Grrmyip was happy to tell basic facts about his people and his world.

"Our home world is half water, half land. We have two moons, and we now live on the fourth world, and the moons of the fifth world, as you saw. Our population is about forty-four billion. Our last blood war was 98 years ago."

"What is 'blood war'?" Nick asked.

"Oh. You know—we fight with blood, we fight with money, we fight with knowing, we fight with feeling." Nick got the impression that to Grrmyip this was very basic knowledge and a well-known list. Unfortunately, he had no idea what the alien was talking about.

"I don't understand."

The Arrurran gave a short bark, then stared at Nick for several moments. "You do not know this?"

Nick shrugged. "Maybe my people know. I do not understand."

"But..." Grrmyip fell silent for a while. He seemed to be struggling to wrap his head around something. "I do not know how to teach this," he finally admitted. "When we go back to my star, I will ask for historian books."

"History books. Good idea."

"Anyway," Grrmyip continued, and Nick had just enough time to wonder when Petra had learned to translate that, "Niranar is our main language, and there are about two hundred more languages, but none of them are very usual. We did have thousands of languages, long years. What about Earth?"

"Um, I don't know, we have hundreds of languages at least. We have about two hundred countries and it's probably at least one each, plus a bunch of dead languages."

The Arrurran yipped. "I like that. 'Dead languages.' Good way to say it." He sniffed. "You have two hundred of these 'countries.' Have you ever had one country?"

"You mean like one world government? No. People keep trying, but the UN is a joke." Petra beeped, and Nick sighed. "No one listens to the group called the United Nations."

"Ah. We have had one world government two times; we do not need to try again."

Nick smiled and scratched his head. "Oh, what do you use for money?"

Grrmyip gave a quick bark. "Not gold and silver coins, that is very correct." He tilted his head, then said, "I beep beep father beep beep gold and silver coins when we go to Ooafa next." His growling was very quiet, as if he were talking to himself, so Nick didn't push for a translation. The Arrurran looked at him again. "What do you use for money?"

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"We have paper money and coins, but people are using them less and less. It's almost all digital now." When Petra beeped, Nick explained, "Ones and zeroes. In computers."

"Your computers use ones and zeroes?"

"Yeah. What do yours use?"

Grrmyip looked about to answer, but caught himself. "I don't think you have the words for it. I will tell your scientists when we go to Earth." He shifted in his seat. "What is valuable to your people, Nick?"

Nick snorted. "Depends on the person."

"That is everywhere."

"Yeah. Um, my people still value gold and silver, diamonds, gems..." Petra beeped. "Small, very pretty rocks."

"You...dig them out of the ground?" Grrmyip looked very interested.

"Yeah. But I think scientists can make them too, synthetic diamonds and so on."

"Ah." Grrmyip sagged back in his seat, looking disappointed. "What else?"

"Medicine. People would pay big money to be healthy."

"That is a very good point. I will make sure we send doctors."

"Thank you."

"Do not thank me, I will get good money for use our doctors."

"Oh." It was Nick's turn to be disappointed. Grrmyip saw and shook his head.

"No, no, Nick, we will give some medicine to all, too. But we need to make money."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I was kind of hoping that it was just a human thing."

The Arrurran barked several times. "No, sadly it is everywhere."

Nick frowned. "One second. 'Universal' means...always true. I keep hearing 'everywhere' and I think maybe you mean universal."

"Ah. Who is translating for you?"

"Um...a computer."

"How advanced are your computers, Nick?"

"They're getting pretty good. We can't trust images any more because they could be fake. They are trying to make AI girlfriends for people, but that's a scam." Petra beeped a couple of times.

"What is 'scam'?"

"Um...bad business, take and do not give?"

"What is AI?"

"Oh, um, a computer that thinks. Like a person."

Grrmyip leaned forward. "You are making these?"

"No. Not yet. People keep saying it will be soon, though. I don't know if I believe them. Like I said, it's a scam. Some people say it is impossible."

"It is not impossible. It is absolutely beep beep foolish." Grrmyip sounded very serious, his growls loud and deep. "Nick, AI is very, very dangerous. Tell your people to stop working on it, as soon as you can."

"Nobody would listen to me."

"You are the first person from your world to talk to aliens. Make them listen. Nick, your entire world is in danger if you build AI."

Nick felt a small shiver. "It sounds like you have experience with it."

"We do. Two times, we did build AI. Both times, it tried to kill us all. That was our last blood war. Never again."

Nick shifted uneasily. "Maybe the Goldaskians know how to make a good AI."

There was a pause. "Nick...is there an AI on this ship?" Grrmyip asked quietly.

Nick waggled his head uncertainly for a moment. "Kind of, yeah. But Petra is good. She only does what I say."

There was a longer pause. Grrmyip didn't move. After a bit, Nick realized that he wasn't even breathing. "...Grrmyip?"

"Please excuse me, Nick."

Grrmyip broke the connection, leaving Nick wondering how big of a mess he had just made.

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