just LISTEN, okay, Jaal is real quick to jump onboard the tempest and yeah it’s bcs he wants to prove himself and bcs he wants to do something on one has done before and has the courage to take a chance and make that first leap of faith with hoping for peace BUT
he also talks a lot about how angara had a lot of sci-fi/speculative fiction on what aliens might be like before the kett showed up, and name drops a few specific systems where angara thought there might be new life- meaning he probably read/watched a bunch of those stories AND he’s got his little star map that he imagined in his room
and basically you’re never gonna convince me that Jaal wasn’t as “!!!!” about getting to meet and potentially date aliens as any player who picks up the games