626 was bored. And, more importantly, full of energy.

Energy that he had no outlet for, as he was currently secured in a restraint disk covering everything but his head with a pair of plasma cannons pointed at him. It was uncomfortable to say the least, but 626 had promised to behave himself and sit quietly while they figured out just where to put him, and so he resigned himself to putting up with it.

Especially since, admittedly, it was largely his own fault that he was being kept in heavy restraint: unable to contain his excitement when the Councilwoman had deactivated the glass case he'd grabbed its' base and immediately flung it as hard as he could towards the window, and then before the Councilwoman or any of the guards could react he'd slammed the hoverplatform into the ground hard enough to shatter it.

That had earned him quite the lecture on the need to respect property and not break things that weren't his, a lecture that ended with him admitting that just sitting around and waiting for them to finish preparing his quarters would be almost impossible. And so, he'd wound up in a situation where waiting was pretty much the only thing he could do.

Although…

The cannons pointing at him were locked on to his genetic signature, the Councilwoman had explained when the guards took a blood sample. 626 confirmed it somewhat through his fidgeting, as they shifted around whenever he moved, but he couldn't help but wonder: would they track anything that had his signature?

Meega wonder… if he built up enough saliva in his mouth to let it drip out, would the cannons follow it?

Opening his mouth and letting a giant trail of saliva dangle downwards, he was pleased to see that the cannons did, in fact, follow it! Ooh! He sucked it back up, and the cannons followed suit. Down again, and they followed. Up again, and they followed. Down again, and…

"What are you doing?" 626 realized that the guard they'd left to keep an eye on him was staring at him with a mixed expression of amusement, curiosity, and disgust.

Abashed, and remembering what the Councilwoman had said about him licking the glass of his case, 626 sucked the saliva trail back into his mouth. "Meega bored. Isa naga to do."

"Fair enough, I suppose." The guard shrugged. "But what were you trying to do anyways?"

"Naga much. Just curious." He explained as best he could, and when he was finished the guard stood up.

"Huh. That's actually interesting. What were you going to do next?"

"Meega was thinking maybe spit? See what happens?"

"Well, since the cannons already seem to think that saliva is the being that they're tracking, it stands to reason that they'd…" He trailed off, tapping a fin against his cheek. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Ih? Cannons go boom?"

"Exactly." The guard pulled a comm out of his suit pocket. "Grand Councilwoman, this is Lieutenant Sledge. Requesting permission to temporarily reduce the cannons in Cell A1-13 to stun mode."

"What?" 626 heard the Councilwoman's voice echo out from the comm. "Why?"

"Experiment 626 was playing around a little in here with the cannons, and he made me realize there could be a significant flaw in how they work. With your permission I'd like to check that, but for us to do this safely we need to set them to stun."

"Okay…"

They argued for a good five minutes, long enough for 626 to start getting tempted to just start spitting anyways, but eventually the Grand Councilwoman acquiesced.

"You have ten minutes, Lieutenant. After that the cannons will return to full power, and should this compromise the safety of either 626 or anyone on this ship you will be punished."

"I understand."

"Excellent. Now, if you would, tell 626 that I am trusting him to not attempt anything during the next ten minutes."

"Smish. Meega be good."

"He says he'll behave himself."

"Alright. Then good luck with…whatever you two are doing. Grand Councilwoman, out."

Shortly afterwards the two cannons audibly whirred as they swapped from deadly force to stun. Sledge straightened out his uniform before walking over to a nondescript section of the wall and pointing at it. "Let's start by shooting here. Think you can make it?"

"Ih." 626 grinned. "Easy. Meega go now?"

"Hang on, wait until my mark." Sledge shook his head, smiling. "Honestly, if someone had told me when I woke up that I'd be - eh, whatever. On three…two…one…"

Having built up as much saliva in his mouth as he could, 626 let loose. Sure enough the cannons immediately swiveled around to track it, and as soon as the glob hit the wall they fired. 626 whooped with joy and laughed, elated.

Sledge, who had fallen over as the cannon blasted three feet in front of him, stood back up and examined the wall. "Okay, that was disgusting. At least there's not a single scratch on the wall."

"Meega go again?" 626 looked around the room, his gaze settling on the door. "Wanna see if can hit door." Already his brain was filled with images of the cannons firing at full blast, reducing the doors to molten slag. Isa naga gonna happen, he reminded himself.

"The door?" Again, Sledge began tapping a fin against his cheek. "Actually, why not? It could be helpful to know if it's possible for a prisoner to make it all the way."

It was, as it turned out, and once again 626 was overjoyed. "Oooh! Meega shoot more?"

To his dismay, Sledge shook his head. "Let's just leave it at this for now. The cannons don't exactly have an infinite supply of plasma after all."

"Awwww." 626 looked around the room for something else to do or talk about, anything. There wasn't, so he fell back into silence and tried to relax. It was rather difficult, thanks to both the position he was currently in and the amount of excess energy still bottled up, but somehow the time slowly passed by.

He was looking at the walls, trying to figure out how many panels there were on each side, when the door burst open. In stormed Gantu, a plasma cannon large enough for 626 to sit in clenched tightly in one fist. 626 had just enough time to register the look of loathing on the enormous being's face - a loathing that was entirely mutual after the events in the Council Chamber - before the cannon's nozzle slammed up against his head.

"Lousy little trog!" The captain growled. "I don't know what you were trying to pull, but you can forget it." The nozzle squished up even tighter, enough that 626's ears were starting to hurt as it pinched them against the restraint disk. "At least now they'll see what an abomination you really are."

