Jim's smile isn't quite as bright, as he remembers his mentor. "My aptitude scores, for one thing. Chutzpah, for another. The rest... I don't know."

He doesn't really want to dwell on this all that much, for fear of provoking more flashbacks, so he deliberately changes the subject. "I'm glad you didn't ask me how I felt the first time I saw the Enterprise all put together. It was a lot less appropriately metaphorical and stuff."