His first impression of monk and ham had been that they were a pair who had some bolts loose.
From rome of the caesars through the byzantine and ottoman empires, the turkish republic, the dynasts, and yes, a story as marvelous as it is long. National boundaries are as invisible as meridians of longitude, or the tropics of cancer and capricorn.
That should tenderize their youthful emotions, get them ready to scream all the way back to the homeworld, providing a substantial emotional appetizer before what was left of them could be physically delivered to the young.