As soon as I had left the commlab, I contacted the bridge using my new smartwatch, or rather comm.device.
I pressed the little red button with the now familiar communications symbol, and said "liaison-officer Ayanna Vohali to second in command Vencan."

After a few seconds I heard the ship's SO through my comm.device, "Go ahead, liaison-officer." 

"Sir, I have succeeded in contacting the planet below; they are expecting my arrival. May I request transportation?"

"One moment, please...," he said, ".....you are cleared to use shuttlecraft 2. The pilot is on his way." 

"Copy that, Vohali out," I said, trying to fit in by using familiar military terms. I checked my comm.device and saw that the connection had indeed ended as the tiny blinking red light was now quiet. 

The ship's computer then guided me to the shuttlebay and the little map indicated that I was in for a long walk. While I was still walking there, I had the distinct feeling that I had forgotten something....ah! My guards!
Let me try this...I pressed the little red button again "Computer?"

Nothing for two seconds, then, BEEP "state your query."

"Computer, are you able to send a simultaneous message to the 3 guards assigned to me? 

"Standby. Checking. Yes, please specify a message," the monotonous voice of my comm.device replied.

"Alright, send the following message to all 3 guards: please meet me in the shuttlebay for immediate departure in shuttlecraft 2."

"Your message has been sent." The little red light stopped blinking, indicating that the computer was no longer monitoring my voice for commands. I think I'm slowly starting to understand how this technology works. 

After another five minutes of walking, I entered the shuttlebay, and again, I can only say that this place is huge. There are at least a dozen craft right in front of me, but there seem to be many, many more in the adjoining sections. Some are streamlined and must be their equivalent of a fighter. There are bulky ones too, probably for transportation purposes and some smaller craft which just might be shuttles. Seriously, how can I be alone in this enormous space? There is literally no one here.

"Hello....is someone here?"  I shouted.

"Over here," a loud male voice came from the other end of this section. The reply startled me for a second, but when I walked over there I was happy to find someone I could ask for guidance. I see someone working beneath a craft and only his legs are visible. This reminded me of one of my former colleagues whose hobby was to tune car engines, but one day he looked like a monster from outer space when he ended up with engine oil all over him.

My giggling must have triggered the mechanic to come out of his hiding place and was currently staring at me.
I put my hands in the air in defense "sorry, I saw you working here, it reminded me of a funny little accident my colleague once had." 

"Ah, of course, think nothing of it. But if I may ask, what are you doing here?"

"I have orders to visit the planet, but I'm still waiting for my guards and the pilot. I only have one problem...I can't possibly find shuttlecraft 2 in this huge shuttlebay."

"Well, you just found your shuttle. Seems that I'm your pilot today. My name is Aymon Bijor." 

"Really? Must be my lucky day then. I'm Ayanna Vohali and my boss wants me to say hi to the people on the planet below, so it might become a bit interesting for you."

"Great..looking forward to it already. No disrespect intended, but when you diplomats mention the word interesting, I always tend to keep my finger on the liftoff button."

"Haha, yes, that is probably a good idea. But don't worry, my three guards will accompany us to the surface. Speaking of which...they should have arrived here by now."  Seeing him nod, I continued, "What were you doing to the shuttle if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, nothing special. After upgrading the memory module, I did a necessary software update, one we will need for our little excursion. The shuttle now has a fresh terrain map loaded into memory and a set of coordinates provided by the bridge. The tech guys usually take care of these things, but they were busy elsewhere so I volunteered while waiting for you. Besides, I like to keep up with all the onboard systems."

"Mmm, good to know. Do you need to do some pre-flight checks, or are we ready to go?"

"We are definitely ready to go. But forgive me for asking, you don't sound like the typical diplomat. Don't tell me you are a pilot too?"

"Ha, no, not at all. But I do have some prior experience in combat situations, we had some old F18s coming in hot to the carrier we were escorting. I was monitoring the comms that day, so I picked up some of their flight checks."

"F18s? Never heard of those."

How do I get out of this...
"Yeah... they are basically ancient fighters, but sometimes you just need to go back to the basics in order to really learn how to fly."

"I see, that makes sense I guess. By the way, I think your guards are coming this way."

 

I hear a word here and there as they are coming closer "again....mission....wrong? How......only a diplomat!  We....better.....babysitting...girl." Then I heard them laughing, yep, they were definitely talking about me.
So you think you are going to babysit a girl, are you?

They come closer and need to walk around another shuttle until we finally make eye contact.
In front of me are three armed guards in uniform, carrying white helmets with a dark blue visor under their arms. They cease all motions and simply stare at me....perhaps because I'm giving them my most serious death glare. 

"Are you three, perhaps, my guards for my important trip to the planet?" I said, making sure to sound annoyed.

"Eh, yes, sir, eh ma'am." one of them said without saluting.

Ohh, they are definitely not up to my standards. People would never get away with this kind of disrespectful behavior in the Navy. 

