The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers, #4)

by Becky Chambers

How convenient for you, to at last work with a species whose bodies are compatible with your bureaucracy.

He’d been taught that if one person had more than another, feeling guilty about it was the least productive reaction. The only proper way to approach such inequities was to figure out how best to wield them, so as to bring others up to where you stood.

The cheap knick-knack in his hands now carried with it a sentiment of the present he would cherish, and a reminder of the past he would always loathe. Only the finest art could accomplish both those things at once.