"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I do apologize for calling you in for this meeting on such short notice, however, this situation is... Unusual. Approximately 1820 hours Zulu, 3 days ago, I received a transmission and data packet from retired Marine Pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Barnet, currently the commander of the civilian exploration vessel, Occasional Epiphany, registration CEV-38258."

A click is heard and on the screen behind her, a slide with an image of the ship along with registration and specifications appears along with a short file entry on the pilot, including previous operations, commendations, and biographical data.

"I'm not one to beat around the bush. Given his report, upon answering what, to his recollection, appeared to be a distress call, he has made First Contact with a species unknown to us. A week was spent with these individuals, calling themselves collectively, the Brirali, prior to submission of the report to me."

Another click is heard and the screen shows a security camera's perspective of the three creatures standing outside of their 'ship', standing in front of the human pilot.

"They were found in the system designated JDG-427-32419. Their account being they made an emergency jump, at a range exceeding our furthest possible FTL jumps by a factor of about 15. The purpose of their emergency jump was to escape an attack by..." she sighed, "a space pirate by the translated name of 'Squambles'."

A few chuckles are heard as the screen switches to a security camera in what appeared to be a ship’s galley where the 4 individuals were sitting at a table. The video began playing without audio.

"During this conversation, you see here, a discussion regarding the situation was taking place. The item you see given to LtCol. Barnet is, according to his report, a translation device. It seems their software was able to detect, understand, and process English, at the very least. The LtCol. was unable to send us a copy of their software to reverse engineer, however, we do have a team attempting to work on the language using the report contents, and the recorded conversations and responses. This is an audio example."

Audio of the current conversation on the screen begins playing with possible text subtitle onomatopoeia along the bottom of the screen.

Alien 1: "jfzc pyrtm jlrwpec pprtypycd qt lyn pslg vzch pes te jzf peaapcltnl zhowf T"

LtCol Barnet: "Sorry, but I don't have any engineers."

Alien 1: "fjz wlwn pesx tdtnDdeype saapdcl"

LtCol Barnet: "Nope, I'm the only one on this ship."

Alien 1: "pm ztrvyu dfex zJf"

Alien 2: "tsad xlepatc L tvpw fcwdqjzp mj fetB ytjwr yfc zfj teds" *leans forward*

Alien 2: "el opyp pnch lees ttxxfxy pwgptmp tsad pyyt tdes rpwlc appwza epnpai eplwd l zJf ez xp ez Jwwzf"

LtCol Barnet: "Can't deny I'm evolved from primates, however, I do, in fact, operate this ship myself. Now," *raises cup to lips*

LtCol Barnet: "I have been extremely courteous in this conversation, there's no need to get angry, let alone insulting."

Alien 2: "ehlsd Cpjwlw px pyes ze yhz qzxc ezda" *takes aggressive posture*

Alien 3: "topKdzc rfpzsy" *posture of Alien 2 relaxes*

Alien 3: "T spd zpsa jhdllw sld yl fzj ctddlpprrg pmpy whtw scp zo cgpzrqt wotoyttgfl"

Audio ceases as the video on screen continues playing.

"As you can hear, the language doesn't match anything we know of, and this included," she sighed again, "going into various fantasy languages such as Klingon and Elvish."

A few more chuckles are heard again.

"I understand, it is a little funny, however, one must dig where they can for any information that may assist, and fantasy isn't too far out from believable, after all, this species appears physically close to a race in a tabletop role-playing game. During this discussion, LtCol Barnet was requested to and accepted an offer to escort this race back to a 'safe station' for the reward of upgraded equipment for his ship. And as you know, that has a massive technical value in and of itself, and also lends credibility to their statement of there being OTHER species of sentients out there."

A few gasps are heard amongst the gathered group at the mention of other species.

"I do know this is far-fetched, but given the information and analysis, I'd find it hard to believe this anything but true. If anyone has any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability."

A few rumblings were heard in the group before a man stood.

"If I may, Brigadier General Sanchez?" Asked the now-standing man.

"Go ahead, Colonel" the BGen nodded in his direction.

"I have to say that this does seem a bit... Outlandish. And you say you received this data directly from a, now, civilian. Why would they contact you first? As opposed to the normal chain for this kind of thing."

"I'll admit, the information came as quite the surprise. The reason for the direct contact, putting it bluntly as I can, is due to the LtCol being of familial relation, my stepbrother, father's side."

"And how do you know you can trust this information and it's not, shall we say a brotherly prank?" The Colonel smirked

"To be brutally honest, I assumed it was myself. However, in his transmission to me, he used codewords that are unknown to anyone else outside of him and me and are only used for... problematic situations. Also, as a LtCol of the Marines, he is less likely than more to divest false information with such ramifications as this can have."

"So, what you're telling me," an older woman who was standing against the wall during the presentation, "is that on top of the upstart colonists and other interior issues, now we know we're in a galaxy with more than a few other thinking beings?"

