I've heard. [He's actually surprised to hear it out of her, finally, and he actually looks a touch sympathetic despite everything. It was a terrible mistake, one that shouldn't be taken lightly.] But if I believed that were the case I wouldn't be asking you now. [And he knows she's trapped here with a whole ship full of people she indirectly harmed; one or two was bad enough for him. Harper didn't make his opinion of Rhade much of a secret. People holding her accountable for the wrong thing would be more unceasing misery than any punishment that the wardens could agree on.]

It's a pitiful way to find common ground. [He knows she needs help, and he's upset about what she said. But in the end, she's still the person he brought back a gift for. She's still more like the Harper he knew to him than the Harper that was here.]

Was your dataport initially deactivated when demotions occurred, leading you to correct the error manually? Or did the Admiral only deactivate it after control of the ship is returned. It's an important question, because it means that the changes to the ship were occurring even after you were unhooked and out of control.

It was deactivated when I was demoted. Before and after that, what control I had was more...intuitive. For a week after the blackout I wasn't in the engine room at all.

I honestly don't know if the dataport would have been necessary for what happened in the first place. It might have been possible to do what I did manually.

Considering that it only took Harper one slip to accidentally change the settings to an entire ship and turn it hostile, and to my knowledge it hasn't happened with other manual users, I would suspect that it is the dataport. But I will ask for more investigation because that is something that needs to be answered. [People may be so focused on preventing Tosh from doing it again that he should eliminate that chance that someone else could do it.

And he gives another moment of thought.]

Rinzler was incredibly fond of you and what you did for him. It is unfortunate that you lost whatever it was that motivated you then.

I can't take any credit for what Rinzler or Aleera accomplished. I wouldn't say I did anything for either of them.

They undoubtedly worked hard at it. I know for a fact that Rinzler believed in the positive influence people here gave him, even if the ship itself was difficult.

[He cared a lot about Rinzler, moving with him was almost like a dance. He spoke more in motions than in words.]

He was why I had the cerebral port installed. I let Aleera drink my blood so she wouldn't lash out, and with Rinzler...

I wanted to be able to meet him on his own turf, so I programmed a Grid for us. For him. If I did anything for him, that was it.

When he was here last I tried to talk him into coming to my universe and becoming a warship. I think he would have been the finest a reestablished Commonwealth had to offer. I just hope that he found some place that feels more at home than his own Grid ended up.

[...]

So do I.

I think he would have been good company for Vasilia, too. They were very fond of each other.