[ Nathan shakes his head, but the truth is that he's already struggling with what to do. Does he organise that his department buttons their lips and lies? They could say the pirates made it up. Or he could take responsibility and insist that they couldn't take him from his position because he was the only one who knew how to do it--that probably wasn't true.

But if he was driven out of Comms, then what the hell was he going to do about it? Become a full time pastor? Teacher? Comms was his baby. It worked, now, it was even respected in some small way, even if Miles and Tyke didn't consider protecting it a priority. They could go right to hell. He'd like to see how they handled not having a network at all. At least now they could still communicate, even if it was without their precious encryptions.

Lauren was trying to get his attention, so he looked down at her, still feeling spiteful like he might just pull the power out and watch them flail. ]

If I don't blame myself, I won't be prepared for when they start pointing fingers. I won't make my people liars for me.

[ And it won't stay secret. This is what Lauren is here for; she's here to be at the front line, and this is the front row seat sure enough. ]