Short snippet of Family Law 3 – at the 80K word mark. As always rough and unedited.

“Then do so and inform Captain Frost when you are ready to depart. Any other questions?” Gordon asked, leaning forward aggressively and showing a smile that was toothy and not at all pleasant. In fact he visibly ground his fangs a bit in irritation.
“No sir,” Twin said quickly. Talker just shook his head no in the Human manner.
“Fine, then I’m off shift and we are done,” Gordon said closing the conference. “Thor you have the conn to dismiss the shift. I suggest you have the alternate shift set a short orbital watch. I’ll be in my cabin.” He left without looking at Talker.
It was a bit past shift end, but Vigilant’s crew was not hanging around the bridge entry waiting to chit-chat at the change-over. They had undoubtedly made the short retreat to the mess after hearing the exchange at the end. They wanted to be out of Gordon’s sight and attention.
Thor waited until Gordon was well away, and unlikely to pop back in. He looked at Lee, amused.
“People think I’m a terror and Gordon is the easy going one. I love it when they abuse his patience until he knocks heads together. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard a Bill say ‘sir’.
“One will not forget the lesson,” Talker promised, rattled. “I never want him to smile at me again.”
“Well yeah,” Lee agreed. “I’m sure you’ll find it easier to negotiate with the Bills than Gordon.”
“Is that what we were doing?” Talker asked in horror. “It didn’t feel like it.”