Lash watched as the human captain talked to his employer. The man on the screen seemed distracted at times but kept to his chore and was not aggressive. This was soon shadowed by the detection of the probe that it was being targeted. This in itself did not surprise Lash. He himself would have targeted the probe. Any commander would have if he felt it was of danger to his crew. The time to meet was now. Lash wanted to see the man in person. Study him, see what it was this man was hiding, what he was fighting against. the pain in his eyes was evidence that he was a man tore between the good of his crew and the men under his command and his own well being.

"Thank you General. You were more than helpful. How I must see to other business. thee men will escort you back to your bunk."

Two Chiss officers took the captain and left Lashes office. He sat for a long minute thinking about the man and what was to come. He opened a comm channel to the Chief navigator of the Judicator.

"Chief, take us into the system."

The massive bulk of the Chiss battle carrier learched as the propulsion kicked in and the ten massive thrusters exploded with power. The ship accelerated then turned to set up the short jump. Beside her four smaller frigates moved into formation and set up for the jump. Last were the twelve pickets, they moved into position and the entire fleet jumped to hyperspace.

Five minutes later the massive carrier and its escorts reverted five kilometers behind the Stellar Enterprises ship. The confrontation was set and Lash hoped the man on the view screen would stick with his non aggressive stance. He was not as concerned about the man as much as his crew. Lash wanted no one to die over a misunderstanding yet he had to teach usurpers like these not to look out into the Unknown regions and think of it as a wide open section of space to settle or map. it was no promise land full of treasure and adventure. Only death came from venturing into the unknown and Lash had to see the people of Known Space knew this.

As the fleet came out of hyperspace near the Grappler, it completely dwarfed the small frigate. Some on the bridge found it terrifying, while others found it somewhat humorous that so many combat ships would be sent against their ship. Either these aliens were truly fearful of their one ship or they were showing off their might and beating their chests in a display of force to the intruders from the known part of the galaxy. Whatever the case, the display was truly stunning in its precision and size.

Just minutes before, the Grappler’s computers had picked up a transmission burst from the beacon. The appearance of the fleet now almost confirmed the beacon was transmitting details, most likely sensor reading and positions to the unknown forces. It explained how they quickly located the ship and came out of hyperspace almost on top of it.

As they closed on each other, the Grappler took readings of everything about each ship and started compiling profiles on all of them, estimating their capabilities.

Rob had instructed the crew to keep the ship with weapons powered down and shields to half strength, but the Grappler had adjusted position some since the beacon had sent out its last transmission to test the theory about the beacon.

“Unknown ships, this is Rob Stellar. Judging by the fact that you have no opened fire on us, I take it that you are here to talk instead of fight. I welcome this completely and am ready to proceed when you are. Inform me of when you would like to conduct this meeting. It is my hope that you would allow us to meet in person instead of simply over comms.” He paused and looked out at the formation of ships arrayed before them, waiting for a reply.

Lash Sat silently in the darkness of his Quarters and listened to the mans transmission. It was apparent he wanted to meet face to face. For what reason is unknown but Lash would not let anyone accuse him of being unfair and not courteous to his prisoners. He turned a small nob on his chair and the lights in the room grew in brightness. Once he had the room to his liking he contacted the Comm officer and had him open an audio only channel to the Usurper's ship.

"Mister Stellar, please power down your weapons and engines and prepare your crew for transfer to my ship. You are now in my custody until such a time as I have interrogated you and your crew and have ascertained your true purpose of being here. Please comply with my forces and I will see about getting you and your people back to where ever it is you come from."

Lash gave the man no chance to respond. He closed the channel and sat awaiting Mister Stellar's next move.

The order from the unknown commander was a surprise to Rob and the crew as a whole. Everyone objected and the Captain had the bright idea to try and run, which he promptly disregarded as crazy. There was really nothing any of them could do against the forces they faced and to Rob there was really no choice. This was the reason he had come here. It did not turn out as he wanted, but then again, he might still get his meeting, which was something. He really hoped the man they were dealing with was not stupid enough to hold them hostage indefinitely. That act would start a war that would not act well.

Under the orders of Rob Stellar, the engines and weapons were powered down as per request. The ship would be left unattended, but a code was inserted into the main systems that would trigger a self-destruct if any secure part of the ship was breached or if it was activated without proper command codes.

