"Cam recommended me some reading but I'm sure I'm missing considerable detail."

"I'd be delighted to fill you in if there's anything in particular."

"I have no specific curiosities in mind but I'd love to hear how you're inclined to describe it."

"Amentans have a higher birthrate and want children more intensely than most species past their demographic transition. As a result, we've been close to our planet's carrying capacity for a long time and until recently every country in the world was implementing coercive population controls. Now we have colony planets, and have delightedly relaxed them. The access to other worlds has been good for us in other ways - the colonies can take immigrants, which means there's a potential outlet for would-be revolutionaries and for pilot projects with different systems of government and for people displaced by national disasters. The governments here are very conservative and risk-averse - an artifact of working in a world where hundreds of millions of people depend on you and there are few peaceful checks on poor decision-making - and we're hoping we can change now that there's literal and metaphorical space to experiment. We have a caste system, and among the experiments are experiments with various kinds of caste flexibility. Caste provides a lot of people with a sense of identity, community membership, culture and history, and caste abolition polls very poorly. We're a democratic society and we're not going to end the caste system in the face of massive public opposition, which means we're anticipating charting a course separate from the Federation. Though we eagerly anticipate the opportunity to trade with them."

"I think they'll probably get along fine with you, you just wouldn't slot neatly into their existing governance structure," she nods.

"With so many worlds it makes sense to have heuristics that might fail to apply in some cases. The prohibition on caste systems seems perhaps to be one such heuristic, the ban on contact with pre-warp societies less so."

"Many Federation members have unpleasant intra-species histories of colonialism which was deeply oppressive to the colonized with tragic results. I believe that we've grown beyond the inclination to behave that way - slightly too far - but it's the opinion of the Federation that the risk is unacceptable and a bright line is required."

Nod. "The history here is more mixed."

"Some Federation species never had this problem at all," she nods. "It varies."

Train! It's a fast train. "We're looking forward to strong relations with everyone. We've been delaying contact in order to ensure we're best prepared to handle it well."

"That seems very responsible."

"We're at a point at this time where if they come to find you we'd be equipped to meet them comfortably, but we'll take a few more seasons if we get the chance."

"I understand. I won't invite attention, although I might if it seems reasonable to you speed up and do less actual survey in between."

"That seems reasonable. Will they change their policies once they discover you?"

"I'm concerned that they may."

Nod. "If there's a way for us to exert influence on that front we'd be delighted."

"I'm afraid I don't actually know all that much about how they'd handle decisions like that except as a matter of familiarity with the general character of their policies."

"All right. We'll keep our eyes out for an appropriate way to express our thoughts there."

Nod nod. She watches the scenery go by.

The country is very dense. The train is very fast. This carriage is mostly blue-haired people, a few green, two yellow. 

"I don't think I got your name," she tells her interlocutor.

"Isilme Asa. I'm usually the Anitami colony planet liaison to Revelation but we're taking a year off to help with first contact here."

"I will be happy to consult insofar as what I can tell you is useful."

"I imagine it'd be very useful, much of what remains is - teaching everyone how to communicate their cultural values in terms that won't alarm or distress anyone."

"I can probably do that part!"