Soon afterwards a tall woman with black hair emerges from the shuttle.

With an amalien girl walking beside her, dressed in an apron.

"Welcome to Voa," says the blue in the lead.

"Hi! I'm Isha and this is Moira. Did you get our captain's video?"

"No, I'm afraid the channel we have with the Tapai is not high bandwidth enough for video, but we've heard a summary."

Isha goes over what's in the video, just in case.

"So, we've come here cause Tapa offered to put together a bunch of Amentans to talk to us and we wanted to make sure that was okay with you and you felt included if the person they say they captured was there for you. Also to check if you needed any help and say hi since you didn't see our message."

"Ah. In peacetime, Tapa would be the obvious choice for a project like that, but of course it's complicated right now. Which captive did they have in mind?"

Mora repeats the name of the captive.

"- and they are green."

"If you'll allow me a moment to look that up..." Check check. "...she wouldn't have been a top contender but if they don't want to let us choose a delegate I suppose she's better than nothing."

"We can also arrange an independent delegation to you if there isn't too much demand for independent delegations, or see about bringing one of you with us."

"We're using the ceasefire to evacuate civilians from Imde, so jeopardizing it isn't preferable if it would provoke the Tapai."

Not exactly the most impressive adaptation to unexpected circumstances but at least no one's asked them to intercede on their behalf in the war. Yet.

"We'll have the green act as a representative then, and clear things with you later if relevant."

"Additionally, we'd like to give you a communicator beacon you can use to signal us for help if needed. It might be detectable by Tapa, so please don't use it unless it's an emergency."

... Moira is making decisions on her own again. Hopefully Sierra accounted for Moira's independent streak, and this is actually a good idea.

"What kind of emergency do you have in mind?"

"Something you consider potentially breaking the ceasefire to be worth. We don't want communicating with us to be unilaterally controlled by one side of a conflict."

"Thank you, I appreciate the offer. Simply owning such an object doesn't violate the terms and we will be happy to accept."

Moira is satisfied with this!

The Amaliens* depart soon afterwards, after handing over a video player with the same information that was broadcast to the rest of the world.

*in this case the nationality, rather than the species. 

Okay, with that sorted out, the Tapai are putting together a delegation! How big of one can the Amaliens accommodate? What topics do they expect to cover?

Six would be ideal but up to twenty is fine, though most would have to bunk up if they wanted to stay overnight in that case. They want to discuss the state of tech-nology on Amenta and what sort of issues they need help with and also make friends!

Okay. They are sending a Tapai blue and a green, the Voan green, and additional greens from Cene, Anitam, Yvalta, Litholee, and Celenta, to represent the most populous countries (Yvalta's not but it is the most presentable example of an Oahksphere country, and Litholee isn't either but it can represent the other 'lees and their cultural sphere, and also these were the greens they happened to have ready to go on short notice who are relevant to this).

Do they want to be picked up as a group or independently? 

Tapa has assembled them all in Shapto!

A shuttle picks them up. The ride is smooth, silent, and rather quick. The pilot appears to be a young boy, with an equally young girl sitting shotgun leaning against what appears to be a pet black bear. The girl's face and what's visible of her body have surgical scars. 

The blue introduces himself as Pan Pahatun. Would they like the greens' names? What are theirs?

"I'm Neh and this is Sivil. He probably shouldn't talk too much now cause he's piloting. We'll be there soon."