Cathérine clenched and unclenched her fists, stabilized her breathing. Mostly, she was trying to get her heart to stop trying to hammer itself through her sternum. This was an incomprehensibly important event in human history and, until a week ago, she had never really imagined herself being a part of such an event, and she was barely prepared for it. Sure, things like this had been factored in as something of a possibility -- even the most pessimistic equations suggested some intelligent life in the galaxy -- but she hadn’t expected something like this on her first jump. She took a deep breath and tried to relax her jaw. The hangar was frustratingly empty. She felt exposed, here. She worried that her military training had left her the less than ideal candidate for first contact like this. While it made the chance of surviving an encounter like this more statistically likely, it also meant that she wasn’t comfortable here without a military escort and a weapon of her own. She’d eschewed all of it in the name of diplomacy. She felt -- she was -- exposed, despite Clinton behind her, Maria and Evangeline on either side of him. 

The alien ship had sent through a request for on-ship boarding, and with it, specifications for the landing craft, and the hangar had been cleared of both crew and much of the landing craft. In space, a constant repulsion field kept air in while allowing ships to pass through without issue. In case the field failed, there were four separate failsafes to keep the whole place from venting into space. The downside of the system was that it gave Cathérine a long time to look at how ridiculously large the “shuttle” craft was that was about to land in the bay of the Sollipsis. It dwarfed her own ship’s shuttles, and looked like it could do serious damage just by flying full-speed ahead within the hangar. She shuddered at the thought, and tried to analyze the ship based on what she could see, to clear her head. It was hard to make comparisons to anything she’d seen before. She heard gasps coming from behind her as it came into view. 

For one thing, it looked a lot more organic than anything designed by humans, both literally and figuratively. A central shape like a teardrop, ending in two slightly snaking tendrils, flanked by two large membrane-like wings that waved and rippled in solar winds. As the ship approached the hangar, she saw the wings slowly fold up into themselves. The ship seemed to be a marriage of biology and technology, and she wondered if it was actually, really alive. God, she hoped not, she was unsettled enough as it was. She straightened her back as the ship touched down on three legs that settled gently on the hangar floor. It hissed softly, in a noise that reminded her unnervingly of a large creature exhaling. For a moment it just stood there, menacingly, vapor coming off the gleaming hull. 

A platform lowered at the ship’s belly, and she got a view of their guests. According to the message, the ship’s oxygen atmosphere wouldn’t be a problem for the guests, though they had requested the exact chemical composition of the air aboard the Sollipsis, and she understood why. All the creatures wore a filter or a mask of some kind. Well, the ones that needed it, at least. 

When the platform hit the ground, she gingerly approached the six figures that stepped off and approached her. Both parties moved slowly, as if to make sure that the other wasn’t going to make any sudden hostile moves. She slowly took in the aliens. They were as different as they were, well, alien. She barely had the time to take them all in when she stopped a few paces away from them. Three of them seemed to be of the same species, the others being completely separate. She didn’t know where to look, when one of them stepped forward, one of the three similar ones. 

The alien was tall, easily over two meters, and moved with a fluidity and grace that betrayed a high control of its movement, reminding her of trained athletes. It was mostly humanoid, walking on two digitigrade legs, with a torso, shoulders with arms, a neck and a head. That made it easy to figure out where to look, at least, although a second pair of arms and its more elongated shape made no secret of the fact that this was nothing human. Its skin was smooth and a milky white, and its face had no visible mouth, only two large pairs of deep blue eyes, blinking slowly. She briefly noticed the fact that, while the alien was definitely wearing clothes of some kind, they were mostly ceremonial; being wrapped in colourful bandages and large strips of beautifully decorated cloth, it also wore a sort of metallic band around its neck, which occasionally let out a puff of vapour. She assumed that was where it breathed through. 

Then the creature utterly and completely freaked her out. The lower half of its face slowly, like milk flowing into a shaped glass bowl, formed a mouth, which opened, revealing a strangely human mouth, teeth and all. “Hello, Captain,” the creature said. It had a slightly baritone voice. “We hope our initial meeting was not too much of a shock to you,” it said. Its tone was melodic, like a tune played on a cello. It was a voice she could easily listen to for extended periods of time, if she wasn’t so utterly confused by what it had just done to its own face. 

