"We want to figure out what is going on with the very advanced ship with weapons that might actually be useful against the Borg that is orbiting your planet."

"We'd also like to help you advanced tech-nologically so you can build your own starships and defenses in case the Borg attack here."

"Is the other... ship... not a visitor like yourself?" asks Tabitha.

"Our ancestors renounced their technology and I've had no reason to suppose they erred in so doing," says Linus.

"The other ship seems to have been here longer, and appears to be uncrewed. We'll probably start inv-estigaitng soon to find out more. So far we've stuck with being pretty passive so as not to upset anyone who controls it."

"I'm not sure what you mean about how they didn't err? Could you say more words about that?"

"- well, they set down their weapons and their other - gadgetry - and since then we've lived here peacefully without the conflict that ravaged their lives," says Linus. "We don't war, here. Jovah's very clear about that in the Librera."

"War is extremely bad! We agree on this."

Lucien frowns.

"My people, the amaliens, never had wars before we met other species. Not that we know of. We were pretty happy all things con-sidered."

"Our first war we chose cause we cared about protecting other people and didn't know how to do it without fighting."

"This is our second war. This one we didn't choose - the Borg don't give people a choice. They come, they kill, and then they use the people they killed to go and kill others and continue their war."

"I don't see why they'd bother with us," says Tabitha. "There aren't billions of us, what a number, why would they bother?"

"They don't seem to care about how many people there are all that much. They have swarms of smaller crafts that they'll send out to find planets that are easy targets and assimilate them. Planets that resist will be targeted by larger and larger fleets until they are assimilated, or the Borg are beaten back."

He checks on his data pad.

"They assimilated a colony of 25,000 people. We don't know much about whether they've assimilated worlds that didn't have much tech and had very few people - my guess is there wouldn't be enough evidence left over for us to tell. Some of the Borg we've killed had bodies that plausible came from pre-agricultural societies."

"And yet, having only your word to go on," says Joash, "I don't think it can be reasonable for us to take any drastic action."

"We'll see what Jovah has to say," says Linus.

"Of course."

"I ... don't want to press but later, if you'd like, we can share our records about the Borg, or take representatives to see things in person."

"Those seem like reasonable steps to establish the situation," says Linus.

"Why are you bothering with us? We can't be that useful to your side of the matter either," says Tabitha.

"We try to help people. It's what the Amalien Alliance is for. Fighting the war is rel-ated but it's not the most important thing all on it's own. The helping people is."

"Mostly when we find a planet like yours we spend our time giving them technology to stop hunger and disease and other things like those. Or help in other ways if there are other ways that we can help."

"Um. Also the spaceship might matter but that's not why I'm here right now - if only the spaceship mattered I might have left after I was told it wasn't yours."

"I don't know what that could possibly be about," says Joash, shaking his head.

Lucien doesn't know either.

"I'm hopeful we'll be able to find out."

"Is there anything else it would be productive to discuss before the fliers get back from the oracles?"

Hm...

"I'd like to get a sense of what things we might be able to help with, unrelated to the war. What sort hard-ships do most people face in their lives here?"

"I'm unclear on your motives there. If we aren't ultimately in a position to offer our help I would have expected your obvious next step to be to move on and seek out someone who will."

"No, not at all."

"The Amalien Alliance was founded with the goal of helping people. Whether or not those people help us is unrelated to that goal. We've provided food and medicine to civilizations that made it quite clear that they'd give us nothing in return."

"And why is that?"

"Because we want to help people. It's ..." Lucien gestures vaguely, trying to figure out how to put it into words.

"I don't really think there's an explanation that goes deeper than that. We know not everyone wants to help people, but we do."

He really is not the amalien to explain this. President Sierra or Captain Keeta would be better.

"I don't think that's so uncommon, but I think typically there's - some attempt to achieve something with the choice of who and how and when."

"Hm... We found your planet because we'd detected signs of technology and weapons that could prove useful against the Borg, but that isn't relevant to our offer of help now."

"Also most of the things we are offering are not very expensive to us. If you want my starship and had no special need for it than I think I'd say no - they are in short supply and desperately needed - but, teaching you how to make more advanced technology and providing certain resources is well within our capabilities."

"Well, we wouldn't know what to do with your starship. But it's what brought you here, yes? And any other help you chose to provide? Why, if they're in short supply and desperately needed, would you deploy any of them here?"

"Because otherwise we couldn't help you, that's the sort of think it's needed for."

Ships like his are not all that usable against the Borg.

Lucien pauses for a moment, taking a deep breath. He... feels like this is arguing? Which isn't a great way for a first contact to go.

"Hm. Sorry, I feel like we're getting off on the wrong foot? First contacts can be hard and cultural differences are confusing - it's possible there's something basic I'm missing here?"

"Uh. If you'd rather take a break or wait till your oracle has responded that would also be fine."

"That's fine by us," says Linus, rising from his chair.

Well, that could have gone better.

Lucien keeps to himself mostly while they wait for the oracle's return.