"You've been on my crew for a year and you haven't worked that out?"

It's funny. He never thought it was too hard to understand; it's not like he has some hidden agenda, and his crew knows that. Maybe not all the people they meet do, but his crew? Sure.

He knows it's hard for a Nietzschean, when their society focuses on their own personal survival and the continuation of their genetics. And Dylan's missed that chance.

"Of course I know I'm going to die. Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a hundred years like any other heavy worlder. But I came out of something nobody should survive and I've kept beating the odds ever since. So maybe fate has something in store for me.

"But the universe needs the Commonwealth, and if I'm gonna die, it might as well be for something worth dying for."

He holds up his glass.

"You know me, you know my story. The black hole already took my world. My ship, my crew, and my mission are all I've got. So if I go down for Andromeda, her crew, or the Commonwealth? It's worth it."

And with that, he takes a long, hard gulp of whatever it is Telemachus has given him.