An unusually clear morning had left the mountain slopes around the valley clear of fog, allowing a crystal clear and spectacular vista to open up as the transparent passenger pod was hauled higher and higher into the air. The seconds passed until, with a sudden flash of illumination, the pod rose above the shadows cast by the mountains, coating Andrea in the bright golden patina of early morning sunlight. The quiet low pitched hum of the large drone’s engines was a soothing background noise and in other circumstances Andrea might have been lulled into sleep as the early morning sun bathed the transport capsule. For now however, there was little danger that she would succumb. Andrea was both far to well rested, and far too excited for what would effectively be a second first contact. She was already probably the most experienced first contact specialist in the IIF by this point, so having the opportunity to double her experience, less than a month after her first practical application of theory, was exhilarating. Andrea was much less concerned about being able to communicate effectively this time. Instead she had to contend with potential political complications among factions of which she had only the most tenuous understanding, and having heard the perspective of only one side.

  Andrea took a moment to appreciate the spectacular view as the heavy lift drone continued to climb. It was followed by a line of combat drones like little ducklings after their mother. The escorts positioned more for efficient energy use during flight than for optimal guard positions, Lin having finally decided that airborne threats seemed a negligible possibility for the time being. As the small formation began to leave the valley in the direction of the open plains, Andrea returned to studying the limited information they had on the Protectorate’s official language. From what Unla-Ela and Olan Lunere had told Andrea, it was a near certainty that the leaders and even a number of the rank and file members of the Protectorate expedition likely spoke the trade language that Andrea had been learning. This meant that Andrea’s attempt to learn yet another language was not driven by urgency, instead Andrea was curious about the language for curiosity's sake. Though she did also believe that a better understanding of a culture’s language would allow for a better understanding of the culture itself, so the more languages she learned and the better she knew them the more cultural nuances and clashes would become apparent. Allowing Andrea to make better decisions on how to go about social, diplomatic, and scholarly situations in the various new cultures she was coming into contact with.

  While Andrea attempted to deepen her linguistic understanding, Lin focused on last minute preparations for the meeting. One of the pre-positioned backup combat drones rendezvoused with the infiltration drones Lin had sent into the camp the night before. They had slipped out of the camp after Lin decided the mission was finished and had waited motionless and camouflaged for the expedition to set out just after the sun broke over the horizon. Now the combat drone dropped to the ground just before the waiting infiltration drones, allowing them to climb into the small cargo pod suspended by the combat drone’s miniature manipulator arms. The swarm of nearly invisible spiders safely stowed, Lin sent the combat drone in a long ground hugging flight, circling wide and out of sight of the expedition as they settled into their steady pace towards the mountains in the distance. The combat drone quickly zipped over to the planned meeting location, still many hours of travel ahead of the convoy. The cargo pod slung under the combat drone opened mid flight and the infiltration drones leapt out one at a time, deploying thin membranes between their legs allowing them to glide silently and invisibly to the ground, the infiltration drones were thus redeployed in a scattered pattern around the meeting location. Lin wanted plenty of extra eyes in the area while Andrea was there. The combat drone that had moved the infiltration drones then rejoined the contingent of extra combat drones that Lin had positioned nearby.

  Having completed the last of her preparations for the meeting, Lin turned her attention back to their base camp, checking on the progress of the boring drone and the subterranean equipment cache she’d tasked it with forming. It was coming along very well, Andrea decided that it was actually time to begin shifting the set of backup power generators and fabricators into the site. Several of the Donkeys were tasked with assisting some of Lin’s smaller and more dexterous drones with shifting the requisite gear to the borehole and lowering it down the vertical shaft. At the bottom of the shaft down dozens of meters was the chamber that the boring drone had chewed out of the bedrock and reinforced with printed concrete walls and arches, forming a small lightless vaulted chamber. The chamber was soon filled with the backup equipment, and after an hour’s work the cache was complete. Lin spent most of that hour either directing the drones or supervising the fabricators as they neared completion of the components for the first vacuum aerostat. Lin anticipated launching it sometime in the next couple of days. With the cache complete, and aerostat production on track, Lin decided to plug the borehole and disguise the site. The base had a decent collection of various materials for the fabricators to use as feedstock, so Lin chose to ensure the backup cache remained hidden and prep the site of the base camp for their eventual departure. Leaving the minimum possible impact was part of their duty, so leaving the site of the base camp looking as if they’d never been there at all was their goal.

