Going Bold

As it turned out two days elapsed before the high altitude surveillance drones detected the expedition from the alien camp heading in the direction of the open field that Andrea and Lin had selected for staging the first encounter. Calling it an open field was a bit misleading, it was littered with patches of exposed rock and scattered fields of boulders that had tumbled like dice across a rather steeply hilled landscape dominated by a central elevation that commanded a clear line of sight towards the tree line where the alien expedition was most likely to emerge.

Within the area growing up around and between the boulders was a variety of grasses and coating many of the boulders themselves was a feathery growth that from the observations that Lin’s stealth drones had been able to make appeared to be similar to lichen, returning samples to the base camp for more detailed analysis was called for but not a priority.

In any event this rugged highland was of an extremely shallow soil depth as could be attested to by the predominance of protruding bedrock layers and boulders this appeared to be the sole reason for the forest to not take over in this region as it had nearly everywhere else in the valley. During her preparatory survey of the region Lin noted some small herds of antlered quadrupedal animals that appeared to move together and pick among the boulders at the lichen-like organism growing on them.

Lin had observed that the several disparate groups of these creatures, though seemingly of the same species, seemed to keep a deliberate distance from one another and on the handful of occasions that they had stumbled into close proximity she noted another bizarre phenomenon that she struggled to explain. Some members of each group appeared to shatter nearby boulders with great sweeping shakes of their heads that seemed to create a shockwave emanating in between their antlers and impacting boulders at ranges of 5 to 10 meters smashing them in quite a spectacular manner this actually explained some of the finer castings of rocky debris that she had noticed and that had seemed somewhat at odds with the geology of the region. These displays had so far ended short of the creatures directly attacking one another, apparently content to cede the right of way to the herd that boasted the most impressive boulder shattering member.

Once she had noticed this phenomena Lin promptly bumped the threat rating of these herd animals up significantly and assigned stealth drones to begin keeping careful watch on the area near the high point where Andrea was intending to arrange the encounter with the alien exploration party. The last thing they wanted was a heard of angry boulder smashing herbivores to slaughter them and the people they were trying to meet, nor did Lin feel it would be particularly politic to demonstrate her firepower on these creatures even if it was in self-defense not if they wished to make a friendly first impression on these intelligent alien beings who so implausibly resembled traditional humans.

“Well Lin it looks like we've got an interesting biosphere here. We've explicitly observed two different animal species exhibiting frankly inexplicable physical phenomenon for an unaugmented biological organism Indeed the seemingly effortless and near instantaneous redirection of momentum is not something I'm aware of being replicable even in controlled laboratory conditions back home, at least not that I've heard since the last time I looked through the catalog of science journals the Surveyor Corp keeps us subscribed to."

Andrea's comment had been triggered by Lin's briefing as she rode the Donkey along the pre-planned route to the first contact location. The obvious and blatant phenomena that they had observed seemed to be merely the tip of the iceberg as Lin suspected that many of the organisms plant, animal, fungi, etc. on the world they were now exploring exhibited some form of bizarre capability that defied immediate explanation by the physical laws that Lin and Andrea were familiar with.

Since she had been busy with preliminary sampling and scouting duties as well as preparing various security countermeasures and contingencies for the first contact meeting and subsequent interactions with aliens. Lin hadn't been able to dedicate much time or focus to in-depth analysis of the many samples that she'd been gathering and having processed by the automated systems in the laboratory domes. However the small amount of time she had been able to set aside for studying samples personally had already hinted at micro and macrostructures in virtually every biological sample that even at first glance appeared to be of questionable utility or even sometimes questionable functionality based on the physical laws that Lin was used to operating within. Since Lin didn’t have even a tentative hypothesis yet she hadn't gotten around to sharing it with Andrea in favor of letting her focus on the immediate task of establishing contact. Assuming that went as smoothly as they hoped, Lin was intensely interested in shifting her focus onto a much deeper analysis of the biosphere around them and what it could reveal about what exactly was going on and why something seemed to be even more strange about where they found themselves than usual.

Lin's rumination ended as Andrea arrived near the peak of the Central Hill in the open area. The Donkey lowered itself into the standard position for loading and unloading, with Andrea's level of augmentation and physical training she completely disregarded waiting for her ride to finish lowering her and leapt clear with her usual enthusiasm. Walking back up to the crouching machine Andrea patted the side of the Donkey. "Well I think it’s best if we get this big guy out of here while I set up at the crest of the hill right over there like we planned."

Lin transmitted a nod and instructed the Donkey to stand back up and return the way it came, along a carefully selected path that took it in an indirect course that did not point directly at their base camp and also minimized the tracks it left by attempting to step on areas of rock with minimal lichen-like growths that could be disturbed thus minimizing a trail while also keeping the crest of the hill between the large drone and any possible sight lines from the approaching expedition of aliens.

Andrea took a moment to watch the Donkey retreat back the way they'd come before she turned and jogged up to the crest of the hill allowing herself to be nicely silhouetted and easily visible all the way from the border between the forested region and the rocky field.

It was difficult to track the party coming from the alien camp very closely with the only available perspective being high altitude aerial views from the observation drones, but they had enough of a view to track their progress. They had between the two of them once again deemed it best to take absolutely no chances of having even a stealth drone detected in advance let alone one of the flying drones or mini drones since they thought that would potentially complicate the first meeting and they were not at all familiar with the social norms or technological paradigms of the people they were about to meet.

Andrea had a very limited idea of what their perspectives on behavior and technology might be and basing it purely on what they had so far witnessed was a tenuous thread at best, a random sampling of what any given people from any given society might be doing, or what tools they use, over the stretch of a few days could very well be misleading and the name of the game with first contact was to keep as open a perspective as possible.

The tracking that was possible still allowed Andrea to follow the progress of the incoming group over the course of the next couple of hours. For both comfort and in an attempt to seem more relaxed she unfolded a simple chair and seated herself on it still silhouetted along the ridge of the hill.

Andrea was forced to conclude that the exploratory group was focusing its attention at a fairly short range and or was not paying very good attention since it seemed they had fully entered the field and begun making their way up the slope before Andrea and the overhead surveillance drones noted the first indications that she had been spotted. One of the smaller, and seemingly younger, beings that had initially been seen carrying samples into the tent started pointing towards Andrea and calling out to others in the group who began turning her way and talking amongst themselves, occasionally gesticulating.

Both Andrea and Lin noted the apparently armed guards seemed to tense up somewhat as they were made aware of her presence. This was expected, the job of armed guards is to be ready for trouble, particularly with the appearance of an unexpected potential threat. Andrea's main job was to ensure they didn't feel she went from a potential threat to a definite one. To that end she remained seated and slowly raised her left hand and waved it in a gesture that from her observations seemed to be one of greeting. Andrea hadn't noted any indications about it varying between rank or role that she could distinguish it had, as far as she could tell, the function of a universal gesture of greeting. This was what she deemed to be the best way to start based on the scant information she had available. Attempting to use a familiar friendly gesture seemed like it would have a good chance of taking the edge off some of the tension. She was aware that with her close but different appearance to them she may fall into their uncanny valley and thus familiar gestures might take on a sinister appearance she was familiar with the techniques used by horror entertainment creators after all, in fact she quite enjoyed some of that, but she felt it was worth the risk and that if anyone was going to be less swayed by uncanniness and paranoia it would be an explorer like the leader she'd nicknamed Professor.

Andrea’s confidence in her reading of Professor’s personality was soon rewarded as, after several minutes of vigorous discussion Professor made a firm looking gesture to her followers and began to make their way the last few dozen meters coming to a stop as far back as possible while remaining within what was likely comfortable speaking distance.