Inspired by a picture of the full moon rising over a pine forest beside a boulder strewn river

As the Landing craft completed a final orbit of the planet, Captain Charles “Chuck” Matthews looked at his first officer, Commander Katharine “Kate” Evans.  “Well, Kate, now what do we do? There is definitely intelligent life here. We’re not supposed to land on such planets, but the D’Arcy McGee is well on the way to the next star system, and in FTL flight.”

“We have no choice, Captain,” Kate said. “We can’t catch up, and we can’t stay in orbit. We have to land. This planet is ninety-five percent Earth-like. We can breathe the air, and probably live off the food and water. They seem like a peaceable people. I have seen no sign of hostilities anywhere, and the ball of yarn orbit we have just finished covered every inch. I do recommend finding a secluded valley in the mountains, though. “

‘Sir,” Lt. Raini Redfern said from the communications board. “I saw a valley about three quarters of the way down the mountain that might do. It is big enough for the lander, if we go in vertically. There are trees like evergreens, rocks and a river to one side. It’s about fifty miles east of where we are now – one orbit would get us down low enough, and right over it. Do you want me to put the image up?”

“Good work, Redfern,” Chuck said. “Yes, let’s take a look.” The image appeared on the centre screen. “Hmmm…looks good, what do you think, Kate?”

“Looks as good as we’re going to get, and the nearest settlement is well off to the west. I’d say go for it. Raini, better let the McGee know we’ve found aliens, and we will have to land. Not much they can do about it, but we are supposed to report.” Raini nodded, and prepared a message capsule.  It would go FTL within the hour, and be waiting when the D’Arcy McGee returned to normal space.

The landing went smoothly, attitude jets used instead of the main engines, to cut down the chances of anyone seeing the streak of light. The valley was small, but big enough for the lander, and for shelters to be set up. The ship would be manned at all times, but everyone would have their turns at walking on solid ground, and breathing really fresh air.

Chuck, Kate, Commander Liam Connors the Chief Science Officer, and Rance Okonjo, biologist, spent several hours in the ship studying the screened images of the natives, their settlements, industries and farms.  “They are fairly advanced,” Liam said. “They have self-powered vehicles and whatever it is they’re using for fuel, there is almost no pollution.”

Suddenly there were shouts from outside, and they all rushed to the Hatch and looked out. All the humans who were outside were gathered near the river, staring up at the eastern side of the valley. Chuck and the others climbed out, and turned to look. About halfway down the rugged valley wall was a group of aliens, all standing and apparently staring. They seemed as shocked as the humans, and no wonder. Humans were as strange to them, as they were to the humans. They looked like tall asparagus spears with arms and legs. From this distance, it was hard to distinguish faces, but they could see that the group carried what looked like weapons. Were they as peaceful as they had seemed from space?

Chief Petty Officer Brian Peterson called his squad to order, and had them gather between the human encampment and the approaching aliens. No arms were drawn, though two, Leading armsman Joel Thomas and cadet Beth Arthurs lay on the roof of a building with stun grenade launchers, just in case. Captain Matthews walked over to the Chief and stood with him, waiting to see what would come of this First Encounter.

part two

Chuck stood there for a moment, then turned to Chief Peterson. “Brian, leave all your weapons here and come with me, I think we should go meet them.” He turned to Lieutenant Lorraine Albright and said “You too. We need a linguist. You do have your translator, don’t you?” when she nodded, he told her to disarm too, then took off his own weapons and carefully laid them on the ground.

Peterson stared at him a moment. “Captain, are you sure? They are armed, we could be killed without warning.”

“Yes, we could, and then they would be wiped out, wouldn’t they? I feel that they are too intelligent to do anything that stupid. All we have seen of them has indicated that they are peaceful. Let’s give them a chance.”

Brian sighed, and proceeded to divest himself of his weapons, placing them carefully on the ground. By the time he was finished, there was quite a pile. Brian was fond of weapons, and always carried quite an arsenal. “Ok, Captain, I’m ready,” he said. Chuck looked at the pile of weapons and laughed, shaking his head. He looked at Lorraine, saw that she had removed her weapons, and said “Yeah, Brian. Ok, let’s go,” he said, and started walking forward.

They watched the aliens as they went, and saw that three of them were laying down their weapons, too. They did resemble asparagus spears, but amazingly supple ones. The bent at what would be the waist, though the body was straight, and they could turn from side to side just the same as humans did. Their legs were flexible, but not as much so as human legs. There was some bend at knee and ankle but their gait was stiffer, though no slower. The head area was slightly wider than the body, tapering up to a point at the top, with a crest of fern-like growth.

The eyes were longer than they were wide, and a very deep green. There was a loose flap where a nose would be, and a wide, thin lipped mouth. The head could turn from shoulder to shoulder, or where shoulders would be, and when one turned his head, Chuck could see a flap on the side that appeared to be attached at the top and back, possibly ears. By this time, the two small groups had reached each other, stopping with only a couple of feet between them.

Chuck smiled and held up one hand. “Hello, we come in peace,” he said, and winced at the triteness, but couldn’t think of anything else to say. “I am Charles Matthews, Captain, and this is Chief Petty Officer Brian Peterson, and Lorraine Albright,” indicating each in turn.

The tallest alien gave a slight bow of its head, held up a hand and said something. The language was tonal, with some birdlike twittering, and some clicking. Actually it was rather pleasant to hear. Chuck knew Lorraine would need more than that, so he turned slightly and pointed to the lander.

“We come from Earth, a planet that is fifty light years away. Our main ship has gone on. We did not know this planet was inhabited when it left us, or we would not have been dropped off.  It will be many years before the ship returns and we can’t live in space in the lander that long, so we were forced to land. We will try to interfere with your people as little as possible.”

