It's getting exactly that kind of reaction from the dirtbound that makes him the happiest, every time. He'll never get sick of it.

"And that," he says as he points to the windscreen, maneuvering toward the pilot's console, "is why I love my job. I've got the best excuse in the 'verse to stare at it all the time."

When he leans over and touches a screen to check the readouts, something beeps at him; Wash privately rolls his eyes and hits a sequence of keys in reply.