"No, we are not, and we can't reasonably check. I don't seem to be dismissed by something stupid and random like eating cherries, but it's possible that all the rules are out the window and I am stuck here forever, which, well, that's not so bad, the only associated inconvenience is that it will take a while for anybody to bother collecting my correspondence to my parents. But if some of the rules are operative - if I was summoned normally but you can never replicate the feat - kid needs to stay alive and not have a sustained minute of wanting me gone."

"And we don't have a safe way to put him in a coma," Maitimo says.

His mother flinches. 

Maitimo puts a hand on her shoulder. "I know. The population of Endore -"

"I was not going to argue, if you had a way to do it."

"I think taking him with you to the refugee planet is probably the way to go. Perhaps taking all the children, in case it's not known which one did it, although then we're using all our children as shields for the one - I don't suppose you can make something absurdly secure and hard to find to put him in?"

"What's the standard for 'hard to find'? I can make a nice cozy space station that doesn't need a sun to be warm and lit and put it in the middle of Nowhere, Intergalactic Space, if a planet is too conspicuous, but I don't know what kind of detection tech I'm screening against."

"There is no reason to think the Enemy could find a space station somewhere in intergalactic space," Maitimo says after a minute's hesitation. "But we don't know much about detection tech."

"Kind of leaves the inhabitants in the lurch if something does happen to me, too."

"That's obviously worth it, though," she says. "It'd only be the two of us, or if we thought it'd be good for Tasá to have companions ten? Twenty?"

"I am sort of disturbed by how unhesitating you are to consider your small child a strategic asset. My point is I can also make a planet, which would be easier to park on long-term and heat with nice long-term geothermal setups even if it shouldn't have a star and extract generic resources from to meet any needs I don't anticipate for initial planet-festooning, do we expect the Enemy to be able to find a planet?"

"Not much point in crying about it, is there? I am sure that Prince Nelyafinwe would add 'being comforting' to his schedule but he has more important things, things that make my son more safe by ending this war sooner, and my King would be very incompetent indeed if he decided to be swayed by a child's mother being very sad. A planet would be nice, though."

"Okay. I will have to revise a bunch of designs to do the geothermal thing but I have enough engineering to do that. Making a star too would mean I'd have to do all sorts of orbital mechanics and I can't make stuff in motion, it'd be dicey. Is this is in fact a substantial security advantage over finding an existing empty planet with a star."

"The Enemy would have had time to do lots of surveying if he pleased, and it's much faster to return somewhere you've been than to survey, and you could put a planet out in intergalactic space which I doubt he has any kind of detection on even if he has some in general," Maitimo says, "so potentially so?"

"Okay. Making a planet will take me a few weeks. I should also, before I go anywhere that you are also going that may constitute 'following', ask the Valar if they can please quarantine the effects of their fucking Doom to their own universe or at least tell me how to avoid getting any on me, with less swearing. This will slow me down in getting you drones and defensible landers for approaching Endorë."

Maitimo nods. "I doubt it'll come up but you can make any promises on our behalf that'll help protect your world, up to and including that we'll turn ourselves in once the war's won, but not that we'll turn ourselves in while the Enemy's still out there. We will wait the few weeks. I know you know time matters."

Cam nods. "Should I go talk to the Valar alone - both 'would this furnish me a meaningful politeness advantage if I brought the right person' and 'are you able to go where they are'?"

"I am not able to go where they are, I am exiled. The right person will furnish a politeness advantage only if you're unable to pretend for ten minutes that you think they're the wholly worthy rulers of Arda and that the Doom was super reasonable and as a fellow super reasonable person you're deferring to their wisdom. If you can't pretend that, have someone talk for you. If you can, it'd be much less complicated for you to go alone."

"Well, I don't know how good they are at telling when someone is thinking you suck at the top of his metaphorical lungs but I can avoid actually saying it."

Maitimo smiles. Just for a second. "You aren't responsive at all to our telepathy and they are terrible at facial expressions and body language due to being so fundamentally alien to us."

"Oh good then I should be fine!"

"Have a lovely time. We'll be approaching Endore in four weeks, should you happen to find yourself there at that time."

"Four as you count them would be enough if I found a Suspiciously Marslike Rock. Making the rock from scratch and doing fun with geothermals is going to take me longer. So, uh, stay out of rocket range of the place and expect me to rendezvous in..." arithmetic! "six weeks? Should I take anyone along to the planet's christening party or fetch them later?"

"Let's have the valuable strategic asset even farther away than 'out of rocket range'. If you can take them along that'd be ideal. Can you also make a lot of food and supplies, if we're delaying six weeks? There's a cargo bay on all of the ships, it's empty."

"Yeah sure." Cam looks over the blueprints to identify where in the ships the cargo bays are. "What do you want?"

"Lots and lots of lembas - " he pulls some out - "looks like this, very calorie-dense and nutritionally complete - but I am told that I am soulless. If you have tastier options I am sure people will appreciate them."

"Am I worrying about allergies, should I be assuming you eat the same things people I'm accustomed to do, what nonfood should I be planning to fit in the bays..."

"Never heard of allergies, what are those? We don't have much in the way of supplies which isn't a problem if you do end up meeting up on the other end, we can eat animals and fish and fruits and grains and generally eat a mix of those."

"Some humans have bad autoimmune reactions to some food or environmental stimuli, peanuts are the classic. ...I am glad it just occurred to me to ask: how do you normally package these things, if I give you a lot of canned salmon are you going to have a problem lacking can openers."