"He’s Captain-Doctor Abelard Mavrides, C.-Ph.D. It’s a low rank for one so old. He was a sundog once, a cometary miner, they say. He met the aliens on the rim of the System, wormed his way into their good graces somehow...They’d been here only a few months when they brought Mavrides and his wife into Goldreich-Tremaine in one of their starships. Since then he’s moved from success to success. Corporations hire him as a go-between with the aliens. He teaches Investor studies and speaks their language fluently. He’s wealthy enough to keep his past obscure."