  It took half an hour for Andrea to finally fly up and over the mountains and drop down to skim low over the rolling hills that merged into the base of the mountain range like the choppy waters of a lake splashing against a steep and rocky shore. The circuitous path through the mountains made the flight much longer than it might have been, but now that Andrea and Lin knew the size of the ‘planet’ they were on they recognized that the horizon wouldn’t obscure them from view unless they were over a hundred and fifty kilometers away, and that was a minimum distance. One of the Protectorate expedition members might have a clear line of sight to well over two hundred kilometers just by standing on the roof of one of their vehicles. While they would be difficult to make out at that distance, particularly with the camouflage systems they employed, it was better not to allow for the opportunity to spot them in the first place. A further half an hour of high speed slaloming among the hills would have left Andrea nauseous if she had still been physically capable of the sensation, but it allowed the heavy lift drone to promptly drop Andrea at the base of the hill that she had selected as her perch from which to await the Protectorate expedition.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  A brief walk to the crest of the hill gave Andrea an expansive view out over the undulating terrain stretching off into the distance. She was able to directly observe the distant line of the expedition as it continued to head in her direction. Deploying a pair of her mini drones allowed her to establish an impromptu optical array telescope and get a much closer look at the people she would soon be meeting as they slowly crawled in and out of sight among the hills. She’d only been waiting for about twenty minutes when both Andrea and Lin spotted a sudden stir in the convoy that disrupted the loose line of vehicles, people, and animals. Andrea’s position blocked much of the group from view at the moment, so it was the perspectives provided by the three high altitude drones that revealed a huddle of various individuals, with some obvious gesturing in Andrea’s direction. It seemed that she had finally been spotted, and sooner than they’d expected. In this case that was a good thing, Andrea was happy to give them as much warning as possible and she continued to wait, though now that they’d spotted her she chose to lounge back on one of the folding chairs she’d brought along. Despite the differences in biology, it seemed the strange similarities between humans and this alien species extended into social dynamics. How far this similarity truly extended was an open question, but the implied invitation to peaceful discussion of seating herself and providing an open seat for a guest seemed to translate well. At least based on Andrea’s experiences with Unla-Ela, Olan Lunere, and their people.

  Lin and Andrea calmly waited while watching a small group climb into one of the trucks, Lin noted it was one that contained one of the odd grow rooms. Indeed the very same vehicle she’d infiltrated the night before, and sure enough one of the people boarding the truck was the particularly short gardener from before. Lin was still at a loss to explain what role that whole system of plants and caretakers played. “Perhaps we’ll find out what the portable gardens are for sooner than we thought, maybe communications?” Andrea hummed pensively in response. “Possibly… though why would they need their communications equipment to be in a box that seemingly allows no signals to pass?” They fell into silence again, both aware that further speculation would only bias their observations, while not helping them in any meaningful way. Their companionable, if somewhat tense, wait lasted nearly an hour and a half as the convoy waited where it was and the lone truck carefully made its way towards Andrea. When it reached the base of the hill at a spot some three hundred meters away, it rolled to a stop. A small group piled out looking around cautiously but wasting little time in making their way up the hill towards Andrea. Andrea noted that the gardener was among the people left with the truck, while four other members of their party advanced up the hill. She quickly realized that they seemed to be making a deliberate effort to be non-threatening in their approach. Their hands were kept clearly visible and they moved at a steady and moderate pace, obviously avoiding sudden movements. When they had closed to about fifty meters Andrea slowly raised a hand in greeting, before settling back to wait. The group of four all looked at one another for a moment before each made a series of hand gestures until, with a restrained look of excitement, one of them left their slightly disappointed looking companions behind and carefully continued approaching Andrea.

  They eased their way closer until they were close enough to communicate without having to shout. Before Andrea could say anything their counterpart beat them to it, speaking in the trade language Andrea was familiar with. “Hello friend, I hope you can understand me.” Andrea was pleasantly surprised by their greeting. “Hello, I can understand you quite well, fortunately, and it is always a pleasure to meet new people. My name is Andrea. Please, have a seat.” Andrea gestured to the seat opposite her own. “My name is Orna ul Trantos, please call me Orna.” As they introduced themselves Orna made their way closer and settled into the seat Andrea had indicated. Andrea noted the slight double take as Orna settled into the seat, looking down at it in visible surprise before allowing themselves to relax a bit more and sink into the seat cushions. “For what are clearly portable chairs, these are shockingly comfortable Andrea, my own camp chair will seem far less welcoming this evening as it suffers from the comparison.” Orna grinned as Andrea couldn’t help but smile at their little joke. “My companions and I have traveled a long way from the Protectorate of Galyon in order to learn new things and hopefully meet new and interesting people. Though meeting an intelligent person from a species so clearly different from our own, yet oddly similar at the same time, certainly manages to exceed our wildest expectations.” Orna paused for a moment to blush a pale burgundy before continuing. “I’m hoping you’d not mind settling a small wager we made as we decided who got to meet you first.” Andrea nodded in agreement, allowing herself to adjust to the striking lack of formality from Orna, who seemed shockingly casual for a person making first contact with an alien species. “Excellent! Thank you my friend. Our little disagreement is on the matter of where you hail from. Either you’re from the unexplored regions around here, or you came through the aperture we detected, my money’s on the aperture.”