“If you’re non-sentient, then you don’t have to worry about dynamism in the world or the lack thereof. If you’re sentient, then you not only need to worry on such matters for your own sake, but for the sake of others. We safeguard any experimented-upon facets we observe around the gem against our own ignorance, as best we can. Do those intrafacetary peoples have to worry about a temporal savepoint’s k-word constructor losing its regularity, about getting locked into some probability branch where an overseer has failed in their duty and condemned the residents to opportunistic poverty? NO. So we must worry on their behalf. That isn’t an imperative, that’s a fact.”

-The Weeper of the Court of the thirteenth age’s first Jon of Rhaagm

Eihks Richard stalked across the redmetal street and moved down the sidewalk, coming to the scheduled debriefing spot just in time.

He looked up at the bottom of the immediately-above tier of city, and at the sun which shone through who knew how many layers of otherwise opaque construction upon a tiny insignificant human.

On one side of the street there was an open field, a nice little span of high-rise-bracketed farmland, covered in swaths of synthwood and greenware briars. On the other side, a very different view awaited.

Approaching the border of the tuning field that bounded a graft, Eihks was stopped short by an official of some kind. The creature, whatever it was, had an orblike shape and hovered a meter up easily. It wore a kind of veil crosshatched with various kinds of circuitry over its top; the sort of garb a disseminator would wear, noted the human.

“Please halt,” the official said, with a liquid intonation performed entirely via cerv-mesh.

Eihks waited as the person glided over.

“Please provide your identification.”

Eihks did. Personal data, professional data, public key.

“Please declare your purpose in paying visit to these premises.”

The person indicated the holojector back near the crosswalk, which discouraged people from unwarily following the path Eihks had taken.

“I am here as an advocate for Rehabilitation Project Stub-nine-nine-seven-three-two-eight-two,” Eihks said, a bit puzzled. Considering the scope of the operation, the fact that the interaction hadn’t been a simple case of checking his information against listings of volunteers, then approval or denial based on findings, was a bit troubling.

No, of course not; it’s not troubling, not even worrying to employ civilians as middle management who don’t even know how to consult unclassified internal data about volunteer participants in a macroscopic pursuit of such delicacy. It’s not like the entire exercise was the result of a previous screw-up in procedure.

Exhibiting either good intuition or ludicrously specific talent for prophecy, the official gave a small soundless bob and rattled off a sighing, frustrated mutter.

“Apologies, Mr. Richard. It is a matter of observing protocol. Everybody gets asked, or licenses start getting pulled. Now, I have for you an informational package. Please accept.”

The subsequent digital transaction proved that the individual was, in fact, a disseminator - at least in acting terms. The size of the proffered data it extended in Eihks’s direction wouldn’t have been easily distributable unless one had highly parallel processing and a virtual output bus the size of the Tower of Rhaagm. Glowing veins skittering across the official’s veil served as a cosmetic indication of said really big bus at work. The effect made for an aesthetic that was either faintly pretty or faintly irritating.

Eihks opened up the package his cerv-mesh now held, and found inside a dossier of everything known about the people of interest, and their home. He uncompressed the attached kernel containing the local linguistics libraries and integrated it.

Very curious, how similar the people were to humans. In the grand scheme, at least. They were obviously a phenotype of karkshesh, after a fashion. Mostly matching emotional reflexes and comparable motivation structure. A notable exception in how anger and fear (or at least fear of everything that wasn’t known to be insurmountable) apparently tended to produce flight and fight responses, respectively. However, one example of dissimilarity does not an unrelatable or hostile personality make.

No, they’d have other reasons for resenting and resisting cooperation with Rhaagm.

“You have been provided with an identifier, corresponding with an indigenous person. Please see to the needs and, as you can, accommodation of the specified individual. When such a time comes as they are deemed sufficiently integrated, you will be given the city’s gratitude and your responsibilities retracted.”

I will, please. Don’t worry, please. There shall be no worrying on my part, please.

Eihks, with supreme dignity, managed to merely raise one eyebrow at the official.

“Do you have any questions?” the official asked him.

“Are there any particulars to be observed or avoided during my caring for this individual?” Eihks eventually returned.

“Only those which are detailed in your material, as regards to your charge’s actual registration and associated incidentals. Do note, please, that law enforcement shall be expedited in the context of interactions with these individuals. Make sure to observe Rhaagmini law at all times, and keep up with the district’s overriding local legal code.”

A slantwise indication highlighted the presence of a policing auditor, not too far to one side. The Bequast-born Rhaagmini had noticed the woman, but not wanted to say anything. If he were the sort to worry about the city’s auditors’ superb surveillance capabilities, it would have been an ideal time to hit the panic button. But, for reasons of their own - for which he was mystified and thankful - the auditors of Rhaagm had kept their traps shut about his… irregularities.

Of course, they might settle for using their evidence as leverage against him in the future. On the other hand, he doubted there was much he could do for their purposes which they could not do themselves or through proxy.

“Consider it noted,” he muttered without looking directly at the woman.

“Very well. Now, if you have anything to declare, please let it be announced here and now; your belongings will be returned to you after you exit the grafted area.”

Eihks’s face failed to show the official absolutely any change.

“... Declare?”

“Any weapons, tools, implements, artifacts, or other objects - possessed, loaned, or otherwise - which might cause harm to those not protected by a skein or other tuning measure.”

The look became a stare.

“Is that a joke?”

Eihks stopped himself, holding up a hand before the other person could take offense or the auditor could readjust the interconnectedness of his parts.

“Forgive me, that was in bad taste. Are you asking whether I have a cerv-mesh? Because just by way of folding, I could sliver an unmeshed civilian in far too little time for someone to save them.”

The official gave Eihks a “look” in return. Without any distinguishing organs whatsoever, it managed to convey something in the neighborhood of weary acceptance, or maybe slim-faced humor.