A moment, and Kes looked to Anauri, giving a serious nod.

"Consider it done."

He knew the need for privacy more than many aboard Jovan, and respected it to the highest degree.

"What happens in Six stays in Six."

A silly saying, and usually it was attributed to Zeltron, but in this instance he felt it needed to be adapted and spoken aloud.

And like a man in a trance, Kes slowly stepped forward, one foot at a time. He let his slow gait take him closer to the yawning mouth of nothingness, and the boundary of twisted and gutted metal, with the emergency forcefields keeping the vacuum out. His hands stuffed themselves into the front pockets of his uniform pants, his features a stony mask.

There was so much staring back at him from the black, bespectacled blanket of space beyond. So many years staring him in the face. He saw triumphs, failures, pains, heartache. All hidden behind a genial smile that refused to be diminished. Through it all, he had learned to cope and press onward. He'd had to. But now, staring out into the vast expanse. There was so much potential out there. And so much evil.

In silence the redhead allowed himself a moment to wallow in thought. In what might've been. the 'what-if's'. What if he'd stuck with his studies? What if he'd never agreed to help his Uncle run the Rebel safehouse? What if he'd never met her? What if...

What if he'd done - or not done - anything?

Life was as you made it, and Kes let out a light snort in self-derision. There was no sense dwelling on the past. He was here, now. And it was where he wanted to be. Where he knew he was needed.

In some form, at least.