"Uh, well, I've got some bad news for you there, doc," he says, keeping his humor intact. "You see, I've spent the last few months out in the most backwater parts of space, so you may read some things that aren't, uh, Earth-Normal. Like the translator microbes that are colonizing at the base of my brain."

He rubs the back of his neck, smiling apologetically. And then he starts to think about getting tossed off the Enterprise, and all the times Aeryn has told him to shut up for his own good. "Uh, shouldn't be anything contagious, though. And one thing your tricorder won't pick up is the big honkin' Peacekeeper I brought onboard with me."