"Attention! In formation!" I shouted.

And they stood properly at attention, saluting me. I returned the salute.

"I am Ayanna Vohali, liaison-officer, diplomatic division. You three are my armed guards. 
I want you to keep your eyes open and always ready to protect me. We will be landing in unknown territory where we will initiate first contact. Any questions?" I made sure to exaggerate the situation on the planet a bit, so they hopefully understand that this is definitely no babysitting mission. 

"No ma'am!" the three of them said in unison. That's more like it!

"Good, then I have a question for you. Did you know that talking about babysitting me means that I can put you on report for disrespecting a senior officer?" I said with a serious expression.

One of them stepped forward. "It was I who said this ma'am. Please don't put them on report." He was serious, trying to protect his buddies.

I stared at each of them, but after a few seconds I felt sorry for them. 
"At ease guys, nobody is going on report. I've had my fair share of combat missions, and believe me, I know that having a good laugh is the best way to get rid of any anxieties. Just make sure to point those weapons away from me." I made sure to smile when I pointed at one of their weapons. 

The three of them looked at each other in disbelief and then started smiling again, after which one of them said "Sorry ma'am, thank you for understanding."

"No problem, but before we depart..did you guys have your injection of Vitrasirox?"

The doctor injected me with a dose of Vitrasirox before I came here. Apparently that medical compound somehow adapts your lungs, enabling you to breathe another planet's air more easily. It only works for worlds where the air is very similar to our own, luckily Earth being one of them. One shot should give us a few months of protection. The fact that I really needed this shot painfully reminded me that I wasn't human anymore. I was now truly alien to Earth, a world I once called home.

They all nodded, so I continued "good, now quickly get into the shuttle, we are late as it is. I will brief you on the way down."

 

The shuttle's rear end slowly opened downwards while making a mechanical noise similar to hydraulics. The shuttle now has a ramp we could climb to get into the shuttle. The inside was a bit disappointing as I had imagined seeing a high tech futuristic cockpit, but it only revealed a few small unimpressive screens. On the plus side, there were unexpectedly large windows, but only on the front of the craft. This thing had enough seats for eight passengers and then even some room for cargo as well.

Once we were all seated properly, the pilot contacted the bridge and asked for departure clearance. After receiving the clearance, the two giant bay doors slowly opened with a blue forcefield of sorts between them, not needing any decompression to take place. 

We slowly accelerated, leaving the ship through the force field and then entering outer space. 
As far as my eyes could see, stars were all around us, illuminating the blackness of space. 

The shuttle slowly turned left towards Earth, getting flooded with our sun's light for a few seconds until Earth came into view. We are now flying above the hull of the gigantic ISF Arbella, my new temporary home. Its color is a deep green, almost black metallic color, and has white stripes and insignia that must indicate its name.

Its name looked like this:
=== ᎥᏕᎦ ᏗᏒᏰᏋᏝᏝᏗ ===

The shuttle is increasing speed and we are slowly approaching Earth. This is truly an awesome sight. The planet is even more stunning in reality than in the best photos and documentaries I have seen. Sadly I didn't have the time to enjoy the scenery because it was now time to instruct my colleagues about the delicate first contact procedure.

I spoke in a loud voice, "Alright guys, I need to brief you on some procedures we need to follow while approaching our coordinates." They all focused on me, except for the pilot who only listened attentively.

Now having their attention, I continued "We will enter the atmosphere following normal procedures, but then we are expected to avoid populated areas. So it would be best to reduce speed considerably when we are still a good distance away from our target coordinates. Then gently decrease in altitude to almost ground level and finally approach them on a direct course at a very slow speed. Are these orders reasonable?" I made some hand gestures to the pilot, when he was able to watch, so I could show him what I meant.

The pilot understands and approves, so I continue "When we have landed, we will first transmit a message to them, indicating that we are ready to exit the shuttle. You should expect anti-air and ground defense units, so the keyword for our mission is careful. Don't make any sudden moves. Once we have the okay to leave the shuttle, we will see what happens."

The pilot then asks, "Do you want me to approach the location with shielding activated?" 

"Yes, keep them activated until I deem the situation to be safe. Do not underestimate the destructive power available at the landing site." 

All confirmed that they had understood their orders while the shuttle's shields allowed us to pass through Earth's mesosphere without being bothered by the re-entry friction.

 I addressed the pilot, "it might be late for this, but do you estimate that they can see us coming down?"

"Not unless they can compensate for the scattering effect of our refractive shielding."

"So I guess that is a no. But still, be prepared for anything," I said, not fully dismissing Earth's defensive capabilities.

We are now flying in the troposphere, the most familiar layer of Earth's atmosphere in which people actually live. We made sure to stay away from populated areas, and were slowly decreasing in altitude and finally we arrived only a hundred meters above ground level. 

