Which was . . . not what Tahiri had been expecting somehow, so she blinked, several times, caught (figuratively) flat-footed.

"Oh," she said finally, although she managed to regain her equilibrium fairly quickly. "I would never have realized."

The last couple of days made a bit more sense now, though, as did the colony governorship he'd mentioned once. "Why the kriff would they have -- I'm sorry, I'm trying to understand, but . . ."