[She doesn't realise just how and rare and significant those words might be. Instead, Ari just looks at his outstretched hand, and an instant later she's on her feet, one of her hands covering his fist and the other clasping around his wrist.] I like you too. By all rights I should be miserable right now. Trapped far from my own people. [Whatever they could guess about the nature of this place, that was true enough.] But I'm not, and maybe that's because you took the time to talk to me. [Or maybe it's because of all the alcohol, Ari.]
[There's a genuine smile on her face as she lets go of his hand and sits back down, but she turns more serious as she answers his question.]
Breakaway was a war. It ended about a century ago. Long before that, my people's ancestors all lived on one world. Tirva. They learnt to sail the stars, and they went out to found new colonies, first in slow ships, and then in fast ones. [She'll save the explanation of time dilation at relativistic speeds for another day.] Meanwhile, on Tirva, all the countries became united, but they were united in tyranny. The Tirvan Alliance thought that it was wrong for the Companies to grow rich. They didn't want any person on Tirva to have more than anyone else, even if it meant they were all poor, and if anyone created anything new, they thought it should belong to the government, and not to its creator. The inventors and brave pioneers and all the Companies tried to leave, but Tirva wanted to follow them to the stars, to carry on taxing and stealing from all the colonies.
Until one day the colonies fought back. All the trading ships armed themselves, every colony raised a militia, and a long war for our freedom began. In the end, we won it. [This is, by necessity, a heavily simplified version - but hopefully he'll understand the essence of it.]
lol tags of all lengths are welcome here ;)
[There's a genuine smile on her face as she lets go of his hand and sits back down, but she turns more serious as she answers his question.]
Breakaway was a war. It ended about a century ago. Long before that, my people's ancestors all lived on one world. Tirva. They learnt to sail the stars, and they went out to found new colonies, first in slow ships, and then in fast ones. [She'll save the explanation of time dilation at relativistic speeds for another day.] Meanwhile, on Tirva, all the countries became united, but they were united in tyranny. The Tirvan Alliance thought that it was wrong for the Companies to grow rich. They didn't want any person on Tirva to have more than anyone else, even if it meant they were all poor, and if anyone created anything new, they thought it should belong to the government, and not to its creator. The inventors and brave pioneers and all the Companies tried to leave, but Tirva wanted to follow them to the stars, to carry on taxing and stealing from all the colonies.
Until one day the colonies fought back. All the trading ships armed themselves, every colony raised a militia, and a long war for our freedom began. In the end, we won it. [This is, by necessity, a heavily simplified version - but hopefully he'll understand the essence of it.]