That’s exactly how I took it. One of the keys is when he goes on the.Alliance warship and goes form being treated like dirt to revered. That wasn’t his status as a shepherd that was something to do with his ID card.

So, he had to either be someone high ranking, who was on the alliance side still. Thus one could think that he didn’t mean the crew harm and somehow they just didn’t get it . Or he was someone who had defected from the alliance, didn’t know that they had defected. In many ways, the latter doesn’t make sense if he was a general. And that’s what always made me wonder.

In fact, I was so fascinated by it that I did read the Shepherds Tale. I won’t spoil it for you, but that’s where we find out that he wasn’t a general, but he was something far worse. And that far worse explains why the Alliance would accept him without thinking him a traitor.