It might be because the objective here is to work together to find the orbs. It's easy to coordinate efforts when you're not handling big-city-levels of population.

[ He doesn't fully know how the Commander, Viveca, and whatever orb tech they use to teleport people works, so he can't fully tell toby a good explanation about that point. he smiles back after hearing that laugh. ]

Nah...I grew up around aliens who had no idea about earth culture, so I am used to explaining things to others in detail. Do your worst.