"Yes, Admiral." Elena always hated dealing with CINCONI as an office, Marines weren't part of the Navy anymore, per se, but it's still an annoyance.

"And how much trust do YOU put into the information?" The Admiral narrowed her gaze.

"Admiral, if this information came from anyone else, I would doubt it very much myself. But, given OUR dealings with the LtCol, I believe we both know that the likelihood he'd even joke about this is nonexistent." She didn't show it, but she enjoyed the slight wince of the Admiral when she just showed that she knew the Admiral used Frank on more than one occasion, just not the contents of them.

"Fair enough." The Admiral grumbled then looked at the rest of the group gathered. "I DO hope the rest of you understand that this information is NOT for distribution to any other offices, let alone the public, at least until we get more information at the very least."

A few murmurs of agreement from the group.

"If there are no other questions, I will conclude this presentation. My office will be available to provide what information we have for dissemination within your offices. Again, I must stress, this is not to be found out by the general populace until we have, at the very least, more information from the LtCol." She glanced over the group, and seeing no more questions, tapped a button on the podium turning off the display, collected her documents and data drive, and walked off the small stage.

Elena finally made it back to her office, and sitting down, let out a deep sigh and thought to herself, 'That went better than expected...' Her thoughts were interrupted after a few minutes by the chime from her intercom. After a moment, she tapped the control to accept the incoming.

"Ma'am, Admiral Reyes is here requesting a meeting," her secretary Jonathan piped over the speaker.

"Send her in." Elena KNEW this was coming as she watched the doors open and the Admiral walk in, closing them behind her. Elena stood for the entry.

"For what do I owe the pleasure, Admiral?" Elena spoke as she gestured to the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

"That was a low blow and you know it, Elena." The Admiral responded as she took the proffered chair.

"An unofficial visit I take it, Dominique?" She asked as she sat down herself.

"Yes, off the record, Lord knows that this whole thing is insane enough." Dominique sighed.

Elena reached into her desk and pulled a small decanter and raised it toward Dominique. Given her nod, she pulled a couple of glasses and poured a couple of fingers of the amber liquid into each glass. She placed the decanter down and slid the glass over to the Admiral, who took and took a small sip first.

"Yeah, didn't expect this at all, let alone from my idiot brother." Elena sighed, taking up a glass and taking a sip as well.

"He DOES have a way of getting into the strangest of circumstances. Makes one wonder if it was a blessing or a curse." Dominique sighed.

"True enough," Elena stated.

"So, be honest with me, do you truly trust this information, and are you CERTAIN your brother isn't pulling some sort of elaborate prank?"

"He's not, that much I do know. Here, listen to this." Elena pulled up the audio from the message she received from him and let it play out.

"Space demons, huh? Not entirely wrong. Almost thought that myself when I first saw them." Dominique said before taking another sip. "And pepper, is it that valuable? Somewhat surprised by THAT one, though the East India joke might not be too far off..."

"Yeah, makes you wonder if it isn't exactly natural to Earth, to be honest, or if it just so happened a different plant developed a similar composition." Elena guessed.

"True, but the convergent evolution idea... Makes you wonder just what else is really out there."

"Given Frank, the next transmission he sends might have more information, though who knows when we'll get it. His destination is quite a ways away from any of our relays. And getting any ships to where his destination would take, at the very least, two months, would be the best guess. " Elena took another sip.

"Yes, that is a little bit distressing... Even considering where I might know to have anything, that's still about fifteen days... But you didn't hear that from me." Dominique chuckled lightly before taking another swig.

"Are you planning what I think you're planning?" Elena asked, a bit curious.

"I haven't a clue what you mean. I surely can't tell you the possibility of sending out a ship to check out any of this, and I certainly can't say that they might have relay beacons to drop along the way, and I most definitely can't say that they are currently on standby in the first place. Any of that would be a breach of security regulations if I said a single word." Dominique said with a devious smirk upon her lips.

"Heh. And of course, I wouldn't know a way to request the use of a ghost ship, and certainly wouldn't be able to provide any support I can from any of our facilities, nor can I offer any extra personnel needed for an undertaking, since the ship doesn't exist in the first place." Elena spoke, now with a Cheshire smile on her face, raising her glass slightly to the admiral, who returned the gesture before they both finished their drinks.

"Anyway, I must go. Elena, it was good to see you again, regardless of these circumstances."

"No rest for the wicked, eh, Dominique?"

"No... I swear, when I became CINCONI, I thought it would be more general paperwork and less, well, yeah..."

"Things don't always go as planned, sadly. It WAS good seeing you again. And before I forget, Lily LOVED that stuffed Samson, she still hangs onto it from time to time."

They both rose shook hands, and the Admiral left the office. Elena sat down once the doors closed and began tapping away at her computer to begin picking through the various ship deployments out and about. There was a bit of planning to do after all...