I debated whether I needed this scene. It feels very on-the-nose as Ril recaps everything that readers have already gleaned from other scenes. So I didn’t think a character actually had to sum it all up again. But all the previous scenes were between Roka and his pilot friends or Roka and Ril. At some point, it needed to be clear that the rest of the crew knows Roka’s story, so that’s why this finally made the cut. The recap of Roka’s backstory isn’t for the readers; it’s for Cember, Bennesaud, and Bocce.