One side effect of Tayrey's stay on the torture ship is that the automatic regard and deference she had for anyone claiming to be a captain is long since gone. She doesn't, therefore, protest the impossibility of treating him like a civilian.

'I hear you, Captain. I'm military. On my homeworld or anyone else's, and all the space between. Astrogator on the interstellar Tradelines,' she tells him. That's what she's going to be, to these strangers. Not Tayrey the pathetic torture victim. Tradeline Tayrey, clawing back every scrap of what was hers.

No need to be too serious, though. 'I hope you won't be offended if I say that shipside we tried to avoid seeing too much of the inside of the infirmary, however good company the doctor.'