Vreta shrugged, taking a sip from his mug as he walked alongside Freyr. “Well, our superiors don’t want to show ‘favoritism’, so they want to bring them onboard and give them the tour at the same time. The Qalian-Vosh wanted to send someone ahead of their team to double check that the aquatic accommodations we’ve made for their people will meet all their needs. Makes sense, we’re not aquatic ourselves, so we might miss something important for them that we wouldn’t normally think about. Of course, we tell the Tindrel and they want to send someone too, but they don’t have any reason to send anyone other than the team themselves, so they decide just to go ahead and send their science team. And, of course, since their team is coming, now the QV have to send [i]their[/i] team too. One thing leads to another, and…now they’re both here and we have to scramble to try to keep them from being alone together for too long.”

After a moment, Vreta let out a sigh, which soon turned into a light chuckle. “All this drama has been from the bureaucrats, though. Who knows, though? As scientists, maybe their teams will have more rational views towards each other than their leadership?”