"Excellent, now level off and continue on a direct course to our target coordinates at slow speed," I said to the pilot who only nodded at my orders. Slow is relative of course, but I feel that we are not moving too fast.
I estimate that we are traveling at 200 kph, now making a beeline for the landing site. We still needed to travel approximately 80 to 100 kilometers so this is probably going to take a while. Our motto for now is low and slow.

 

Then an alarm beeped on the shuttle's dashboard. 

"Officer! We have two air units heading straight for us," the pilot shouted. Probably ready to get the hell out of here if we need to. So it seems we were indeed detected.

"Are they transmitting signals?" I asked, worried what kind of craft I should expect.

"Checking....yes they are."

"Can you identify if they are voice patterns?"

"No, the systems are not set up for these transmissions."

"I see, then take us to a full stop. Show them that we mean no harm and are incapable of communicating."

"Compliance."

 

The shuttle has come to a complete stop, patiently hovering at 100 meters above ground level.
Then, suddenly.....something looking like two F35s did a fly-by and scared the hell out of us! Guys..that is careless! Are you supposed to be the welcoming committee, or are you here to scare us to death? Because that was freaking careless of them!

We needed a moment to calm our nerves, then I said "Don't move, nice and easy...nice and easy...let them see that we are harmless."

The two jets are following each other at close range and are now moving at a slower pace in a big circle around us, making sure that we can see them. Ah, so they really do have good intentions... 

"Good, if this is no invitation to follow them, then I don't know, but we won't move a bit. I won't risk looking like we are pursuing them, shielding or not. I assume that we will see some choppers soon."

"What are choppers, ma'am?" One of the guards asked.

"Well, how can I explain....eh...they are like compact craft, like this shuttle. And those have the ability to hover. If I am not mistaken, these two jets can't hover, unless they are equipped with the naval VTOL module, but I highly doubt it."

Let's just say that I ignored the confused look he gave me.

"We have more units approaching ma'am. They are moving at slow speed, arriving in three minutes," our pilot said.

"Excellent, that's probably them. Don't make any move."

 

And yes, after a few minutes we see five AH-64 Apaches approaching in standard formation. It's a bit overkill for a welcoming party, but I guess they don't want to take any chances with us.

"Good, our escorts have arrived. Let's see if we can get their attention."

The helicopters approached us and stopped at about 200 meters, nobody moved for at least a full minute. 

Then, one of the Apaches slowly comes closer to us, then turns left so we are looking at its side with their bottom-mounted machine gun pointing away. Very respectful of them. The Apache is now hovering sideways, slowly adjusting itself to come closer to our location.

I decided to unbuckle and move all the way to the shuttle's only windows, the huge front windows. Then I waved at them, showing a big smile. I know these guys can zoom in, so they definitely can see me properly. 

"Hello, see? I'm smiling. We are nice people. Just tell us what to do already."

"Ma'am they can't hear you," one of the guards said.

"Don't assume anything, you have no idea what they are capable of. Keep your eyes open!"

"Yes ma'am."

Good, I am waving again. The helicopter is now at very close range, I can see them waving. 
That is the follow me signal. I put up my thumb, lucky for him I know how to respond.

"Alright, slowly follow the helicopter that is right in front of us. It will guide us. Don't make any sudden movements. When in doubt, come to a full stop." 

The pilot did exactly as ordered. The helicopter accelerated, and we were now slowly matching its course and speed. 

"Ma'am they are increasing speed, should we match?"

"Yes, match their speed and course."

We are now traveling at approximately 200 kph. After a while we seem to be approaching the destination and the helicopter is slowly reducing speed, so we do the same until we come to a full stop. They signal us "down" by hand gesture towards a bright yellow circle with a white "H" in the center, probably an improvised helipad. I replied with the "OK" gesture. They probably wonder how I know these things, but that is a secret I am not going to share.

"Alright, land the shuttle slowly at this position."

"Yes ma'am."

That reply never grows old, I love it and I guess the translator is working really well. These people literally speak my language. After a minute of slowly descending, we land at the designated coordinates. The Apaches are now moving away, but keep watching us from a distance. 

"How should we proceed?" the pilot said, turning around and facing me.

"I guess now is the right time to transmit the greeting we have discussed earlier," I said.

The pilot then sent the message which Taegen and I had prepared a while ago. It basically only says "We are waiting for instructions."

And waiting we did, five long minutes neither we, nor the forces outside made any move.

I took this time to try and recognize the defenses they had gathered here. I see some M1A1 Abrams tanks, and a single M113, multiple trucks with heavily armed personnel half visible behind them, ah and I think I spotted a sniper there...not so nice. The two F35s fly high above us at high speed, returning to base. 

And I see some...nevermind..something is coming this way...it is a car, escorted by multiple armored cars. No, it is no ordinary car, it's actually a black, well-polished limousine. And on the front of the limousine, two small US flags are proudly waving in the wind.