Frank woke with a start, adrenaline dumped into his system, body already moving before his mind registered the sharp, staccato bursts. He quickly and silently moved to the wall, grabbed his rifle, and slithered to the door. The sound became louder and he could just make out voices, but not their contents. He hit the manual release on his door and slowly slid it open. Rifle at the ready, he turned the first corner of the cabin corridor, clear. He pressed himself against the door opened to the galley. As another burst sounded, he rushed the corner and scanned, only to immediately dropped his aim of the rifle, seeing the faces of his three guests sitting at the galley table watching what looked like an old Earth action flick.

"My goodness, have some decency!" Lelith quickly covering his eyes. Ozakos looked away, coughing lightly while Zedoris threw a somewhat predacious gaze at Frank.

"Huh?" It took him a second to register, he was still in the nude. "Uhh... Oops." He swiftly used his rifle to cover himself as he backtracked toward his room. After closing the door, he took a few deeps breaths, trying to calm himself down. He looked at the clock and seen only a little over three hours had passed since he went to sleep. 'Good enough', he grumbled to himself.

He put his rifle back on the wall and made his was to his closet. He grabbed what he needed along with a clean suit. He grabbed his visor from the drawer on his side table, put it on and activated it. As he was getting dressed he scanned over the sensor data. They managed to link a simple slave system between the two ships. There was a slight improvement in the received data, but the improvement was spotty at best. 'Maybe I'll try to remodulate the asymmetrical feedback matrix.' Once fully dressed he stepped back out to the rest of them.

"I guess your height is the only thing 'small' about you!" Zedoris leaned back laughing quite loudly.

"Zedoris!" Lelith shouted looking quite embarrassed, a purple flush on her cheeks. "Umm... Good morning? Is that the right phrase?"

"Ha ha ha! Look how innocent she is!" Zedoris exclaimed while still laughing. A deeper flush came over Lelith before she got up and rushed to the cabins.

"Zedoris," Ozakos said sternly. "Sometimes you go bit too far." He sighed deeply. "I'll go take care of her." Ozakos pushed himself up and made his way to the cabins as well.

"Now, primate," she said with a glare. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you for aiming some sort of weapon at my charge." Her voice full of venom.

"Well, let me ask you this." He said as he began rummaging though his food stores. "You say she's your charge, which means you're her bodyguard, right?"

"A bit more than that, but go on." She stated.

"Now, if you are sleeping, you wake up to the sound of weapons fire, what's the first thing you do?" Frank grabbing a package with more than a few warnings on the package.

"Grab my weapon and..." She seemed to relax a bit. "Prepare to confront the threat."

"Exactly." He tossed the package into the microwave, then reached over for a thermal glove. "You're on my ship, thus making you my 'charges' until you disembark."

"That means..." She hesitated a moment. "You were prepared to confront a threat on our behalf?"

"Bingo!" He exclaimed, a second later a ding sounded.

"Bingo?" She looked at him quizzically. "Also, you're eating again already? We just ate twelve hours ago."

"Huh? Oh, 'bingo' is an expression in the affirmative. You don't eat more than one meal?" Frank said as he grabbed a fork and tore open the package.

"I mean, it's not unheard of if you're active, but fairly rare." She remarked.

"Ahh, we humans generally eat three meals a day. I generally eat just two. Not much activity sitting in a chair all day." He grabbed a bite of the yellow contents of the package.

"So, what is it you're eating now?" Zedoris inquired.

"Scrambled eggs and sausage." Frank turned the opening of the package over.

"I'm familiar with 'eggs', but sausage?" She asked.

"That would be this." He dug through the eggs until he found one of the small links, skewered it with his fork, and help it up over the package. "It's a processed, seasoned, meat product."

"And that's common?" A slightly disgusted look creeped on her face.

"It is for the most part." He took a bite.

"Ugh... Disgusting primate." She looked away.

"To live is to eat." He picked out the sausages and quickly ate them while she wasn't looking.

"But to eat another animal's flesh?" Zedoris scoffed.

"Evolution made sure we were able to eat during the winters. A bit hard to plant in frozen ground." Frank stated.

