<Do I just put you back in the jar for now?> She's imagining picking him out of her ear like earwax.

He can show her a slightly more graceful way to arrange that. <And then hand the jar back.>

She jars him and hands him back over. Then she rubs at her ear with a corner of her apron.

She can have the computer if she wants.

And either way, then the aliens will head in slightly the wrong direction for the shuttle and wait to see if the locals leave.

She will take the computer! She starts playing with it while her husband gathers up all the kindling he dropped.

It has the videos she saw before, and a few others - including some live-action footage of an alien reef and some cartoon representations of math concepts of varying complexity and abstraction - and besides the videos there's a calculator that doesn't know the local math notation, a translator that doesn't know any local languages, a clock that doesn't know what time zone this is, a timer, a camera, an audio recorder, and an app that can name most plants and animals local to any of three different alien planets if told which of those planets it's on. There has never been anything sensitive on this computer or even anything that might give more than a very vague hint about the broader galactic political situation, but even if there were, it would probably be in Galard.

She's happy with her acquisition! She brings it with her to go back to fence-checking. That evening they tell their friends about their adventure over dinner.

Meanwhile, Garren 177 reports back on the planet and then starts teaching the computers Shuna's language.

It's a weird planet and the humans - well, obviously they didn't evolve, so they're probably created somehow. Figuring out who set it all up and if they're still around goes somewhere on the to-do list. They have a serious but ill-informed debate about how likely it is that that person is still around and likely to interfere here, and if so, what that person's goals might be. It seems like it's not a planet made by a loving creator.

They want servantmakers. They want humans, regardless; their hands and eyes and ears are all pretty good, and they're a convenient size, and they can probably breathe the air of at least half a dozen other planets. But they specifically want servantmakers.

They have a discussion about who might be able to charm the locals and plan out how to handle their next interaction and... next they wait to see if the locals might come back later or send someone else to come look around. At least for a while. If a day passes and nothing happens then they'll try something else.

One of the kids from the farm is there! He's spinning - he has an automaton handheld spinning device, actually - and hanging out where the aliens were last seen!

Garren 177 is borrowing a host and can come say hello. Gedd mouths aren't great at this language, but he can make himself understood.

"- hi! You're back!"

"We are. We talked with each other and decided we want to invite some humans to partner with us."

"Like you want to hire them?"

"Yes. Very much like that."

"Hire them to do what?"

"To let us borrow their hands or make servants for us. We could take them to the stars and introduce them to other aliens or give them things that show movies and do math."

"Like the one Shona has? It's pretty neat. I think servantmakers need materials though and they need money to buy those?"

"Yes, like that. We don't have your money yet but I bet we can get some, don't you think?"

"Probably, yeah! Servantmakers'll live in the city, not out here."

Nod. "We might want to have human partners just for talking to them. If people in the cities would be startled to see us." And because they'll want to judge humans' reactions with the help of a human brain.

"They would be, yeah. Shuna might go except it's lambing season soon... they could probably spare me if you pay them back later?"

"I think we can pay you back. You're interested? What sort of personality do you think you'd be able to get along with?"

"Huh. I guess I never really thought about it. I like Shuna, she's the one who picked me out of the creche."

"I wonder if you'd get along with Rellis 786. Seems worth a try." That's one of the people specifically selected for being nice and endearing and bad enough and the nuts and bolts of host control and information-gathering to make them seem nonthreatening, and he has a certain sense of wonder in common with Shuna. "How much would you and your household want for that?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe - hm - how long?"