[ Every word lays a brick on his soul, though he tries not to let it show. ]

... When I finished my twenty, I took a planet-side desk job, so I could stay with 'em. [ His voice is quiet, and it's low. He doesn't say: We were expecting our second child. That's one grief too far. ]

I tried my best to connect with 'im, but I just - hell, Naomi, he didn't know me. He just wanted to hear about pirates and battles, and I ain't never done any of that. MCRN never let me near their bad ass gunships, and that's all he cared about. So I'd - I'd lie. Tell 'im stories of adventures that never happened. And those were the only times he seemed interested in me at all.

[ He sighed, before taking a long, slow drink. ]

I couldn't stay. It was killin' me, and I just -

I called sometimes. Pretty rarely. Then after the Donnager... not at all.