Why did Rei recognize Rome?

In the first scene in Rome's Revolution, Rei awakens and sees Rome for the first time. Here is the exact paragraph:

He took a deep breath. Looking up, he was startled to see a face staring back at him. He jumped back and once again, pain shot through his spine. The face on the other side of the porthole was female with long dark hair. She looked familiar and exotic at the same time and if he didn’t know better, he’d swear her eyes were glowing.

I just wrote the words. Sometimes I write things because I need to. Other times, I write them and I don't know why. So why did Rome look familiar to Rei? It is a question that has haunted me for 7 years.

Up until last week, my operating theory was always that I have been working on these books for so long (coming on 40 years) that the characters, in my mind, have been together so long that when they finally got to see each (in print), it was a reunion of sorts.

Of course, that makes no sense from a literary standpoint. Well, last week, as I was writing Rome's Evolution, I finally found out the answer. From the Overmind of Earth, no less.

It turns out, as the Vuduri scientists were researching the genetic tree of the Vuduri as part of project Slayer, they were able to trace most Vuduri back to one or two or three of what we would call the "Genetic Eve." This is because mitochondrial DNA is passed directly from mother to child unchanged through the mitochondria of the oocyte, the egg.

And as it turns out, Rome's great, great, great, great grandmother was none other than Sally Reynolds, the great love of Rei's life who he left behind to travel to the stars. Of course Rome's bloodlines had been mixed in with other Vuduri (Hanry Ta Jihn included) and her father was of Polynesian descent. So Rome was both familiar and exotic.

Wow.