Watching his reaction calmly, TJ waits until he's ranted himself out, an eyebrow raised.

"I still have my rank and no one's saying you didn't earn your doctorates, Rodney," she says with emphasis, determined not to lose her temper. "What I'm saying is that not everyone will be impressed, will understand, or even care."

She takes back the cloth and tosses it in a pile with others to be washed, then looks back over her shoulder. "It was destroyed when the Lucien Alliance blew it up. Almost eighty of us escaped by dialing the ninth chevron."