"I know you and being told to do stuff have a kind of difficult relationship. I know you could have figured out that getting caught is bad without being told. Can you understand that I don't want to bet all our lives on my ability to figure out what you have and have not figured out? Do I need to apply complex problem-solving to 'how to communicate about alien-related operations to Trouble without setting him off' or can you work with me sometimes telling you stuff? That's an honest question - we aren't Marines or something, we aren't trained, there is not an actual chain of command here, if I have to do something complicated and weird to make the five of us work functionally I will figure out something complicated and weird, but every minute I spend making sure we don't self-destruct is a minute I can't spend figuring out things about aliens or experimenting with morphing or keeping up appearances for the outside world."
no subject
"I know you and being told to do stuff have a kind of difficult relationship. I know you could have figured out that getting caught is bad without being told. Can you understand that I don't want to bet all our lives on my ability to figure out what you have and have not figured out? Do I need to apply complex problem-solving to 'how to communicate about alien-related operations to Trouble without setting him off' or can you work with me sometimes telling you stuff? That's an honest question - we aren't Marines or something, we aren't trained, there is not an actual chain of command here, if I have to do something complicated and weird to make the five of us work functionally I will figure out something complicated and weird, but every minute I spend making sure we don't self-destruct is a minute I can't spend figuring out things about aliens or experimenting with morphing or keeping up appearances for the outside world."