"How are those things different? People can have difficulty perceiving their emotions... I heard of a person with brain damage once who didn't seem to have feelings, but I don't know how you would tell if they actually didn't have feelings or just couldn't perceive them."

That's horrible!

"It was unpleasant reading, yes. But possibly not unpleasant for the patient."

Not good either!

"Presumably.

One of my classmates asked why the patient was kept alive like that, and the answer is that doctors should not kill without a way to know for sure that a patient is suffering, or some similar explicit request, or else people will be afraid of doctors.

I suppose an undine would be able to tell?"

Nod.

Without an undine, can you tell the difference between being aware of most things just not feelings, and being aware of nothing?

"The patient couldn't answer questions about feelings and desires, but could answer questions about other things."

Can you answer a math problem without being aware of the math?

"No?"

Siamek writes on his tablet, holding it hidden with his upper pair of hands. With one lower hand, he holds up three fingers, as briefly as he can. Then two fingers the other lower hand. Then, immediately, he flips over the tablet:

How many?

"Five.

Huh.

And you think a machine could do math like that, not being aware of it?"

Nod.

And I think that would be bad.

"Why?"

Because he's on the edge of losing himself like that, he can't say, because it would hint at his magic.

The alien said the machine is not a person.

And of course a bug-species wouldn't rely on the usual definition of a person as a humanoid who talks.

"You would prefer that it was a person in that sense, aware of being enslaved to do math?"

Nod!

"Would you prefer a person like that, who had feelings and suffered from slavery, or a person who was aware of the math but didn't have feelings?"

Feelings.

"Alright. Personally I find it distressing to think about the possibility that rats might have feelings, or taddies.

I know some frogold doctors who are more like you; they would be upset if they were sucking pus out of a patient and learned that the patient didn't have feelings, didn't have any suffering to heroically alleviate. For myself, though... A mouthful of pus is just a sensation, and it only bothers me if I let it. I'd rather neither myself nor the patient suffer over it."

Siamek finds Harqa.

Can you sing to a rat? A fish? A bug?

"Yes. Rats respond like people. Fish respond a little bit. Bugs only feel a few kinds of things. They will change what direction they're walking if you sing a bit of gentle touch at them, but get acclimated easily like fish. Anything stronger makes them catatonic for a while after you stop singing, in the same way no matter what sensation you give them."

How does that compare with undines?

"Undines can't get anything from rats or fish or bugs. What have you learned about the alien?"

"Neither the alien nor his image machine is a poet. He meant it literally when he said that a 'radio' is for talking to people far away, and that's what a warbler is! It's a way to quote sound in magic-sound, without translating it into a magic-sound language. I think the aliens literally just talk out loud to a machine that warbles and then another machine hears the warble and speaks out loud to a different alien. The speech includes some of the 'English' words Miguel says but I haven't learned enough to tell what the other aliens are saying."

Before Miguel leaves for the diplomatic center, Harqa confronts him, accompanied by Merta.