Aleph ran the thoughts through her head again. That had certainly been an explanation. A very long very rambling lecturing explanation.

It had been really quite fun and fascinating discussions on... Well most of society really. But she was not exactly sure what the point had been.

She wondered if the none-sirens had to over explain things because they were trying to brute force less effective translation software.

Or maybe all the none-sirens she had ever had more than a professional interaction with were just prone to geeking out on things?

She tried to sum up the discussion and check the assumptions.

“So... you are telling us that we could ask Pylo and Elsie for a lot more than we have? Uh... not only that we could but the fact we are not is kinda... um ungrateful?”

Squidgie shook their ‘face’ left to right, eye staying fixed on her, voice soft and buzzing.

“Oh no miss Aleph, it’s not rude, or something that you should feel bad for. But, it is more... you shouldn't hold back on asking for things you need Miss Aleph. You, Quarti and Omega shouldn't hold back on saying when you don’t understand something or think that when you need something that you should abstain the request because it is too much to ask for.”

The clerk flailed a bit in the air.

“You don’t need to be stoic and solve everything on your own. You don’t need to suffer and starve over things like you have been trained too. Miss Pylo and El-Szie are very very VERY rich by the standards you grew up with Miss Aleph. That ANY living Terrans grew up with”

Quarti was rocking back and forth in the cloud cushioning with a wide grin on her face but had stayed silent since the explanation had gotten heavy. She glanced at the ‘elder’ but only got encouraging nods and gibbering sub-emotions over the choir. So the weight of the conversation was on Aleph then.

“So we should do what exactly? Ask to be treated like royalty or something? I don’t think I’m really comfortable with that”

Squidgie huffed and tugged a bit of the white fluffy clouds. Stretching it out and gesturing at her with it.

Quarti chortled about princesses or something.

She was getting the impression that maybe the young clerk was a bit disappointed or frustrated with how this all was going. It was the little cues and things, not the overtly human body language they attempted but the way parts of their skin rippled, the way the eye focused and held on things or quickly swept about in erratic zig-zags. Between the broad gestures of human legible moves they spoke to agitation.

“This material here? You thought it was incredible to begin with yes? Marvelous and amazing and precious compared to anything you have ever seen?”

Aleph nodded. The fluffy stuff was very comfy, honestly she was going to miss the clouds when they left... In two decades...

Huh.

What was that even going to be like?! As long again as she had been alive so far on this ship with Pylo and everyone.

Wait No Distractions!

Squidgie nodded back.

“You are entirely correct, this material is the result of a chain of production and sub industries, agricultural, industrial and ecological combined that would require an equivalent economic capacity of the entirety of your home polity just to create as much as fits in my hand here in a year”

Aleph glanced around at the way the fluffy clouds were covering the interior of their ‘room’. That suggested centuries of man hours of labor were surrounding her. Maybe even millennia.

Squidgie continued as she tried estimating the volume of the stuff.

“However and simultaneously this material is also more or less completely inconsequential trash. Discarded packaging material from a earlier shipping exchange, much like the film that also protects you from vacuum”

She frowned and looked at Squidgie as the clerk let the cloud stuff rebound back into the rest of the general mass.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Granted it was not the sole product of all those industries, but the requirements of concentrating the kinds of rare trace elements and the infrastructures needed for creating the manufacturing environments and precision are the result of incredible means that only exist because of the sheer scale of the polity industrial base involved. To Pylo and El-szie these wonders are so cheap to be inconsequential.”

Aleph tried to consider that, really consider it. To be able to look at something that was the labors of millions? Billions? Possibly even trillions of individuals as nothing but trash? It was making her light headed. Still some part of her realized she'd been doing exactly that her whole life in miniature, remembering a documentary she listened on choir about how a simple pen was made on Terra.

"Beyond that, as I already tried to explain. Neither Pylo nor El-Szie have the notion that asking for direct or currency-like resources is profane in a casual relationship the same way it is to you terrans. A single second of their attention is more to ask for than all the raw resources in something like the Window. And they gladly give you those things. El-Szie is extending you with every class room the worth of a thousand of those windows."

Quarti gave a long whistle. It actually went on for an absurdly and obnoxiously long time. Enough time that her and Squidgie ended up staring at her.

Where did she get the air for that?!

Aleph looked over at squidgie and raised a brow.

“Well, geez no pressure... but if that’s the case. Uh I think El’sie is kinda... really wasting their time. They are kinda awful at teaching if you put it like that. Especially at that... uh... price”

Squidgie bobbed a little bit with her and then looked expectantly up at Aleph.

Aleph looked down at the clerk.

Quarti leaned over next to her and spoke in a breathy and very loud manner that sounded a bit like a whisper. Except Aleph was pretty sure she could have heard it across the habitat.

“This is the part where you realize something obvious!”

She scowled at the prophet and rubbed her ear.

“Uh... what? And really Quarti?! You are gonna deafen me at this rate!”

Squidgie fiddled with her hands up and down the sides of her body nervously.

“This has been exactly the kind of thing I’ve been trying to explain Miss Aleph. If El’szie is being so inefficient with their time with you. You are fully within the parameters of your relationship to ask them to clarify or change their methods. They and Miss Pylo hold you in very high esteem. Nevermind the status and accomodations considered standard for passengers aboard interstellar vessels”

Aleph frowned a bit and looked at quarti and then Squidgie.

“That’s a very confusing way to say that Squidgie. You just spent... I think over two hours going over all the economics of relationships and politics and uh... I don’t even know what to call some of that bit in the middle there about uh... ethics? All of that just to tell me that it’s okay to tell El’sie that they are not doing things right?”

Squidgie shared a glance with Quarti. It was long enough Aleph was considering continuing before the clerk turned to fix her with a big amber eye.

“That was... a part of it. Among a great many other things. It seemed necessary since all of you are so used to living within such a foundational trophic level.”

Squidgie flexed in agitation.

“After all you don’t even think to ask do you? You simply perform conserving behaviors.”

Aleph looked at Quarti, then back at Squidgie, then back at Quarti. All the scattered and confusing months of lessons? All the endless boredom?

Why hadn't she simply asked or complained or brought something up?!

The prophet’s voice was even more infuriating when it was delighted like that.

“Ah there ya go girlie! A bit late but none of us are perfect! You’ll hit your cue next time!”

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