"Yeah," Chuck says with some chagrin, "technology definitely can't replace people. Not that some guys aren't trying." He'd say this to a rando at the Nerd Herd desk and he'd say it to Beckman herself: computers aren't magic. Human and machine complement each other.

His dad knew that pretty well.

He clears his throat, not wanting to dwell on that. "God, I hope things are okay back home. Because things were a little bit of a tire fire when I was beamed up to the USS Whatever-this-boat-is-called."