Gate listened to Shiah, Octavia and Tigranes converse (or gesticulate, as in the case of Octavia) and felt a sense of bitter cynicism rise in his gut.

[i]Look at them - posturing as if they were the Emperor's finest... knowing what end of the stick the laser comes out of doesn't make you better than the rest of us.[/i]

He sat quietly and brooded for a few moments, before standing up and walking over as Tigranes finished speaking. His initial thoughts of friendly ice-breaking had somewhat diminished.

"That's very thoughtful of you, friend", he says, approaching from behind Tigranes, "I bet you'd love to take care of all our gear. I hadn't realised that taking that shuttle trip suddenly made you less of a criminal."

Gate's faux-charming friendly demeanour drops.

"Stay away from my stuff. Here's some better advice for the lot of you - firing that gun should be the least of your priorities. You should be thinking more about how you'll avoid needing to fire it, so you'll survive longer than five seconds when they throw you into the meat grinder."

He glances over his shoulder, suddenly concerned that an official may be listening.