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Union President Roman Arbourt stood tall and proud as he surveyed the massive gathering of reporters. After two months of briefings and executive orders, it was finally time to reveal to the galaxy. To the Terran Star Union, what their brave test pilot had discovered and the terrible truth to come with this discovery.

Looking proudly into the hundreds of camera drones, Roman smiled and raised his hands for quiet. As the chatter settled, He took a deep breath and lowered his hands. "I stand before you today as President of the Union to answer your questions. The question as to why the Union has been gathering experts from around the galaxy. The scientists, The biologists, The climate experts, The orbital station experts, and our best and brightest technology experts. The reason why a massive relief fleet has been gathering in Sol for the past two months. Your question as to why the third fleet is gathering with them."

Roman looked around the room with controlled excitement and gripped the sides of the podium, fighting to keep his emotions from showing. "First. No. We are not going to war. There is no civil war, no pirate lords. Nothing. Again. We are NOT at war. So you conspiracy nuts can shelf that. Second. No, we are not expanding into another galaxy. We haven't even fully explored our own yet. I will not waste resources on such an endeavour. Third. Yes. We have found alien life."

The room quickly exploded into a cacophony of noises, screaming reporters, shouting observers, some even with tears in their eyes. Roman elected to let the mass get it out of their system before continuing. Looking down at his notes, however, he let out a regretful sigh. "Calm yourselves; it's not all good news."

As the noise died down from his proclamation, he let the room slowly regain its composure before continuing his speech. "The Aasteran people are in need of dire assistance. Their home planet, which is their only habitat aside from their limited orbital stations, has undergone a drastic climate shift. They are currently experiencing a severe ice age. This climate shift happened not over centuries. But years, causing them to lose an extensive portion of their population, technology, and culture. The fleet we are currently massing at Sol, its mission will be to uplift and save as many of their people as possible."

As the questions came rushing his way. Roman held up his hands for silence once again. "Fourth answer. Well, it's more of an announcement that explains the fifth answer. The location. It is over a year away at a non-stop maximum warp in a sector of the galaxy that has yet to be explored. Why have we consumed such a copious amount of resources even to reach that location, you may ask. We have, thanks to the efforts of the brilliant Dr.Aldon, Dr. Leviye, And Dr.Keda, successfully trialled the first-ever Fold Drive. This new form of FTL took the experimental ship only five minutes to reach its deep-space destination."

The room once again exploded into shouts and yells as the reporters bombarded Roman with questions. Though he let a grin slide across his face for only a moment, he felt it would definitely be a hot topic on the galnet within the hour. "Fifth. Rumours of the Unions 'Abductions' have some merit to them. When word came back to us, the situation being as dire as it was. The Union Star Navy sought help from field experts. First. They all came willingly, every one of them. This no doubt caused problems across the Union. With field leaders and experts disappearing practically overnight, a large number of projects have suffered. Those affected have my sympathies, though not my apology. I will not apologize for acting to save people in need."

Flipping his notes to a new section, President of the Union Roman Arbourt let out a practiced smile. "I will now take questions."

The silence drew over the room as arms flailed and mouths flapped. However, it didn't take long for the crowd to realize that the noise suppression had been activated for this occasion, causing the mass of eager reporters to resort to raising their hands. Picking one at random. Roman, for the first time, reflected on his dedication to complete transparency, sighing as he finally agreed with his advisers that he should have planted some reporters with safe questions.

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Yirphayen once again occupied the area where it could be in the presence of another Eaenhreph. This made it very happy. Being around this particular Eaenhreph was, for some unknown reason, extremely comforting.

Conveying a relaxing resonance to the silent Eaenhreph, Yirphayen slowly turned back to the odd carbon form within its proximity and mimicked the movement of its top appendages, moving them side to side.

Yirphayen watched the carbon form with amusement as, for some reason, its mimicry seemed to elicit a rather odd response of random appendage movement. Sending it a calming resonance didn't seem to help matters much either. In fact, Yirphayen quickly came to the conclusion it seemed to agitate the carbon form even more.

Moving away from the flailing carbon form to sit beside the silent Eaenhreph. Yirphayen crossed its bottom appendages and placed its core extension on the mineral surface, Deciding to observe the carbon forms reaction as Yirphayen occupied the space next to its silent companion.

Yirphayen enjoyed its time with these beings. They were interesting, especially when considering all it used to do was occupy a solar source and harmonize with the other Eaenhreph.

Letting out a content resonance as it stuck close to the other Eaenhreph, Yirphayen quaked in disgust as an odd harmony washed across its body. Enlarging itself and taking a hostile shape, Yirphayen scrutinized the occupied area, attempting to discern the culprit of this feeling.

"That got a reaction. Not one that looks promising, however."

"I think you just made it angry." Koma suggested, taking a few steps away from the cross being.

Ankiah fiddled with the datapad she had been given and documented its reaction. "I sounds angry. Like really angry."

Yirphayen was about to return to its spot when a different feeling washed over its core. This time, however, it was a warm feeling. One that was difficult to explain.

"Oh, he likes that." Ankiiah stated, raising from her chair to wander over to the being, walking around it in awe. "He really likes that."

"I am detecting sound from a new form of lightwave emitting from the being."

Koma straightened himself and looked over to Jack. "Okay, so it transmits sound through light, is it? How does Ankiah hear it then if it talks though it's light?"

