First of all, you’re right. Important data should be backed up. There’s no exception to that on the Ariel. Jake’s Dad sort of alludes to that by saying that the data can be recovered. But what’s the interval between back ups? Once a day? Every three days? Each week? In any of these cases, if Jake has destroyed any data, they’ve lost at least that much time in having to backtrack and collect the data again.

As far as why he did what he did, well, sometimes a young person’s priorities are a little different than what an adult’s might be. Jake wanted to find out what happened at the end of that show. It was high on his list of priorities. A lot of kids would probably have gone about things in the way you mentioned in your comment. I probably would have when I was young. Other kids would set out to accomplish that goal with out any real thought as to the possible consequences. Like the classic “Stay out of the Cookie Jar” scenario. A lot of kids would think about getting that cookie first, and then suddenly realize, “Oh, yeah. I’m probably going to get into trouble for this.” I think this is what happened in Jake’s case. Brilliant kid but lacking in wisdom. Doesn’t really know how to apply that to the things he does yet.

As far as his father, sure, he’s upset at whatever delay Jake’s monkeying around might have caused them. I’m sure he’s just as upset, or even more so, at what might have happened. What if he’d inadvertently gotten into some other system that could have damaged something like life support or worse, even destroyed the Ariel?

Anyway, Gillsing,

Thanks a lot for the comment. I like to know that folks are actually thinking about what’s going on in this comic and commenting on it. Keeps me on my toes and helps me to take a second and even a third look at scripts before I commit them to a post.

Thanks again!