'Sector,' Tayrey supplies regardless. She's fond of precision. 'Over a hundred colony worlds, in Second Sector, in the Spiral Coil galaxy - although of course it is highly unlikely your people call it by the same name, if it exists in your timeline and you're aware of it.'

But Koutolika is right, thinks Tayrey, she is going to cause headaches if she focuses on epistemological details instead of getting to the heart of the matter. For the present, at least. Time enough to explore the scientific ramifications later.

She refocuses. 'It's possible,' she says, 'that we were not given the same information. My understanding is that nobody's homeworld is truly in danger, this is some sort of... utopian experiment. Such things can be very good, or very terrible. In my people's history, there were those who disregarded essential rights for the sake of a greater good, and it was a tyranny that took a long and costly war to be free of.'

She frowns, fingers of one hand curling into her palm. 'I am here to observe. The bigger picture cannot crush the individual. If the price of their good and kind society is tricking you into agreement, it isn't so good or kind. Don't devalue yourself, Cadet Koutolika. Your rights matter. Your family matters.' She tilts her head. 'I am sure you are entirely capable of handling the matter yourself, but if my support in petitioning the Council to have your parents brought here would be of any value to you, you have it.'