A heavy sigh of relief expelled from his mouth when Joel felt the warm touch of Jemma within his grasp again. Even if she seemed a bit irksome still -- presumably from the arguing on the elevator -- he appreciated the warming thought that she may not think him to be so cruel after all.<i>I was just hoping for the safety of us all.</i>He thought it was something a leader would do, but perhaps he had made the wrong call.<i>Malko said you can never please everyone. </i>Imperfect as he was, Renald Malko had been given quite a prestigious place on a highly important mission. He must have done a great myriad of noteworthy things to get him into a position to command the finest star ship up to date.<br/><br/>The group began to walk and Joel was beside Jemma, both at the flank as the others also walked in pairs with Pam clinging to Mikhali and Dani keeping a modest distance from Leonard. Jemma's mention of his friends' behaviors caused him to ponder over the companionship he had chosen. "I had never really thought of it that way," he answered as his thoughts ran course.  Joel then realized he might not have reacted the way he should have, "I'm sorry, Jem. They're not insulting you, though," he whispered back, slowing his pace down to lag slightly more behind. "At least, that's not their goal. We like to mess with each other and give the next guy a hard time. You're a pretty strong and independent woman and not the kind to really take shit from anybody. A bit on the serious side, too. I like all of that about you, though." He had to explain so it wouldn't seem like he was complaining. "Leonard and Mikhali are both envious, I think. Ricky is just scared of you. Don't take it personal, really. It's me that they're trying to take jabs at."<br/><br/>The blonde haired engineer glanced back at the sound of whispering and slowed her pace down, as if wanting to eavesdrop on the conversation.<br/><br/>"If you could be a<i>little</i>less serious about everything with them, they may notice that you are not fazed by their offhanded insults."<br/><br/>Dani had slowed down enough to be within earshot by then, but they entered the CENTAUR and the whole group amassed at the mouth of the loading bay that led to the elevator. There was light that showered over them, a gift he was not so sure was to be truly appreciated. It was too early to prove his theory was either correct or wrong. The question spurred Joel's mind into thought again and he considered multiple possibilities. It also garnished some of the attention from the others now, since they had come to a near the CENTAUR.<br/><br/>When his train of thought was interjected by another inquiry from Jemma, the others all looked towards the doctor. Leonard had a big smirk on his face. "We actually need to go look at these files," he admitted.<br/><br/>"Yeah, right," Leonard immediately jumped in. "She just wants you all to herself so you two can--"<br/><br/>"Shut your mouth, Leonard. I'm not having any more of your stupid remarks. I want to get away from all you people to begin with because you give me a fucking headache."<br/><br/>"You sound like the captain now," Pam chimed in, rubbing her cheeks against Mikhali's strong arms.<br/><br/>Joel's brow furrowed irritably, "Whatever, sometimes a crowd doesn't get the work down. We'll look at the files that Jemma found in the research wing and come find your guys on the CENTAUR. I don't know how safe we can keep it here, but if we have power, we should be able to use the intercoms if we need to speak." His attention turned back to Jemma, even if he knew they were all expecting an answer to his question. "I can get us all the way back home, I think. It'll take a long time, though. By that I mean six to eighteen months just to get us out of Ares' orbit, depending where we're at. I could also put the ship a few kilometers ahead or behind the Cobalt, but those methods will burn some of the reserve we have for back up for when we want to reach escape velocity and I'm not sure if we'll be able to do it twice -- in case we decide to come back for the rest of the crew."<br/><br/>It was not an answer that many of those in the group found satisfactory, "I can give you an answer with more details after I sit down and crunch all the numbers. Until then, that's all I really have."