"I expect the engineers will be interested in that," she reports. "Do you have an idea of what you'd want in return?"

“We'll be happy to sell goods and services after working out an exchange rate, but in terms of what other worlds may have that we don't, we're most particularly interested in ways to improve quality of life, like healing and life extension, and teleportation or faster-than-light travel, though previous attempts to import those have failed.”

"We have FTL; I don't know if it will work for you if other kinds haven't. Force effects don't extend lifespan very much beyond what other healing technology offers, but we might be able to treat some things you can't. We also have kolto, a liquid that dramatically improves natural healing. And droids - autonomous robots that can do various kinds of work."

“We'll certainly be interested in kolto, then.”

She nods. "What kinds of healing technology do you have?"

She can explain the state of medical technology! Though this has somewhat more air of reciting from the encyclopedia than most previous remarks.

(They're very good at surgery, wound protection, and broken bones due to their unique advantage; they have almost no synthetic drugs, and the natural-product ones are as limited as the average single-planet civilization.)

They have synthetic drugs, and a much wider range of natural ones, and cloning for organs, and robotic prostheses that may or may not be of any particular interest given givens.

"You only have humans?"

“Within our solar system, yes, and we have no evidence of, and some evidence against, intelligent life elsewhere.

“This is one of the regularities of Milliways — most worlds have humans, they may or may not also have nonhumans, and many have absurdly similar histories despite their differences.”

"What kinds of similarities? Humans are the most common species in my world but not overwhelmingly so unless you count near-humans with us."

“Histories that are identical in most major events and many details down to the popularity of celebrities in a given year — despite having unique ‘magic’ or other differences that should perturb everything. Even many worlds that aren't that similar have strong parallels — different things that are filling the same role.

“And also, no matter how different a world is, there are often individual people — popularly called 'alts' — that are recognizably ‘the same person’ despite many other differences, even species.”

"That's very strange." She glances back at the door, and then turns to check the bar.

A few people have entered or left while they've been talking.

But nobody in recognizable clothes. Maybe they're having trouble finding someone to send, this time of night. She shrugs and turns back to Teytis. "We're in the middle of a war; the generals might want to coordinate with other people fighting the same one."

“If your planet isn't an ‘Earth’, that being the common name of the origin of humans — or your war isn't entirely on it — then it's unlikely that your war is part of the most common history, but you still might meet people from worlds similar to your own — an alt of yourself, even.”

“I'm sorry to hear that you are at war. What sort of enemy do you face?”

"Sith, another kind of Force sensitive. Twisted and cruel."

“Twisted? Do you mean their character, or their origin?”

"Both, I suppose. More the former."

She types a few things and erases them without having the pad read them out. "It's upsetting to think about, sorry. The Force isn't supposed to be used that way. I'm not sure if they're deranged to start with or if it makes them that way."

“I won't ask further, then. But you might well find aid in your war here, likely in more surprising form than soldiers and materiel.”

She nods. "I don't know much about it, logistically - MedCorps isn't closely involved - but I'm sure they'll send someone soon who does."

“—by default, time won't pass outside the bar while the door's shut. If you want to bring anyone else you have to hold it open until they arrive.”

"-oh."

"I suppose that explains it."

“Many people use the time to take a break from the urgent things in their life — or to collect resources before they return.”

She nods. "Is there somewhere to sleep?"

“There are rooms for rent from Bar. You're also allowed to sleep here or in the outdoors area, but you might be disturbed.”

"I should ask about that before I do very much else. Did you have any more questions for me?"