"Import? Are you imagining an ongoing relationship?" Linus asks.

"I recommend against the seeds," Alleluia puts in.

"We'd be happy about an ongoing relationship, though we have limited attention compared to what we used to be able to manage and won't be able to respond to major requests - if you need any geography terraformed it'll pro-bably take awhile for us to get to helping you with that."

"Why, if I could ask?" The seeds are generally quite popular.

"The settlers brought the seeds that were right for us and for Samaria," says Alleluia, "and in times of want Jovah provides more. - For staple crops. I have no special reason to believe we are commanded to reject exotic fruit."

"Huh! Our scientists would probably enjoying seeing what your seeds are like."

They do not have any exotic fruits onboard, just staple crops. 

"Do you not have any famines here? I'd expect those to still occur occasionally at your tech level."

"No, in times of want Jovah provides," Linus says. He may be quoting something.

"Provides... Food?"

"And seeds, and rain or relief from rain," nods Linus.

"Um. If it's not rude to ask. How does that happen?"

"Well, he answers our prayers."

"I don't actually understand what that .." Lucien gestures vaguely "... actually looks like?"

"...we pray for rain, and it rains, or for sun, and it shines," says Linus. "Or for seeds, or for medicine, and they fall."

Huh. 

Ohhhhh. This ... at least partially might explain what's going on with the mystery ship. 

Lucien takes a second to think. It'd explain why the Alleluia didn't want them to do anything to the ship if the ship was necessary for basic necessities. The setup also lended itself pretty well to a stable theocracy that pretended the effects were reli-giously mediated and controlled access to the ship. Attempts to over-throw them or resist wouldn't get far. Though the weaponry the ship had might obviate the need for se-crecy if only the religious authorities had control of it? Maybe the control is tenuous and the secrecy pre-vents people from realizing they could acquire control.

He... shouldn't jump to any conclusions about this. But pro-bably he should consider this a very real poss-ibility. Gaining more evidence would be useful...

But he doesn't want to upset the Samarians even if this is what's going on - it seems pl-ausible the religious authorities might get upset if the Amaliens seemed to be sur-planting their control? It would def-initely explain what was going with rejecting the amalien seeds. Yup, this theory really does seem quite likely.

... he's been silent for weirdly long hasn't he.

"Um. I've never encountered that before."

Translation: He has no idea what he is supposed to do.

"Um. We could re-turn to the thing we were talking about before. If that's okay?"

"About the machinery? Yes, of course."

This bit is something Lucien has practiced talking about and he can do without thinking too much! Though he does keep an eye on Alleluia's reaction to the more advanced tech he mentions to see what she thinks of the Samarian people knowing how to construct it.

Alleluia's actually just going to leave after about another fifteen minutes.

Well. That's... probably fine.

Lucien will talk excitedly to the Archangel Linus for another few hours but 'ventually it gets late and he excuses himself to go back to his room for the night - they can pick things back up in the morning.

Once back at his quarters he sends an encrypted message to the his First Officer Graft onboard the Starship Bridget (who is also his chief science officer) updating him on what's happened and instructing him to review any data they have passively gathered on the Mysterious Ship, especially looking for any interactions it might have had with people on the surface of the planet. He also asks Graft to prepare plans for more intrusive scans. And... yeah, and to prepare emergency plans for disabling the ship without harming it but not to involve other officers in this (except for Chief of Security Kurm, of course) - he really doesn't want to use this sort of plan or have other officers try anything without authorization.

He also writes and sends a subspace message to Amalien Leadership, with a medium-high priority code, updating them about what's going on. Though he knows it won't reach command for three and a half days. After summarizing the context he tells command that he's likely to use intrusive scans to learn more before this message reaches them, though he does not expect to need to escalate beyond intrusive scans or to use force, excepting the possibility of under standard emergency situations. 

His recommendation to Leadership is that they prepare immediate plans for providing emergency weather proof shelter, medical care, food, and policing to Samaria so as to be prepared for the (really bad) possibility that a coup turns out to be a good idea and they have to replace essential services that are controlled by the theocratic government. His current best guess is that the people are relatively well treated by the theocracy as long as doing so doesn't threaten the oracles. But that preparing for the Borg is apparently judged to be too much of a threat to the status quo, which obviates most of the upsides of their rule - being healthy and well fed doesn't really make a difference to the Borg.

He does note some confusion as to how seriously the Oracle Alleluia took the threat of the Borg. And also he's a bit confused as to why she seemed so okay with the non-military advanced tech.

He'll send a second report once he knows more about whether he recommends a coup, and what might be needed for that.

The ship contains plant life but no animal life. It would have held hundreds of people assuming they had human needs. It has warp engines which haven't been used in a long time. It's good at maneuvering to precise locations over the planetary surface for such a large vessel. It has big guns and a lot of them are pointed at the planet.

Well, that is not remotely reassuring! Graft outlines the plans Lucien requested and forwards the message. 

He also adds in his opinion that a coup is likely to be justifiable - the guns pointing at the planet are a terrible sign. 

Lucien works into the night, but eventually remembers that he (and his roommate Kurm) should sleep. So he does that.

In the morning the other oracles have sent back their angel messengers. (The other oracles are not angels themselves and have not left their mountains.) They are unanimous that they are commanded by their god to refuse to countenance warfare. But neither of the mortal oracles have anything to say about the ship.

This has interesting political implications he can think through later.

For now, he'll get back to work nailing down the basics of what the Samarians can benefit from, he'll have other crew members come down and take over once that's done.

The Samarians are living a pretty pleasant low-tech lifestyle, getting higher tech in fits and starts - apparently Alleluia's husband is a proficient inventor and engineer. There are pockets of subcultural and ethnic tension, but nothing they want space alien help with. They'll take trains and metallurgy and stuff like that.

Sure, he's happy to help sketch out what's possible in those domains.

"I think you might have the least... intense need for more advanced technology of any species I've enc-ountered."

"Oh uh. Except my own."

"I wouldn't know," says Linus politely.

"My species only started wanting lots of tech-nology once we realized that other people needed more so they wouldn't get sick or go hungry."

He isn't going to push the Samarians into opening up but he can at least try to start a dialogue.