After a while longer, Imenrala knows enough of the language to try communicating some more complex ideas.

"Rian and Talu, what are your... tasks? roles? What do you do and who tells you what to do?"

Talu replies quickly.

“I’m the Home’s Administrator - I know the policies, people respect me, and I manage the supplies. I also make some choices about jobs and pay and emergencies and new buildings and whatnot - some of that is up to Council, there’s some, hm, debate on that. Generally if I suggest something, the Council agrees because I know what I’m doing and they know that, unless I really screwed something up. Rian normally gathers food-plants, but he’s the best at languages in our Home. I suppose I tell him what to do, in that if I need him to do something and ask, he will assume I have a reason and do it. I knew I wanted to be an Administrator when I was a child, and apprenticed under the former one, and then I was competent at it and became the new one when she died.”

”What are your own roles and jobs?”

"What exactly do you mean by 'Home'? It seems to refer to a settlement, but it sounds like there's more to it? How do you manage supplies? Do you manage supplies for the whole settlement?"

"Kalanit"—he points towards the robed woman—"and I are priests, Rokaidim and Paltigil"—the other man in fatigues—"are soldiers, and Alkiviad"—"is an officer. He works for the part of the government that is... probably supposed to handle portals to other worlds."

“Home refers to the large building where administration work is done, supples are stored, food is cooked and served, and the nursery is in - the types of things people can share and don’t need their own of. Generally it also refers to the surrounding buildings and land as well, though. Some places do multiple large buildings, and that gets more practical with higher populations. I keep track of the stores, make sure we’re not running out, tell people to get more of or use less of specific items if necessary (or the opposite), make trade deals, etc? For the entire Home, yes.

They make slightly confused expressions at the word “priests”, and tense significantly at the word “soldiers.”

”Is it. Customary. To bring raiders when opening diplomatic talks. For your people.”

Everyone seems pretty weirded out by Talu’s explanation of how the Homes work.

"Raider? To the best of my knowledge, the Union has done any raiding in five hundred years, at least. Soldiers would not usually attend diplomatic events, but this is not a usual diplomatic event." He talks quietly to Alkiviad for a few moments before continuing, "This group was not meant for diplomacy first, it was meant for exploration, and Alkiviad wanted to be prepared for multiple possibilities. He also says they did not bring any firearms."

They’re honestly a bit confused as to what these folks are doing, but, well, aliens! 

Talu and Rian both relax noticably, and Rian audibly sighs. Talu gets herself back under control much faster.

“Guards, then. That’s understandable. Can you clarify what a “priest” is?”

"Priests take an oath to... not make people think false things. That’s almost right, but I don’t have all the words I need. And they sometimes do jobs where having taken that oath makes them useful."

Talu blinks. “Do many of your adults… lie, about things that matter at all? Is that the word you want? Would that not mean that none could trust any of their words again? Or, are they forbidden to deceive through wordplay and omission, as well?”

"Lying is part of it, but the oath is about more than just lying. Most of the things most people say are probably not lies, but sometimes they do lie. And probably there would be more lies if priests didn’t do many of the jobs where people would benefit from lying."

“I… see.” 

“You seemed confused as to how Homes function - what do you do instead? Ah, is there a way to see if we can eat each other’s food, that you know of? You seem to have more experience with dealing with odd portals.”

"We don't have any experience, nothing like this has happened to our people before. They didn't eat your food because we don't know if we are the same... type of animal. Maybe your food is not safe for us. Probably we could get it tested, but we don't need to do that soon, we have our own food."

"In our world, most towns don't have as much communal stuff as you do. People have their own supplies, cook their own food, and usually their children live with them. They trade with each other for things too, like food sometimes. I don't know how much individual people trade with each other here."

“Huh! You seem very prepared for someone who it’s never happened to.”

“Oh, we do, mostly for luxuries and fun things, but sometimes for other stuff - if you don’t like a food and someone else does, you could trade that, or if you spend your free time making more clothes and want to trade those.”

"Who can we talk to that can speak for more people than just a Home? Are there central government people on the way here?"

“…if you want to talk to people from other Homes, you can do that over the internet? I suppose that some Administrators might be charge of multiple Homes, if their own Administrator died without a successor? Scientists and whatnot also often have a lot of authority, even if it’s not normally official. Clarify what you mean by “central government?”

"Our world has people who can speak for and make agreements for everyone on the planet. Do you not?"

"The central government is what solves coordination problems that everyone needs to coordinate on, like having a uniform legal system, distributing land fairly, taxing pollution, and funding research."

“…No, we don’t. Is there a very limited amount of land in your world, for that to be an issue? There are rules that the Administrators (vote, maybe? The word is a confusing translated) on, but legal systems are not all the same, except that they must follow those rules. I… we all voted that pollution was absolutely not allowed, so that’s not an issue. Research is funded through donations, but I’ve never heard of a scientist not getting enough assistants and supplies. I can see how you might get better coordinated research done with that, though, I’ll have to bring it up at the next meeting! A Home tax that goes to a science fund?”

"We have a lot of land, but some of it is very desirable, like large natural harbors or other good places to build cities. And natural resources aren't distributed evenly either. If we didn't have any taxes, then the people who got to there first and claimed the most desirable land would have a massive advantage, and it wouldn't be very fair. There used to be wars about stuff like that."

"Banning all pollution is something we wouldn't do, because sometimes it's worth it."

“Huh, I haven’t heard about any harbors particularly better than others, although I suppose it’d be a pretty niche issue. I don’t think we really need to argue about it, though.”

”When is it worth it?”

"When the harm done by the pollution is less than the benefit gained by doing the thing that causes the pollution, or when cleaning up the pollution is cheap enough or will be cheap enough in the future."

“No, I mean, what are you gaining out of the pollution-causing thing?”

"Energy, mostly. It's hard to generate large amounts of electricity without burning things. Although we're transitioning to nuclear power as fast as we can. Also, some industry and mining produces pollution as a byproduct."