"You do have a point there..." She trailed off. "Anyway, what brought you so far from your homeworld anyway. "

"Hmm..." He tossed the now empty package into a bin and the fork into the cleaner. "I just wanted to see what's out there."

"Really now." She gave him a sideways look. "And is that all?"

"Well, not really." He pulled large mug from the cabinet and filled it with water. "You can also make quite a few credits with the exploration data."

"I'm guessing 'credits' is the term for your currency?" She asked.

"You got it. What do you use? Or at least the Council member states? Species?" Frank said filling the pitcher before placing it into the machine and began digging in a drawer.

"We use Quatloos." Zedoris stated.

"Uh huh." Finally picking a pod he wanted, he placed it in the machine before starting it. "I guess, I'll ask the same. What were you three doing before all this?"

"We were," she fidgeted a bit in her seat, "on our way to an outpost for a meeting. Let's just say someone didn't like it..."

"Business discussion went wrong, huh?" He breathed the smell of the freshly brewing coffee. "Lemme guess, someone didn't like the fact you were making deals with this other group and wanted to put a stop to negotiations?"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Yeah, let's go with that." She hid a sigh. "What gave it away?"

"For starters, your craft didn't appear to have any weapons. Ozakos didn't even list them off in a systems diagnostic. Showing up with weapons to a negotiation might not go over too well." He began counting on his fingers. "Small group meant it wasn't supposed to be well known, knowing the taste of pepper means you three seem to be fairly wealthy, or wealth-adjacent. Having a bodyguard, since you often keep to her, means that Lelith is fairly high ranked, especially if she has the authority to provide me with compensation for my help that she claims."

"Fair points." Zedoris shrugged. "I guess you're not as dumb as you look."

"I've seen it happen more than a few times." Frank pulled his mug from the coffee maker and took a sip.

"Now what's that you're drinking." Zedoris glanced at the mug.

"Coffee. A drink made with dried and roasted berry pits. Contains a chemical called caffeine that acts as a stimulant." He said enjoying the flavor.

"Wait, a stimulant, from plants?" She looked curiously.

"Well, technically the plant developed it as a way to protect itself from insects." He shrugged.

"So, you're drinking a beverage for the sole reason of consuming the poison it created?" She inquired incredulously. "I take it back, you're dumber than I thought you were, damn primate..."

Frank laughed a bit on his way to the bridge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Frank let the music blast while he exercised on the bridge. His weights making him feel much better. Being stuck in much lower gravity the last four days, due to his guests, was getting to him. He felt his body weaken. I was bad enough the gravity had to be set so damned low, but it was worse due to his one home planet being nearly double what his grav-plates were rated for. He'd upgrade them one of these days when he had the spare credits. being at 4.9 m/s2, his weights were only about half what the labels claimed. He almost missed the gravity at home. He'd return one day, but even that was pushed quite far back.

He hefted the heavy weight, two hundred twenty pounds on the labels but only about on hundred and thirteen in reality, into position for his squats to finish. Arms, core, legs, same pattern as he always did. It was nice to be in a rhythm he was used to. He loved the stress on his body. Made him feel a bit normal. He finally let the weight drop to the deck plate after about thirty squats. He move on to his cooldown, shadowboxing. As the threw punches and dodged his invisible opponent to the beat of his music, he didn't hear the bridge door open. As he dodged his mental opponent, he heard something that wasn't the music.

"What the hell, primate!?" Zedoris, exclaimed trying to stay vertical in the current gravity.

"Huh-wha?" Frank turned around to see Zedoris a few steps into the bridge. He could tell that she was under stress from the gravity level. The rest of the ship was set to only about a quarter Earth gravity. He ducked over to a panel and punched in the the command to return the gravity to the level he had grown to hate. "I thought you were still resting."

"Well, I'm not. What the hell was that gravity?" She complained.

"I need some exercise." He began toweling the sweat from his head and neck.

"Combat training?" She inquired.

"No, muscle training, I needed to. The low gravity was getting to me." He tossed the towel over his shoulder.

