[She was a little taken back by how abruptly he dismissed that, but then nodded. At least he sort of thanked her? She was a little perplexed.]
Right.
[She considered it for a moment.]
Well, I am planning on working on a translator project to expand the capabilities of the communicators. There are intelligent beings in Sector 6 that the communicators don't work for, and I was hoping to get it so we could start actually talking to them as well.
[She had no idea why she suddenly felt the need to explain that. Maybe she was trying to fix the awkward she was feeling.]