"You don't think the crazy people who say they got abducted in the desert and the government's covering it up have a point?" Howard's not sure how he feels about alien abductions. On one hand, clearly, they already have been abducted by aliens. On the other, nobody's tried to probe him yet, and he's not going to tempt fate by claiming the idea is impossible.

Howard chews the tip of his pen, then pops the cap off and rolls it around in his mouth. Old habits, the kind that come from perpetual hunger - it's easy enough to trick your stomach into believing it's about to be fed if your tongue's feeling something up. Granted, they're all well-nourished here, but sometimes your brain finds a tic and just sticks with it for no good reason except to make people look at you funny.

"We are a planet of primitives, compared to all this. But we're still the most popular species on the ship, so we've got to be doing something right. Even if it's just like, breeding six billion of us so there's more of us to choose from than any other race."

The blobular statue behind John starts taking the form of a small muppet-looking alien. Whatever, definitely not from Howard's memory, but it doesn't look intimidating or especially interesting so Howard doesn't pay it much attention. Seen one alien, seen them all, and so on.