To Liberty, the very idea that you could be minding your own business and then be murdered was frightening, whether a lover or a neighbour was the culprit. There were disputes on Rica, and occasional fights, but unexpectedly taking someone's life went so far beyond that. It was a marvel to her that he wasn't more frightened, living in New York, but Liberty had been on the station long enough to learn that everyone had a slightly different version of normal.
'Then you were a very good lawyer, in this dream of yours,' she said to Alexander, looking a little more proud of him than was rightly merited by an account of something that his dream-self had done. 'Proved a man's innocence, and found the real culprit. I can't imagine how a murder could be resolved. The amount of mediation that would need. If it were real, he'd be paying back her family for the rest of his life.'
Even that didn't seen satisfactory, and Liberty pressed her lips together, thinking carefully. 'Hopefully Rica will never see anything like that. We disagree on a lot, but not the core values.' Ordinarily, Liberty would have drawn Alexander into a discussion of value-sets and social norms, but he was looking tired, and she hesitated.
'Do you want to rest?' she asked him, lowering her voice. 'I'll have to fight to stay again if they think I'm tiring you out.'