Contact [INDEFINITE HOLD]

2. Arrival

Her first sight of a human was underwhelming. One of them in greenish fatigues was striding towards them across the flat, disorienting airfield. Seeing the horizon stretch out and fall off to infinity in front of her instead of curving upwards was more nauseating than the flight. Her head seemed to float as Sergeant Komoran walked over to meet the human. Male, if the intelligence was to be believed.

For living on a low-gravity world, humans were surprisingly short. Inye already knew this, but it hadn't hit her until now. Judging from his uniform, this human was part of the branch of their military specially trained for direct combat, and yet he barely reached Inye's chest. Her rifle nearly dwarfed his squat torso, and instead of a flat face, the human instead had a mountain of a nose situated dead center of his face. The entire top of his head, where he should have had a plate, was covered in hairs. His brownish-pink skin was devoid of identifier tattoos.

When he had come within a few paces of Komoran and Inyetso, he stopped and brought his five-fingered hand to his brow. It was the human equivalent of a salute. The two of them brought their hands to their opposite shoulders in answer. "Brigadier General Alexander Cole, United States Army."

Sergeant Komoran inclined his head, and the motion would have allowed the general to read the rank tattoos repeated on his armor if the general had been twice as tall and knew how to decipher the intricate markings. "Communications Specialist Inyetso Dyinyavec and Sergeant Komoran Renvedam, Umbra Squad. Requesting permission to bring support personnel aboard." As soon as she said the word "aboard," she realized it was wholly inappropriate. They weren't "aboard" anything except, strictly, the entire planet, or at least the continent, and someone raised here would never think of that. "We apologize," she added. "I'm afraid neither our translation software nor our experts like myself are fully proficient in seamless communication."

"Permission granted. It's an honor to welcome you to the United States. I only wish it was under better circumstances. If you'd like to walk this way, we've prepared ground transport to your helicopter." Sergeant Komoran nodded, walking slowly in pace with the diminutive general while Inye signaled the rest of the team to exit and follow the two officers to the set of ground trucks. From the look of them, they were hastily converted cargo transports. Most likely humans never had need of passenger vehicles for anything as big as her people.

Over the internal channels, Umbra squad and the engineers were abuzz with the new sights. At least one of them was feeling severely sickened by the horizon.

"Hey, Inye. What do you reckon those are?" asked a private. She looked. A line of humans armed with what appeared to be oddly-proportioned rocket launchers faced them, some of the devices emitting periodic flashes of wide-spectrum light.

"Looks like what's called a press corps. They're like spies, only they do the opposite of keep secrets."

"And what about that mass of humans beyond that? The ones holding signs?" asked Revira'so, the sniper. Inyetso looked. It wasn't clear from this distance, and she was tempted to unclip her rifle for the benefit of the scope, but she knew she would never hear the end of it she did so. She settled for squinting.

"Don't know, but reading the sign it doesn't seem very welcoming," she answered. "I'll ask our host." switching to external voice projection, she waited for a break in the officers' conversation before beginning, "General Cole? Do you mind if I ask what those people are doing over there?" She gestured to the sign holders, who were upon further inspection being opposed by a cordon of troopers.

The general looked before saying, "I'm afraid there are some of the opinion that your presence will only be detrimental. We the United States Armed Forces do not share that opinion, but it's part of our culture to respect that difference so long as they remain civil, sir." he said as they were ushered up the ramps into the truck.

"General?" began Sergeant in a polite tone that nonetheless conveyed a thinly veiled forceful suggestion, "I'm not an expert, but I believe Specialist Inyetso is properly referred to as 'ma'am'," he said as they all took the seats that had been hastily attached to the bottom of the open-top trailer, accompanied by the general and two human soldiers.

The general did a double-take, his eyes unconsciously moving from her visor to her chest, partially covered by her rifle, then to her waist, then to her tendrils, and then to her crest, and finally back to her visor. "I am so sorry. I assure you I meant no disrespect whatsoever. Please don't mistake that for anything but an innocent mistake..." he trailed off, seeing Inye shaking.

She was gasping for breath trying to keep from laughing aloud at the awkward hilarity of the general's situation. A few ratcheting giggles escaped despite her best efforts, before she marshaled the willpower to say, "I'm sorry general..." between gasping breaths. "We go through all the communications training and... I can't believe that just happened," she said, chattering jaw probably mangling the language.

General Cole, sandwiched between two armed alien soldiers easily twice his mass, looked incredibly nervous, even by Inye's sensibilities until Sergeant Komoran used the live translation program to say, "Isn't the human idiom, 'breaking the ice?'" His tone was touched with levity, but the software couldn't pick up that nuance.

"What? No, I swear I was speaking in complete good faith. My intentions were only to speak to Specialist Inyetso in the most professional manner."

Inye had calmed down enough to hold up a hand to stop him before saying, "We completely understand general. That was just, incredibly funny. I haven't laughed that hard since... I have no idea."

The general seemed to stop, think about it, and then he began to laugh a surprisingly high and smooth tone that did indeed break the ice. For them at least. Behind them the protesters chanted, and the reporters carried the images of humans and aliens, worrying and predicting what might befall them.