Well, she's Imperatrix Isabella and she's happy to invite them in where they can talk to her and also Matirin and hear all about it. She understands entirely about the delay but she's so glad they're here, Earthlings are quite enthralled by Andalites, everyone will be so glad to have visitors. Come in, come in, would you like to acquire these convenient humans and try human morphs? You'll need to wear clothes in such morphs as a matter of local custom (she adds, lowering her voice so the retinue doesn't hear).

A few of them will try human morphs. Everyone else is still a little twitchy. Some people mutter questions - how does she know so much about Andalites, what has Matirin been doing, why didn't anyone report back after the war, what has she been told - but go silent on a single-eye glance from their commanders, who are not asking any questions of the humans, who seem lovely.

Humans are acquirable. Have some clothes. They work like this. Feel free to help yourself to any of the comestibles, Bella recommends the almond cookies particularly. There's a lawn with a few benches to accommodate humans and human-shaped people right this way that will make a suitable conference room, if they'll just follow her. She hopes they had a pleasant trip?

They did. They fail to properly appreciate being offered a lawn-conference-room because it does not occur to them humans might usually do anything else. They are impressed with humans; this is a nice setup for such a primitive species.

(Comestibles: wow. This suffices as an hour's distraction.)

There is easily an hour's worth of comestibles. If any of the Andalites who didn't try morphing human would like to do so now, they do still have lots of people willing to be acquired around.

They should probably get a full account of the war and the conduct of the Andalites present here before they get distracted, but very kind of her. 

Matirin asks to deliver this account privately. He walks off with the commander of the new arrivals; they brush against each other comfortably.

Bella leaves them to that.

They are at it for a while. Everyone else walks around and tries comestibles and try making noises with their mouths. 'Bella' is pretty pronounceable; by 'Isabella' they have trouble getting all the sounds out straight ('isela', 'ibisella' 'ibibella') and 'Imperatrix' is fascinatingly difficult.

The commander comes back and fetches a few other people off to talk.

Bella will indulgently coach them on pronouncing things. If they manage "Imperatrix Isabella" they can start trying Chinese phonemes!

<I have just been asked,> he reports <if there is any way to just take all the technology away and forget it ever happened.>

Bella can't reply by thoughtspeak without morphing and doesn't want to startle the Andalites. Presumably he already knows: there really really is not. That would go beyond "logistical nightmare" all the way to "you would have to actually be magic".

He does know that; he sounds amused and frustrated, not 'contemplating trying it'.

He leads with the news of their losses: these Andalites all died honorably in the war, and have been avenged. And then with the news you can kill Yeerks but not humans by irradiating the planet: perhaps there are other worlds where the Andalites could deploy that strategy, or refine it to be even better-targeted. Earth nations happened to already have enormous nuclear arsenals.  Most planets that could be approached in this manner do not have nuclear technology yet, so the Andalites should develop a nice refined way to do it. Such a clean victory.

Yes, it is odd that humans had abundantly more nuclear weapons than needed to irradiate their entire planet. Humans have only recently grown out of a violent and savage past - but that was a chapter in Andalite history, as well, yes? He believes that humans with time and guidance will become as wise and good as Andalites. (Earth: surprisingly advanced; he is leaning on that somewhat aggressively because it will permit them to minimize the magnitude of the leak if they are so inclined.) Humans already had primitive computing, which they were improving with all the enthusiasm of an early-computing-era civilization and the nearly unprecedented industrial base. They had dreadful computer security, such that the Andalites could easily acquire all the resources they needed, after which the Andalites secretly installed better security protocols so the Yeerks could not similarly take advantage.

They only flinch a little when he makes that claim: it bends the law, but does not break it. If they knew his method was 'release a lot of cryptography papers and keep breaking into their systems and explaining how until they adopted better ones' it would be a disaster, but they can assume he achieved it some other way. 

He is not going to be able to talk around the fact there were human collaborators during the war and are voluntary hosts now, and that is the most potentially disastrous of the secrets he is standing on, so he introduces that one first. Gently. Deficient humans sometimes want Yeerks to help them redress their deficiencies; it is a symbiotic relationship, and the Yeerk cannot use the host to target others. Humans are a primitive species but not a weak or a naive one and will react badly if the Andalites try to disrupt their symbiotic relationships. And there are enough deficient humans that any Yeerk trustworthy with a voluntary host could be given a human one, a solution clearly preferable to Yeerk genocide.

(They nod. He is relieved.)

