"Hrmmm...." he murmured as he finished his coffee and then stared moodily out the mirror-like view-ports in front of his station, a self-contained figure that gave away none of his inner thoughts or emotional state. "Heard anything back from Earth yet?" he asked after a while. "That whole debacle with that mining ship should have reached them by now, and we'll see whose arse end up hung out to dry."