Let's not pretend you're unintelligent, Alexei. You know that's not true.

[His tone isn't snide, just a simple comment.]

You can't control the Barge, that much is true. None of us can control who the Admiral chooses to contact, or what happens to the ship during floods and such. But you can control your reaction, how you think about it, even if how you feel is still fucking raw. And if the only thing you can see here is the same prison you clearly came from before, then you aren't giving yourself the opportunity to see proof that that's not true.