"I don't know how many questions people are likely to ask where. Paulos and the Foundation Ring have more money than anywhere else, and Riordan is the biggest commercial centre. Cui University has a reputation as paying a lot for anything of academic interest, but I expect they'll ask questions about it. If you want to sell your world's art to people who want to pass it off as theirs that will probably go for a lot in Riordan or Diallo. If you want to sell minerals a lack of questions is hardly the biggest concession people in Paulos or Foundation have given in exchange for them, and even if they ask too many questions their suppliers in Riordan might not. People in Riordan and Diallo pay a lot for uploading, so if you can undercut Kensington by even a bit they'll probably pay a lot for that."

"I don't know how to do uploading but I can do minerals." What minerals are 'spensive here.

Tantalum, palladium, gold, platinum, ruthenium, tellurium, and erbium top the lists of mineral prices.

Are any of those principally used for horrible things?

Searching what they're used in gets pages on their use in electronics.

Cool. "I think I'm going to go off and get underway now. How shall I find you again if I need you for something or want to offer you a spot in my space station?"

"I'll probably still be here."

"Do you have like, email."

"isaac.carter@jsem.bas.cn, but they monitor it to make sure I don't use it for anything I'm not supposed to."

"Who the fuck is they and what are you not supposed to use it for?"

"The welfare overseers. They're supposed to monitor it to make sure I don't use it to plot crimes, but they're allowed to block anything that's not related to looking for work or education, and they generally do in case it's a coded attempt to plot a crime."

"Wow, I hate it. You don't have a free and clear one?"

"No."

"Not allowed?"

"I'm theoretically allowed one if I can get it."

"Are there just not... free email services any more."

"Free in the sense of not costing money, or in the sense of not being restricted in what you can use them for? There are both, they just don't overlap. Maybe you can get them for living in the right place or impressing someone rather than money per se, but at any rate I don't have one."

"Damn. I will try to circumlocute appropriately if I need to email you."

"I worry they'll notice you're circumlocuting and decide I'm definitely involved in secret crime."

"...I don't instantly have a clever way around that. Are you like, free to leave?"

"In theory, but I don't have anywhere else I'm allowed to go. Or a spaceship to leave on."

"Right, but like if I wanted to tote you along with me?"

"I might still get in trouble for trespassing if you took me somewhere I wasn't supposed to go."

"I would be making myself a spaceship and trying to find a way to make some money so I could buy an orbital and put a station on it."

"I don't think it would be illegal for me to be with you in your spaceship."