"More study is needed. It most likely has something to do with her inner biology, not her hearing."

Taking a seat on the floor, Ankiah scribbled some notes on her datapad. "You guys are weird. I can hear it in my head. How else can I hear it other than through my ears?"

Yirphayen let out a relaxing harmony, attempting to compel the carbon beings to relax. Their agitation being evident even to Yirphayen as their inner fluids began to quicken.

"I have captured what I believe the first bit of its language. I believe we can start deciphering it now."

Koma looked over the data and instantly recognized an unknown language pattern. "Aha, now I can finally get to work. This information makes things a million times easier. Good work, Jack!"

"Ankiah helped by uncovering the missing piece of the puzzle. But thank you."

Ankiah, in turn, looked over to Jack and Koma with a smile. "Does that mean you guys don't need me anymore?"

"You may take your escort to wherever you wish within the law. If that is what you are asking."

Ankiah shot up and ran over to a sleeping Caithen. Grabbing her hand and pulling while attempting to wake her. "LET'S GO EXPLORE! Oh, wait, no. Let's go find Srettia. She's going to tell me all about her explorer tales!"

Private Caithen fell onto her knees as Ankiah pulled her out of her chair, yet looking up to the eager female with an amused grin. "Alright, just... Let me wake up. We'll go find her in a sec."

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"You expect me to wear something like this in public?" Srettia whispered, holding the swimwear up to her chest.

"Well, it covers your chest scales, hunting scale? Properly and wraps around your tail as well, I don't see the problem." Michael stated, taking a step back and admiring the top and bottom, wondering just how it would look on this particular model. "Besides, you wore something smaller when we were at the beach in the HL room."

Srettia looked at the bottom closely, noticing how it tied itself together in three places. "That was because it was just the two of us. There might be other people at this particular facility."

"Hey, you said you wanted to go see what a traditional bathhouse and sauna was like. We can get a private area with a hot tub and sauna pretty easily. But, if you want to sit on real wood, not the hard light or synthetic stuff. Ya gotta wear a bathing suit. Mind you, once we're in, you're free to take it off. I don't mind." Michael replied. Letting his eyes wander quite a bit and making his intentions well known.

Srettia studied the strapless top and nodded her agreement. "Alright, then that is satisfactory." Walking into the changing room to try the swimwear on. Srettia turned to Michael and eyed him suspiciously.

Michael held his hands up and turned towards the register, noticing three women standing around, gossiping amongst themselves happily. Walking up to them, he placed his cred chip on the counter. "Do you have access to nano-thermal swimwear? The stuff that will keep your body temperature stable when you swim in crazy cold water?"

"We do! I'm assuming it's for your... Partner?" The clerk teased, trying to get a bit of information out of Michael.

Ignoring the attempt, Michael continued with his request. "Sure. You have her measurements already. Can you get the full-body suit ready and send it to this address. Black with purple highlights and white accents will do. Just make sure it covers all of her neck and tail, please."

Pouting, the clerk pulled up a list and compiled the order. "Of course. Thank you for the purchase. It should be ready by tomorrow afternoon, sir."

Coming out of the change room, Srettia had seemingly found the floor quite interesting suddenly as she approached Michael. "I'll take this."

Taking the swimwear from Srettia and laying it on the counter. Michael smiled and handed over his cred chip again. "Alright, that should be everything now."

He then took the filled bag off the counter and waved Srettia out of the store as he left. "Well, that was easier than I thought it would have been."

Srettia fiddled with her fingers before taking Michael's free hand in her own, deciding it was definitely a good day as his warmth bore into her through his hand. "Your choice of swimwear was adequate. It fit... Well."

Softly squeezing Srettia's hand, Michael sent a mapping request to his implant. "Well, let's head over to the bathhouse then. After that, we can go check out the greenhouse you wanted to visit."

Looking around at all the Terrans sneaking looks, Srettia snuggled into Michael's side as they walked down the sidewalk. "Which one? There are three different biomes housed here. It's still hard to believe that this is a military facility!"

Pulling up the biome details, Michael casually read the descriptions as he led Srettia down the busy street, ignoring the people's curious looks. "There are close to 2 million people at this base. So lots of families and support staff. Guess they figured they might as well make the civilian living areas liveable. Well, anyway, let's skip the Earth biome. We're going there at the end of the week anyway. Ienterion is a mostly water biome. So that leaves the Vaydien biome. It's a damp forest planet with lots of fog, mist, and lakes filled with fish."

Being lost in thought as Michael walked her through the streets, Srettia attempted to picture how she would react to the Vaydien biome. "As long as I don't have to swim, I would like to visit the Ienterion biome, fish are pretty delightful, so I would like to see them in their natural habitat. And for some reason, birds... I don't know what it is, but birds unnerve me. I'm unsure how I would do in the Vaydien greenhouse."

"Alright, we'll go check out the fishies. You'll have to get used to the birds, though. We have a lot on Earth. But I guess it makes sense that you're not fond of the~"

"HEEEYYY!!!!"

Turning around in horror, Srettia quickly spotted a familiar face in the crowd. "Nooooo! My date!"

Bending over to catch her breath, Ankiah smiled at the duo, waiting for Caithen to finally catch up. "Hi! I'm here for stories!"

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