"But the usage in this context implies the computers can be sick, and that the sickness can spread... Oh. Oh, of course. Heh. I'm going to try and write a 'virus'."

"Ha. Okay. What kind?"

"Well, I don't know how it'll work yet, but the results - obvious but ultimately harmless, hopefully. Demonstrate that it could be done. I don't actually see the need to mess up other peoples' computers."

"Who do you want to demonstrate that to? Because if you make it too obvious to too many people that just makes it more likely someone else will try it and maybe hit your computer..."

"To Nikolas, of course. He'll want a security expert who can hurt his systems working for him, like you said."

"So how - never mind, you probably want to do it yourself, don't you?"

"I could be convinced to work together on this, too - but not until I've had a good try and failed, I think. My pride desires no less."

"Well, I'll be interested to hear how it goes."

"I'll let you know! I'm accumulating a list at this point - heh."

With that, conversation turns a bit more casual and relaxed. Curt knows just enough to be interesting about a wide, wide range of topics, and is plenty interested in Har's clever achievements too.

And Nimo's interested in just about everything. Not necessarily knowledgeable about everything, but interested.

"...You know, I'm surprised you're single, you'd think all the human women would want you."

He blinks owlishly. "Well, I suppose it's never come up? Engineering school is very time-consuming, I didn't want to court anyone while working on that. And then I had my job, it was good but demanding work. And then the frost. So I never found the time. And it's not like I needed to carry on the Warden name, I have three older brothers to do that for me. Well. Had. Now I have one."

"Oh. Wow. Humans are lucky, I guess, I couldn't get away with ignoring romance and focusing on my work."

"It's a strange thing to do for us as well, though perhaps not as strange. But see, exactly this - ignoring romance in favor of work - this may be the demographic shift in action?"

"Huh. Yeah,  it might be. I guess your birthrate should drop too. What is it now, anyway?"

"I don't remember the exact numbers, I'll have to look that up, but something like four or five on average?"

"That's lower than caralendri but you don't have as much time - we usually space ours out, do you do that?"

"I'm afraid I don't know. We shouldn't extrapolate too far with this, but my brothers are all years older than me, but about the same age themselves..."

"Huh. Kind of a weird pattern but yeah, we'd need to know about more families before we could say we really know anything."

"I'll add it to the list! Good data is the cornerstone of science, after all."

He does that.

The ten thousand new immigrants to Ira Sani continue to build their city. It's not all hope and roses, however. Some of them get into trouble.

Some people go out hunting the wildlife for food, riding an automaton re-designed to be a bit quieter. They shoot at an agerah who wasn't wearing anything identifiable as clothes, at least from a distance. They miss, but the agerah breaks one of their guns with sun magic in retaliation, turning it to useless gold. The hunters apologize for the misunderstanding, but that agerah is deeply annoyed and reports them to the Imperial Police as soon as he can.

Some of the less devout men of New Dover start to realize that prostitutes are actually pretty easy to find on the mainland, much easier and safer than trying to find someone who will have sex for money in the low districts of English cities. And they're cleaner and cheaper on average, too. The rumor mill churns this tidbit excitedly, passing through pubs and such like quicksilver, and a lot of the unmarried men start to spend their days off in Erasi. Someone even opens a pub there for all the New Dovites who aren't currently looking to buy something to hang out in, renting a space near the airport.

There's a construction accident. An administrator tripped and stumbled into a working force mage while inspecting the site. The caralendri force mage dropped the huge concrete mold he was carrying, which ended removing a man's arm and killing another young man instantly. Lady Katherine tries to console the grieving parents and wife - that it was a terrible accident and they stopped work to look at why it happened and revised procedures - but they don't accept it. They go to the police and demand that somebody get arrested for this!

New Dover's residents continue to be weird about slaves. Anyone who owns a slave and is derisive or openly hostile or meets some other mysterious criterion sees their open friendliness turn cold, annoyed, and hostile. They don't seem to think of their own kids that way either, never referring to the children as slaves and almost never using command magic on them. Some of them will try to lecture slaveowners, too.

A bunch of fourteen and fifteen year olds end up arrested for harassing random beluli and agerah in the Riuhiu market, but it's not clear who if anyone they belong to - knowledge magic tracing them back hits frequent blind spots since they emerge from the Milliways door - and the kids are kind of terrified and mostly refuse to speak to the police.

The imperial police offer the hunters lessons on identifying people and native Ira Sani wildlife by their silhouettes. It's a mediocre lesson and it was clearly thrown together on the fly in response to this situation but it's free. Also they have a court date in a couple of weeks. The police don't seem to think they're very likely to be convicted or much of a flight risk, all of them are let go on their own recognizance. One of the officers points out they could shout and see if they get an answer next time they think they've spotted some game, but another one points out that that wouldn't work with essi or ereli.

A few more human women move to Erasi from other parts of Meiu. Some of them and a caralendar investigate the pub.

Is the accident pastwatchable?

New Dover becomes a less popular tourist destination among slaveowners, except for the few who think being lectured sounds fun.

The police let the kids and the public know that if no one comes forward to claim them they'll be sold. Or killed if they don't sell. Valanda hears about it and wants to see Katherine at her soonest convenience.

Well, also, if you shout the animals hear you and run away. That agerah looked kind of like a polar bear, they hunted those a lot before. They'll remember that there aren't any polar bears here next time.

It's a big room with human-sized tables and chairs, and a dozen human men drinking alcohol and singing badly! There's music playing from somewhere, and some kind of game involving throwing things is going on in the corner. A man standing behind a high counter cleaning glasses waves at the newcomers.

The accident is pastwatchable, yes.

One of the kids breaks down in tears and then names someone as his father. (Katherine thinks she is aware of the problem and is heading to riuhiu right now.)

They buy that but if this happens again they might not buy it again.

One of the women wants to try the game.

They pastwatch it. Then they look for any previous pastwatchable suspicious interactions between the clumsy administrator, the force mage, the injured person or the dead person.

They try to track down the person the kid says is his father.

Valanda waits for Katherine to show up.

They show up in court on time.

It's darts! These two - three - five guys will all try to explain darts at once until the bartender shouts 'cool it!' at them!

The administrator is kind of mean, but she's like that to everyone, nothing that screams 'revenge' or singles the other three people out pops up. The force mage was calm and professional through it all. The dead guy and the injured guy were apparently pretty close friends.

They're not convicted of anything.

It's fun! She's not bad at it.

Yeah, that doesn't look suspicious. They tell the grieving parents and wife that it was probably an accident.