He knit up his brow and dropped his journal too easily into a fathomless pocket.

"I studied xenobiology for about 80 years at the Academy, but most of my classes were in thermodynamics. I'm a physician here because not all of the Barge's residents are human and I have certain psychic expertise that can be lent to mental healing." In direct contradiction to her request for information to be clinically analysed, through no real effort or intention, he delivered the statement conversationally.