Various other people in the room appear to marginally relax.

"Lucky we didn't have one of the little ones. I don't think they'd've been cool with that."

"It's a pretty fucked up situation," sighs Cam, shaking out his wings and making himself a chair and plopping into it.

Shrug. "I guess I don't know whether they treat them worse on other planets or whether Atekri just likes the ones it has here."

"This entire business is fucked up. Can you tell me the names of all the languages you speak please?"

"I know Etra La, Yahivi, and Confederate One. Confederate One you do with hand signs."

"Yes, I know," he signs back, then continues aloud, "just needed the names. Are there additional numbered Confederates? What do Carthons speak?"

"One through six are official, and then there are some unofficial ones. I don't know what Carthons speak."

"Does anybody here know what Carthons speak -" He flips through his newspaper, tail lashing slowly.

No one seems to.

"I guess a bunch of them probably know English by now. And - whatever else Liars speak on Earth, I guess there are a bunch of things."

"Well, I know English, so there's that I suppose..." Is there a New York Times bestseller list? What has it been producing in the nonfiction department lately?

The New York Times does have a bestseller list. It does not have a nonfiction department, because now that there isn't a fiction department it doesn't really make sense to distinguish. Looks like some memoirs, a couple poetry books, a "dream journal", a cute book full of astronomy facts, an examination of the purpose and history of libraries, some heavily political books about aliens, some heavily political books about non-aliens, and a book that defends the thesis that humanity didn't actually originate on earth.

Cam will take a political aliens book.

This book is about what we can learn from the ways that Carthon policy on religion has pivoted over the course of the past decade. The introduction helpfully explains that part one is about the Carthons' initial exposure to Earth religions and how this may have colored their later judgement, part two is about the widespread riots and resistance movements that broke out in the wake of various so-called "draconian" bans on religious observance, part three is about later, ongoing, and expected future policies on the subject. The introduction also notes that the book was edited by no fewer than six members of various Carthon academic societies, and has been approved for publishing, although clarifications from the editors have been included in footnotes throughout the book.

Cam conjures a previous draft of the book.

Previous drafts of the book have fewer footnotes and are on some axes better-written - looks like Carthons object to lots of vaguely metaphorical phrasings, especially ones that aren't widely-known. Lots of passages have been changed in ways that do seem to successfully add nuance and clarity, often at the cost of diluting the author's original point. Most of the book's factual assertions have not been changed; the editors appear to have been totally unconcerned with the fact that the finished product promotes the message that Carthon policies have in many cases led to widespread death and cultural destabilization.

"Are you guys bored, do you want books?" Cam asks before reading further. "Or like, food or water, you're wearing suits but I can put stuff in your mouths or stomachs if you want?"

"We don't have... books," she says, frowning at the ones Cam is holding. "Normally in a situation like this someone would compose something, but I don't know if that would be distracting."

"- has no one ever written a book worth reading in any language you are literate in?"

" - I'm really just assuming that books are those bundles of paper you're holding, here."

"Yes but I can do format conversion so it would be fine if they typed it."

"No, I mean we don't - have those? We can read Confederate One but I don't know what people have recorded in Confederate One - and I have no idea which things have ever been recorded as books, if the Alteri even have those - "

"Okay. How about I put on some nice music for you guys."

" - if that'll be less distracting than poetry. Sure. Thank you."

"You can also do whatever you'd normally do and if I get distracted I can wear headphones, I'm trying to help, not impose Mozart on you."

" - OK. Does anyone want a story?" she asks, and of course everyone does, although some of them are too scared to say they do. She stands up again and starts reciting a story in Etra La.

It's a story about people on an Alteri world who didn't know whether their planet was going to have to be destroyed in order to prevent the Carthons from gaining access to the stellar network. The subjects are psyons who are weighing whether they want to disseminate the information that the world might be about to end. 

Her rhythm and meter are just this side of perfect, though it may be difficult to tell for someone not otherwise familiar with the medium. She seems to have hundreds of lines memorized, assuming she's not just making it up as she goes along.