Well, far be it from Urru to criticize these people, but obviously this is the worst form such an interface could take.

"Seemed like a big opportunity for career advancement." She speaks with a noticeable accent and slightly stiltedly.

"...how's that working out for you so far?"

Oh, come on. The humans can get away with using that euphemism without being mocked about it. "Very great, thank you."

The minister, meanwhile, is trying not to smile and almost entirely succeeding.

"I am somewhat concerned that you have been coached and/or threatened into producing a glowing review but I'm not actually looking for one of those."

"Whatcha looking for?"

"I want to know - why there is a particular interfacing job to be done between humans and lurkers, what would happen by default without one and if whatever that is is bad, what would be better, as opposed to, uh, an institution called 'Extreme Labor' which appears to do hereditary slavery in an unconvincing paper hat."

First of all what in green tarnation is a radical reformer like this doing hanging out in the minister's office? Could be a trap. She's not sure, though. And, well, he might not be human, and he's definitely not local.

"...Lurkers try to live in Haven City since outside Haven City is dangerous. And sometimes lurkers break laws or do not understand things."

"Are there specific laws, specific things that are hard to understand, which are more a problem for lurkers than for humans?"

There wouldn't be if humans were held responsible for glubs and crocadogs but that's not a productive train of thought, now, is it.

"Yes, lots."

"What are those?"

"Lots of lurkers do not read or talk or know what a law is."

"Should I even be thinking of lurkers as a group, here, or are you just a bunch of species some of whom are animals and some of whom are people who don't have a lot of interests in common with the former?"

She can't answer that in a way that will both help an alien reformer and not get her in trouble. She hesitates.

"...Oh, not if you believe them when they say we're all animals. - And not everyone speaks -" She could leave it at that, it would be safe-ish to leave it at that and very dangerous to not... "- the same language the humans do. You hear I have an accent?"

"Yes, though I wasn't sure if that was because it's your second language or because your mouth is shaped differently."

Well then. He's almost definitely legit if he's willing to admit she speaks another actual language.

"Both. And yes. We don't have much in common."

"Okay. How many people-species of lurkers are there and what are they and which kind are you?"

"I am not sure what you think is a person and how you count species. I am a babak."

"Are there edge cases who are smart but not enough to speak - what's your language called - or are the edge cases able to speak and just not too bright -"

"It's Atalu. Atalu is not the only lurker language. Most babaks can speak it or something else. Not all but I know that happens to humans too, that some are just not as smart as others. I don't know who is our species to you, there are some we can have children with but the children can't have children - you probably think most of those are people, but maybe not the ones with wings. Those ones understand lots of words but - lots like hundreds and they don't make sentences bigger than 'chase food'. Maybe you would think  there are three species of lurker people, I don't know. It's very easy to say I'm not a crawler but it's hard to say 'these species are the people'. It isn't like 'this is a human and this is a worm', you know?"

"Yeah, I get it, there are ambiguities like that in ecosystems I'm familiar with too. If the children can't have children then probably I'd consider them different species."

"Maybe five species of people, then."

"If it weren't for humans lumping you all together would you think of yourselves as a particularly close collection of species at all? Is there culture in common?"

"Dunno, they've been lumping us all together long enough there is now. Maybe we have as much culture in common as humans and moncaws? - Are you, uh, gonna get me out of here or are you gonna run out of questions and fly away."

"If you are concerned about retaliation or something I can bring you in particular with me when I leave but I am not actually ready to dismantle the entire mess today."

"...Wow, you don't even know what you've been asking for. In front of the minister. Yes I am very worried about that."

The minister makes a dismissive gesture and mutters, "I don't care."