Here it is, chapter 12! Hope you enjoy it!

The group stood silently (the table having been cleared by the two officers, the stuff placed in the corner of the room) as the Prime Minister (a middle aged man) and the President (an greying old man with glasses) entered the room, followed by a few staffers and military officials, and a pair of men in less casual clothing, holding equipment. They both sat in the middle chairs, (the Prime minister on the left, the President on the right) the others sitting on their sides, the two men setting up a camera on the left hand side of the room. The President gestured with his right hand for the group across to sit, and so the then all sat down nervously into the seats on the other side, Flasheart being in the centre (Freddy and Jai on his left, Paul and Sara on his right). "Let me do the talking." He whispered to Freddy, who sat on his left, who nodded in response. "So you're the alien that has caused a global uproar." The Prime Minister (PM) said in a surprisingly casual tone. "Technically, the one they want is among us, but I've been here for years, sir's." Flasheart answered, holding out his right hand across the table, as an offer of a handshake. "An uproar?" Paul then asked, causing the people on the other side to look at him. "Permission for them to speak?" Flasheart asked, bringing his hand back, hoping they wouldn't mind having other voices in the meeting. "To answer you're question, the broadcast has spread nothing but fear and panic in the few hours since it happened. People are panicking, running out into the streets, driving out of town, clogging up roads, reports are already coming in of looting. And when the stock markets open tomorrow, I'll bet they plunge down." The PM answered. "You associated with this extra-terrestrial?" The president asked, looking at the others on the table. "And which of you is this individual, which reports says, has a... tail? Please raise your left,... hand or limb." The president asked, glancing down at the papers before him. Freddy and Flasheart raised their left hands. Those assembled looked confused at them, so they both stood up, turned leftwards, showing their tails before sitting down again. "You both have tails? Is this a joke, because they specifically want an individual, but these are two here with a tail?" The PM asked, confused. 

Flasheart looked unsure for a moment, let out a quiet sign, before looking leftwards at Freddy, who looked rightwards him, shrugged and looked forwards at them. "Sir's, I'm the individual they want. My name is Freddy. I came here to retrieve a sacred possession which I was told was on this planet. I came here alone, I crashed not far from here, but met these people. They have nothing to do with this, and have helped me out, and I, uh, ask that... you be not take prejudice against them for being with me. Oh, and this one here is my father, who I found to be on this planet." Freddy spoke, but wasn't exactly sure how to say that sentence. "You? But you're human." The president asked, confused as he looked Freddy up and down. "They said he would have made efforts to blend in." Sara reminded them, everyone looking at her. "Besides, how many young humans have grey hair?" Jai mumbled, everyone looking at him for a moment before the PM cleared his throat. "And what is the sacred possession, Freddy?" The PM asked. Freddy took Flasheart's right forearm with his right hand to bring his father's right hand up, which he moved around to show the ring and its glowing diamond. "All that... for that?" The PM asked incredulous, pointing his right index finger at it. "Just because something's important doesn't mean it has to be big." Flasheart replied wisely as he moved his hand down. "What exactly is it?" The President asked. "It's the sacred Ring of the Moon. A mantle passed down in my pack, or as we call our families, for thousands of years. It is a symbol of respect, bestowing leadership and respect upon the one who wears it. Let me give some facts about us Werens. We're moon worshippers, hence the name. We have different concepts of emotions. We're a hereditary society from a world very much like yours, but we are smart. Before the Pyramids were built, we had flight, advanced medicine, electricity. We unlocked fusion energy and went out into the stars at a time when you Fangen, what we call primitive species, thought your world was flat. And unlike you humans with reckless pollution, we respected nature, cleaned up all the old pollution. You know we don't even have words for 'democracy' and 'vote'." Flasheart explained. The leaders stared at him for moment before the President looked leftwards at Sara. "And so what made you accompany these two aliens?" The President asked her directly. "Um, there I was... minding my own business, when Freddy bumped into me, asking for help. I saw he was young, and thought he needed help, so I went with him. We went to Paul and Jai's house, and... eventually, we... found Flasheart?" She answered, lying a bit to play the innocent woman. The PM saw Jai, Paul and Freddy look at her with confused expressions and saw the lie. "Yeah, right, I know a lie when I hear one. You're not doing yourself any favours, and are potentially embarrassing the human race. For your information, we're being broadcast live, all over the world." The PM said back, pointing with his left index finger at the camera, making everyone look at it, silence filling the room for a few seconds before they looked forwards again. Freddy then cleared his throat. "Sir's, this, uh, female, is a criminal. She was a bit aggressive to me, but didn't do any harm. These two, they are sick. They only know me because we sneaked into their residence. But they chose to help me." Freddy honestly said, before an aide whispered something into the President's ear. "Flasheart, right? You say you've been here for years, right? Would you care to explain how that came to be?" The president asked Flasheart, who stiffened a bit, his expression pained, but deep in thought, as he looked downwards at the table for a moment before signing heavily. 

