"Like they're doing in Olvala."

"I think they hold it's safe to do those things occasionally but not regularly," says Nertel. 

Aitim makes a face. "Yeah, that's correct. They have people rotating."

Peka bounces imaginary fussiness out of her baby.

"Are we planning to -"

"I need more time. I need it to be inconclusive or at least not widely popular elsewhere for - twenty years - maybe thirty -"

"Is that 'so the people who would get in your way die' or are there intermediate steps you expect to take that long -"

"Some of both."

"Uh - planning to what -"

"Switch to the purples-rotating model of handling red work."

"But you're trying to stop it?"

"Trying to stall for twenty years until I have more options available. Eventually the present arrangement will cease to be sustainable - the places that are doing rotations will have no incentive not to do robots, and once the robots exist and it's just a matter of placing a manufacture order all the riots in the world won't stop them. What I want is enough credibility with the public on appropriate caution and concern with pollution - and enough to bribe purples with - that when it's time to transition we can say we've found a months-long grueling chemotherapy-ish way of getting reds clean and we're paying for it and then they'll just be citizens and can purple their hair and go on with their lives. But if you mess that up you get Voa."

Nod.

"Or Dad could get a spaceship."

"It's not one of those problems where if you just do enough theoretical physics the answer will eventually pop out at you and I'm not even a theoretical physicist."

"Pity the moons are all spoken for."

"A red moon would've been a really good idea I don't know why no one thought of it. They could do perfectly well for themselves and no one would have to worry."

"Have you considered cutting the red child credits," Nertel says, "so maybe in the long run there aren't reds but it doesn't come to murder -"

"I don't even know if they'd prefer that and it's not as if I can reasonably go ask. But it's been debated, yeah."

"In Tapa there are social workers who go ask reds things."

"Oh, we have those too, I just don't think the answers reflect anything other than some combination of what the social workers wanted to hear and what the reds thought it safe to tell them."

"Oh."

"It's really inconvenient. More for them than for us, of course - but I don't know how to fix it, I'd just scare people if I tried going to visit personally -"

"You get so bad at problem-solving sometimes, Aitim."

"Oh?"

"Uh huh. You announce there's going to be a red advisor on technological research and long term planning, full-time position, decent salary, elected by a red vote, and then they pick someone, and then you sit them down and say the thing you just said about inevitable robots and you don't act like you're gonna casually murder them if they disagree with you and -"

"And that would be quite an accomplishment and the only thing I ever accomplished, politically speaking, because no one wants to interact with or entrust projects to someone who's doing radical destabilizing things on their own initiative and everyone would rather not think about reds."