[ When Elizabeth pulls back, Jack does too, since any distance between them seems like a good idea. He reaches up to touch his fingertips to the wound gently, and he's very careful with feeling it out. His gaze flickers to her as she disapproves of his description, but it comes with a laugh. ]

What, expecting poetry? [ He's teasing and unknowingly speaking to what she'd expected to hear, but he shakes his head. ] Pandora and Elpis both aren't exactly places that are very poetic. I could rattle off numbers about the orbits, the climates, atmosphere composition, yadda yadda, but—

[ He draws his hand away with a half showy wave of his hand, but his expression is dismissive. ]

It's one of the border worlds, Liz. They're, uh-- Not exactly hospitable. Hell, Pandora's a recent colonization effort, relatively speaking. Too bad it's a miserable wasteland full of horrible people. The place is crawling with people that went cuckoo, to put it super nicely. Bandits. You get caught by a bandit, you'll be lucky if you just get a sweet scar out of it. They'll skin you alive and make stew out of your trimmings. That's way grosser, and that's the kinda place I'm trying to work on.

[ Jack starts to stand, though he winces lightly with effort as he does so. Again, he holds out his hand to help her up too. ]

Could've gone anywhere, sure. But I've gotta make money to take care of my kid, and following a hunch about Pandora was just part of the job. So. Even though I am less than thrilled about it, Pandora-slash-Elpis it is.