splinters of rock in every direction as they grind their way past the protected vessels.

Deskyl holds the shield until they're past the rocky cluster, and then gives the SLAYER pilot a curious look.

    "Reva, would you go in the back for a minute, please? Deskyl would like to speak to Devika privately."

Reva complies with this request.

Reva is not about to make any trouble for these scary other-universe people.

    "Ma'am, are you aware that you have brain damage?" DZ asks, gently.

“I am.”

    "Deskyl can heal it. Not right now; healing is one of the most difficult things for her to do, and she can't do it at range. But you should get most of your memories back."

“Why?”

”I tried to kill you just a degree ago?”

    "Yes, but it wasn't personal. It was the right thing to do, if you're right; she's pretty sure you're wrong, but it's still admirable."

“Thank you.”

She gently pulls her SLAYER back from the transport, matching velocity again at a reasonable close-escort distance.

“I wish I knew how to explain things to you. What examples to give, what arguments to use. I’m... well, I don’t know how much you can tell about my brain from whatever scan you did just now, but I might just be the worst suited pilot in the entire Colonial Armed Forces at providing context for things.”

(Emotion Read: regretful, frustrated, vulnerable.)

”I’m pretty much just a bundle of muscle memory and tactical instincts. I can’t remember more than bits and pieces of anything further back than nine or ten cycles ago. I’m sorry.”

    "No, you're not," Deskyl signs it immediately, and then pauses to consider her words carefully, to avoid giving up her strategic advantage. "Deskyl is injured, too. That's why she knows so little; she's been concentrating on recovering, not on learning about the Territories. There's no shame in it, and certainly no shame in doing the best you can anyway. And - this is important to get right. She's going to do that, and your story is something they're going to have to explain if they want to have her cooperation. You have made that difference."