It sounds implausible, but so does everything that's happened today. Sure, the captain's powered by emotions, why not, they'll classify that as provisionally true. // Acknowledged.

They think of Ganymede. He's become a reassuring presence just to have around, but he didn't have that significance when they first met him. Their recollection of how he pulled them out of the grip of their combat programming the first time is a disjointed mixture of flashbulb-clear moments, encrypted segments that won't unlock without those protocols running, and pieces glitched into indecipherability.

// A trustworthy, non-threatening distraction? they venture, tentatively. After a long pause, they add, // I have a friend like that at home.