If there was anything any Radchaai considered essential for civilised life, it was tea.
What, after all, was the point of civilisation if not the well-being of citizens?
Unity, I thought, implies the possibility of disunity. Beginnings imply and require endings.
When one is the agent of order and civilisation in the universe, one doesn't stoop to negotiate. Especially with nonhumans.
To be Radchaai is to be civilised.
If you're going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance you should make it a good one.