Hudson with Terror

[Reeves]

Even if his eyes never broke contact with hers as a show of confidence, he had taken note of the fact that she had the grip of her gun held. "Run the logic through your head really quick, and you'll find I don't gain anything from you. Even if you offered, by some logistical miracle, to bring the Locrath here - all I'd do is say no." Eventually, he turned back to look at a distant Atka, the pristine white reflecting quite nicely in the cold blue of his eyes.

"I'll tell you what I have got so far. Good conversation, and company I can stand. Besides that, there was the singular condition I made in exchange for letting you scan, so there is the material benefit of having your intimate familiarity about Planetform to be gleaned here." At this point he just shrugged and let her think over everything he'd said, it's not as if Piper's embellished articles were going to win him an entire war and lend stability to the LFR if it sprang up as a consequence overnight. So for all intents and purposes, it made him appear simple and direct, he had brought them here only because they had the expertise so far as Planetform was concerned, and in exchange for showing them he could stand to know more himself. Knowing was half the battle in any case.

"You can leave right now if you have any reason to doubt that. Ricky will fly you back out to Sierra, and we don't have to talk any further. It's not complicated, maybe you were compelled to come here, but I don't compel people to stay. Choice means something to me." It was a convincing enough way of making a point, and given all he'd said so far he was either an exceptionally good liar or telling her the complete truth.

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