...what do they want for the tranquilizer and how can they be sure it's what they say it is.

An amount of metal, pricier than the usual souvenirs but not obviously scammy. They'll test it on a volunteer, this merchant's assistant right here will volunteer and be fine after an hour.

Sure, if they can pick a dose out of the whole lot for the test and their orange can inspect the volunteer.

They'll load a dose into a bone needle right in front of them. What would they be inspecting?

Whether the patient is faking.

What! Why would they be faking! That would be dishonest! ...Hmph. Very well, just don't hurt him okay? (The patient tells the merchant to stop the show and just get on with it, please.)

They pick out a dose and the orange tries the standard tricks to check for consciousness that work on Amentans and most animals, like shining light in their eyes and pinching their fingernail a bit.

He's either out like a light or real good at pretending. He bites suddenly at one of the checks, but the merchant says that's a reflex.

Huh, okay, they'll buy.

Good. He carefully carries the patient into a backroom to recover. How much do they want? They can get a steady supply with the Star Bay Town's secret recipe!

They'll take a few gallons to start and see if there's any issues with getting it into their style of tranq gun. Also, heads up, they are in serious talks with their leaders about organizing a planetwide end to slavery, and these nice folks might want to sell theirs on or free them before they get caught in that.

Pfft, an end to slavery? Good luck with that. Not that they have any slaves.

Up to them! But they have very much superior logistics capacity so they expect to win any fights they start over whether slavery should be a thing. Good day!

They issue tranqs to people, though they don't take back anybody's rifles, and prefer the tranqs as a first line.

Star Bay thinks Dwellin will unify to preserve Dwellin values if it comes to that!

Tranqs are not as effective at getting the aliens to back off, but the backup rifles still work for hard cases.

The diplomat from Three Bells explains how things work there, and informs his blue counterpart when they receive orders to move their fleet out.

"There is a limited window of opportunity for a raid on a pirate faction, the Three Kills. Originally deserters. There is some resentment here. There is a chance that another clique could sense weakness and raid the city, but we are preparing for that as well."

"Do you need help securing the city?" asks the ambassador.

"We don't expect any trouble with that. The threat would be opportunistic, and most of our precautions are calling the militia for readiness, where everyone reviews their duties in case of alarm and keeps their armor near them. It also includes heavily increased scouting. But we thought you would want to be aware in case any Amentans wished to leave just in case."

"We can have a shuttle on standby and let some nonessential personnel go, thank you for the heads up."

"Thanks accepted. We expect to hear back about the naval results in about six days, and the fleet shouldn't take longer than twelve days to return unless things go very wrong. We don't want to strain our relationship by asking for military aid, but intelligence aid from eyes in the sky would be very pleasing."

They can do that, sure, here's some photos.

Excellent. He'll want to follow up on buying radio equipment later, but it's too late to get it and get the crews trained on it now. They can talk to him any time with any concerns!

Overall Dwellin sentiment about the Amentans is cautiously positive. A common thought is that if the Amentans turn out to be evil, Nature will help them fight the resulting war.

Two days later, an unusual person walks down the street in Three Bells, a flame hovering above their head the whole time. People get out of their way and the gossip spreads quickly about how a nature-studier is checking on the Wells today.

Ooh, what's a nature-studier? asks an emplaced scientist who is trying to catalogue plants.

Someone kind of like the green! Except more... God-ish. With a kind of intuition for what nature wants and the attention of at least one god.

The green will hustle out to the Wells.

There are half a dozen Wells spread out around the city. The first one they try doesn't have her, the second one they try says she just left, he catches up to her on the way to the third, staring straight ahead as she walks silently.