Leareth will consider it; he expects he would consider satellites a very appropriate trade, here, but it's not urgent to make a final decision since he can't reassign mage-time to the Gate until they've won the war anyway. 

(He's pretty concerned about what the gods of Velgarth would do about this, but on the other hand, the Andalites were able to fly their ship around without interference; maybe the gods just aren't powerful enough to interfere on that scale, and satellites dropped directly in orbit would evade Their influence entirely? And if They do interfere, well, that's also informative, and might get him some more support from the Andalites in fighting Them directly.)

Once he's finished his many, many meetings on the war and on how Velgarth's magic can be combined productively with Andalite tech, and the initial tech-sharing agreement is made official, he prepares to Gate back to Earth. Well, to Saturn's orbit; he'll send the robot through to transmit a nice loud signal requesting that the same ship return and wait for them, and the next day he ought to be able to Gate directly inside it, though of course he should use the robot again to check there's a ship there and not just vacuum. 

Are any Andalites coming back with him? 

There are a bunch of Andalites interested in going to Velgarth or Earth for business or tech-sharing purposes; Matirin and Nerefir's delegation are also going to come back.

Leareth informs them that they'll need to be fast, going through; it'll be much easier once a permanent Gate is invented and built, but for now he needs to personally provide all the energy for this one and it's very tiring to hold for long.

He gets the routing more efficient for the tiny preliminary message-Gate, though, and it's not too exhausting. By the next morning he's fully rested and ready. 

A robot confirms that there is a ship in the right place.

Then they can all hurry across the Gate into the ship.

It takes longer than the last time, more people have to cross, and Leareth makes it across unaided after the last Andalite crosses and then, more drained than he'd realized, slumps to the floor. This is fine. He can dismantle his Gate while sitting there and then...stay there...presumably someone else will fly the ship back...

They sent the Dome ship to pick them up, rather than try to crowd large numbers into a shuttle; it can indeed head off to Earth without intervention from Leareth. Matirin hurries off to talk with Nerefir.

Leareth spends a while recovering, and then Mindspeaks Matirin. :Should I join you to check in with Nerefir about anything, or do you have that covered?: 

<Should be all set. I can be over in ten minutes to help you start introducing our Andalite researchers to people.>

:That sounds good, thank you:

He comes over about ten minutes later. There are Andalite biologists and sociologists who want to do research on Earth, and Andalite business owners who want to explore the possibility of trade with Earth (there is not a tech-sharing agreement with Earth, but this doesn't rule out everything that might be of interest), and Andalite politicians who want to meet Earth ones. They have been warned that Earth is not a very developed civilization and that its food is very addictive. 

Leareth is delighted to meet them, and can share his impressions of Earth and Earth's politics and trade. He of course doesn't represent an Earth government but he's been spending a lot of time in discussions with Earth people.

He would also be happy to arrange for some Velgarth magical species to be transported over, so the biologists can study them too; Velgarth can be quite dangerous to operate in for people without magic and training in it, he says, and it's also costly to transport people back and forth constantly, but he would also at some point be open to hosting the Andalite researchers at one of his secure facilities there. 

The Dome ship stays in orbit but can shuttle them on down to Earth.

Leareth accepts a shuttle ride, less tiring than a Gate. He needs to check in with Mhalir first thing and discuss plans for the rest of the war, and then pick which of his researchers get morph - he picks Nayoki, of course, and a range of other people with advanced skill in various Gifts, and then he approaches Vanyel and asks if he'd be interested in officially joining the research team. 

"....And get morph? Ummm. Sure. I guess." 

"I think it would be very valuable for you. Particularly since you seem to have a high rate of getting injured." 

Vanyel just looks at him. 

"Also you are a very talented mage and I would like you as one of my researchers, though I understand you will sometimes have competing commitments to Valdemar." 

"No, I'm in. Just - surprised, I guess." 

"I care about you, and do not want you to get yourself killed doing something heroic in this war." 

Oh no now Vanyel is blushing. "Gods, you sound like my Companion." 

"Anyway. Would you like to meet with some Andalite researchers? They are visiting from the homeworld." He switches to Mindspeech. :We are avoiding giving them too thorough a tour of Velgarth, because Matirin - may have implied a somewhat higher technological level for the planet overall than is actually the case. Anyway, I have a tech-sharing agreement with them now and we will probably get satellites and Internet in Velgarth once the war is over and I can build them a permanent Gate in exchange. In the meantime, I am sure they would like to meet with you as well, just, be cautious what you say about Valdemar's tech level: 

Vanyel bobs his head. "Er, yes, of course." 

Leareth has a very large number of other commitments to schedule around, but can set up office hours where the Andalite visitors can meet with him and/or Vanyel and discuss whatever matters are of interest to them. 

<Hi! I'm Eskillimi, and my sister is Ismea, and we head up Filament, a lighting technology company,> says one of the Andalites. <Though it's very vertically integrated so we also have our fingers in mineral extraction and shipping and so on. It's nice to meet you.>

"I see. Welcome to Earth. I am curious how your lightning technology differs from the lighting humans on Earth already use?" Leareth leans back in his chair, folding his hands across his knees. "In Velgarth we tend to use mage-lights for artificial lightning, but there might also be interest in importing your products, since not all our polities have high rates of mage-gift for maintaining our infrastructure."