"Hmmh." It's a foreign mindset, one she can't readily understand. "The truth can hit like a sack of hammers sometimes. If you didn't already know it."

Can upend things just when you think you have them all figured out, even. There's a reason she favors straightforwardness. Clarity. Something reliable to hold onto. Then, verbal persuasion has never been her strong suit.

"I've got no patience for that," she says, eyes on the trail. This she is sure of, this and the enemy alien waiting for them at its end. "It's hard enough figuring out who you are and what's going on, without someone setting out to misinform."