Phil is quiet for a long time. There's hardly a poetic way to put it: it's pretty obviously a topic he's thought about and one that troubles him.

But it feels especially difficult now, in the middle of the night in the silent rest of the ship, their complicated company.

He breathes out, trying to pull his thoughts together. "I can't afford to right now. Whatever I feel about them, no matter how much harder it makes my everyday life, they're... useful." Spoken with not a small amount of bitter resignation. "But one day. One day, I think so."