"A law that prohibits the sharing of technology seems onerous and ill-conceived, to be sure."

"You're worried the Andalites will go after the people who helped her? We'd have more grounds to push back against that."

"- I'm not worried about the Andalites, I'm worried about how they'll fare when they face judgment. Assuming you need us for both plane shifts and interplanetary teleports, which it sounds like you do."

"When we face what now? Look, if you can't take me can you take Eskillimi, I'll pay her way and she won't have to reconstruct anything -"

"Is that even better, if I'd never see you again -"

"There's not too much of a rush to work out details, I don't even know the options at the moment if all these people are really raring to join some strangers' war -"

"I mean, I assume if he's in favor of a war he's got an impressively good reason, wars are awful. - do we in fact uniformly share that opinion -"

"I think so."

Aaron walks back in with Susannah and Kitty.

"It's a perfectly good war and I encourage you to go kill lots of Yeerks insofar as that's strategic and everything but I don't know that it can reasonably need every last one of your planets yet not need them so badly that they can't overlook me teaching you to make lightbulbs. They aren't secret, military lightbulbs - hello -"

"Hello. Secret military lightbulbs?"

"I'm attempting to commit treason," Ismea says.

"Am I that bad at explaining things -"

"Only when you're really angry. Did something happen -"

"Not recently."

"It's me, she just wants to get me offplanet," says Eskillimi softly. "- I should acquire somebody who's me, when I demorph, instead of being a Miranda-Minor hybrid for no reason."

"I've appreciated the peek at what our kids might wind up looking like but that does seem reasonable."

"Acquire?"

"Oh, uh, Andalites can shapeshift, but we need to touch what we want to turn into. So since I'm you it would make sense for me to turn into you. Right?"

"Sure... why do you need to get off your planet?"

"Because hiding me is a lot of work but it seems like all the places you're all from you can just hire people to help instead?"

"In your world you can't do that?"

"Oh, no."

"If this is really angry I'm probably just really angry all the time."

"What would happen if you tried to hire someone?"