It All Started With Magnets

.20.

I tried my hardest to settle into the chair I was provided but it was a plain metal chair sitting in front of a plain metal table, in a concrete room with what was clearly a two way mirror. I didn't know what to feel about the interrogation room set up I was currently in but I didn't particularly like it. Bianca and two legal aids were in with me as well, Bianca beside me as my lawyer and the aids sitting behind me off to one side.

Commander Hollister was sitting across from me and there was a stenographer against one wall, facing the short side of the table. I could only assume he was put there to be between my side and the Commander's side. The tension in the room was palpable and I felt like I was crawling out of my skin. I hadn't done anything wrong. I told that to myself again and again. I did nothing wrong.

Still didn't make it stop feeling like I was fairly close to being arrested for it.

The Commander pressed record on an old style tape recorder at the same time a solider pressed record on the video camera that was focussed on me. "Okay, Captain Matthews. For the record, both written and recorded. It is June 18th, 2054 at thirteen hundred hours. We are recording this debrief for our records and more than likely for historical record. I am Vice-Admiral Lewis Hollister, Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, debriefing us will be Captain Roxanne Matthews, of the ship Void Breaker." He spoke clearly and I resisted the urge to pick at my nails. I felt like a kid in the principal's office waiting for a lecture.

"On June 18th, 2054 at approximately twelve hundred hours and thirty-eight minutes, Captain Matthews completed an upload of eight videos to her youtube channel, Garage underscore Bandita underscore 18. The first four outlined her deep space exploration to potentially life sustaining worlds where she collected samples to be brought back to earth for processing. She did this process for ten planets as outlined by the video evidence supplied in C156-VD0001, C156-VD0002, C156-VD0003, C156-VD0004, and with paper evidence supplied in file C156-F0001." The Commander was reading off a paper sitting on top of a file folder and I had to feel sorry for the guy. Outlining every single evidence tag number for the case file had to be fucking tedious. "Within video five, which has been placed into video evidence as C156-VD0005, she encounters another life sustaining planet that appeared to be inhabited."

"LHS 1140 b, to be exact. It orbits a red dwarf star named LHS 1140 and is approximately forty-nine light years from earth." I cut in and when everyone looked at me I shrugged. "For the record. That's what the designation of that planet is, the star it orbits, and the rough location in comparison to earth." I glanced between Bianca and the Commander and he just nodded once.

"Thank you, Captain Matthews." He turned back to his paper, "In video evidence C156-VD0005, Captain Matthews descends through the rather thick atmosphere and when she approaches the surface of the planet, air flight can be seen and there is all the hallmarks of intelligent and technologically advanced life. She watched for a few minutes before it was made clear an area in what looks to be a space port was cleared for her to land. She did and Captain Matthews initiated the very first first contact with an alien race." He set the page aside and flipped open the file before pulling out a printed picture.

He slid it over to me and I realized it was a still from one of my videos, specifically a slightly zoomed in print of Gal'rug. "Can you explain for the record what this is?" He tapped the picture. "I have given Captain Matthews photo evidence, C156-P0002, to identify."

"This is Gal'rug. He's the Grog Ambassador on the Council of Torin." I looked at the Commander expectantly and he gestured to the picture again.

"What is a 'Grog', Captain Matthews?" He asked it flatly and I clasped my hands together.

"They are an alien species native to Torin, the planet we designated as LHS 1140 b. They are generally large, very muscled, both males and females, their colouring generally matches the environments found on Torin. They can be a slightly aggressive species but temper that through the public arena where people can go and fight or watch fights or battles." I slowly slid the photo back over to him. "They were very medically advanced when the Galactic Union found them and that advancement has spread over the other five planets of the Galactic Union. They like alcohol and some are master brewers. They value strength but also education and health. They tend to pack bond easy, at least in my experience with them."