"It does, a little," he agrees, reminded, inevitably, of the last High Guard research vessel he'd visited, the Starry Wisdom, Ismael's exploration ship that Sara had somehow managed to persuade him to his to try to mount the rescue that had come so close to freeing him from the black hole just a couple of years after he was trapped.

Before the Fall.

She'd tried to take everything she knew, everything her years of knowledge and research had taught her, and make it change the future. If anyone could have beaten science it was Sara. (She came so close. And defeat physics or not, she did have him.)

He blinks when she keeps talking, trying to force aside the thoughts that, lately, are harder to to push away than usual. It seems, though, that he's not the only one having that issue; Marion speaks, then she pauses, hesitates, in a way that he notes without commenting on, though it's ... revealing. Something she nearly said but didn't.

She covers it well, but not well enough to fool him.

She's speaking with far more familiarity than he'd expect of a writer, even one with a father who'd been in the military. Not like she's heard. Like she understands.

He's not convinced by the word 'consultant'. There's a lot that could mean.

This, though, isn't the time to press her. This is a friendly conversation, and a lady's allowed her secrets. So he smiles like he hasn't noticed the telling hesitation, and shrugs.

"Yeah. I get it. Some things you just don't talk about."

Argosy Special Operations taught that as well as anything.