"Something to do with it being unusually well optimized for your techno-log-ical level for getting rid of trash and while keeping lots of people in the same place?"

Sierra walks them to a conference room as they continue chatting.

"Ah! I'll have to tell our city planners we're ahead in that department, then." Walk walk. Spree Achan has a limp and a cane.

Lucien will write a note to have someone check with Spree privately about whether he wants his leg fixed. He is a bit proud of himself for this idea.

It's nice that she doesn't have to speed up to match walking speed with taller aliens.

"It's really impress-ive! Logistical ability is a place where Amaliens have had to do a lot of improvement over the past century. It's cool how Amenta has managed to do great at that on such a large scale!"

"Thank you!"

"Is that an Amentan century?"

She'll look to Lucien to answer that.

Tap tap search - there. Having other operations people with him is great cause it means someone already wrote down the conversions for that.

"The Standard century is 25 Amentan years."

"Wow," says Pahatun, "did something specific happen then?"

"Yes, that's when we had our first first contact. It's been a busy time since then and we've grown a bunch to meet new challenges and make our way in the galaxy. As I'm sure you will too!"

She'll have to talk to them about the war at some point but it's compli-cated and she wants to get the hang of talk-ing to them before then.

"Who was it you first met?"

"Vulcans, who were part of a group called the United Federation of Planets we've had a really complicated relationship with - though we're currently on better terms than we were for a while."

They arrive at the conference room. Which is nice since she'd really rather not dive into this topic right away.

"Would you all be okay with a biological scan so we can make sure dinner is safe for everyone? The cooks are making a really delicious meal that's broadly consumable by humanoid species but the added precaution would catch any exceptions."

"Ooh, yes please," says Pahatun, and Moka nods too.

A junior doctor would like to scan all of them with this device he has, if that's okay. That way they can also check for any rare allergies that someone in the group might have. 

He will also inform them that unless they request otherwise they'll keep the scans on file but only for use in medical emergencies, and even then only with their express consent. 

"How many details do these scans pick up?" asks Moka.

"Um. A lot? Most body things. Not so much any-thing not obvious 'bout your brain or detailed hist-ory but. A basic checkup sorta?"

"That's an amazing technology, I'd love to import some."

"They are pretty great! We'd be happy to share information on how to make similar devices if that would work for you."

"Even better! We're going to want to catch up our industrial base to the state of the art."

"We've been working on that ourselves and would love to help with that as much as we are able!"

And dinner is served! The chairs alternate between tall ones for amaliens and shorter ones for Amentans, so everyone can get to know one another. Moira is the only exception, already sitting in tall chair when they arrive.

Isha explains, as the dishes are brought out, what each thing is. There's a variety of comfort foods from across many worlds, modified as needed to be a gentle introduction to alien cuisine. 

The Amentans are all happy to try alien foods, though not all of them taste everything.

Moria isn't tasting from any of the dishes that are being carried over, instead she has her own bowl of broth. 

"Enjoying the meal?" she asks the blue sitting next to her.

"Oh, yes, thank you!" says Pahatun. "I'm beyond pleased to be among the first Amentans to taste alien food, we weren't remotely sure if it'd be biocompatible till you told us but it's so interesting, I like these blue things especially."

"When I first tasted alien food I particularly enjoyed the orange dish over there. It has a fascinating aftertaste."