When I start a game as Pamed (usually I pick the combat - large start, with the destroyer) about half the time my starting contact lists fine in my contact list but is not present in the comms screen on the planet where it claims he is.
So far my workaround for this issue has been to just restart until I get a contact who is actually there.
edit: having just poked at this a lot more, it looks like if I take the destroyer start, this ALWAYS happens [edit2: not always, see below], and if I take the freighter start, it NEVER happens. I also notice that at Oka, the comms panel has 6 Pamed staff including a Quartermaster and Administrator, whereas at Pamed itself there are only 4 people including the generalissimo himself, and no quartermaster or administrator - and the military contacts I've been given tend to be those two positions. So maybe something is being done to the list of people at Pamed that somehow is hiding the NPCs that are being chosen for the player's contact.
edit2: After trying the destroyer start enough time I got a contact who was the station commander. That worked. Talking to the station commander got me the "do you have any work" prompt. But definitely, quartermaster / administrator contacts are not working.
