"I don't personally have a lot of trade goods, but the Federation my people belong to might be interested. They avoid contact with people who don't have warp but it's anyone's guess whether magical portals would bypass that requirement."

The kobold nods. "Aster's civilization has warp, or at least something like it. If they don't want me around we can figure something out."

"If they have something that's equivalent to warp that should pass muster."

"Sounds good. I can bring them directly to your traders with enough information to find the place - the name will probably be enough."

"Hm - do you want the government or just some commercial-scale traders?"

"We can talk to the government if they'd want us to."

"I think they'd be interested but I don't know if you want that much formality."

"Aster doesn't. I wouldn't mind meeting them, probably."

"Starfleet Headquarters has the people who administer the people who do first contact and it's on Earth in San Francisco."

"Oh, Earths are easy, I should be able to find that no problem."

"Earths?"

Another nod. "Lots of universes have Earths. Even more have humans. Nobody knows why."

"That's bizarre. What can you tell me about that?"

"It's not that unusual for things to repeat, between universes - Earths are unusual for how common they are, but most planets will have a duplicate somewhere if you check. Cultures and languages repeat, too, and people. They're usually not identical, but they're very close - it's sort of like there's a default thing that Earths are like, and then most Earths have one or two changes from that, like magic or a plague or being in the past or the future or something."

"Is this - unusually late for an Earth?"

"Mmhmm."

"I'm trying to figure out what the prospects are of getting broader trading opportunities than the one you happened to have in mind when you arrived."

"I wouldn't mind keeping an eye out for things for you."

"I'm mostly thinking in terms of scale, not in number of options, does that make sense?"

"People who're letting their world know about other worlds are rarer, but I can let them know about you, sure."

"Is there a reason that's rare?"

"It's a lot of work to really do anything with it, and there's a risk that people won't believe you or won't react well. Plus other worlds can be dangerous. That's why I'm not introducing mine to anyone."

"I'd certainly like to know how to mitigate the risks insofar as that's possible without completely sleeping on the opportunities."

"It's not something I've thought about much."

"Why not?"