I’m about a quarter of the way through the book. At the part where the humans and portiids meet the octopus on the water planet. One part was kind of confusing to me.

When Avrana Kern (or her AI) receives a signal that she believes to be human from a nearby planet, she seems to be emotional (or at least wants to be) and surprised/hopeful that she may have found humans. But in the previous book she was very hostile towards humans. And she has humans living on her ship. So why the change of tune to the humans on the other planet and the humans living with the portiids?