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An eyestalk extends from the opening at the base of Boreau's shell and swings around to focus on Dalton. "This is true, friend Dalton. However, friend Neera arrived in my chambers nine minutes hence. Are you so much slower than she? Or is it simply that your respect for us is so much lower?"

"No," Dalton says. "I certainly meant no disrespect, Boreau. It's just—"

"It's not his fault," Neera says. "He was taking a shit."

"Ah," Boreau says. "Very well, then. Why did you not say this, friend Dalton?"

"I—"

"He's embarrassed," Neera says. "Dalton's a shy pooper."

Boreau's eye swings to Neera, then back to Dalton."Humans. So clever, and yet so... You never cease to surprise me."

"Yes, well," Dalton says, "I'm here now. So? What's the urgency?"

"We've got a bogey incoming," Neera says. "Optical contact only, but it seems pretty likely that our friends have returned."

"Indeed," Boreau says. "If the object's current trajectory is maintained, it will achieve orbit around this planet within the next six hours."

"Six hours'?" Dalton says. "Do you mean six weeks?"

"If I had meant six weeks, I would have said so. You should know this, friend Dalton."

"But... are you saying Neera somehow missed seeing their torch? If they're that close, we should have seen them decelerating weeks ago."

Boreau drifts up from the floor and swings another eye around to focus on Dalton. "The Assembly's technology differs from ours, friend Dalton. They do not use antimatter drives to maneuver within gravity wells. They consider such devices to be both unreliable and unconscionably dangerous."

"And you're just telling us this now?"

"I endeavor to ensure that you know what you need to know, friend Dalton. I saw no need for you to know this previously."

Dalton scowls, but by now he knows better than to attempt to argue with Boreau."Fine. The Assembly doesn't use antimatter. How do they get in and out of jump range?"

One of Boreau's eyes wags back and forth in a gesture Dalton has come to think of as a shrug. "Unknown. Some type of reactionless drive, but the physics underpinning it are beyond us."

"So what you're saying is that in addition to being belligerent and probably heavily armed, they're also technologically superior to us. Please explain why we're not running for our lives right now?"

"The Assembly's technology is different, friend Dalton. Not necessarily superior. It is true that we do not understand their in-system drive technology. However, it may be so that there are aspects of our systems that they fail to appreciate as well." A third eye emerges, this one focused on Neera."I suspect that very soon this will all become clear. In the meantime, we must prepare to greet our newly arrived friends. The minarch you treated with believed that the representatives of the Assembly had gone to fetch us a gift, no? A surprise. We must prepare to reciprocate."

"Okay," Dalton says."What did you have in mind? A cake, maybe? Think the synthesizer can manage eggs and milk?"

"No, friend Dalton. I do not believe a cake will be necessary. You and friend Neera will take the lander now, and return to the surface. I will await the representatives of the Assembly here in orbit."

"That seems like a bad idea," Dalton says. "I feel like we should probably stay together."

Boreau's eyes withdraw in negation. "No. Your presence is not needed here. You will go to treat again with the minarchs. Go armed. It is possible the Assembly will send a delegation to the surface as well."

"Armed?" Dalton says. "We have weapons?" 

"Indeed we do."

"Why didn't I know that?"

A single eye snakes back out to focus on Dalton. "Again, friend Dalton—until now, you had no need to know."

"That's interesting," Neera says. "You never told me about any hand weapons either. Seems like you should have, just from a preparedness standpoint. I mean, what about training? I'm sure Dalton is ready to jump out of the lander with guns blazing, but I know jack-all about fighting."