"It's for you to decide whether we're to be locked up until they arrive," Jim said, hardly believing what he was hearing. "What do you want to know? I was led into the forest by a concerned Aguran, caught by Nero and Ayel, was not abused during my captivity, and attempted to convince Nero of the futility of his actions. We were then forced to mine for dilithium, which we did because there was no option. I had hoped they'd be prevented from reaching it, but I had no say in the matter--I didn't know the equipment well enough to sabotage it without giving myself away, and then everyone would have been in danger and they'd still have gotten it, eventually. I'll write a full report and log it.

"But here's my question--why were they allowed to reach the dilithium in the first place? You could have guarded it. You could have beamed all of us away any time. Weren't you monitoring their activity?"