"How many people is this? Would you be willing to help?"

"It didn't sound like they were having an overpopulation problem, but I don't have a number. I'd want to talk to Green about it first, but sure, I can help with that."

"What will you be talking to Green about exactly?"

"I'm not going to let Green's people keep them, if they want to go and you want to take them. But I don't know the whole situation, there might be something important that I haven't told you."

"That make sense. I can find a good place to put them once I know how many there are - nearly any Federation planet could absorb five thousand, but if there are billions, I'll probably need to make some kind of formal request about it."

"That makes sense. I can go do that now, if you'd like."

"Why not?"

"All right. This might take a couple hours."

It takes three, as it turns out, and she comes back with a binder full of folders.

"Welcome back!"

"Hi! Green sent me to talk to the Earth management committee, and they're very interested in letting the humans move somewhere else."

"The humans might be attached, but perhaps at least some of them would be happy to move into the Federation. Did you find out how many they are?"

"Mmhmm - ten billion, about. And most of the current generation isn't trained in anything very useful, they don't ask their humans to work. What they'd like to do is change the policies for the next generation, give them more incentives to learn skills that will let them contribute to your society and not let them have children until they leave."

"- no, I don't think that's okay. I don't want my attempt to help these humans used as a bludgeon to force them to abandon their homes or never have children."

She nods. "I'm not sure how much they're going to cooperate with a plan that only gets some of the humans off the planet."

"I don't think there's realistically a plan that gets all the humans off the planet without coercing them, not if there are billions."

"Yeah. Letting them grow up with the idea that they're going to want to go seems like it'll help, though."

"I don't want to cooperate with a coercive relocation plan, even if it involves grooming a generation to go along with it first. A population of billions just isn't going to be that tractable."

"All right. I don't think I trust them not to change their policies anyway, if they notice the humans disappearing."

"I guess I won't sneak any of their humans out at this time, then, not unless I find a way to move a whole planet. Can you do that?"

"Nope."

"Oh well."

...hug? "Sorry."

She does not especially want a hug and is puzzled by the offer. "It would have been lucky for the first concrete idea I had to work but I'm not surprised that it didn't."

No hug, then, all right. "Yeah. I can tell you about situations like that when I find them, lots of places have some kind of trouble."

"I'd appreciate that! The Federation is good at almost everything and it could absorb more people."