"Specifically to talk to you? What kind of aliens?"

"We call them the Presger. I don't know anything about them because it's nearly impossible for us to communicate. They dismantled our ships, when they first entered territory they claimed, not that we knew. Just pulled the people apart, tissue by tissue. They didn't realize they were hurting them, I think. I don't know. They tried sending people they made. As ambassadors. They weren't like her but they were more like her than anything you'd encounter. But this one's a ship. For me. They know I love the ships. They killed them to talk to me, it was the first time they tried - it was a warning -"

"What should we know about her being a ship, what are ships like?"

"The human bodies are - appendages, they use them to do tasks that require interfacing with humans. Work on planets and stations, mostly. They're capable of functioning independently, just like I am, but they're not meant to, even less than I am - I don't know if she's all right -"

"She doesn't look upset. We shouldn't read into that?"

"I would be pretty surprised if she knew how humans move their faces for things. Would you all shut up -"

"Do you know how you got here?"

"I got here partially!"

"Do you know what caused you to get here."

"No!!!"

"Do you know who the pharaoh is."

"No."

"Do you mean to hurt the pharaoh or anybody in the palace?"

"How should I know? I'm the only me here! What if the rest of me means to do that and has a very good reason?"

"Oh, cut it out," he says to Anaander sharply. 

Tears are running down her face. "Do - some goddamn spell - if you think I'm lying -"

"I don't think you're lying but I haven't cried non-volitionally since I was three."

"You really really don't understand - a ship - she's a ship -"

"We got that."

"Is it just that you don't know if she's okay, or -"

"This is the most important - the only important thing for the survival of the Radch. For a thousand years I have not known what I needed to do. But now I do and - I need to understand her. They killed everyone I cared about to teach me one word of their language and they - they send me this to -"

"- we still don't know how to get any of us home. But there's more of you and more of her back there, right? If she's made to talk to you they'll find each other?"

- nod.

"- oh, oh, I have a question. Do YOU know what caused me to get here?"

"I don't answer questions. Do you have magical abilities?"