Vreta did not respond immediately, instead taking a drink from the glass he was given as he collected his thoughts. Even for a larger being like himself, who was accustomed to somewhat stronger spirits, he still showed a strong reaction to the scotch. Still, he did not remain distracted for long. “If I am being honest, there will be some hurdles to overcome if we are to make this a truly cooperative venture. And many of those will come from my people. As I mentioned, the Rothians have centuries of scientific advancement ahead of Humanity. There is a perception among my people that Humanity, and indeed many other species we have met in this galaxy, are a ‘young’ species.”

There was another pause for another drink from Vreta. He knew he was approaching a delicate subject, and so he needed to be careful in how he approached it. He expected that Rothian scientists would be doing the heavy lifting in terms of their research, but he certainly wanted to avoid any more tension than necessary, and if the Human teams could legitimately help, that would be all the better. “I would say to try to imagine what it would be like to work with a scientist from hundreds of years ago in your own past. Say, a scientist from before your species left your home solar system. If your people are anything like mine, you have probably improved your understanding of science considerably in that time, and that scientist would be operating on theories and assumptions you know to be incorrect. I expect that some Rothian scientists may feel frustrated about this, and they may feel that they are going to have to spend much of their time just ‘catching you up’.  I hope to prevent that issue. I know that your people are capable, and I think that your years of experience with the Cradle will be valuable. Going back to that analogy of working with a scientist from your past, how do you think you would go about working with them?”