Eventually the council calms enough to be a bit orderly about their questions. The first of which, is the obvious: “How? How do you know that? How did you get past the dome?”

  I shrug in my borrowed body, “Look… we travel the stars. We knew you were here before we came. At least one of you speaks the common gactic trade nguage, so obviously others have been here before us. Is it really all that much of a stretch that we've read a little about a pce we were pnning to visit?” All true. I really should pick up Bluff at some point. “That's why we knew how to get past the barrier. That's how we know your city is starting to break down. That's how we know the outline of a pn to resolve the underlying problem long term.”

  Again, the transtion both ways, “Oh, and you can just magically step in and fix everything, can you?”

  I ugh, “Not at all. The basic problem is quite simple. The solution is easy to state. Implementing the solution…” I shake my head, “I'm not going to try and deceive you on it. It's going to be exceptionally difficult, and your people are going to need to do the work,” and none of you are used to that, because the machines have been doing basically everything for you for longer than any of you can remember. “And as I said: We can sell you a small amount of what the maintenance drones need to do their jobs… but not a lot. Anything we sell you is going to be a stopgap measure only. For a long-term solution, it is essential that you do it yourselves.”

  Again the transtion, giving me time to “read the room” and prepare my response to their next words before they officially tell me, swapping a few talents out to set myself up for the demonstration: “And what's to stop us from simply forcing you to do it forever?”

  “I never did say exactly how we got past the barrier, did I?” I use the Warp sphere to teleport a short distance, “You cannot trap us here. Even if you could, we cannot do everything needed. We are willing to tell you what's wrong. We are willing to tell you the basics of how to fix it. We can sell you small amounts of the necessary things needed to get everything running… and it's limited to small amounts because that's all we have,” more specifically, all we made in transit, but still accurate. “But we cannot and will not do everything for you.”

  Before transting for the council, the speaker pauses a bit, and says, “We will need to confer,” as he types a few things into a comm unit, “please head back to your fellow aliens for now. We will provide you with lodgings. Follow the guards.”

  I bow, “By your leave, then,” switch my talents back around for flight, and hop off the ledge, flying down and nding safely with the party.

  “So how did it go?” Brenna speaks into my mind.

  “Pretty well, I think,” I reply along the channel she opened, “I dangled the carrot, they threatened us, and I convinced them that threats weren't going to work. So now they want us to rest up while they confer.”

  “You do realize the problem there, don't you?” Brenna sends back.

  “Oh. Right. The long rest reset.” I consider, “so one of us needs to sneak back to the ship.”

  “The mechs too,” Brenna adds, “And you are the only one that can get to them, so we can't just have Alice do it.”

  We get to the building in question, fortunately with a ground floor entrance, and the guards speak with the proprietor. I continue the telepathic talk, “the mechs vanishing isn't that big of a deal, they should just reappear on the ship, but the ship itself… okay, yeah, that's a problem if it appears inside the dome. Umm. Okay, I can be tiny and still get around, so I can get whoever we like past the barrier, no problem.”

  “You want to be the one talking?” Brenna chuckles.

  “I bought the nguage…” I begin.

  “I think we all did…” Brenna gives me a mental ugh, “I swapped out one of my two bonus nguages from Intelligence, Alice has ranks in Culture, and I haven't asked Charlene, but….”

  “...but it's not exactly special.” I think, “can anyone else fly? That's kind of necessary around here.”

  Brenna stops at that, “Right. Okay. Fine.”

  We’re escorted to a room, close the door, and switch to sign so everyone can get in on the conversation. We catch everyone up, and continue where we left off.

  “All right, so I likely need to handle negotiations when we start talking turkey on the price,” Alice suggests, keeping to sign nguage.

  “And I'm the only one that can fly,” I point out.

  “Right…” Brenna signs, looking at Charlene, “so it's you or me.”

  “I have the pets,” Charlene shrugs, “With David's support, I can get a small army in py, and keep them running all day.”

  “We're hoping this doesn't come to a fight…” Brenna signs, “...and I have the Perception and Sense Motive skills topped off.”

  Charlene stops at that, “Fine. I'll sleep in the ship,” she shakes her head, “Come on David, let's get me there.”

  I dismiss my Conjuration Companion, and fall to the ground; Charlene catches me, and slips me on her finger. I swap out both of my Moldable Talents for the Warp sphere and Mass Warp, and I speak with her telepathically, “Okay, now you should have access to my talents as long as you wield me. So let's go…” and she begins Warping us both repeatedly while I use my at-will spell to recharge her spell points… not as fast as she's burning them, but we're not too far from the city's edge, and she can hustle while not casting.

