This is stupid. But this is your place. Yes. Fine. I wasn't planning to touch them, just talk to them and see the Enkindling-factors.

"All right. They'll be here this evening after all your patients are gone."

She de-springs people. She talks to geneticists about how springs work like every other day, but seems unusually irritable today.

Everybody tries to accommodate this, though one green suggests she could just come back tomorrow if Bloom is not in the mood to talk about how the this site on that chromosome affects this hormone.

My annoyance is unrelated to genetics and would not be improved by you leaving. Understanding of these mechanisms is not directly translatable to what I do but has given me more insight and I should keep learning.

So the green goes back to explaining.

And when it's down to Ruan and the security greys the truck of reds rolls up. There are two in the cab and three in the back. Their social worker follows on a scooter. "Do you need them to put the top down in the back?" she asks Ruan, who looks at Bloom.

Thin metal obscures things a bit but not very much. Either way.

She pads closer to the truck, a bit uncomfortable at the smell of fuel and oil.

Hello, she tells those inside.

One of the ones visible in the cab startles, curling in on himself. The other, an old lady, waves tentatively, not quite making eye contact.

This feels wrong. Amentans this terrified are an unusual sight.

She addresses only the older one, stronger in Earth. Hello. I have not seen any reds before. I am not here to hurt anyone. Why are you so afraid?

The old lady opens her mouth, then closes it, thinking.

- can you hear me? Is this how people talk to you?

Yes. If you speak aloud or intend to talk like you just did, your meaning appears in the Song.

I've heard you really don't like it when people lie to you.

I think maybe you should not ask questions where, if the clean people heard what we'd told you, they would be angry with us, if some things were true.

'I do not want to tell you' is fine. 'This is a secret' is also fine, if the fact that a secret exists is not also bad. But... That very concept is worrying.

The reds don't answer. The ones who can see her look at her warily.

It's clear to me that you are all as people-like as any other, your minds shine in the Song, but you act as though one false step would see your Destruction.

I don't like it. It feels like destroyed eggs. Everyone should have a chance. 

Still no response, still nervous reds. Their social worker is still sitting on her scooter, glancing up now and then from her pocket everything.

She rests her head on the concrete, staring at the truck.

I don't know what would anger them. Many Amentan things make little sense. I would appreciate hearing anything you might tell me, or answer questions you might ask. If you wish for me to sing nothing of what we discuss, I intend to be silent about it.

They might ask, says the old woman. Not answering would be strange. It would be best for us if you told them we were boring and inoffensive. Since you won't lie that means we have to be boring and inoffensive.

Her tail swishes angrily exactly once, then stills again.

This is not right.

I will do my best to make you seem uninteresting.

Thank you.

You must all be stong in Earth indeed to endure when thinking like that is necessary. 

I want to change it. I don't know how, or what a good change would look like, and a failed attempt would be far worse than being still. So I will do nothing. Such is the nature of Earth.

The ones in the cab look at each other, then back at her.

I will be silent for a few minutes so I can truthfully say I spent most of the time just looking.

And she does. Eventually she looks at Ruan.

"All done?" he asks.

Yes. They can go. Thank you for arranging this, it was informative.