Cam is dipping a grilled cheese sandwich into a bowl of tomato soup when he feels the summons. He goes ahead and grabs it. Doesn't even drop the sandwich.
"I can do some of that. I will sincerely consider suggested projects, I can print out design schematics for anything I make, if you want to wreck your infrastructure I'll probably stop making you new infrastructure but I won't make a huge fuss about it, there is a language and assumed technology barrier in all educational materials I could produce and my personal time is valuable but I'm not opposed to teaching you guys to maintain or manufacture the shiny toys, and I'll happily state that Opri is not making me do anything criminal or aggressive unless you in fact come up with some way to make me do things that are one of those, which is unlikely. Is that income tax standard?"
"The removal clause is aimed at something like: If you decide to be amusing and made a gigantic sculpture in the middle of the street, we are not responsible for breaking it to get it out of the way. The usual industry and commercial income tax is 20%. You are classified as a high-risk industry, so the tax is higher."
"High risk to Opri, because the Senate very much does not like new things and is likely to invade us unless you very kindly also gift them similar things to what you give us. If you are determined to go up against the Senate, you're going to have to do it someplace other than Opri."
"I haven't met the Senate. Maybe they're very nice people and I want to give them stuff. The invading people for having received presents doesn't sound like it, of course. If you'd rather not take the risk I could just go make an island in whatever passes for international waters around here and colonize it and take immigrants, the idea has substantial appeal."
Kell adds, "You know what, she's right. New technology is like a firework: Best observed from a distance."
"All right. I can disconnect the dam cable, then. You can keep the water station or I can put one like what you had before back, up to you."
"Surprise!" Grind falls from the top of the wall and lands hard, right in front of Kell. "I knew you held a city council meeting without me again! You'll pay for that, you will. Cam, we'll keep the dam and water station if you don't mind, but we'll be giving it to the Senate if they ask for it. Acceptable?"
"You can't just decide that on your own-"
"Fair point, Kelly. Assemble the city council and we'll have a vote. Keep the shiny new thing that will cost almost nothing to run and get something like 40 gold back from the civil service budget, and have something to give to the Senate if they poke their noses around here looking for it? Or neither of those things."
"We'll still need to vote." Kell rubs his head. "I need some aspirin. Er, Cam? Would you mind coming back this evening?"
"I don't have anywhere else to be. I mean, even if I go make an island it won't take that long unless all these various governments have the sea claimed for quite a long way past the coast."
"Telra doesn't claim anywhere there aren't people," Steel clarifies. "It's a federation. They bring existing populations under their control to expand, they don't colonize by themselves."
Kell and Grind have disappeared into the city, along with Kell's contingent of guards.
"What I'm asking is how far past the coast do those rights extend. I don't want to park my island in somebody's salmon farm."
"Thirty miles will be plenty of distance. Are you going to make an island or attempt to find one?"
"If I find a really nice one it may tempt me, but I was thinking make. I can start it out with nifty subterranean tunnels and no verminous creatures and wiggly coastline for waterfront real estate."
"I'm not sure waterfront real estate will be as attractive here as in your home. Nice inner city apartments near parks and good clinics and expensive shops are generally where tenant bidding wars happen."
"Huh. Why don't people like the waterfront? I mean, proximity to stuff is also important, but stuff can get built anywhere."
"I think maybe close proximity to stuff matters more here. You seem to have vehicles like that spaceship, I bet you have smaller ones for the ground too. We don't, except insofar as flying or levitated carriages that bus people between cities count."
"Good for you. I'm going to write up as much as I can about the dam in Tlane for Kell, in case they want to keep it. You can do whatever you like until this evening, I suppose?"
"I don't think I will build an island today. I don't have a complete design yet. I will wander Opri and design an island."
"I hope it will be a practical and well-thought-out island. By now your precedent practically demands it."
"The most practical and well-thought-out. And made during lowest tide so the displaced water doesn't inconvenience anyone before it has time to spread out."