The tall alien looked to his companions and then answered. He waved his arm and, with the others, sang a harmonic chord, moving his arm in a large sweeping gesture, as though indicating the whole world. Next, he touched himself as he sang he something that sounded like notes of a scale “Somela,” Then he turned and pointed to the others. Touching the first, he sang “Dofaso”, turned and pointed to the other singing “Raylado” the ‘do’ this time a higher note. Then he turned to Chuck, and said something, pointing at him and shook his head. Pointing at Brian, he said something more, and sang “Terayso”, looking at Chuck and then Brian, to see if they understood.

“Ah,” Chick said.  He turned to Brian “Yes, my name doesn’t fit the scale, but they could take part of Peterson and give you a name.” He turned back to Somela and nodded. Placing a hand on Brian’s shoulder, he sang as well as he could “Terayso”, and they both nodded. Somela smiled, pointed at Lorraine singing “Loray”

Chuck nodded again, and made motions of invitation. “Come into our camp and sit for a while.” He turned to Lorraine. “How goes it, do you have enough to make up translators for everyone?”

“For a limited vocabulary, yes, but I can only make about a dozen right away. I’ll go start that while you get them settled. Once I have one replicated, you can have this one. It won’t take more than half an hour. “She scooted off at a run.

Somela beckoned to the rest of his group. They picked up all the weapons, and came down into the camp. Cadet Fredrick Farnsworth gasped and said “Hey, they’re carrying picnic coolers!” Chuck looked, and saw that two pairs were carrying what looked just like big picnic coolers. “Hmmm, wonder what’s in there?” he murmured.

part 3

It took about half an hour to get everyone settled. Chuck asked what they called their world, and the reply sounded like Dipavuga, sung to the scale. Somela said they and their city were called Dikega, also sung to the scale.

Somela then pointed to the ‘coolers’ and, making gestures as he talked, offered to share the contents with the humans. One of the people carrying a cooler bent and opened it. Chuck stepped over and saw several large cuts of meat. “Hmmm…nice thought, Somela, but will we be able to eat it?” He did his best to show what he meant, miming eating, then smiling and rubbing his stomach, then frowning and grabbing his middle and acting very ill. Somela understood, and Chuck turned to his Chief Medical Officer, Rance Okonjo.

“How quickly can you test a bit of that to see if we can eat it?” he asked.

“Not long, sir, about ten minutes.” Rance replied. He moved to the cooler, looked at Somela and indicated what he wanted to do. Somela nodded, and as soon as Rance had obtained a small sample, ordered the cooler closed. Lorraine sent two translators out, and he and Kate each wore one. Kate took hers and moved to the aliens who were sitting apart from the rest, where she started talking. The translators automatically added words as it heard them, and soon conversation was easier.

Rance was soon back, and reported that they could eat the meat, and some of the other foods they had gathered. “Sir, I think everything here is compatible with our bodies. We can plant crops and eat what we harvest, and thrive on it.” Chuck said that what good news that was, then turned back to Somela.

“It’s all right,” he told Somela, “our systems are compatible with yours; we can eat what you eat.” Interested, he asked about the animal the meat came from, and for the next half hour, Somela and Melado described the animal and he hunting trip. In the course of their talk, Chuck gathered that there had been a severe storm some months ago that had destroyed much of the crops and killed many animals. The people of Somela’s town were on very short rations.

“Somela,” he said. “Your people need that meat. We have plenty, and if we can eat your food, you can eat ours. Why not send the meat home now. You and a couple of your friends stay with us for the night, and we can eat together and talk. We have a lot of fruits and vegetables in our hydroponic garden; we’ll make up a package for them to take with them. At least for tonight, your people can eat well.”

Somela agreed with many thanks, and soon five of them were on their way home, laden down with the two coolers of meat, and another filled with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Over the next three years, the two groups of people grew close. With the help of the human’s more advanced farming methods, and the addition of crops that were new to the aliens, they became stronger and healthier. Meanwhile, many of the humans paired off, and children were born. Drs. Rance and Amaya Tamako kept careful genetic records, so there would be no danger of inbreeding.

It was five years later that a new ship appeared in the sky, and a message was received. “This is the King William, U.K. register, Earth Space Agency, calling Captain Charles Matthews, come in, please.” Communication’s Cadet Alfred Mitchell answered “Cadet Mitchell here, aboard lander Ontario. I am sending someone for Captain Matthews right away, sir.”

“Thank you,” the voice responded.

After Chuck had finished talking to the King William, he ordered a landing sight be marked out down below the foothills. “Earth has sent a diplomatic mission. They will not interfere with what we are doing with the Dikega’s, but will be in touch with Earth. This bunch will be staying, and there is nothing to keep us all from intermingling. So now we have a better gene pool for our growth. But we will not be settling here, except for one diplomatic settlement of no more than about five hundred.”

And so it was. Earth’s first encounter with an alien culture was a great success. Many years later, the leader of the diplomatic mission told Chuck “If we had come in first, we might never have created the close bonds we have here. You guys had no training in proper first contact protocol, and did a much better job than we would have. For instance, look at the mess made by the Harry Truman. There were Contact specialists aboard, and they insisted that they alone would make first contact. They stuck strictly to protocol, allowing only the translator to accompany them, and he wasn’t permitted to say a word. That one almost started the first interstellar war!

”That was after you landed here, but before Earth had your message and they were still trying to figure out what went wrong. And calm everything down and make very sincere apologies and reparations.  When your message came in, it made the big guns on Earth take a good hard look at the protocols. The changes they made then have led to several successful contacts. It just goes to show – sometimes it’s better to trust to instinct in person to person contact.” They both laughed, and Chuck felt a swell of pride in his old crew.