"No, no, I just sent someone he'll find familiar to be deliriously excited about the translation chip technology and then segue from there. Cayaldwin might get skittish about your absence before they get to starships, which is why I'd really rather work with you. But my loyalty is to my people and I will get them starships."

"I would feel more comfortable discussing this if I had a more complete picture of your information sources. Telepathy would barely explain it."

"My father was blue but ran away to a green university because he was appallingly bad at blue and astonishingly good at green. He's obsessed with languages - drinks them up, plays with them, continually delighted by them - and invents things on the side, mostly in computing because it's where our world had the most room to grow. I have six younger brothers. My father's estranged from his half-siblings but I'm dating my half-cousin."

"You're not me."

"Oh?"

"You'd have mentioned their names."

Aitim pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket. Unfolds it. It's a family tree. He hands it to Matirin. 

"I have never heard of anything like that."

"We're pretty confused also."

"Describe your siblings to me."

"Makel's a singer and composer and songwriter - I don't know what he'd do grey in a species without a voice, maybe compose instrumental music as a hobby while soaking up the - emotional experience of wartime - as artistic inspiration? He could take care of the rest of them adequately if he had to but it'd be - imitating me, the surface bits without the underlying strengths. Telkam is - I bet yours is happier, actually, he'd love to be grey." He glances at their audience.

"Dyed his hair and enlisted, in the war with Voa - I didn't find out until afterwards but in hindsight I felt foolish for not anticipating it. He was fanatically upset about Evalee's reds - he hates - well, he hates a lot of things about the world but particularly the exercise of power against the defenseless. I bet Talik would teach us starships just on the general principle that then fewer people could push us around but I also bet Talik doesn't know a thing about starships. Telkam's dyslexic. Loves the outdoors - I suppose all Andalites are like that. Kantil dislikes the caste system for being economically inefficient - if someone's born outside their aptitude, see - and rather hates to shut up about it and became an economist and married Isama, a purple business magnate who he liked because she was rich - not because he cared for the money especially, even, but because he thinks it reflects desirable traits in general. He has lots of policy opinions and sometimes I help him talk about them in terms that their intended audience won't find really annoying and then we get better regulatory policy or so on. Kefin takes after our father and takes enormous pride in taking after our father and bounces when he's excited and speaks even more languages because of the benefits of early childhood exposure - uh, in our species language-learning is easiest before we're three. Amlas and Amel like exercising themselves in arenas where our reputations don't precede them and are very diligent and quietly idealistic but not so anyone'd know of it without asking. Amlas wakes up early and Amel never does and it's as if they can read each others' minds - I suppose yours can -"

He sighs. "And would you ignore the explicit directives of your government to draft ad hoc alliances with aliens about whom all your information has been very heavily filtered?"

"If I were tasked with winning a war that threatened the very survival of my people, and in a situation where I could not communicate with the council for situationally appropriate advice about their directives, I would win the war and then surrender and explain myself."

"We do not really do, uh, retroactive leeway."

"Corbron must grumble a lot about your government's incentives. Well, I think anything worth killing five billion people for had really better be worth dying for."

"All right."

"Thank you."

"I would like to go back now."

...Aitim nods.

"Train's this way," says Kalana.

Andalite follows her.

There is a train and then they are within walking distance of the farm where the Dome is and within the perimeter.

Matirin demorphs. 

Matirin lopes over to where his brother is talking with Afen Kisantami. 

Matirin circles the perimeter. 

Matirin loops back around to Kalana. <I would like an agreement to be specific about the resources Anitam will be providing for the war effort, but I do not presently have enough information about your manufacturing capacity to venture reasonable estimates for that. Who should I talk to?>

She can get him several email addresses.

He sends emails. His tail swishes irritably.

Inside the ship out of immediate view of the guards he has someone morph Leeran and listen for signs that their heavily filtered information about the aliens includes heavy filtering of things they'd really want to know.