Sarah was now even more confused—and too preoccupied to even pick up on the significance of him addressing her by her first name. “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand. I’m not going to deny that I probably have a lot of potential—but if I have any really great contributions to make, they’re still ahead of me. There are so many people on the team for<em>The Exodious</em>who are such giants in their fields compared to me—certainly any of them would be much more exciting to meet in person.”<br/><br/>She paused a moment, and realization dawned. “Oh, that must be it. You’re looking to take me under your wing, like some sort of protégée? That does make a certain amount of sense, seeing as our areas of expertise overlap sometimes.” Now everything came into focus—the conversation was about seeing whether she was as sharp in person as she appeared on paper. “It’s too bad you didn’t approach me sooner—I would have loved to contribute more directly on some of your recent projects. I assume there are all sorts of papers and books you’d like me to study as well? I suppose a lot of it will have to wait until we’re properly settled on our new world though.”<br/><br/>She paused a moment, suddenly experiencing some doubt. “I hope I’m not assuming too much—I don’t want to be entitled or arrogant about this. Is mentoring me what you’ve been driving at?”