On deck is always a safe guarantee, with the rate the comms officer burns through cigarettes. He's got one in-mouth at the moment as he sits curled on a deck chair, headphones on and working with an atypical, acute focus on his comms tablet.

He almost doesn't notice Kepler until the man is almost upon him; and when he does, his response is to jump, violently and to his feet, salute as he stammers out "Kep-- Colonel, hey, how's- y'know, things!" realise the salute looks stupid and tries to pretend that motion was to push his headset back down around his neck, as he tries to go for a more casual pose. "Wh-what can I do you for?"