Rob left with the last group of crew, which included the entire bridge crew. Before the departure he finally got a change to go to his quarters and inject his meds. He had waited too long and wondered how long it would take the damage to his system to heal as well as what percentage of his system would never be healed again do to the extremes of damage. Rob felt weak all over and the pain did not subside as quickly as usually.

Taking a deep breath to relax, Rob started putting together his kit to take onboard. If he was going to be imprisoned for a while, he needed his medications.

After some time, Rob sat in his cell, leaning against the wall, gazing up at the cameras he knew were there, keeping tabs on him from time to time. He hoped the meeting would take place soon.

Lash sat in his chair looking over the report from his crew about what they had learned about the crew of the odd ship. Many of the men and women had been questioned briefly upon boarding and then assigned quarters on the containment deck. The last of the crew of usurpers was now boarding. Among them the commander of this enterprising company, one Rob Stellar. So far any questions ask of the crew had been met with resistance to answer. This was natural. The crew had a strong bond and an even stronger bond with their employer and leader. Lash watched the display are the last of the small ships crew walked out of the shuttle and Into the aft hanger bay. The last man off was Rob. He looked around taking in everything around him.
The blue skinned Chiss worked around him on securing the shuttle and funneling the crew to the lift and away to their quarters. As Rob stellar walked towards the lift a tall Chiss woman in black walked to him and gave him a data pad. Lash knew what was on it. It was simply a terms of surrender for him to sign, a manifest of his crew which had been taken aboard, directions for Rob to get to the lower guest lounge, and a passcode for any door between here and the lounge. Rob was left alone without guard or guide. Lash turned off the display and stood. He would have to walk down the long command hallway and take the aft lift to get to the lounge. He did not want to make Mister stellar wait long.

Rob was shocked and surprised when the ship was filled with Chiss. Very few people had ever seen these humanoids within the Known Galaxy, but after Thawn, a high number of the population knew what they looked like. However, knowing what a species looks like and what they act like, are two different things. From what Rob had learned over the years of reading literature the Chiss were a great race of well-disciplined and highly refined peoples. These were people that could be conversed and reasoned with, perhaps.

Another unexpected move was when he was handed the data pad with all the codes in it. That told him at least something important about the man in charge of this fleet and maybe even more about the Chiss as a culture.

With codes in hand, Rob exited his room and started to move down the halls towards the longue. He did not have a great map, but Rob had always been good with engineering and deciphering schematics and technical readouts. With those skills he started to wonder the hall and quickly made a mental map of that level.

Finally, after a short time, he reached the Lounge designated on the map. Rob entered the security code and within seconds the door slid open and he stepped inside, looking around slowly. The room was minimal, just like the mess halls on the Stellar Enterprises ships and probably all over military vessels. He was the only one in the room, so he stood beside the center table and waited until someone came for him.

AS he stood, his stomach growled as the hunger inside him grew. Since taking his injection, Rob had not had time to eat and therefore his body was now utilizing all the calories it had available to it. Burning through his internal reservoir quickly.

Lash watched the Man enter the room. He had taken a second to look the room ove then had a seat. Lash pressed a button and the wall he had been sitting behind siielntly slide away. This left him sitting at a second table at the far end of the room. Seconds later Rob turned and noticed the man sitting at the other table.

"Ah mister Stellar How nice of you to accept my invitation. If you would please join me at my table."

Rob was studying the construction and design of the entire room when the entire rear wall moved open to reveal another part of the lounge he had not seen before. It surprised him slightly that he had been watched for all this time, but he had expected to be watched from the moment he had boarded this alien ship.

As he studied the man for a few seconds, he could tell this was the leader of these people from the way the man acted. Per his instructions Rob moved towards the rear table where the Commander sat. He pulled the seat out and slowly sat down, trying to relax somewhat as he looked upon the blue skinned Chiss leader.

“It was a hard invitation to refuse, but I am glad for the offer. Thank you for taking care of my crew and once again I’d like to express my gratefulness for your well treatment of my Survey team that you took into custody.” Rob paused for a moment before pushing his hand out towards the Chiss. “I should introduce myself to personally, however. I am Rob Stellar of Stellar Enterprises.”

