"Why aren't you telling them to get off our land instead of asking what we'll do to placate invaders?"

"Because I'm not here to decide who is right, I'm here to ensure that peoples granted the knowledge to go to the stars will possess the maturity not to murder their own neighbors. In this conversation I am evaluating whether you possess that maturity. In my dealings with them I am learning the same thing of them."

"Look, we were minding our own business and they showed up with guns, I don't know how things are in Kadashama but here that makes it their responsibility to go home. We're defending our people and our homes."

"Their complaint is that you changed food procedures in a way that made the food unacceptable to their whole citizenry and much of yours. Was that a misunderstanding?"

"The food is fine."

"While I am overjoyed to hear that they need not fear retaliation when they cease the war, this does not wholly satisfy me as an explanation of how it came about in the first place."

"The food is fine. Check it yourselves if you like."

"We have been. There is no physically discernable difference between food that has been handled in a manner compatible with local purity taboos and food that has been handled in a manner not so compatible. Is that what you mean by 'the food is fine'?"

"Yeah. You just have to cook it and get over yourself and it's fine."

"A lot of people are going hungry. This is a bad outcome and the decisions that brought it about were bad decisions, you do understand that, right?"

"When they're hungry enough they'll eat it, there's plenty, or there would be if the fucking Tapai weren't turning half of Imde into a battlefield, and the Allocator said this was how we were going to handle reds and we need to trust him."

"Can I speak with him?"

"He doesn't touch this channel, this is for military negotiations, how did you even get on it?"

"Observing that my next resort would be less convenient for everyone. If you'd like to propose a better channel for debating the merits of your current Allocator's economic planning, I would be delighted."

"I can forward the question up but it's not going to help that you're with the Tapai and they're still jamming our radio."

"I would be delighted and impressed with the leadership of both nations if they arranged a ceasefire; until you've managed that, lots of our technology will have to go unused by people who could benefit from it. Perhaps you can get on that right away and then we can talk with your allocator once they're not jamming your radio."

"We're already in ceasefire till the end of the week."

"That doesn't extend to permitting communications?"

"No, it just extends to not killing each other. This is the part where I'd ask what planet you're from if you hadn't already told me."

"By the end of the week Yavanna will be here. I think it'd be a good idea to speak with the people making your allocation decisions before that."

"I'm not responsible for this Yavanna person's schedule. You've got a lot of nerve."

"Have you asked your scientists and engineers how far away they are from FTL? More than three hundred years? More than a thousand? Have you imagined meeting a civilization with the technologies and customs yours had three hundred years ago? A thousand? We are from another galaxy, and visited you just to see how far we could go. We are immortal, and if destroyed will reawaken at home, unharmed. We are not here to conquer, but we're not here to negotiate either. It is in the interests of your Allocator to talk with us before Yavanna gets here."

"Tell General Hako that if he's trying to make me miss him, mission accomplished."

"I assume he's listening. Who can you forward the question up to?"

(General Hako, the grey in the corner, snorts softly.)

"My aide's run off to tell the allocator's office."