I should like to meet your queen! I've heard quite a lot about her. I doubt she'd be terribly impressed with my thoughts on hereditary monarchies, though.
[She's very surprised when he kisses her hand! But it does make her smile.] I think it's natural, when we hear about something new, to try to compare it to things we do know. There are similarities, yes? We're an organisation combining military and trade purposes. We operate between colonies. All the subtler details are different, but I'm not offended by attempts at comparison. It would only be troubling if... if you decided to hate the Tradelines because you made the comparison and assumed they must be just the same and that Tradeliners were slavers. But you have more sense than that.
[But then she is troubled.] Mandates? Injectable vaccines do very well at halting disease if you haven't got anything more advanced, but the notion that if someone says no that they should be held down and forcibly injected is... well it's utterly shameful. You convince them. With evidence. If there's insufficient evidence - well, then you can understand the hesitation, yes? Even if you disagree with it. Especially if the entire concept of a vaccine is novel to people.
[She's taking the worst case scenario, but don't think she'll approve of Tirvan-style social sanctions for refusal, either. Tayrey's a hardline libertarian. She's only dissuaded from pressing the argument further because he's talking about friendship - this man she's just met! He can't know what it means to her, she reminds herself. Earthers use the word casually. Even so, it does soften her attitude.]
Tradeliners are supposed to deal with such troubles alone. [Not that she's been very good at that - and how could he know that she woke up sometimes after nightmares that she was still on that ship - or worse, trapped in a formless void of a Nothing?] It's... our custom. But in my case, if that place was poisoning me, then simply being away from it will let me heal, I think. Let me forget about it and move forward.
But you're right! Let's speak of bright things! My very favorite mission was one in which I set foot on a planet that no other person had been to before. As expedition leader, I had the honor of being first. It wasn't a planet you'd want to settle on - bitterly cold, covered all over in ice - but still. I was first. That's on the record. Nobody on that entire world but me and my team.
no subject
[She's very surprised when he kisses her hand! But it does make her smile.] I think it's natural, when we hear about something new, to try to compare it to things we do know. There are similarities, yes? We're an organisation combining military and trade purposes. We operate between colonies. All the subtler details are different, but I'm not offended by attempts at comparison. It would only be troubling if... if you decided to hate the Tradelines because you made the comparison and assumed they must be just the same and that Tradeliners were slavers. But you have more sense than that.
[But then she is troubled.] Mandates? Injectable vaccines do very well at halting disease if you haven't got anything more advanced, but the notion that if someone says no that they should be held down and forcibly injected is... well it's utterly shameful. You convince them. With evidence. If there's insufficient evidence - well, then you can understand the hesitation, yes? Even if you disagree with it. Especially if the entire concept of a vaccine is novel to people.
[She's taking the worst case scenario, but don't think she'll approve of Tirvan-style social sanctions for refusal, either. Tayrey's a hardline libertarian. She's only dissuaded from pressing the argument further because he's talking about friendship - this man she's just met! He can't know what it means to her, she reminds herself. Earthers use the word casually. Even so, it does soften her attitude.]
Tradeliners are supposed to deal with such troubles alone. [Not that she's been very good at that - and how could he know that she woke up sometimes after nightmares that she was still on that ship - or worse, trapped in a formless void of a Nothing?] It's... our custom. But in my case, if that place was poisoning me, then simply being away from it will let me heal, I think. Let me forget about it and move forward.
But you're right! Let's speak of bright things! My very favorite mission was one in which I set foot on a planet that no other person had been to before. As expedition leader, I had the honor of being first. It wasn't a planet you'd want to settle on - bitterly cold, covered all over in ice - but still. I was first. That's on the record. Nobody on that entire world but me and my team.