There was that name again, and Teisel had to remind himself that Zex was probably referring to a planet, not an island like he'd originally assumed. Was that where they were? Planet or island, 'Earth' was still a pretty crappy name, but whatever. He wasn't sure what a slaveshield was, but it didn't sound very pleasant. "That's too bad." Not that Teisel had understood more than half of what Zex had said; hopefully the admiral's tone had said enough. "At least it sounds like you're getting past it, though, right?" There. That was probably a good enough answer. A sympathetic ear could go a long way. He wondered for a moment if Zex was talking about the captain he'd met, the one who talked about having a space ship. In a place this big, though, it was pretty unlikely.

When the admiral laughed Teisel let himself relax a little. So, he'd done the right thing after all! Maybe he was finally getting back into the groove.

"I guess it's a good thing I ran into you, then," Teisel replied, smiling. This was going really well--much better than he'd though it would. Zex squeezed his hand again; Teisel squeezed back. He wondered how many times they were supposed to do that. "Great! The busier the better; it'll keep my mind off things." Like how he was a failure who constantly put his family in danger and deserved whatever happened to him here. ...Hopefully Zex had a long to-do list.