"In his defense, it wasn't a combustion engine nor was it the kind of battery that you'd be used to on earth. A lead car battery works a little differently from lithium ion battery, and those are different from thorium batteries. I mean, sure as a concept they're similar but they do have their nuances."

She stopped walking and turned to face Xander.

"Let's try looking at it from his perspective for a second. You're from Earth. Earth isn't exactly very high-tech compared to the rest of the spacefaring galaxy. Rikur didn't know anything about you at the time, so he had to make assumptions. For your safety, he had to assume that you didn't know a whole lot about spacecraft engineering.

If I recall correctly you told him you were familiar with the working of cars and the like. Fine. But a combustion engine works pretty differently from an ion engine or a nuclear reactor, get what I'm trying to say?"

She took a deep breath and sighed. "I'll admit, Rik isn't the best at socialising. He's pretty bad at noticing social cues. You have to be direct with him. If you think he's doing something wrong you gotta tell it to him to the face. No hints, no signals, just... shoot."