But if they do that then everything will be a strange alien version of itself instead of the familiar empire!

Well, atrocities against bird people will stop. Is that essential to the character of the empire?

Whatever they'd have to go through to stop them might be!

That's why they want local advice, so they can preserve as much of the good about the empire as possible but stop the atrocities.

...dithers and frets past the end of Isabella's range.

"That's all I wanted to check. Thank you very much."

Kiss. "You're welcome, lovely. Need any help with your refugee?"

Kiss. "Might be worth it, he seemed fragile -" 

So what happens if Maitimë does whatever she's planning to do with the refugee -

She's planning to bring him a tray of food and sit quietly while he eats it and then ask him about the terraforming plans.

He's very confused that his rescuer wants to talk about terraforming and doesn't much care for the look of the alien food, either.

And if she gets Cam to make him food from his world, and makes it clear that she's mostly wondering what he wanted to achieve by leaving -

Cam raises an eyebrow about being summoned twice in close succession, reminds her that you should really batch anything he can't do remotely - the ex-stratocrat eats the food and mumbles about an independent nation with an alien philosophy named after some alien individual as a guiding principle.

She looks up that guy.

Dead philosopher! Wrote a lot of impenetrably dense crap about the correct relations of parts of the state!

Sigh. She does not bother her refugee. She looks up all the extant stratocrats instead, reads their works, thinks.

Books some of Isabella's time tomorrow.

Isabella and takeout sushi are available!

"Okay. I think there are a few people who if summoned to their Empress's palace by otherworldly magic to witness her resignation will then do what they're told, a couple who will require supervision, a couple who will also need to be encouraged to resign. In the mood to be Empress of Atarale?"

"Do you mean will I precog the current Empress of Atarale for you or do you mean do I want to receive Atarale as a present."

"The latter! The former I insist on, I booked you."

Snort. "I will want to read more about Atarale, but probably."

"I have very comprehensive notes for you!"

"Marvelous, send 'em to me." Smooch. "What am I looking at today?"

"Couple 'you are resigning' convos with the Empress and then the ones with the ministers who are likely to require persuading -"

So Isabella spaces out and transcribes transcriptions.