Sonia looks visibly relieved at that. And so she doesn't mind when MIles gives her a few vague details about his parents, propping her chin in her hand to listen.

"You're half-Betan? I knew you had a galactic air about you." She looks delighted. "And a Survey captain...God, your mother must be brilliant. And brave. I thought about it very briefly once, but it's a hellish screening process."

She tilts her head at him then, looking suddenly diffident. "Can I...ask you just one question?"