“Uh…” she said, and couldn’t help but blink and stare. The alien had spoken. Sure, they’d communicated through text before, and when they’d met in person she had assumed there would’ve been some kind of communication, but she had expected some kind of audio-translation device, or even a speech-to-text converter. Not for it to grow a human mouth and speak English at her.

“Perhaps this is easier if I introduce myself,” it said. “My name is Proteus.” That one popped her bubble. She shook her head and frowned in confusion.

“Really? That seems… uh…” She realized that her interruption was probably breaching every kind of human, alien, solar or intergalactic rule of protocol, and suddenly felt very embarrassed and aware of her own tongue. She heard Maria hiss through her teeth behind her, but thankfully, none of her own people interrupted. 

“Improbable?” Proteus offered, smiling. It could smile? There was a soft shuffling sound that came from Proteus’ collar, which she realized was probably a kind of laughing. “We have taken our time to get to know your languages. It is tradition for us to try to translate our names, using phonemes you are comfortable with. A more literal translation would be ‘The First To Speak’, which is a bit of a mouthful in English.”

“Oh,” she said. “Uh… nice to meet you, Proteus,” she said, after a moment. “My name is Cathérine Durand,” she added, and then immediately breached not only protocol but most laws of common sense, including several biohazard protocols, by offering her hand. Proteus looked at it curiously for a moment, then its eyes went wide with recognition and it shook her hand, almost eagerly. 

“I have been looking forward to meeting you, Captain Durand,” Proteus said. “I understand your language uses gendered pronouns, so for simplicity’s sake, please use masculine ones for myself,” he said, gesturing to the one of his species to his left, who was taller and dressed in slightly darker fabrics. “Feminine ones for my colleague, Yetta, and neutral ones,” he finally added, waving at the other, “for my junior, Petri.” This third one was shorter, and seemed a little more fidgety. Their gaze seemed to constantly be slipping back to Proteus, as if looking for guidance.

“You’ve heard of me?” A part of her wanted the answer to be a simple and easy ‘yes’, because it would save a lot of time (and it wouldn’t hurt her ego), but there was a gross little realization with the possibility of that ‘yes’. The realisation that her species might have been scrutinized as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water was an unpleasant one. 

“We have, Captain,” Proteus said. “We made sure to know a lot about you, your crew, your species, to ensure that our first interaction with you was as peaceful and cooperative as possible. I hope you understand.” He nodded his head slightly, as if acknowledging the fact that, in the interest of peace, they had essentially committed a species-wide breach of privacy. “Might we continue the introductions, Captain?”

“Of course,” she nodded, trying to get a handle on all the new information she was being presented with. She just hoped that Clinton was paying attention. She’d need to pick his brain on their visitors later. “This is my First Officer, Clinton Blake. He is… my second in command. When I am not present, he is the acting Captain, keeping command of the vessel, relay my commands, and he is the only member of the crew whose responsibility it is to question my command if he deems me unfit for duty.” 

The alien Proteus had referred to as Yetta made a gentle whistling sound, seemingly without a mouth of her own, to which Proteus responded with a soft, melodious humming. He smiled apologetically at Cathérine. “Apologies. Our translators,” he touched the metal collar around his neck, “can translate language, but not culture. There was a slight miscommunication. Please, continue.” Proteus folded one pair of hands in front of him, and the other behind him. It was an odd sight. 

“Uh,” Cathérine continued, trying not to stare. “This is Security Officer Evangeline Hayes. She is responsible for my safety, and that of the ship’s crew.” Evangeline nodded curtly and professionally. “Finally, Communications Officer Maria Holloway. She is the mouth and ears of the ship, so to speak. She’s a linguist, and quite the polyglot.” Cathérine turned back towards the alien envoy. “There are many more crew aboard the ship, of course, and I hope that, in time, we will all become familiar with each other’s languages and cultures.”