"Very well." He answered heavily, before he stood up and went over to the right hand side corner of the room, bent down, picked up his box and carried it over. Setting the box on the table, he sat down in his tail again and opened the box. "Why just tell my story when I can also show it?" He asked as he picked up the small cube, and placed it in the middle of the table. He then took out of the box with his right hand a thin sheet of grey metal that was shaped like a boomerang, but quite smaller. He placed the sheet on the right side of his head, the sheet sticking as he removed his hand. The box shone a circular light on all sides, the upwards one shooting a beam up into the air, stopping and jutting out to the left and right sides, forming a large rectangle. "Apologies for the colour. This design is a little crude." Flasheart advised, as the rectangle began showing a picture of Flasheart's face, a bit fitter looking, in black and white. "What's this?" Jai mumbled as he did his best to look at it. "My memories. This enables me to play my memories on this. Basically it's a mixture of a hologram/projector." Flasheart explained, tipping the silver sheet with his right index finger, before they all looked up the screen which came to life.

Flashback

(For the next few chapters, the story will alternate between Flasheart's past, and in the room in the present, a bit like in "Titanic", and Flasheart's explanation texts will be in bold).

Flasheart, a bit younger, was entering the hanger of a spaceship, wearing a yellow suit, a helmet in his right hand. He looked to see in the centre was a small circular ship with a sphere shaped front, three small windows in the front, and to the rear a rectangular shaft with engines at the back. "I was a young Weren eager from a respected pack, to prove myself worthy of my pack, of my people. I was entrusted to test out an experimental spacecraft, believed to be faster than light." Flasheart approached the ship with an eager grin on his face. "Flasheart!" He spoke as he looked over his left shoulder to see a slight younger Hotspur approach him, wearing a red outfit. He ran up to his brother and stopped on Flasheart's right. "Sorry to delay you, but I wanted to say...good luck. And I still think it I should be going with you." Hotspur spoke with a grin. "That's my younger brother, Hotspur. We respected each other, but I did receive a lot more praise than him due to being better than him." "You'll be with me, brother, in my mind, as we both bear the name and blood, going where no Weren has before." Flasheart said back proudly as a  voice came over the comma. "Attention. Clear Hanger 4. Repeat: Clear Hanger 4." the voice ordered. "Time to launch. See you when I get back. May the moon shine upon you." Flasheart spoke, gesturing to the ship with his left thumb. "May the moon shine upon you, brother." Hotspur said back proudly, before he turned leftwards walked over the hanger entrance. Out of Flasheart's sight, his brother did a suspicious grin. Flasheart stood by the open doorway, placed his helmet on his face, and then went up the retractable stairs into the sphere shaped front, into a compact cockpit with ergonomic controls. He sat in the seat, feasted his seat belts, started the main systems and closed the door. "Bridge, this is LEV1, reactor and engines operational. I am go for launch. Open hanger doors" He looked leftwards at the small side window to see the stairs retract, then looked ahead to see the hanger doors open, the air in the sealed hanger being blown out into space. "Hanger doors open. Permission granted to launch, LEV1." A voice replied in the comms. switched on the engines, which fired white plumes, the craft shooting out of the ship, an enthusiastic smile on Flasheart's face. The excitement went down a bit as he got used to the speed, remembering his mission. "Bridge, LEV1, reactor and engines running smoothly. Permission to go beyond light?" Flasheart asked into the comms. "Permission granted  to go beyond light. And remember the warnings. Please repeat them." The voice on the comms replied. "Go beyond the speed of light, time will pass here, but for me, barely any." Flasheart replied, simplifying the briefing he had earlier. "And remember, you just have to press the button down. On the return trip, our coordinates are in the system so the engines will stop when they have to on the return mission. And you have your transmitter. If you die, we'll know. May the Moon shine upon you." The voice spoke solemnly. Flasheart gave a nod as he began setting the systems to go faster than light, hearing a growing humming noise behind him, before his hand hovered over the big blue button which a few seconds later, lighted up. 

A second later, he was thrown back into his seat and saw as the blackness and starts were replaced in a second with nothing but white. A few seconds passed, for him, until he began to think about the when he should let go. Suddenly he heard a loud bang, making him take his hand off the button as an alarm began to sound. The whiteness went away as he looked at the controls to see several systems have gone down. His attention was fully on trying to figure out what went wrong as he felt the ship begin to shake a bit as he looked out from the control panel to see the front of the ship was flaming due to to atmospheric entry, seeing a planet a lot like his home one, green and blue. And that was all remembered seeing at that moment before he eventually blacked out on landing.

 And that's chapter 12 done! Hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a vote!

The time pass thing, it's basically time dilation. Basically, (I think) the faster you fly in space, time changes relative to when you started. So you could spend minutes travelling, but where you left, it could be years since you started.

Watch "Intersellar" (2014) and "Ligthyear" (2022) to get a good example of it.

And we've started Flasheart's backstory!