[b]SHANAKAL PRIMARY DEEP SPACE RADAR INSTALLATION, ONANS MOUNTAIN[/b]

Keral tapped his pen against his glass desk slowly, rhythmically. He gazed out the window at the mountain tops that seemed to stretch on forever poking out of the clouds. Sometimes he wanted to just go beyond the base and hike out there, a nice idea but Keral knew the dangers of this planet, the ways it could kill men. Still, it would be nice, to walk among the purple leaves of that jungle. It was at this thought a harsh knock on his silver aluminum door shook Keral into reality. He dropped his pen with a muffled thud as it hit the glass screen and opened some forgotten report, Keral didn't much care and went to the door slid it open and looked down at a rather short man. Keral was going to voice protest at an inferior disturbing him until the small man’s scaly arm put a tablet forward without word. Keral snatched it from his hand, notably vexed from the disturbance. However the scowl on his face vanished quickly, and his eyes widened, in a serious voice he asked, “Has optical verified?”

The man before Keral responded with equal focus, “No sir, if you would follow me to the command center we will see optical in roughly a minute after the telescope aligns, accounting for the 4.82 Ls distance.”

Keral did as the man said and followed him down the white hallways every so often spotted with a window or a bulky aluminum door the short man had to open. Eventually they reached the final door and upon opening it they were greeted with immense circular dark room with a picture perfect holographic projection of Shanakal in the center and various lines representing things in its orbit, just outside the orbits was a pulsating red orb. Keral walked around the various men at computers that terraced down to the ground floor (which was absent of people as it was reserved for the projector) until he reached a larger work station with screens facing his sides rather than directly ahead as most of the stations did. Keral waved off the short man who accepted his tablet back and walked a short ways to his own station. Keral then inquired, “Is optical positive yet? Is this an undetected asteroid?”

A man in a standard issue headset setting at the second terrace down pulled it down around his neck and responded, “Optical feed has just come in, we are confirming object at 4.82 light seconds and reporting that that it appears to be a cluster of smooth shapes, artificial design is expected but assurance is impossible at this range.”

Keral thought he would be able to relax in his chair but he only sat more upright, the announcement went around the room and caused everyone to freeze for a few seconds, their faces illuminated by the monitors. Keral eventually broke the silence and ordered, “Get Colonial security online to dispatch a cruiser to those coordinates immediately, they are to assume either an unscheduled or early transport from the home world, hell maybe even an unreported emergency HWSF courier.”

Various officers shouted, “Yes sir” almost at the same time, Keral could only sit there and sweat in his seat, if this was what he feared things might get much worse for everyone.

[b]CEGSS ONARMORIAN[/b]

The engines flared on the noticeably aged angular ship. The crew within was tense as they slowly came up to speed then cut engines to ride in slow. The old captain, a southerner whose soft pale blue face was covered in tattoos sat silently in the claustrophobic bridge of the old ship which only sat three people. Eventually the young first officer beside him asked, “So… Do you think its alien?”

The captain smiled revealing the sharp teeth beneath his short nose, he commented in jest, “If they are why don’t we show them our famed flying kel?”

The comment was immensely sarcastic, the officer retorted, “Well way to ruin the anticipation.”

The old captain sighed and continued, “Joek you need to learn that humor is often good for these times, the ancestors certainly didn’t survive the imperial times by being serious about everything. In any case I do have my doubts, though DSR said multiple objects were on optical telemetry. I can’t imagine why the home world would send multiple ships unscheduled. I guess that’s why DSR didn't try haling them on radio, no telling what we’re going into.”

The words did little to soothe anyone, the second officer on the captains other side noticeably adjusted them self to sit more upright than before. The long hours of waiting went on; the objects in the distance were reported to have released something. Though those strange smooth shapes still sat where they always had, coming ever closer to the ship.

Eventually they reached a range of 0.5 LS where they could take magnified pictures with detail; the ship roared to life and flashed its nuclear engines that slowed to a ship to a halt. The observational cameras began to take pictures. As they appeared on the bridge monitors there was silence, this was no unexpected arrival of home world ships, these were truly aliens. The captain lifted his military cap and scratched his scaly head for a moment before stating, “Well Joek it appears you were correct, and it seems like we have made history.” The captain leaned back on his chair in thought, the others remained silent. Finally we continued, “Broadcast a general hail on narrow, broad and wide band, and follow that up with standard laser communication. Let’s hope we can get some form of meaningful communication, and let us hope that they didn’t find our sudden appearance after that cold glide a hostile action… Yeah let’s hope that.” Silence then consumed the bridge save the clicks and taps that signalled the captain’s orders were being executed. History or calamity, the thought was on the minds of everyone present.