"Okay. Well, if you need arbitrary material objects, all yours. if you want to learn how to summon, we need to talk about it but probably can do."

"I don't really have significant material needs. What do we need to talk about if I want to summon?"

"It can be used for forensics too - finding planets, finding people, possibly checking if the Federation's investigating you but that'd be a hassle. Uh, whether you'd teach other people, what you'd do if, say, your society were attacked and you wanted to help them win the war, what you'd do if you were arrested and you could escape by summoning..."

"Federation political prisons are comfortable enough, I was already planning to spend most of my life in one. Warfare is a substantial consideration if it comes up. And having exactly one person in a society who knows how to do something like that seems like the wrong number, although not necessarily by very much. ...Was Vulcan the work of a daeva?"

"It is not the thing I'm thinking of. I could definitely figure out what happened to Vulcan."

"It would be nice to know."

"Figure out how this planet got eaten?" he says to Assadra.

"Not super safe to do that in, like, a place with stuff we don't want to also have eaten," she says.

"Can you do, like, models-but-in-plastic?"

"I can only replace shit if I know what to replace with what else, approximately."

"I bet someone in Hell figured it out already, come to think of it."

"Oh yeah, maybe, I can look that up." Conjure conjure rummage rummage. "There were some folks with pointy ears and some red stuff and they holed the planet with it. Harsh."

...fairy translates this for T'Mir.

"Well. That's more or less the official story."

"I guess the official story isn't wrong. I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

"When you say 'warfare would be a substantial consideration' what are you imagining -"

"Oh, uh, the Cardassians for example are a species that is not very pleasant to be occupied by, and if some judicious use of daeva could make them turn around I'd at least consider it. For that matter if you're in search of a project rescuing the Bajorans would not be a poor choice."

"If holing a planet of theirs would make them turn around?"

"Seems like it would benefit from a show of force on a planet no one was using first, minimum."

" - yeah, okay. Why might I want to rescue some Bajorans."

"The Cardassians are occupying them and the Federation avoids starting wars."

"Wars are horrible and I would also like to avoid starting wars."

"Yes, I'm just wondering if you could avoid outright war with the strategic use of daeva, but you know more about how to apply them than I."

"I'm great at daeva, less so at politics - I know people who're good at politics but they are hostages back home. I can at least look into it."