Defender Zik Lore Break

It may seem odd to see a ship's captain thanking his crew for being aboard.  However, on Zoz, there's no government and no military, so all the people on the Kodiak are there because they chose to hire themselves out for the role they're filling on the ship.  They're mercenaries, under temporary contract with Kodiak Security, often on a mission-by-mission basis.  In this case, the Kodiak was in the middle of something else when they received Zik's distress call, and deviating from that original mission opens up a clause in their contracts whereby the mercs can say "nope" to the new mission parameters and leave. Everyone you'll see aboard the Kodiak in this episode chose to stay aboard and take on this side-quest to help Zik.