"It's part of it."

Speaking of pocket everythings, hers should be here soon. More bouncing!

Hmm, she's been saving up a bunch of questions for a while, which ones should she ask?

"Earlier, you asked me about whether people could move to get away from laws they don't like. Is that something that happens a lot here?"

"It's difficult because no one has very much room and they want to spend it on letting their people have children but if two people want to trade they can do that."

She nods.

"So it'll be easier once you have more planets?"

"Oh yes."

"What sort of laws do people want to move away from?" she asks.

"And, actually, are there any laws I should know not to break while I'm here?"

"...we do have a fairly extensive legal system but I'm not sure what if any of it you might run into. People sometimes want to switch to a place with a different population control method, that's a popular one. Or to somewhere that does caste with the other sort of inheritance if they're mixed caste and want the other parent's caste for the children."

Puna frowns.

"I thought caste was about hair colour. Can't you tell from that?"

"Caste is indicated by hair color and every caste is most likely to naturally have the right hair color for it, but it's actually inherited from parents regardless of what color their hair comes in - you can have throwback hair colors, see, match a grandparent or even a great-grandparent, and sometimes people marry out of caste but the child will still be one or the other though they're equally likely to have either color."

"Huh, okay. And how do you know which parent they'll take after?"  she wonders.

"Is it different between countries? Wouldn't that mean some places are sorting people wrong?"

"Intercaste marriages are really rare - actually, they used to be illegal in most places. So it's not a common problem. If the parents have a guess that would be a reason to try to swap if it's the wrong parent."

"No, I mean - how do you decide which parent intercaste children should follow in the first place? And why did different countries decide different things, if there's no actual difference between the children born in each country?"

She looks slightly worried now. 

"Motu who are dedicated to the wrong god can be really unhappy until they work out they need to switch. Just because it doesn't happen very often doesn't mean it's not a problem!"

"...most countries it's matrilineal because historically that was the parent who was definitely verifiable and the father could conceivably have been a third party. In some, of which Anitam is the largest, it's patrilineal for local cultural and historical reasons."

"And can someone change caste later if they figure out they were put in the wrong one, or is there a deadline by which their parents have to be in the right country?"

Puna doesn't sound like she thinks much of this system.

"People can't change caste, no - well, sometimes if they're moving between lineality systems as children they can fudge it a little, but not later. Castes have specialized educational tracks and cultures, it's not something you can just decide to switch."

"Hmm."

Puna is pretty sure this is a problem, but she's also pretty sure she won't be able to convince these people that it is one. Maybe she can meet a mixed-caste person at some point and ask them what they think.

"So does every caste teach children of their own caste, or is there one caste in charge of teaching everyone?"

"Oranges teach children. At higher levels castes teach their own specialties."

...well that sounds vaguely sensible. 

"What do oranges do if they don't like children?" she wonders while she thinks of a better question to ask.

"...well, nearly everyone likes children, but oranges can also be doctors or nurses or therapists or social workers or veterinarians or sex workers."

Oh, right, the thing where they all want lots of babies.

"What if they don't like people?" she suggests, half-teasing now. "Or animals?"

"There are some forms of medicine that don't involve much interacting with people. Anesthetists. Radiologists."

"Okay."

She consults her illusion memory-aids again to pick another caste.

"What about...oh, the things greys do all seemed to be things that need strong people. What if someone is grey but isn't very strong?"

"There are some edge occupations. I don't remember them off the top of my head but greys who need them find them."

The same will probably turn out to be true of any caste she asks about. It seems like the system is just about flexible enough that most people can find something they can do, even if it's not what they'd really like to do. 

She can't think of any more questions right this minute. "May I explore your garden for a while?" she asks the Princess.

"Be my guest!"