"It's not that low. Just a touch lower than home." She explained.

"Ah well, that's still far too low for me. My planet is much higher." He stated.

"No wonder you're so short. What was that you were doing anyway?" She asked.

"You mean the weightlifting, or the shadowboxing?" He asked trying to figure out when exactly she came in.

"Whatever that was when you were punching the air." Her eyebrow raised.

"Oh, that was shadowboxing. Umm... It's when we imagine an opponent and we attempt to fight them." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Wouldn't it be easier with someone?" She tilted her head.

"Well, it would, but there's no one here to spar with." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"How about me? I wouldn't mind learning how your kind fights. Might be useful to know." She said stretching a bit.

"I'm not sure that would be a good idea. You can't handle close to my gravity so sparring might be a bit..." He drifted off.

"Big bad primate is afraid of a little friendly combat? How precious." He could see the smirk on her face.

"If you really want to..." He sighed. This was not going to end well. "But I'm not sure just how it'll end up. If you really want, come at me."

Zedoris had a predatory glare on her face as she charged Frank. She threw a punch which he readily dodged, followed up by a kick he blocked with his left arm. He grabbed her leg, twisted, and brought her to the floor, before taking a few steps back.

"That was lucky." She sneered.

She charged him again, feinting the punch, leading into a low kick. It caught him by surprised but it was to his thigh, not to the joint. He defended waiting for a punch that came in the form of a right cross. He grabbed the arm, leaped up with his legs around her in an armlock. After a second he released and stepped back.

"Try not to be so obvious with your attacks. I'm not sure how your style is but with humans, subtlety is key." He said nonchalantly.

He could see the look on her face, subtlety was NOT a strongpoint. She staggered up and attempted a low tackle. He lowered his stance as well. When she got close enough, he grabbed her chest piece, thrusted his hip, throwing her body, back flat against the floor, and backed away again.

"You five moons damned primate!" She charged once again.

This time was with reckless abandon. She was at his chest faster than she had been. He kicked a foot up and used the leverage of his other foot to flip the two of them, the both slammed on their backs. He got up while she still laid supine on the ground, breathing heavily.

She clambered up slowly. She took a slightly more defensive stance while he waited for her attack. Her hand snapped out and grabbed the front of his shirt and seemingly jumped to the side. He could feel his center of gravity shift slightly. He grasped on to her arm and followed through with the spin. Once her foot was on the ground, he swept her leg one way while using his forearm in the reverse direction, almost spinning her completely, bringing her back to the ground again.

"What in the five moons...?! I thought you said you were peaceful, not one of the warrior caste..." She kept trying to catch her breath.

"I AM peaceful, just not harmless." He offered a hand to her to help get her up.

"Well, Frank." She took his hand and let him raise her to her feet. "I guess you're not as bad as I thought you were."

"Wait, a second." He stared in disbelief. "Did you just call me by my name for once?"

"You're hearing things, primate." She stormed off leaving him, dumbfounded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Back on Earth~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A middle age woman sat sleepily behind the desk in an office overlooking a metropolitan area. She yawn deeply, bags easily noticed under her eyes. She was tired, worn out and dragged down. There was a lot more work to deal with than she thought. Usually promotions meant a little less work, but that wasn't the case this time.

"Ma'am, you have an incoming transmission over the subspace communications network, patching through to your computer." The intercom on the desk chimed.

She took a deep breath. 'What now...' she thought. 'Did an other colony revolt? Was there an issue with compensation? Another heavy lift request?' It seemed all issues came to her. She sighed deeply and pulled up the message. Routing code showed it was from her brother, and she was hoping he wasn't laid up or caught adrift again.

"Hey sis, I don't know how to say this, but well, we're not alone... Turns out there's a whole damned Galactic Council out here. Now, I know what you're gonna say, space madness, or a bad joke. But I tell you this, chika, it isn't. Long story short, answered what appeared to be an emergency beacon, and well, came across fucking SPACE DEMONS, GIRL! I'M TRIPPING OUT A BIT HERE!!!." A slow, deep breath is heard over the recording. "By the blue lights, sorry, this is a bit insane even for me. First Contact has been made, I repeat, First Contact HAS been made. I've already spent about a week with them. Near as I can tell so far, it's a business woman, at least, I think she is, about the only thing to make sense given what I've seen, and a small entourage. We're currently en route to star system Juliet Foxtrot Charlie-463-3266. Seems there's one of their stations there.

