Cal believes her without thinking about it. He's seen the proof of it all for himself in the months of working for her. It's part of why it took him this long to form any real suspicions about the bird - Elaine is a good person.

Plus it's hard to spend as long as he has in Milliways and come away with any kind of inclination to think that non-human = automatically bad. That would just be stupid.

"Your species doesn't matter to me," he says. "I'm more concerned about whatever the bird does. Is it safe for it to be here?"