"I wonder if your theologians and our theologians are, in some sense, the same job..."

"They don't sound closely related, but perhaps there are sympathies beneath the surface dissimilarity?"

"We never thought we would meet aliens, but people still wrote fiction about it. In a lot of fiction there was this idea that God wrote His law on the heart of every species, so that if they think about it very carefully they'd be able to learn what God wanted from them, even if they didn't know He existed. I think your theologians might be doing that." 

"I see. I'd be delighted to source you an Amentan theologian to discuss this with at some point."

"How about your theologians discuss this with our theologians. We'll come back in a week to find them all debating how many reds can dance on the head of a pin."

"I... assume that makes more sense in English."

"An old joke about theologians is that they like to debate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, since angels are incorporeal and in theory don't have to take up any space at all. It means that they're debating irrelevant minutia."

"They're incorporeal? How does that work?"

He spreads out his arms. "Not a theologian."

"That's specialized knowledge? All right. Er, excuse me - bar -"

Yes?

"Is there a way for me to contact people from my world without the door - ceasing to exist -"

Yes. If you hold the door open, your signal will be restored and you will also be able to call out to people within earshot. If you let go of the door while you're inside the bar, time will stop in your world; if you let it close while you are in your world, the door will no longer be a door to here.

"I see. Commander, is this a good time for me to ask my uncle to find me some suitable greens to send here?"

"I have no idea what greens are, so... maybe?"

"Greens are our academic caste. And art, but it's in the academic capacity I'd be looking for some."

"Seems like a good idea. You get some people from your world, then I'll get some people from my world for them to talk to?"

"Yes. We might, it sounds like, need to both spend some time standing around holding the door to allow time to elapse, but it's a small price to pay." She heads back to the door, taking her device out of her pocket again. She opens the door, and holds it just a little ajar. "Uncle? Yes, sorry, I got cut off for a second. Can you come to my office immediately? I need you to look at something. Thank you."

Fred, seeing that he is going to be on a break for a while, goes up to the Bar. "Can I have another coffee and something to read while this happens?"

Of course. That will be $2.55 for the coffee plus $3 if you'd like to keep the book. Both appear. The book is a sci-fi paperback.

Fred pays, then sits with his coffee and his book. He enjoys the SF novel greatly and is only minorly confused by the fact that no one prays and it is universally assumed that no children talk to their parents after the age of sixteen.

Avalor's uncle arrives. He has yellow hair and he's shorter than she is. He is very confused while Avalor summarizes, but eventually introduces himself as Secretary Bar. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Commander," he adds.

"I assume you're another caste, but I haven't had... blondes? Yellows? explained to me yet."

"Yellows," confirms Avalor. "Clerical work, computer programming, office jobs in general."

"They have different castes?" asks Bar.

"They don't have them at all," Avalor tells him.

"My mother cleaned houses and my dad was a cop! I'm one of the leaders of our country, mostly because my wife wrote really good self-help books!"

"- how did the self-help books -" begins Bar.

"Later," says Avalor. "Right now I need you to go back out and find the right greens for this. We want a theologian, a - biochemist with medical research background or maybe a couple, there's a chemical in their world which might or might not affect us, general xenology types."

"No Oahkars?"

"You can use ones who've been through the citizenship process, if they're really best for the job, but don't be wowed by all the dots after their names."

Fred understands most of what is going on!

Secretary Bar nods and departs. Avalor lets the door close. "Your turn, and then we can try to have them all arrive close together."

Fred sticks his head out the door.

"Serena, come here please."