Lash took the mans hand in greeting. It was an odd way to greet but he had seen this before. Many of the traders which had happened into the Elysian sector had greeted Lash with an embrace of hands.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Mister Stellar. Please forgive the martial treatment I have exhibited but it was of necessity not design. We have many who happen along into our space who are not so civilized as you appear. I hope you understand the need to passify you and your crew."

Lash released the mans hand then pressed a button on the desks command section. A display on the wall lit up and showed a view of the Stellar Enterprises frigate.

"I admire the design concept of this ship Mister Stellar. An I am informed there are many advanced systems on board. My people have found your override codes and disabled your anti theft countermeasures. Don't worry we are not planing on engaging any of the systems. we just did a general scan and tapped into your computers processor matrix."

Another wall slide open and a Chiss man dressed in a dark burgundy suit walked in. with him he carried a decanter of liquid and some small fruit.

"Here have some Elysian Brandi and Gonda Fruit. The seem to go well togehter in my opinion. Please try one and tell me what you think."

Sitting in the hard chair was making Rob’s body ache slowly, but he made no visible mention of it as he listed to the man talk. He had a note that the Commander never revealed his name, which Rob’s analysis told him meant one of two things; either the man was not aware of the custom of introduction found in the Known Galaxy or he simply did not wish to state his name and title.

“Pacify is a rather harsh way to put things, but I can understand where you are coming from. That was the reason why I agreed to have my crew transferred to your ship. I wish to learn more about your customs, laws, and the general way you conduct yourselves so that we can honor them in the future.”

He crossed his fingers in front of him as he listened to the Chiss man talk about his frigate and getting through the security code. Rob’s face was unchanged when there was mention of hacking through those codes. Those top layers of codes were only in place to be a false sense of security to anyone hacking the ship’s systems. In reality those codes were meaningless. The real security protocols and command codes were embedded into the ship’s main command code structure, removal or tampering with said code sequences would result in an unusable vessel. If the removal was progressed, the self-destruct could be triggered quickly.

Since the chiss had just moments ago mentioned how advanced he believed the ship to be, there was no way these Chiss, even as advanced as they were, to crack the code completely. They had never seen anything like this before and would need days to even get through the routine code structures of such a system, having to hack every single security algorithm along the way as they pushed deeper into the coding. In all, Rob was not worried they would get their hands on any really sensitive data without the help of command staff from the Grappler.

“Thank you for kind words. As a military leader I accept your compliment on the ship and will have to relay it to the team that designed her. The security codes were merely a precaution. I had little doubt your scientists or engineers would have much trouble after I realized we were dealing with Chiss.” Rob stated, feeding on the other man’s vision of his race’s superiority. The words he said were ones he believed internally, making them project out as very genuine. It was a technique he had learned after so many years of negotiating with other parties from across the galaxy. He was a business professional and as such he could project out whatever feelings he wished the other to see.

The only feeling he could not fully suppress was the bodily pain building inside him once more, slowly rising from the very core of his body and spreading out over time.

“I must say that your vessels are very formable and beautiful as well. I am very glad we did not have to face them in combat.” He paused once more as the other Chiss walked in with the drinks and fruit.

With his body being devastated by disease, Rob did not feel that having hard alcohol would help much considering his liver was highly affected. He could hardly refuse, however, and slowly reached for the drink with a fake smile on his face. With his other hand he took some fruit and took a small sip of the Brandi. Not having been a big fan of alcohol generally, the strength of the drink overpowered Rob at first, burning down his throat before slowly subsiding and revealing a rather delicate aftertaste. He quickly bit into the fruit and savored the cooling it gave his mouth, until finally taste came back to him. The taste itself was strong, but pleasant and made him want more as he looked over at the Commander.

“It is very good, but I must admit I am not much of a drinker. However, if I was, this could perhaps be my drink of chose. These Gonda fruit was very delicious as well; I have never had anything like them. Perhaps we could talk about a trade for some of these Gonda plants or trees at some point?” Rob paused as he finished the remaining piece of fruit in his hand and swallowed. “Pardon my bluntness, but I don’t believe I caught your name. I believe it was always good to know who you are having dealing with. Especially if that said person is holding your people and you in custody.”