General Moartyme steepled his fingers as he sat, elbows on the conference table, and nodded slightly in concurrence with President Inealdo. His wasn’t the innate action of a sycophant; instead, he saw and supported the wisdom present in his leader’s words. By this point, with only a half-cycle having passed since the attack, the local system was secure. Indeed, that was part of his purpose in coming to this meeting. To provide an update to the other board members on the status of their defense force’s reaction to the attack.

[i]“All vessels, foreign and domestic, within 100 AUs scanned and deemed safe. Outliers currently being interviewed, but none of serious concern. Mostly smugglers, a handful of which, as we are aware, are permitted in Federation space for economic purposes.”[/i]

He took a small sip of water and continued.

[i]“Prolonging the travel ban serves no purpose. Indeed, to do so is detrimental as, with industry crippled, we must rely on maintaining a healthy trade relationship with our neighbors.”[/i]

He glanced around and confirmed his suspicion of unanimous support on the matter.

[i]“I will immediately inform the defense force that the ban is lifted.”[/i]

He stood and walked over to a corner of the room, pulled a communication device from his pocket. Placed within his ear, he opened a secure line to military headquarters and passed along the order. Within a handful of minutes, vessels would once more be free to come and go at will. Satisfied that the orders were being carried out, he returned to the table, where the other members graciously awaited in silence.

[i]“Now to the matter at hand. As to preventing such a heinous act from again occurring, we will be constructing an intelligent network of satellites to scan incoming vessels for threat signatures and deploying them in a series of overlapping grids around each planet and, moreover, around the entire system. Instead of minutes notice, we will in the future have over an hour in which to coordinate a response. This, our best scientists assure me, includes from superluminal and extradimensional infiltration attempts.”[/i]