"With good medical care, Qeng Ho can expect as many as two hundred years of youth. For various reasons I didn't get that but our life-spans in total can last for more than twice that."

"That's remarkable. And yet without lack of faster than light ships you don't have a galactic civilization. I think we both have a lot to learn from the other. Are the kinds of medical care you talk about available to all?"

Well, this is awkward. Should he keep dancing around the topic of automation? Should he be open about how he isn't really in a position to trade? It doesn't seem like this young man really is either. They might just not have anything to offer one another. He'll put off addressing it at least a little longer. "The quality of medical technology in planetary civilizations varies widely. Among the Qeng Ho, at least a majority of medical care is widely available. It's a standard benefit available to those who serve on our fleets. There are extraordinary procedures which only the most senior people would receive due to resource constraints but those are typically edge cases or ways of extending someone's life to the very edge of our capabilities."

:Hiding information.:

Yeah, everyone here is hiding something. "You said that you use coldsleep for the travel between stars. I am guessing that it's some form of... suspended animation? Do you rotate the crew through it so that most people sleep while one is piloting? I don't imagine you have someone sacrificing their life to just... piloting a ship once."

"That's an accurate understanding of coldsleep. People spend most of the trip off-shift. Time lived is among the most valuable commodities so we try to have enough crew that nobody needs to spend more than a year or two on shift."