Proteus bowed his head again. “We hope so too, Captain Durand. I believe cooperation between ourselves and Humanity as a whole will benefit everyone. As for us,” he opened his arms, gesturing at Yetta and Petri, “we are the Unity. For the sake of convenience, you can call us Merillim, or the Merillim Unity,” he smiled conspiratorially, “although the literal translation would be ‘Unity Unity’, so it always feels a bit awkward to say.” 

“It’s good to meet the Unity then, Proteus,” Cathérine said with a little smile. “Who are your… colleagues?”

Proteus gestured to the first of his companions. Cathérine had been so absorbed by Proteus and his two fellow Unity -- fellow Merillim? -- that she’d almost forgotten about the others. The first was clearly a mechanical suit of some sorts, supported on five thick, hydraulic legs. It wasn’t much taller than she was. It looked almost industrial, clearly designed for practicality over presentation. On the front of it was a display that had gently oscillating colours, a kaleidoscopic display. Above it was a large window, through which Cathérine vaguely saw movement in dark green water. “This is Ambassador Dark,” Proteus said. “Of the Deep Khatunate.” 

A little speaker on the front of the suit crackled to life. “Greetings, Captain. We hope our species can cooperate fruitfully and peacefully.” It clicked back off. That was it, apparently. Vaguely, she thought she could see some colours swirling in the darkness of the tank. 

“Thank you, Ambassador Dark,” Cathérine said. “We also hope to pursue a peaceful future for both our species.” Proteus had moved on already, stepping around Ambassador Dark like he was a piece of furniture. The third emissary was a smaller creature, like a creature between a caterpillar and a moth, although it had a strangely human face and pair of normal-looking arms and hands. The face was slightly fuzzy and cute, in a slightly exaggerated kind of way, although the lower half of its face was slightly obscured by a clear breathing mask. 

“Doctor Hyslan, representing the United Hexapod Nations,” Proteus said. The creature clicked and whistled excitedly rubbing what appeared to be a pair of pedipalps together. “She is also an excellent physician,” he added, and Doctor Hyslan’s furry collar seemed to poof up in a reaction that Cathérine wanted to read as embarrassment, although she wasn’t sure if she was humanizing an essentially alien creature. 

“Thank you, Ambassador Proteus,” the creature said, although its voice came out of a little speaker in the mask. “It’s good to meet you, Captain. We hope our bonds will be strong, your lives be long, and your legacy be plentiful.” Cathérine bowed deeply to the excitable creature, which made another delighted series of whistles and clicks.

“To you as well, Doctor Hyslan,” she said. “I feel our ship’s physician will want to confer with you at a later point, if you’re interested.” She was barely finished speaking when Doctor Hyslan jumped excitedly, though admittedly not very high. She figured that was a yes. 

“Finally,” Proteus said, “there is Rep.” Cathérine waited a bit, looking expectantly at what looked to her like a server tower. Expecting there to be more, there was a moment of awkward silence. When no more title or name came, she nodded at the big box of electronics. 

“Good to meet you, Rep. My name is Cathérine Durand.” She wasn’t sure what to say. The thing had no visible face, or even interface, to speak of. She briefly glanced at Proteus, when a voice came from the server rack.

“I am aware, Captain. I expect interesting things from you.” Cathérine didn’t know how to respond to that, so she took a step back. Proteus stepped back between Yetta and Petri. 

“Thank you for having us, Captain, and for your hospitality. We are here to represent the society of different species and societies that have, together, agreed to form what is known as the First Federation.” Cathérine gulped. This was huge. This was too huge of a responsibility, for her, for any one person to be saddled with, and Proteus seemed to sense her trepidation. “As our initial contact appears to have been successful, Captain, I would ask your permission to send a joint message back to the Sol System, so that we may begin open talks between our species on a slightly larger scale.” He smirked. The tall bastard could smirk. “That should take some of the pressure off, yes?”

“I would certainly hope so,” Cathérine said with a slight smile. “Shall I give a tour?”

“That sounds lovely,” Proteus said, and his two colleagues also nodded. “Lead the way.” Ambassador Dark bubbled darkly in his tank. Doctor Hyslan clicked excitedly. Rep watched.

Elamimax

How'd you like THEM apples? 

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