"Uh - Hemaka, do you have anything handy you'd expect to hold for a blue centaur alien, you're the only one of him we've got around -"

" - I'm not sure. I like adrenaline sports? I have eight younger siblings, three of them full siblings. When I was fourteen I had my arm cut off for a week because I got in an argument about whether the criminal penalties for stealing were proportionate. I can't always tell if my husband's lying to me but I can always tell when he's lying to himself, which is more useful. His father doesn't like me."

"Findekáno has only three siblings - Maitimo, you should meet his, check which ones - and is good at blessing design which is a sort of computer programming for the chips we run our minds on, and, uh, has never had any limbs removed because that's not a thing we do... Fëanáro has mellowed somewhat towards him over time but it's still a matter of benign neglect..."

"My father's never said anything against Kan except that it's a shame earlier life choices of mine made me unlikely to date green. He has two siblings."

"Three siblings. My mother abandoned her to die, once, so there's that."

<...say more about that?>

Oh no. Uh, our world had an evil god, he spent a long time arranging for my people to be on the brink of a civil war and then killed the King and stole some important magic stuff and fled, we followed him, there were some disputes over the succession, there was a bloody fight over the ships we needed to reach the other continent, my cousin helped us with that fight and was betrayed, afterwards, to learn we'd been the ones to start it - she kept following us - there weren't enough ships to take everyone to the other continent. My mother arranged for her loyalists to go first. When she reached the other side, she burned the ships. They were stranded with no way to follow us except crossing the northern ice, which took them years, lots of people died.

<That's very interesting.>

I'm so sorry. 

<Matirin didn't know.>

Of course not. I - I tried to stop her. It didn't work.

<Did you win your war?>

Not really. It's a long story.

"I got a dud of a Maitimo so I don't know if describing the Findekáno I know will be helpful at all."

<I think this is very interesting but it doesn't incline me to share much secret information about the war. Maybe if you end up participating in it?>

"Brain parasites sound very bad but this is sort of what we were worrying about when considering whether to look for more worlds, winding up with more problems than we have tools. Is there anything that's more costly in material objects or breaking the laws of physics than in logistics effort or design labor that you guys need?"

"We could also just talk to Matirin, if the crystal ball doesn't run down when we contact cooperative people we can always circle back."

<The Andalite high command could almost certainly use more ships. You could help us gear up factories faster? But it's not an emergency, we are at present winning the war.>

"If we get back to you after talking to Matirin there's a way to resist contact we'd be obliged if you'd not do so we can stay on the same page about whatever goes on."

<All right.>

Belmarniss almost says something and then doesn't.

And she lets the blue centaur alien fade. 

"Maybe all they weren't saying is that Matirin's on an important mission?"

"...standing in a field?"

"She said telepathying him is safe. She wouldn't have said that without caveat if he were doing something sensitive unless blue centaurs have the equivalent of a lot of attention blessings."

 - nod.