"It makes for quite a lot of notes you need to look over on a new person to be sure they're up to spec. You shouldn't make any yourselves."

"Wouldn't dream of it. I wouldn't know where to begin, in a myriad of ways."

"I'm pleased to hear it."

Neither of them have much response to that; they just keep walking and watching whatever there is to see along the way.

When they no longer seem to be steering the conversation to their own points of interest, Miriqua summarizes the laws of the civilization spanning the nearest rounds - commonsense things like not murdering, previously mentioned things like not making people without proper procedure, and a few oddball things like not taking more food than you're actually going to eat and not misrepresenting your skills and interests.

None of that sounds like they're liable to get arrested over a misunderstanding, though they'd like to know exactly how soon you have to eat the food after you take it.

"What sort of government enforces these laws? Is it elected, or does each ruler create their own successor?"

"You don't actually have to eat it all, if you bring home a head of lettuce to make salad and only get around to half of it before it goes bad you won't be in trouble. It's even all right to take an extra sack of grain in case you get sick any time in the next centispan and don't have a chance to go get groceries then. What you can't do is take the abundance created by the civilized and responsible creation of proles and then turn it into trade goods with foreign rounds, or set yourself up as a purveyor to look productive when you're only handing out what you took in the first place," Miriqua explains. "Take food for yourself, for your houseguests, for the week or the month, just don't hoard it or sell it."

"The people made for ruling discuss the traits of the next generation of rulers whenever it's time to add to it, and then they come to a consensus on their traits and create new ones. It's not a single ruler; if that single ruler got sick we'd be in trouble, and they don't make power-hungry despots who are going to have a hard time sharing and delegating authority."

"A sort of hereditary parliament. Fascinating! If the rulers cannot reach a consensus on some question of policy, what person or procedure is the final arbiter?"

"They then vote, with the newer members so long as they are in good standing having more highly weighted votes as the senior members should expect their interests and values to have been represented in how they were made, and as the new members will have had less time to drift from their design."

Nod nod. More walking, and looking around, and listening to Miriqua explain whatever she feels like explaining.

Eventually they reach another village on the farm round, this one slightly bigger. People are coming and going on bicycles in all directions. There is a tall building with a pulley system for a large manually operated elevator on one side; at the top, apparently weightless, several strange boatlike contraptions with large sails fanning out from their bodies are docked.

Watson gestures at the elevator and the ships. "So this is how we'll get to the other round? How curious."

"Is it? How would you do it?"

"I didn't intend to compare it to any other method; as I've said, the planet where I lived until appearing here is too large for any such thing. Is there air everywhere, or are there areas of very thin or absent atmosphere between rounds?"

"There's air between rounds, and wind, which allows for sailing. It looks like a clear day, fortunately."

"Yes, I expect the view will be quite something."

"Does the city I mentioned sound like a good place for you, shall I go ahead and book passage?"

"I expect so." "Yes, please do."

And she goes and performs whatever nonmonetary ritual is associated with this, and comes out again. "I can begin to teach you the basics of the local vernacular if you would like while we're waiting to board."

"Yes, that would be excellent."

Miriqua starts. She doesn't introduce writing at this time; all the signage they can see is in the very complicated not-Chinese-but-about-that-involved character set.

They're both very attentive and one of them has an eidetic memory; they learn fast.

Then soon they'll be able to introduce themselves, ask for directions, indicate which items they want in points of distribution, ask for help, and ask people to wait for their translator.

All useful things to know! Holmes starts deducing the occupations or lack thereof of people nearby and using them as a springboard to solicit more vocabulary.

She describes and translates those occupations when she can confirm or refute his guesses.