How did he get involved with them? John gives an airy sort of shrug, approaching the panel and squinting at it before reaching forward to see if he can coax analytics out of it. Hopefully, even if nothing else works, the bit they want is still functioning.

"Well, it's a long story, but the short version is that the branch of the military I worked for deals with home-world security. They dumpster-dived and reactivated some stuff built by the Ancients when they were on earth, since it turns out they were way better at a lot of things than we were -- including space travel. After playing with all their abandoned toys they eventually ran into them. As for me, I got transferred sideways because I'm good at getting it all going."