[Ari listens, and she follows most of this well enough. The rest? It could be culture, or temporal displacement, or it could be the fact that her new acquaintance here seems to have become very rapidly intoxicated. Well, drunken spacers were hardly anything new, and Ari once had to deal with a drunken ambassador, so she can be delicate about it if she has to.]
Tradelines. [It's a pointed correction, no small amount of pride in it.] I'm with the Tradelines, and I don't want to break the rules. [Maybe if she had her way she wouldn't do everything exactly by Tradeline code - but Ari signed a contract to abide by the rules, and Ari keeps her word.] I'm also not a copy. I'm a real person. You know, even if you think the other people here aren't real, it's best to behave as if they are, because what if you're wrong? [He's probably not sober enough for simulation ethics and thought experiments, but she has to make the point. If you treated people like copies, simulated data without rights, that could lead down an exceptionally dark path.]
But you're making sense. If it's a temporal bubble, I want to pop it. Find the win conditions, like you said, and send everyone back to where they ought to be. I've got plans, and even if time's not passing outside the bubble, if I'm here too long my skills will get rusty and maybe that's the end of my career. [And nothing matters nearly as much to Ari as her career.] Look, I'll do what I can while I'm here. Those repairs. I'll chart the stars, if it's really true that nobody's done it. I'd offer to stand watch, look out for pirates, but you say you've already got pirates on board the ship, so... [She laughs at the absurdity of it. Pirates. Skeletons in spacesuits - although it's possible that they're life-forms in need of a different atmosphere, and he's describing them as best he can.
She eyes that second bottle of his, carefully.] I hope you'll introduce me to your friends when there's an opportunity, but right now I've got another question. Does this place have Cardalek coffee? It's from my homeworld. I imported it for my private stores when I was shipside. [At no small cost, especially out of a junior lieutenant's salary. She won't be happy if she has to go without it now.]
no subject
Tradelines. [It's a pointed correction, no small amount of pride in it.] I'm with the Tradelines, and I don't want to break the rules. [Maybe if she had her way she wouldn't do everything exactly by Tradeline code - but Ari signed a contract to abide by the rules, and Ari keeps her word.] I'm also not a copy. I'm a real person. You know, even if you think the other people here aren't real, it's best to behave as if they are, because what if you're wrong? [He's probably not sober enough for simulation ethics and thought experiments, but she has to make the point. If you treated people like copies, simulated data without rights, that could lead down an exceptionally dark path.]
But you're making sense. If it's a temporal bubble, I want to pop it. Find the win conditions, like you said, and send everyone back to where they ought to be. I've got plans, and even if time's not passing outside the bubble, if I'm here too long my skills will get rusty and maybe that's the end of my career. [And nothing matters nearly as much to Ari as her career.] Look, I'll do what I can while I'm here. Those repairs. I'll chart the stars, if it's really true that nobody's done it. I'd offer to stand watch, look out for pirates, but you say you've already got pirates on board the ship, so... [She laughs at the absurdity of it. Pirates. Skeletons in spacesuits - although it's possible that they're life-forms in need of a different atmosphere, and he's describing them as best he can.
She eyes that second bottle of his, carefully.] I hope you'll introduce me to your friends when there's an opportunity, but right now I've got another question. Does this place have Cardalek coffee? It's from my homeworld. I imported it for my private stores when I was shipside. [At no small cost, especially out of a junior lieutenant's salary. She won't be happy if she has to go without it now.]