Here is the second chapter. From now on they will be shorter. For now we have seen the meeting on the part of the Colonies, but then we will see what the Terran Union thinks and eventually discover why they chose to hide any relation with earth.

As you may have noticed, I do not pay much attention to the description of characters, I prefer to leave it to the imagination of each person, but eventually I may post the description of these people.

With nothing more to add, enjoy.

CHAPTER 2: BUREAUCRATIC HURDLES

10 Martius YR99 Ragnar System - Colonial Sector

11 Reconnaissance fleet BATTLESTAR Columbia

Ragnar reserve ammunition station

I am in the halls of the docking station of Ragnar. We took a detour after receiving a message from Admiral Nagala to dock at the station and hold the position until the arrival of Vice Admiral Smiths.

When his ship arrived in the vicinity we received the order to proceed to bay 4, board the BS Atlantica and proceed to the conference room. I accompanied the heads of scientific departments, medical, intelligence, diplomatic and a representative of the Holy father who unfortunately has fallen ill in the last two weeks.

It seems that age has finally reached him, among the physical complications there is also the mental deterioration. He is suffering from a degenerative syndrome that affects his mind and it seems that he is forgetting who he was. For the moment we can only make his stay more comfortable. His entourage informed us that they will take over once we are in the orbit of Gemenon since they have protocols for these situations.

The road to the bay is quiet. There is some apprehension in our group as we did not expect this kind of reception before returning . We expect it's just a reunion to give an account of our experiences and explanations of our reports.

Before entering I decided to give them some words of encouragement. "Conserve the calm gentlemen, remember that they fear us more than we need them. When they see the ton of reports that we will present them, they are likely to suffer a heart attack."

This seemed to calm them a bit, as indeed, we had several tons of reports, analysis, samples, data, reports, transcripts, videos, reports, recordings and course after reports that should be compared with other reports and evidence. Everything is a web of interconnected reports that will take them years to organize properly. At least it will be comforting to know that we are not the only ones who have to suffer the bureaucratic ordeal that this mission generated.

We know that they need us to sort this mess. Although this is little consolation. In essence my career is ending, I have almost 20 years of service and although it can be said that the mission was successful, in paper is a failure, because we did not find new sources of Tylium and our first contact has failed to provide rewards. I do not think they will take me to a court martial, but is likely I will be reallocated to a desk to fix this mess.

After greeting the Colonel Preston and be escorted to the conference room. We met with the Vice Admiral.

Upon reaching the room the Vice Admiral greeted us, after returning the greeting and directing us to our seats, the interrogation started with a few words on his part.

"Before we begin I want to assure you that the Military Department of the Colonies appreciates your effort and performance on this particular mission. Obviously we are taking steps to control the information that will be discussed here as it is not necessary for the civilians to know about the presence and nature of our neighbors. The president insists that this matter is best left after the elections to avoid fanning the flames. "

"Now we can proceed with the Debrief."

Nodding to his request, we proceeded to give a summary of what we had seen on our trip, and the more relevant points. After we delivered the 6 containers with all the documents, the Vice Admiral was surprised by the mountain of reports and asked jokingly if we forgot to include the cleaning staff reports.

At this point we agreed that he would be ambassador who would give the good news to the Admiral, as he was the only one who could speak without letting loose a laugh after what he was about to say.

The ambassador stared at the Admiral and proceeded to drop the bomb.

"I want to apologize; it seems that we did not explain ourselves more clearly. These boxes contain preliminary reports, summaries and indexes to locate the materials and complete reports. I can assure you that the entire material evidence and samples is several times the volume here it is presented.

I was struck by the formal way in which I present a mountain of papers and materials that the Admiral will probably have to check with his team. It took all my will not to show a mocking at the poor Admiral's face, after seeing the titanic task that we released in his hands.

When he managed to recover and think more carefully, he informed us that he and his team would review the information once we arrived at the General Quarters at Picon.

We concluded the session by receiving the protocols and orders to give to the crew, that they were to remain silent about what happened in this mission and that they had to prepare for another round of questions and analysis upon arrival. Obviously the rank and file was not very happy, especially those who saw their souvenirs confiscated and those who could not presume to have slept with aliens with green hair as the protagonists of the serials.

It was explained to them that this was only temporary and that the orders must be accepted for the sake of the colonies.

I just hope this whole circus ends so that I can get home. Even if it means being behind a desk. I miss my wife and children already.

Preparing to rest I said to my XO.

"The bridge is yours Colonel, I retire to rest"

"Understood Admiral. Good night" He gave me a quick salute and returned to bark orders to the crew.

With the fleet in good hands and nothing else to do I went to my cabin and fell boneless as soon as I touched the bed. The exhaustion reached me and I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.

Unfortunately my dream was not very pleasant. The damn reports haunted me and I dreamed that I was in my cabin writing more reports.

Did I mention I hate the reports?

Here is another chapter of this story. Now we will see the end of the adventure for Admiral Pavlos. The next chapter will look at the Union's response.