"You can't - come offer us the universe and then tell us oh, by the way, it will have a healthy layer of pollutants all over everywhere, but other than that it's very nice - well. Manifestly you can, but."

"I don't want to do that. I may not understand what it is you think is wrong with them but that'd be a tragic way for this to go. But - it's also a tragic way for it to go if the entire universe is closed to them. And there appears to be literally no one in the universe who both agrees that the second thing is a tragedy enough to be credible to us in proposing solutions and believes in pollution enough to be credible to you in proposing solutions."

"If you believed in pollution you wouldn't want them touching your things in the first place."

"Are there any people who believe in, like, the pollutedness of actual gross things but don't think it makes any sense for it to be hereditary, or at least for it to be indefinitely hereditary - or at least that if we resurrect the Rivikni reds the resurrected ones wouldn't be unclean -"

"Edgy university students, I suppose."

Sigh. "And that Voan fellow who started a war over it."

"...no, I don't think that's implied, I think he just thought the food was safe. It more or less was."

"What's the mechanism by which resurrected reds are polluted, exactly?"

"Aren't they just like they were before? I don't know how your process works."

"It's a new body. Made from new atoms, just configured the same."

"I'm not a theologian. Maybe it'd be all aright."

Nod. "Should we leave, at least for a while while people are stressed about the Rivik prosecutions? It's not a yearlong process, you could start as late as the end of summer and still have a planet before you're setting credit allocations."

"Not in the south."

"Yeah, I'm sure my colleagues there are having a harder time of it. But I'm here, I only have to worry about you guys."

"I think you should give Rivik their citizens back. But if you're wondering if it's past my breaking point, no."

"All right. Let's figure out your spaceport shuttle schedules."

Which they can do without mentioning reds at all.

Everything really goes much better on literally any other topic. (Well, the Met team is having as much trouble on the topic of collective punishment.)

Rivik accused murderers get a hearing and a lawyer.

The cop is angry and uncooperative. The green is having a lot of trouble stopping crying long enough to talk.

"Should I come back tomorrow?"

Sobbing!

Lawyer comes back tomorrow.

Green is still very very unhappy but has apparently run out of tears.

"Should I get you in touch with a prison counselor or social worker? They can be really valuable. We have a lot of treatment options available for people who'd like mental health support."

"...I'm n-not sick."