Whew, what a day. This Fourth of July had been light on the explosions, but oh man, what fireworks! Once the buzz over his adopted broth... er, Ches's big exit from his incubator had subsided, Dr. Dork had made Ches repeat that sneeze cannon trick over and over in the testing lab, until nothing more than sparks erupted from that arched nose. He'd helped out with the scanning equipment, which was the coolest part, and technically it'd been him who found the extra lump behind Ches's nasal arch. Dr. Dork said that it must be what allowed Ches to stock up electricity in there, but Myra said it just made him -- her -- look like a Bajoran, and then the whole thing turned into a "What Marcus needs to watch next" conversation for a while. Deep Space Nine sounded cool.

>Dr. Derek Speers entered the chamber several minutes ahead of schedule, well before anyone else. He had a natural nervousness about new places, and that this one was an official government meeting hall did not calm him for an instant. A few minutes to familiarize himself, that was all he needed, and he took advantage of post-lunch tardiness to come to terms with his surroundings. The room was quiet, austere, with none of the grandeur or even largesse he'd come to expect of Congressional architecture. There was a wide arc of comfortable chairs placed behind a series of long tables. Those were for the committee members; he wouldn't have the luxury of sitting for the next few hours. His place was front and center, standing on display like some horrible parody of a university professor set to serve as a warning for all.