"It's not, though the first's already on its way and the second will need a separate trip."

"Not bad. I want to swim for some time now. Will this be bad?"

"Not at all. Can you tell us when to expect you to want to talk more?"

"Not more than six hours. Most likely one or two."

"It seemed polite to wait for you to ask to speak to me again because this is not my land."

"There are a lot of us. If any of us have conflicting obligations, we can be rotated out. The scarce resource here is your time," says Amseli.

"There are very a lot of you yes. I will be back in one hour."

He starts to move to dive, but pauses.

"This is not my ocean. It's rude to hunt without permission I have already done that once. I apologize and I want to respect having of land. May I hunt again?"

"- what animals is it that you want to hunt?"

"I was foolish to hunt once without knowing enough about the ocean. I brought food and could have eaten it. I was excited. I can show the animal I hunted by thinking?"

"Yes, please. Some of them are scarce, but others it won't matter even if you take a lot."

He calls up the memory and gently shares it. It's some kind of large-bodied scavenger fish.

She describes the fish to the people around her; one of the greys pipes up, "That's a garbage fish, there's no limit on private catch."

Amseli says, "That means it's fine to eat plenty of those."

"I understand. Good. I want to learn about Amentan animals later. I will be back in an hour."

He swims out past the perimeter of boats a hundred meters down and dives deep after spending a few minutes hunting down another garbage fish. Down until it's pitch black and almost silent, the machinery of the boats muted by the low natural sound of the ocean. A nice, deep ocean is soothing and comforting, almost as good as flying. There's very little that air-breathers could do to him down here... Except for those underwater metal boats that aren't very near here, perhaps.

He's back after fifty minutes, seeming more relaxed if you understand Draak body language. There are so many of them that presumably someone is trying to figure it out. Moving more slowly and sinuously, feathers laid flat, tail curled. He looks at the nearest Amentan where he came up and has his silver rod say, "Hello."

"Hello," says the nearest Amentan, one of the grey boat crew, slightly taken aback.

He peers around, looking for any blue hair on this boat.

"I want to talk to Amseli or someone else again but I cannot tell Amentans apart well yet. Especially when swimming. There are very many Amentans here!"

(The simulated speech is very choppy, especially the last word being emphasized like that.)

This boat doesn't have any blues. "Amseli's that one," says the grey, pointing.

"Thank you."

Back over toward the boat that has Amseli on it he goes.

There's a gentle, gentle thought-nudge that just says Hello.

Hello again, says Amseli.

I'm excited to take apart a pocket everything! When will it arrive? There's a giddy excitement at the thought. Taking something apart and learning how it works is just awesome. But right now I'm sure you have many questions for me. Feel free to ask them. If I don't want to answer I will say so.

"The first one's here now!" She reaches into a box at her side and offers it to him. "The next one will be here in a few minutes. We'd really like to know more about how you got here, but if it gets very technical probably one of the greens should be the one to receive the explanation firsthand so it doesn't suffer for my translation."

He takes it carefully into his clawed hands, and starts inspecting it from all sides.

I would be happy to talk to anyone like this if they are willing, unless they are annoying, but the light-bridge is a very, very, very valuable secret. It is a Treasure of the greatest kind. (Burning pride, mixed with greed.) I find it difficult to imagine you can offer me something that is worth sharing it.

What kinds of things might be worthy of the information?

I don't know. Right now it would take something I have not imagined. When I learn more, the calculus will change. Perhaps I will be convinced Amentans will be valuable allies against other aliens. I don't know yet, I don't understand you. If it were so, the cost would be payable. We know other aliens than you exist, and they are all mysterious and powerful. You are not the only possible destruction, but one of many. That is why I am even entertaining the option of telling you instead of going home.

Are the other aliens all hostile?

Not universally. Not counting Amentans, of those I have contacted directly, three were confusing but benign, one was aggressive and expansionist, one might have been a rogue bioweapon but wasn't truly intelligent, and one might have been aliens or might have been a disease. I have seen evidence of at least five other kinds and suspect many more exist but have much less information about those.

Is there not enough space to be had for expansion?