"I don't think I'll live to see it," Watson says, with a small grin, "but it is a comfort to know that we get there at some point."

Honestly, he'd have signed up to visit new worlds. He sort of did that anyway, with a bonus colonial war. Starfleet probably would have gone better for him.

"What is the goal of Starfleet, and this Federation? You have a military rank, I notice. Are you conquerors?"