"What did you do to them?"

"They were killed in the ensuing conflict."

"Good enough."

"It did make questioning them impossible, but yes."

"What did you want to learn from doing that?"

"I was a child at the time, so I wasn't party to the discussion."

"Ah, of course. Well, at least it's known that you killed them, that's some safety."

"...the Federation, that being the government which governs Earth and governed Vulcan, typically manages its reputation differently."

"Ah, where I'm from we use public executions to remind people of the imperial government's power. What would the Federation have preferred?"

"They would have preferred to arrest them, learn more about their motives and resources, and possibly extracted concessions from the Romulan government."

"The Romulan government? There's another secret civilization?"

"I don't believe the Romulans or any other non-Federation governments make a point of being secret, but there are really a lot of inhabited planets, not everyone will have run across yours."

"If they don't make a point of being secret they should've been detectable even if they never visited. It's not like no one's ever tried looking for other people."

"It's possible you're looking for the wrong kind of signals."

"Wrong how?"

"Civilizations proceed through various stages of technological development, and some of the communications technologies they often use at some stages leave signs that neighboring planets could pick up, but only for a relatively brief window. You might not have any neighboring civilizations who are in that window right now."

"Our knowledgeable people shouldn't need to rely on that, they should be able to see the people on other planets directly unless they're hidden."

"...the other planets with people on them are too far away to see by looking."

"...That's... very far. I didn't know there were things that far away."

"Well, they're usually around separate stars. Sometimes there will be life on two planets around one sun, but not usually."

"I know our knowledgeable people can see other stars. At least, they claim they can, they say they know how big they are and how much of their hydrogen is used up."

"It's possible to see stars and learn things from what color and brightness they are and how they move at a distance that won't let you see whether the star's planets are inhabited."

"...I guess I wouldn't know, I'm not a knowledgeable person. Are you?"

"My best guess about what you mean by 'knowledgable person' is a word that means the kind of person who studies things like stars and chemicals and life, is that right?"

"No, it's like... I'm an illusionist, see?" Something that might be some kind of hologram appears in front of her. It depicts twelve symbols. "You could care about illusions without being able to make them, you could read about stars without being the kind of person who can see the dark side of the moon, does that make sense?"