[ There's genuine interest, in the way Wash listens. Lacking the context for everything makes things more difficult, but he can put things together, and it always obvious when he does it, slotting things into place in his head, drawing connections between everything he's memorized and learned. ]

If you didn't come up through the academy [ which he had no fucking idea existed up until now, but makes perfect sense ] attached to the Imperial Service, then you were recruited directly. Either someone saw potential in what you were doing, or you marketed yourself in that regard.