"Amenta's the planet. This country is called Miolee."

"It's new. And small. We're lucky. Probably."

"Everybody is going to want to talk to you and take apart your ship. Everybody."

<Are they likely to be polite about it?>

"Don't know."

"We can't fend them off if they're not, we don't have an army or anything."

He asks the engineers how badly the ship is damaged. <Is it unusual for a political subunit not to have an army?>

"Yes. We're new and little. We are like sort of friends with one other country and everyone else thinks we might sort of be useful under some circumstances and nobody's really attached to us and everybody else has armies."

<That sounds like an awkward position to be in. We will endeavor not to cause you any trouble.>

"We really can't help if someone comes knocking and wants you all to go with them, everyone'll have noticed that landing."

<We could probably help ourselves, but I have no particular desire to harm pre-spacefaring peoples who presumably will not be the ones who gave the orders to bother the aliens.>

Nods all round.

"But it's good you landed here because it means we get to explain things," says one earnestly.

<I would be delighted to hear an explanation. What's your name?>

"Quema. Do your kind of aliens have castes?"

<The word is not translating but that is not conclusive.>

"Uh, we've got seven - I mean, every country on the planet except this one has seven. They're inherited and you do jobs suited to your caste. Your translator'll probably choke least on the color names - blue green yellow grey orange purple red - most common hair color of each caste."

<We do not assign careers by heredity.>

"Good for you! And the red caste is assigned all the dirty jobs that no one else wants to do, dealing with trash and stuff."

<...all right.>

"And reds the world over are generally oppressed and hated and brutalized and nobody will touch them, or anything they've touched. Our friend-country, Anitam, invented a thing where they can run somebody through every theoretically hygiene-improving process imaginable and when they come out people will let them sit on the same chairs as them and stuff, though."

<I see.>

"But it's expensive and a lot of places are trying to come up with things to do besides 'have reds around doing red jobs' and then things to do with the reds that are cheaper than 'put them through that and then let them have lives'. Like 'shoot them', that's cheap. And a country called Evalee," (some of her companions spit) "was threatening to do that, but we managed to force them to send us through Anitami decontamination and buy us this rainforest where nobody wants to live, instead. And now this is Miolee!"

<I am glad that you are all all right. Uh - is this an ongoing problem, people shooting reds ->

"Yeah. Miolee'll take them but people won't always send them."

"Tapa's doing decontamination like Anitam. Not as nicely but it's okay."

"I knew we would sound obviously in the right to aliens."

<You sound very obviously in the right though I should hear how they tell it before we start shooting at anybody.>

"We're not asking you to shoot at anybody."

"Although if you did want to swoop in and rescue reds from places where they need it that'd be keen."

<At the moment I do not have a working ship but if I did and that account is complete and accurate it would be tempting. Maybe they will behave themselves at the mere prospect of alien disapprobation.>

"You could probably get people to do anything if you dangle decent space travel."