It All Started With Magnets

.29.

I had woken up at about eight thirty and my body ached. My shoulders were screaming at me and my arms were no better. It took me a bit to get dressed but I managed it, pulling on my spare jumpsuit, and attaching the shield port to it so I could wash the other one. I had then left the tiny bedroom to get some advil and make breakfast for myself. Which I had done as quietly as I could because I could hear Hudson snoring quietly at the back of the ship where he had tucked his stuff. I had been glad to see he had at least used the small foam camping mat, blanket, and pillow I had set next to his things, rather than just sleep on the bare floor like he had the first night.

The dude had been out, which was good. I still couldn't believe he had pulled an all nighter watching videos and looking at pictures. Which I was hoping I could keep from Hollister. I didn't want Hudson to get into trouble for it because technically it had been my fault for introducing him to the dragons of Torin so late at night and then giving him complete access to my laptop. So really it had been my fault the guy had pulled an all nighter.

But I had made breakfast, managed a quick and quiet call to Torin, where it was just Dunner, Mare, and Loril on the call. Gal'rug had still been at home when I had called. Which had been understandable, he had stayed late for me the night before. I had learned that At'kat'vo had finished the cracking phase and had was now into the full moulting phase. Which was basically his old chitin was now falling off. They told me he would be out of his trance in another full day, once all his old chitin fell off completely. I had appreciated the update on him regardless of how little information they were actually able to give me.

Bianca had then called at around nine thirty to check up on me to see where I was because she hadn't seen me at the canteen. I told her I had breakfast on the ship and was waiting for Hudson to wake up before I headed in. She had been a little concerned that it was past nine and he was still asleep until I explained that it was completely self-inflicted on his part and we would be in when he woke up and ate something. She had seemed mollified by that and we had ended the call.

And then sleeping beauty finally got up at ten thirty. I had made a second type breakfast for him with some ryn-bk and some more mild foods from Torin that had gotten packed for my trip. He had stumbled to the bathroom with bleary eyes and had come out fifteen minutes later clean shaven and looking like he had showered. He had hesitated at the food until I told him he would be the second human being to ever eat alien food. After that he had ate. Which amounted to him taking a hesitant bite and then scarfing the rest of the food down like it was going to escape from his plate.

From there we had spent the day in the base helping explain some context for the Accords. Mainly it was just words and some phrases but it had been needed. Hollister seemed to be blown away by the sheer scope of the Accords. Apparently they had printed it out to be easier and it had ended up being a twenty thousand page document, double sided. They had then separated it into the appropriate sections and the assigned people had gone to town on them. They still were just scratching the surface of it but at least everyone assigned to a section was actually starting to understand their section.

But Hollister was getting updates, which was why he was pacing in front of me. "Detonating rounds." It came out of him clipped and I nodded.

"Technically organic trigger exploding rounds cause they only detonate when shot into a body, but yah." I leaned back in my chair as I watched him pace. The Accords held some pretty nasty shit in them. I wasn't sure why he was freaking out, I had warned him it contained over five hundred thousand years of history. The Accords had a bunch of dangerous shit, yes, but they also explicitly say to never use any of it and to do so would forfeit your right to be in the Galactic Union and you would be retaliated against with the same use of force you used. Turns out the aliens took mutually assured destruction to an entirely different level. With a minor exception you couldn't just not stockpile those dangerous things, you couldn't make them at all. Best way to have everyone win in a standoff, is that no one has the guns in hand to make it a standoff.