Wash has two options here: admit defeat - in front of Locus, his uncertainty and the hole in his knowledge amounts to just that - or lie like a rug. He's only good at one of those, which pretty much makes his choice for him.

The helmet tilt stays. The no shit Sherlock tone stays. He's holding his ground, even if he has to build it himself to do it. "Congratulations," he deadpans, "you've officially given Donut a run for the title of Most Needlessly Dramatic."

He waits for a moment and shifts his stance - straighter, more solid, in response to Locus' shift. Locus doesn't sound happy about what he thinks happened; Wash will figure that out later. When he speaks again, his tone is steadier, more even. "They boarded Hargrove's ship and disabled the Mantis swarm, we ran a successful extraction mission and got them back to the planet's surface, and that's when the Time Trapper decided that, since that battle was over, I should come fight this one instead." A beat. Sell it. "They came back, but I didn't get to talk with them before I wound up here."