"I am also curious as to how expensive Amentan child credits are. How is it enforced? For us, we do not restrict people from having Keeper children. However, if they are unable to pay the allotment by the child's two dozenth birth anniversary, they will incur debt to their child which must be paid – and if they do not pay, they can be punished with seizure of assets, or, if the amount of assets is insufficient to cover the debt, or stronger punishments like exile."

"Enforcement differs. We have medicine which makes it impossible to conceive, and it is free for everyone, as are abortions, the safe induction of miscarriage. Children approaching reproductive age are given medicine-dispensing implants, or correspondingly effective reversible surgeries, and doctors who could reverse these check for a child credit in hand."

"I see. You are unable to induce abortion on your own? With your thoughts, I mean, the same way you would move the muscles of the body to cause it to walk."

"We are unable to do that." Also some of the other Amentans present make flinchy faces about the concept.

Suksub notices the change in expression, but doesn't know how to interpret it. Did he say something bad? Maybe he should change the topic away from biology.

"You said earlier that around half of the Amentan population are of the purple caste. What are the fractions of each caste? For us, there are about four dozen and two drones to each Keeper."

"About half purple, half a percent blue, the yellow population is at 22% and climbing, 9% each orange and grey, 8% green."

"Based on what you have said, I believe that Amentan governments set how many child credits are assigned to each caste. Is this prediction accurate? If so, what decides how many credits is given to each caste?"

"Yes, that's right. Most governments have a dedicated population department juggling factors like the labor market present realities and forecasts, constituent needs, eugenic desiderata, and how much money the credits have been selling for in the countries where they are sold."

Suksub really wants to ask political questions now, but that's the Consul's job, and he shouldn't overstep.

"On a different note, it is common for us, when hosting guests, to serve food. However, we do not know whether our food is appropriate to eat. We have prepared various raw foodstuffs and simple dishes for you to examine to see whether they are suitable for you. We would appreciate it if you could do the same – we are interested in trying your food."

"We're excited to examine them! Spaceship food is under a lot of constraints that aren't about taste, so these rations," they produce some rations, "aren't the best Amentan cuisine has to offer, but if we're biocompatible one day you can try our delicacies."

"Likewise. We deliberately prepared samples so that we will mutually be able to identify whether the other party's food is suitable for eating."

Drones will cart several dozen samples of foodstuffs in glass sample cases: various raw animal meats, grains, vegetables, fruits, as well as very simple few-ingredient dishes like bread, porridge, steak, and wine.

Suksub will accept the rations with both hands and then pass it off to other drones to be chemically examined.

The greens appear to be the ones who will be chemically examining the local samples. "Thank you very much!"

A drone brings a message to Suksub, which he reads.

"Thank you for permitting us to tour your ship. Consul Restem is asking whether you are available to discuss managing immigration and technology exchange between Amenta, or Tapa more specifically, and the Imperium, since those two seem to be the issues both parties are most interested in resolving."

"Yes! Though there is little unclaimed space on Amenta, that doesn't include the areas that lack seasons, including the equatorial areas, polar zones, and moons. There is plenty of space if you like to live in those places, just as there is space here in the places you do not like to live. We can talk about that and about technology now."

They leave, and drones will bow, but Suksub will only nod.

Tapa doesn't have any polar territory but it has some equatorial territory, mostly occupied with farms of equator-friendly crops where they currently have to pay exorbitantly to get people to live there and do the work. If remna like living on farms, that could be a great fit! The moons and poles have less stuff that needs doing on them but not none.

Okay. He hadn't considered the fact that they wouldn't live in the equatorial zones. They're actually willing to also let them live there. This is looking much better for their prospects already, and the prospect of Amenta cooperating with and acting antiantisocially with the Imperium, even though it doesn't have to.

"We do like living on farms, in the sense that people prefer to own their own land. Generally, Keepers will have a house on their farm and an apartment in the city, and then move between each depending on their needs and wants. Nowadays, however, it is more common for people to only have an apartment in the city, especially if their job does not require lots of space, such as artisan work.

We prefer to live in tropical or subtropical environments where it is humid and does not get too cold. Dry or cold environments are unpleasant to live in. We are very willing to have Amentans live in our temperate regions and Imperials in your tropical regions."

One of the other people in the delegation, Legislator Lisal, asks whether their moons are habitable, or whether they have the technology to render it habitable such as terraforming or habitats.

"The moons are inhospitable on their own, but we have arcologies on them. They're expensive, but early in our space program it was symbolically important to have the experience and learn from it as a step to one day being able to travel the stars."

Amazing! They have rockets and missiles, but none which have been able to cross the boundary to space quite yet. The closest they've gotten was through weather balloons. Several in the delegation express interest in working in the arcologies just for the experience of it.

"As for technology, your people clearly are much more advanced compared to us. We are very interested in learning from you, and likewise, you from us, in the chance we have discovered something you have not, or which could inspire refinements in technologies you currently have."

"It seems likely that we will learn from each other in that way naturally as we come to work and trade with each other! For example a lot of spaceship construction work occurs on moons, because of the lower gravity and the vacuum conditions outside the arcologies."

"Indeed.

Ah, yes, that makes sense. You mine and process ore directly on the moon itself, then? Presumably it would take too much fuel to lift that much material economically. Or do you have ways of bringing it up with less cost? There have been proposals for things like space elevators which require a weight to be put on the other end, but we have no material available to us which could withstand the tensile forces.

Provided the food samples give good results, I am keen to make arrangements for Amentans to live here, and for Imperials to live on Amenta – or Tapa more specifically – as soon as possible. Although we would want only a small number of each to arrive at first, to be able to give adequate support to those who move and work out problems unforeseen during planning, which are guaranteed to happen. Adjusting to live on another world must be quite a shock. 

We would want to maintain that initial population for...at least four years, maybe, perhaps longer, with only a small number of new people moving in during that time, or none at all. The core concern I have for you is that you said the year length of Zmavliterdi – the name of our planet – is shorter, which may cause problems with your springtime reproduction cycle. How long is the Amentan year, exactly?"

"I'm sure that as long as no other aliens are turned up by other exploratory missions anytime soon, other countries would probably also be willing to extend hospitality to some Imperials. An Amentan year is 1,460 days long. Certainly we'd want to swap out anyone who couldn't season here but the delicacy of the hormone system varies."

"Very much longer, in that case! Almost four Zmavliterdi years. We would definitely want to live in an equatorial or subequatorial region if each season is almost one of our years in length – the majority of people would find a winter lasting that long to be intolerable. It's quite fortuitous that we are very different in our desires for climate.

How long is the transit time between Amenta and Zmavliterdi? We would like to send ambassadors of our own, to Tapa and potentially elsewhere, but our preparations will change depending on whether it takes days or months or years to travel."