  When we get to the mechs, I re-summon my Conjuration Companion, switch a talent back over so she has a burrow speed, and fetch the mechs to the surface. With a little work, Charlene fills all the mechs with summons (and I fill her with spell points), and then they leave, activating the stealth circuitry to become invisibile and teleporting through the barrier.

  I then dismiss the summon (the invisibility having worn off), swapping a talent out for the Telekinesis sphere, and use that to slowly fly back to our room… where I finally Warp back into the room, set my talents back to my standard set, summon my minion, and re-equip her (including with me). Then we rest up.

  We could have saved a lot of time by just leaving someone with the ship… oh well.

  In the morning, we find a new set of guards, who peel off in pairs to follow us as we leave the room. They don't stop us from going anywhere, but the message is clear enough. Still… we spend time exploring the city, and towards evening, the old man that speaks the common nguage that is Gactic Trade approaches us.

  “So…” he begins, “Where did the other go?”

  “Back to our ship,” Alice shrugs; I did of course fill everyone in on the details, “We're here on business, we're not prisoners.”

  “Clearly,” he pauses, and chitters a bit… ah, a sigh, “Well, the Most Elevated have reached a decision. And yes, we have a space on the ground for the meeting. This way, please….”

  He leads, and we follow to a door set up at ground level, through a tunnel, and to a room where yes, the council sits on a bunch of chairs, surrounded by armed and armored guards. The transtor pauses, and speaks in his native tongue,“You all know the true nguage, don't you?”

  Alice smiles and nods as she replies in the same, “Of course. It's always polite to learn the nguage of a host world, just as it's polite for a host to provide a transtor for guests. You have excellent hospitality.”

  “Thank you,” He takes a breath, “Now, your companion said you understand the problem?”

  “Yes. The repair drones under the command of the mainframe in your city no longer seem to be doing the job of maintaining the city fully,” Alice confirms, “and we know why, how to get them doing their jobs again for a little while, and how you can get them doing their jobs permanently.”

  “And how much is this information going to cost us?” The transtor asks the relevant question.

  “Ah, that. The information we will give away, because it costs us nothing,” Alice smiles, “also, it's simple: The maintenance drones were using supplies from before the war that devastated this world. They're running out. We can replenish some of those stocks with a little work, but ultimately you'll need to….”

  “No,” one of the members of the Most Elevated object, “We will not risk our people outside the dome.”

  “Heading outside to mine ore yourselves isn't strictly the only option,” Alice picks up easily, “you need materials: That can also come from trade. If you find something the husks want that you can provide, you can convince them to trade ore for that.” Not that we have any idea what the religious nuts following a made-up deity who wants her followers to abandon technology would want from a technological society.

  “And what do you think they want?” Another of the council members steps in.

  “No idea,” Alice shrugs, “as we said: The outline of a pn, and it's not like we're charging you for this aspect. You can train prospectors, miners, and refiners to go out and get what you need, negotiating with the other branch of your species for access… or you can figure out what the people out there want enough to convince them to do that work for you, and handle refining and trade. Either way, I expect you'll want to either let us access your systems long enough to inventory the specifics of what you need, or just get us the list if you know how to handle it yourselves.”

  “Oh, is that what this is about? Accessing our systems?” Some of these folks are paranoid.

  “Nah,” Alice shrugs, “extract the list of materials you need yourselves if you like. Get that to us, and we can get the supplies.”

  That gets us a frown, “How is it you have what we need, but don't know exactly what it is?”

  “We have some Universal Polymer Base. With the right tools and a little knowledge, those can turn into basically anything, including base metals and such.” Alice shrugs, “We use it for patching the hull of our ship when needed. We don't have all that much, but we can turn some of it into whatever the machines need. It is, however, something we need as well, so we want payment for it.”

  The council buzzes among themselves for a bit, and reach an agreement, which the transtor expins: “We can't negotiate for something when we can't judge it's value. So: We'll show you the mainframe, you can get the list of things the system needs, then bring it to us and tell us how much of what you can provide, as well as how long it is liable to st. After that, we can negotiate in earnest.”

  Alice smiles, “Wonderful; please show us the way when you're ready.”

  The transtor waves his wings, “We're ready now. Just follow Gerard.”

  A guard wearing a red feathered plume on his helmet, a matching cape (which seems odd for a winged species), plus silver trim on his armor steps forward, waves his wings, turns and starts heading towards the center of town.

  We follow; it's not difficult to keep up with him as he leads us through the town, winding through streets, to the central tower… at which point he points at a door that has what looks very much like a palm scanner.

  “Good luck,” he speaks, “as far as I know, it doesn't open for anyone at all.”