Today in the year 2629, the Iason suffered its famous and fateful encounter with the Kilrathi destroyer K'rath'kan. First Contact results in the complete destruction of the Iason and loss of her crew. Though this event brought the new alien menance into the Confederation's collective consciousness, interaction between the species had been occuring for some time on the fringes of known space. Of particular note is the work of anthropologist Dr. C.L. Kohl, who was captured and executed by Kilrathi priestesses in 2621 while secretly observing the Sivar-Eshrad ceremony on Ghorah Khar. -- Original update published on April 15, 2010
It's just a rumor? Where did you hear it? The Iason was an exploration ship and shouldn't have had "pilots" buzzing around.
Yeah, there's some deleted scenes in the movie that hint at that, but I think the idea is that it's either classified or covered up. Paladin has POW tattoos on his neck that are visible in the finished film. In the workprint, Blair asks him about them. This is one of the few oddities that made it through from some of the earlier drafts. In the first draft there was a bunch of wierd stuff about relative time progression when spaceships travel at sub-light speeds. Originally paladin's relative-age is supposed to be something like 80 because of how much time he's spent in space.
The whole event is certainly interesting. While noteworthy just for being "first contact," already by Secret Missions 2 we're finding out about prior meetings (and scientific observation at that). A conspiracy-riddled cover-up related to the Iason could make a great story. I also really like the story told from the two perspectives there in Armada.
