Scott was suddenly embarrassed by his behavior toward Dr. Randall. He wasn’t embarrassed at the way he felt, more for not keeping his feelings in check better. He was here on a mission and he was a professional. He needed to remember that if he hoped to maintain any semblance of his position as an officer and a Marine.<br/><br/>He could see how uncomfortable Dr. Randall was; her naiveté in politics of this sort had cost her some prestige with the leader of the operation. However, she had stood up to Dr. Heath which would likely prove beneficial to her in the future and she was very intelligent; getting back on Dr. Heaths good side should probably be fairly easy for her. And of course, those were also two of the main reasons he found himself so attracted to her. Although, her good looks didn’t hurt…<br/><br/>He responded to Dr. Randall in the same whisper, “Because politicians always do.” He said with a glance. Scott returned her smile and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly when she mentioned his successful deflection of Dr. Heath’s ire. Her words were all business but her gaze was not, and Scott had to fight the urge to continue their conversation and instead quickly turned his attention back to Dr. Heath.<br/><br/>Scott wasn’t all that surprised at Dr. Heath’s pronouncement and he made sure to keep his face from revealing anything at all about how he felt about it. He was not planning on telling his troops, or anyone for that matter, about the petty political squabbles going on behind the scenes. As he sat listening to Dr. Heath basically planting the seeds for a future mutiny; he realized that he had no loyalty for either Dr. Heath or the Colonel. His loyalty was for the soldiers and civilians aboard this ship. Since the other big news he was told while in another body on Earth was that this mission would take a lot longer than previously expected. The power source that had been guaranteed to have enough power to open a gate back to earth was a failure. And there was no answer to the problem in sight.<br/><br/>He had taken the mission on the promise that he could return to Earth in a year, now he was being told that a return was not currently possible. And even though the colonel assured him they would find a solution, Scott could hear in the colonels voice that the possibility of that happening in the next few years was a slim one. And truthfully he wondered if the higher ups back on Earth had known that all along. He was sure that Dr. Heath had that information as well but not surprisingly she didn’t mention it. Not that he was in a hurry to tell anyone either, at least not yet.<br/>