"Like, someone lines up a job in advance, or pays a deposit on an apartment, or arranges a marriage, or gets accepted to a university, those are all - signs that we're not secretly going to kill them like Rivik tried to. If they're leaving there aren't really signs."

"Rivik must not have tried very hard, I heard they all landed safe."

"They were going to shoot them at the docks, so i had them leave the night before. No big deal, saves face for everybody, but I do sort of wish they'd gotten in some trouble for planning it. Dishonorable, to say you'll give them safe passage and then quietly arrange to have them gunned down."

"Why would they even do that? They weren't going to be their problem any more."

"They really obsessively hate them. It's bizarre. They were going to bludgeon several people to death over a noise complaint that no one else even heard, I'd love to do a study on what gets people that - that."

"I'm not sure how you conduct one of those, but maybe one of my colleagues will have an idea."

"Let me know!" 

And local reds get peaceably decontaminated!

They do! Litholee manages too. Then they try to keep Matirin and his box.

Uh.

They're being very nice about it, considering, it's just they have this building sealed against morphed escapees that they used for decontamination and they would like to keep the box and the alien who makes it work.

Assistant says this is above her pay grade but her notes on who's who are available to whom it may concern.

It concerns the entire ruling council of Anitam. If they let people kidnap their aliens then everyone will do that. They send a very strongly worded demand for the return of their alien and their box.

Litholee would prefer to keep them.

Would Litholee like to go to war over them.

That doesn't seem like it would be very good for this alien.

That doesn't seem like it would be very good for anybody making policy decisions in Litholee.

Anitam has all the other aliens.

And the aliens live together they're a big alien family.

Matirin's second-in-command, an unassuming quiet Andalite who isn't one of his siblings, says to Kalana that, uh, if they're trying to get Matirin out alive - which is not at all what an Andalite operation under the circumstances would prioritize - someone could go in morph to within range of Matirin and tip him off and he could morph insect and then they'd have two hours to try to take control of the area while Litholee tried stomping and bug spray.

"What would an Andalite operation prioritize?"

<The Escafil device. The best way to avoid hostage situations is to categorically as a matter of policy ignore them. If anything important were at stake Matirin would have killed himself.>

"We've only got so many aliens. We'll do our best to get him back in one piece."

He thinks they are missing the point but does not find himself highly motivated to argue it.

The Anitami military awaits the go-ahead.

<They are rescuing you.>

<Awww. Now?>