And then he tells of the Yeerk decision to destroy Earth. Nothing could be stronger proof that Earth must be made to thrive; the Yeerks saw that it would be an unstoppable Andalite ally and were ready to see it reduced instead to ashes. He tells of the desperate mission to destroy the Pool and Blade ships, of the success thanks to the Yeerk Resistance who admired the superior wisdom and goodness of the Andalites, came to their aid, and sought their guidance. He tells of how the Resistance proved themselves sincere in this desire, and how the Andalites agreed to guide them, and how they all had voluntary hosts now whose ongoing cooperation was confirmed every three days, and were imprisoning all the other Yeerks in their Moon-based Pool. 

This, too, goes over reasonably well.

And then he confesses that he betrayed the laws of Seerow's Kindness, seeing the humans slowly dying of cancer and knowing it in his power to save them with the decoy one-shot Escafil devices he had used for the Pool ship mission. He judged humans unworthy of a slow death of illness, after their valor in fighting back the Yeerks despite the technological supremacy of their foes. He judged them safe. It was not his judgment to make; he made it anyway. Humanity has morph.

This, of course, does not go over well. He stands with all eyes down and his tail curled around them and waits while they sputter in horror and confusion and what-will-we-tell-people - your decision, personally -

- yes, Matirin tells them, my decision, personally, known to no others until they saw it on the news. I acted unlawfully; I betrayed the trust of our people. 

(And they ask if it can be taken back, which he reports to Bella, and they pace and lash and worry and -)

<Had you died, I would keep this a secret, so your name would be remembered with honor. But you live.>

<Yes> Matirin says. <Would you have me seek my death in repentance?>

<It would be one way forward.>

<It will be ill-received on Earth; they trust and adore us, and believe that we can do no wrong and have done no wrong. The faith of Earth in the greatness of our people is important to me to preserve.>

<And will a trial preserve it?>

<The trial could be a secret. Greet Earth, supervise it from a distance, they are a good people ->

<Seerow thought ->

<I am not Seerow> says Matirin. <Has my judgment in people ever been in error?>

<...come home. We will decide what to do there.>

<Yes, Commander.>

(Bella smiles at the Andalites who are not party to this conversation. She is very admiring and friendly. She steps delicately through the topic of voluntary Yeerk hosts, she's pretending that Tide is only independent as far as humans are concerned but she's a human so she can refer to Sovereign Ristrell and reassure everyone about the consent protocols. Try the moon cakes.)

<Should all go over fine> he reports.

Good. Still can't answer without morphing.

The newly arrived Andalites would like to make some public statements. Matirin suggests that the Imperatrix help formulate those. 

The Imperatrix would be delighted to help formulate messages that will be maximally clear to human audiences! What do the Andalites want to say?

...Matirin's leaving. And they are going to park a few ships in orbit to supervise the supposedly-friendly Yeerks and ensure they do not stage a renewed attempt at conquest. And the human planet is lovely and they will enjoy their stay.

Oh, gosh, the humans will be so sad that Matirin is leaving. Where is he going. Will he be able to receive mail.

He is going back to the Andalite homeworld and should be able to receive mail just fine. 

People will want to know what he will be doing on the homeworld. He's very popular, you see, people will worry.

Does she have any suggestions on how to ensure that they don't worry too much.

Maybe Matirin should be the one to tell them that he's going and what he will be doing there. (Since Andalites can do no wrong, of course Bella does not imagine for a moment that what he will be doing is time.) That would help people feel better.

Also, Tide and Sovereign Ristrell have good reputations among humans (humans love rebels winning victories against evil empires, Josefa's very photogenic, and Ristrell pulled the trigger against Visser Three, who was responsible for the Atlantic attack) so while humans would love love love Andalites to hang out and do tourism and eat food and pet zoo animals and be present as defensive reinforcement, it will certainly go better if they say they're there in case the Empire sends forces, rather than if their Tidal friends turn on them. Anyone who's worried about Tide will certainly be able to make the inference that the Andalite presence will be just as good for defending against Tide as the Empire.

She encourages them to list their favorite things about Earth. Especially if the lists will include some things that aren't food; humans like to think they're a little more well-rounded.

They take these suggestions seriously. Matirin can explain that he is leaving, and they can make an appearance to announce they will be defending Earth and Tide against the Yeerk Empire.

They have not seen much of Earth yet; would she like to impress them with some things they can mention during later interviews?

Of course! They can go on a tour! Here's Malawi. She's very proud of Malawi. Here are pretty landscapes, particularly grassy ones. Here's the Hork-Bajir preserve. (Try a maple candy.) Here is some of the prettier human architecture. Do any of them like estreen performances, because that's starting to become popular on Earth too and she can recommend one in particular which has recently gone from Internet video to live shows (and should be real fuckin' impressive from the perspective of people with about a quarter of Andi's morph capacity). Here are some movies which shouldn't require too much cultural context. (Popcorn is traditional. So's soda.) Here is Earth music.