"Excuse me, captain?" 626 heard Sledge clear his throat. "626 was acting with my express permission. We uncovered a potential security flaw in the cannon's programming, and this was the best way to put it to the test."

The pinch of the nozzle slackened, ever so slightly. "And did it not occur to you that it could have easily used the opportunity to break free?"

"626 promised me he wouldn't. And if you don't believe that, ask him." 626 couldn't help but notice the emphasis on the last word; it made him want to give Sledge a hug.

"Perhaps I will." Cool air rushed in as Gantu pulled the plasma cannon down, and the darkness of the nozzle's inside was replaced with the captain's massive, glaring face. Meega like the first better, 626 thought.

"Alright, you, give me one reason why I should trust you'd actually keep your word."

Ugh. Why wouldn't Gantu just believe him already? "Because meega did? Naga tried to escape here, naga in office."

Looking slightly mollified, Gantu backed up and stared down at Sledge. "Who gave the alright for this, anyway?"

"That would be me." The Councilwoman stepped through the cell door. "I understand that the testing method was a little, ah, unorthodox, but I assure you that I only permitted it after considerable thought." She looked up at 626. "I came to tell you that your quarters are just about finished, but it seems I arrived just in time to stop something else." After shooting Gantu a dirty look she stepped up onto the lift under 626's restraint disk. We'll get those cannons deactivated and I'll bring you to your room."

"With no guard? Are you sure that's a good idea? What if that thing decides it wants to make a break for it after all?"

It.

Thing.

Even after cooperating and sitting quietly, even after explaining that he'd passed up multiple chances to escape, even after both Lieutenant Sledge and the Grand Councilwoman vouched for him, Gantu still refused to see him as anything but a monster.

Growling, 626 began to fill up his mouth with saliva one more time, forgetting everything he'd promised not to do, readying himself to give Gantu a face-full of plasma -

He felt a gentle touch. 626 looked down and saw the Grand Councilwoman, who gave him a microscopic shake of the head. She looked down at Gantu, and although her expression was calm 626 could feel her hand shaking with anger. "Silence. Captain, leave this room at once. Going forwards, you are forbidden to interact with Experiment 626 unless I have given you explicit instructions to do so."

"But -" Gantu started to protest before sighing, standing up straight, and saluting. "Fine. As you command, milady."

The Councilwoman nodded. "Good. Oh, and one more thing, Captain: try and learn empathy, would you? Other beings might actually be able to tolerate your presence for more than a few minutes at a time."

626 heard Sledge choke back some laughter; he himself was less able. For his part, Gantu simply whirled around and left.

"Right, now that that's over, let's get you out of this. Deactivate the cannons, lieutenant."

"Aye-aye, ma'am."

The cannons blinked and whirred as they dropped towards the floor, shutting down. Once they were fully deactivated 626 craned his neck to look at the Councilwoman, who was fiddling with one of the levers holding the restraint disk in place. "Problem?"

"Yes, these aren't going to retract for some reason. Blast it, we're going to have to call for a technician, and that could take a bit."

"Actually, meega can get out now."

"Oh? How?"

"Isa easy." 626 smirked. "Meega just have to break this. Yuuga might want to stand back?"

"Okay…" The Councilwoman lowered back to the ground and stepped away before looking up at him, quizzically.

The entire time he'd been in the disk, 626 had been fighting the urge to break it. Although it was very well-made, and would certainly be able to restrain most beings his size without issue, 626 was not exactly most beings. Armed with the strength to move things three thousand times his weight and several hours' worth of pent-up energy, all it took was two fists slamming into both sides of the disk at the same time for it to break in half. Dropping to the floor, 626 landed on his head before vaulting upright. "See?" He told Sledge and the Councilwoman, who were both staring at him with their mouths wide open, "easy."

"Could…could you have done that the entire time?" Sledge asked.

"Ih."

"Okay then… I guess that this thing needs some work. A lot of work." He muttered.

"I'll just take this as further evidence that you were behaving yourself." Gently, the Councilwoman pressed her hand against 626's back. "Now come, 626 - let's go to your quarters."

"See you around, 626." Sledge waved as the two of them left the room. "That was definitely weird, but I'll admit I enjoyed myself."

Smiling, 626 waved back.

626 wasn't sure what the Grand Councilwoman had arranged for his living space, but he wasn't expecting much - something rather similar to the prison cell he'd just left, probably, except maybe with some kind of small bed.

What he was not expecting, therefore, was a rather spacious room with a window, small desk, and bed large enough for a creature twice his size.

"The only areas available on short notice were either a holding cell or one of the guest rooms we let to beings when they're to address the Council," She explained, "and I figured that in the former you would be subject to, shall we say, unpleasant attention."

626 looked around the room. "Is nice! Taka."

"You're welcome. Anyways, refresher station is in the corner, bins for clothing - Jumba said there were four or five more suits like the one you're wearing back at his lab, so we should have those along in the morning - are under the bed along with a cleaner, and the trash can is on the other side of the bed. We have cameras all over the room, of course, but the refresher has a ten-minute privacy screen. Any further questions?"

"Naga."

"Alright. Then, in that case, I shall take my leave. It's getting late, and I imagine I'm not the only one getting tired after everything today. Good night, 626." The Councilwoman patted him on the head, smiled, and left. Five minutes later the lights dimmed, so 626 crawled into bed. He was tired, after all.

As 626 drifted off to sleep his thoughts strayed to one subject: not the urge to break things, but how it had felt when the Grand Councilwoman touched him. He'd expected the touch of another creature to be repulsive or hateful, but it had been different.

It had felt nice, and comforting, like what he imagined it would feel like to be touched by a parent.