"That is understandable, but I worry that you may not have an accurate understanding of how delicate your situation is. If Atekri and its allied houses grow any more alarmed, they may decide to kill the psyon and the rest of the slaves. I would prefer to be conservative."

"Right. Okay. There's nowhere out of range I can stash her before waking her up?"

The Carthon buzzes.

"Secluded locations exist. Most of them would place her under the jurisdiction of some other governmental power. My associates can overrule human governments as necessary, but I have found that doing so arbitrarily is frequently ill-advised."

"Have you." Sigh. "Is there any known psyonics-blocking material?"

"Not one known to me."

"Okay, I could just wake her up anyway, but I suspect it may be moderately important that I have all my faculties in the coming hours, so I'm just gonna register that I feel kind of guilty about this and renew her dose and move on. Hello, I'm Cam, it could be nicer to meet you but at least you aren't actively enslaving anyone as far as I know!"

"I do try. I am called Seej, when it is necessary to refer to me. Please, come inside."

And Seej floats off toward the embassy building.

Cam follows, piloting Parael's wheelchair for her since she can't do it.

The embassy building looks very much like something built by humans, with almost nothing in the way of alien aesthetics at all, apart from the occasional piece of obviously alien tech. 

Seej leads them to an unoccupied meeting room. The table has a small black brick-like device, some plastic cups full of pink lemonade, and plate of cookies on it.

She stands by a wall and faces the door and does not say anything or touch the cookies.

"I believe some of my associates are currently in transit and will arrive shortly. I have some expectation that you will not wish to repeat your story, so you may prefer to wait until they have arrived to offer it. Do you have any more immediate concerns or questions for me?"

"Are your associates more Carthons or are these human locals?"

"My associates are human. I expect I will contact the Pillars at a later time. I think it might be useful to discuss your situation with a more limited audience first, but I am uncertain of my own ability to accurately and completely assess it."

"What's that?" Cam asks, pointing at the brick.

"It is a computer. It is connected to the planetary ansible and is capable of contacting the Pillars."

"Okay. So, I'm from an alternate universe wherein Earth is the only planet with native life. I appeared here earlier on an Alteri ship, rescued the slaves I found myself among using my magic powers, and came here. I hate what you've done with the place."

"A fascinating set of claims. I am curious what your specific objections are."

"I'm sure you - possibly not personally, but Carthons - have heard them all since as far as I can tell you censor things after the first draft rather than via chilling effect. I will be eager to reiterate them for you on the off-chance that you're more able to listen to people telling you how bad your regime is for humans if the person telling you so has magical powers, but it might not be priority one given all these rescued slaves and unconscious psyon."

"I see. The censorship can in fact be traced primarily to the Carthon presence in this system. I will be pleased to discuss the matter with you at a later time, if we can determine both that you are not an existential threat to this planet and a way to persuade the Alteri that the appropriate response to the situation is a peaceful one."

"I do not want to destroy the planet. I like the planet."

"I also like the planet. I am concerned that your actions may destabilize the balance of power here, and may provoke the Alteri to destroy it in an attempt to contain the situation."

"Yeah I'm worried about that too. I did not know about all the reasons not to rescue slaves; where I'm from we don't, you know, have or countenance slavery."

"I also have moral objections to the situation. I would not prefer to return them if a reasonable alternative can be devised. I am uncertain whether this will be possible."

"For magical reasons, I may be less useful if it comes about that they're returned."

"Are you willing to elaborate?"