"Here's some of the recordings of them, what limited physical data I've managed to get over the last week, and some of my observations. They seems to have maybe evolved from some type of equine or bovine-like species, almost human hands, but a bit more blunt with four digits but honestly, feet closer to hooves almost. Weird as hell. Slight case of convergent evolution? But, it turns out they're just one of quite a few others out there. Also, hide your black pepper, they call is Isobi, Isodi? Something like that, and it's worth a lot! We might be able to use it to become the damn East India Company in space! Imagine that... Might be an easy trade for new tech at the very least if we get some kind of agreement going, but who knows. I'll have to see what happens. Having an in with a magnate in space might prove useful, and maybe you can get out of that gig and take Lily on that vacation you've been promising. Gods' know you need it."

"Ooo ziip da waihgj tovzas deb heo dep, solvinc'?" A feminine voice seemed to say in the background. It sounded odd to say the least.

"Damn, gotta run, sweet home and see you later sis, Frank, signing off." A few beeps are heard as the recording ends.

She sighed. 'Of course it would be his stupid ass...,' she thought to herself. She wasn't entirely surprised. Frank DID have a way of being in some of the strangest of circumstances. She chuckled lightly as a few memories of their youth pass through her mind. She reviewed it a couple more times, parsing the message. She noticed the two short code-phrases in the message. He was telling the truth, and he was safe and doing things of his own volition. After skimming some of the attached files and charting the destination location, she reached over and hit the intercom button. "Jonathan, please come in here."

After a moment a young lieutenant walked through her door and stood at rest at her desk. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Answer this honestly, did you review the message before it was forwarded?" She asked with a stern expression on her face.

"No ma'am. Once I saw it was from your brother directed to you, no further review was conducted." The young man shifted at stood at solid attention as he answered.

"Well Jon, allow me be the first to say it, it seems aliens exist. There were hints of course, but it's seemingly official now, thanks to my damned brother..." she sighed. "I want you to start running up the paperwork to upgrade him to diplomat status, something tells me he'll need the protections, and set up a meeting with the rest of Command. Also, find me some scientists who have any kind of even theoretical xeno-biological background. Keep this off the public nets, you know people..."

"Yes ma'am. And if I may be so bold... I'm glad to hear your brother's still up and kicking."

She nodded. "Thank you, Jon. Dismissed."

The young man saluted and left the office. She sighed deeply. This was going to make for a hell of a lot more paperwork. She listened to the message one more time before she queued up her software to make a response...

"Hey, broski, got your message. Do you know how much of a damned headache you're giving me? The can of worms you've opened? I swear, if you were here right now, I'd kick you in the nuts faster than you slippin' on by. Shoot a message home a bit more often, huh? Look, I'm glad you're okay, I haven't heard anything from you in almost six months, and now we're dealing with aliens? Just be safe out there. Things are already crazy enough around here without more nonsense being brought around... Only you would do something this damned crazy. And I take it whoever that voice belonged to was one of them?" She sighed deeply.

"Listen, I love ya. You better stay safe out there. You're a good two months out there at fastest speed and I really don't have the vessels to spare, so if things go tits up, you're SOL and JWF. You better come back to that same old place. And if you don't, I'll find your body, bring you back, and kill you again myself. Anyway, come back all the same. I'm sure Lily would love to here the story of her uncle managed to rescue 'space demons'. Heh heh. Just don't become a Demon Lord out there, I know some of the stories you've read. Talk to you later, hopefully soon."

She encrypted it and sent it through the network as priority. If all goes well, he should get it in maybe a week. At least she's have some good news to pass along, and sadly, seems like it might be another sleepless night. She sipped the remaining dregs of her coffee as she reopened up the other attached files and began digging deeper just so she could know as much as she could before she had to address Command.