Atta boy. The pride and affection is plainly written in both his expression and his posture. Chekov's always been good at picking up on his nuances. His entire crew is, honestly, but Chekov's the youngest and he gets the most mother-henning from the rest of them. For obvious reasons. But he's smart and competent and Jim is glad - honestly glad - to have him here.

Oh, don't get him wrong. He'd rather the kid be back home, but that doesn't mean he's not happy to see him.

"Okay. Long story short, the Emperor - who's a woman, by the way - is bringing us here to fight against a creature. French word for 'bad' and 'I can't'. We're not supposed to say the name aloud, it's been heavily implied that doing so will summon the damn thing. A lot of the locals are either corrupt and supporting it, or refusing to help. There've been other 'heroes' like us here before, but it looks like they all got wiped out trying to stuff Mally into a box." He pauses, to see if Chekov's keeping up with the information.