The wind rushed by Andrea’s face as she gently swung in the cold early morning air with the forest canopy rushing by a few meters below her. Thick banks of fog curled down from the cloudy mountain tops and sinuously wound over and through the still darkened forest. The only obvious sign that morning had come was the golden glow of the rising sun lighting up the clouds that wreathed the eastern peaks of the mountains that loomed over the valley. It was one of those experiences that started out thrilling, but as the minutes passed it had quickly palled. Comfortable was not a descriptor she would apply to her current position and, despite deliberately flying at an altitude and speed she could survive falling from, it was a dangerous way to travel. Andrea was glad she'd already mentioned fabing the heavy lift drone and passenger module to Lin, that would be safer, faster, and far more comfortable.
Several more minutes passed and Andrea found herself flying past the pyramid, its stark geometric lines stood like some cyclopean sentinel over the entrance to the aperture cavern. The monitoring and security systems Lin had installed in the cave network below had reported no further visits from Unla-Ela or anyone else. Andrea fully intended to casually ask Unla-Ela for information about the pyramid. They already had that first probe in their possession and likely suspected Andrea to be in some way related to it. Particularly now that they've seen the drones, whose materials looked and felt the same as those used in the probe and different from anything that Andrea or Lin had so far seen from this planet. It was unclear if Unla-Ela noticed the aperture in the watery darkness of the cave, the distant dim glow of the fungus from the other side of the aperture would have been invisible in the pool with Unla-Ela’s light scattering on the water. Additionally there was no real sensation associated with passing through the edge of an aperture, so other than the odd current induced by the water flowing through, Unla-Ela would have had little to hint at the aperture's presence. The probe that they had grabbed from Andrea, could have its presence easily explained in a number of ways. Andrea felt it wouldn’t be difficult to treat the pyramid and cave as merely interesting features of the valley. There was no question of revealing or admitting the aperture’s existence or that they had emerged from it. The aperture was, to the best of their knowledge, the only path home and that fact was a vulnerability that could be exploited against them.
As the pyramid fell behind her it was consumed by a roiling fog bank that swept over the structure shrouding it from sight. The visibility was shaping up to be very poor and it would be hours until the fog dispelling heat of the sun reached the valley floor. In the days since Andrea and Lin had arrived there had been some mist but this was the first dense fog they'd witnessed. It remained to be seen if the fog was unusual or if the duo had lucked into particularly clear weather for the start of their expedition. Fortunately, with the various imaging and sensing systems at their disposal, the fog was a nearly negligible concern. Right this very moment Andrea was still looking back at the pyramid, an image of it was generated by the networked sensor systems of her implants and the combat drones, before being overlaid into her field of view, the fog blocking traditional human sight but rendered effectively transparent for Andrea and Lin. The potential issue that did concern Andrea was how much the fog would impact Unla-Ela and their people's ability to detect threats. The guards might be jumpy and Andrea would rather they didn't attack her by mistake.
Another few minutes of flight passed when Lin messaged Andrea about an unknown group approaching the valley. Andrea was a bit nervous at this news, an unknown party getting involved this soon into the delicate process of making contact with Unla-Ela's group could be a problem. But predominantly Andrea was excited to learn more about these new people. This was additional evidence of sophisticated technologies, and thus implied the existence of complex societies to create and maintain them. This was making Andrea feel even more enthusiastic about what new cultures she’d get to explore.
Andrea was particularly drawn to the prospect of experiencing truly alien art. She had always had a keen enjoyment for experiencing exotic new forms and styles of art. Back home Andrea had been one of the first people to experience an emosensual composition. Her friend Charlotte had pioneered the use of hormone and neurochemical mixtures to tell stories and convey themes purely through artificially induced emotions and sensations. Her work The Vanquishing of Despair was still considered one of the greatest masterpieces of the new medium, and Andrea had been there for its premier. Art from an entirely new species definitely qualified as new and exotic. Andrea wondered what she might learn about their perspectives on life, death, love, or perhaps some new emotion not experienced by humans.
Andrea's brief daydream about the possibilities of alien art ended when the combat drones carrying her alerted her to imminent arrival at the drop site. It was time to put her game face on and transverse the area between the drop site and Unla-Ela's camp. The four unencumbered combat drones maintained an overwatch position to scan for hazardous wildlife and other threats while the two carrying Andrea dropped below the canopy and lowered her to the ground.
Andrea triggered her attachment points to disengage from the tow lines as she deployed her 10 shoulder mounted mini-drones to begin sweeping the area near her landing site. The mini-drones then established a screening formation around her, providing close range scouting and situational awareness as she walked the last half a kilometer to the edge of the camp.
All six of the combat drones now began patrolling with irregular evasive patterns. Weaving through the banks of fog that were slowly sweeping through the valley while staying near her landing zone. The aliens may or may not have realized that the source of those massive detonations the other day was the combat drones. Andrea felt it would be bad form to have them hovering menacingly right past the edge of their camp. At only half a kilometer away they could arrive at her location in seconds if needed. Besides, many of their weapon systems could easily reach targets 500 meters away within a fraction of a second of getting the order. Andrea had plenty of support if needed and at the same time wasn't blatantly displaying herself as a threat.
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By this point Andrea was not worried about an attack from Unla-Ela or their people, instead Andrea’s primary concern was the wildlife. Being near the alien camp would likely mean any dangerous animals had been killed or driven from the area, but neither Andrea nor Lin had felt they should base their plans around assuming complete safety. That large inertial bear, Andrea’s name for it, had surprised them both during their first day on the planet. It remained a vivid reminder for both of them that they needed to take the threat of animal attacks on this planet very seriously.
Andrea carefully made her way through the forest toward the camp, her sensors sweeping her surroundings and the threat alarms set to a very low threshold. Her complement of mini-drones scouted around her, extending sensor coverage into areas that were obscured from direct observation. Within the perimeter the mini-drones were able to cover, hiding behind a tree trunk, or lurking on a large branch overhead wouldn’t keep a potential predator hidden from Andrea. As the inertial bear had demonstrated, this wasn’t a perfect guarantee of safety but if Andrea wanted to be perfectly safe she would never have joined the Surveyor Corps.
Fortunately, it seemed that some combination of the close proximity to the alien camp and good luck meant that the worst threat Andrea spotted was a nest of wasp-like insects that seemed to fly with both unusual speed and in complete silence, indeed the sounds of the forest seemed oddly muffled whenever the insects came between a listening mini-drone and the sound source. Upon considering the hints of large animal remains scattered on the ground in a broad area near the nest, Andrea made a note of its location and changed her course to give it a wide berth, before continuing on.
It wasn’t much longer before Andrea’s leading mini-drones spotted the clearing with Unla-Ela’s camp. With the fog still heavily obscuring many forms of visibility, Andrea elected to call out the watchword from a mini-done's speakers so any jumpy trigger fingers would be firing away from her. Ultimately the precaution wasn’t needed, as the sentries replied to her watch word with the correct response and she was able to approach close enough to the stockade for them to see her without issue.
Within a couple of minutes Unla-Ela, and all three of their students same out. The students were carrying chairs and a table, while Unla-Ela had a bundle wrapped in cloth in their arms. They all exchanged greetings with one another as the table and chairs were set up. Unla-Ela gestured for Andrea to have a seat before sitting down next to her and beginning to unpack the bundle. As the cloth was pulled away, a stack of slates and a box of chalk sticks were revealed. Passing Andrea a slate and piece of chalk, Unla-Ela smiled saying. “Speaking is improving quickly, next…, the next step is to add writing.” Andrea returned the smile. “Thank you, enjoy…, I enjoy learning new not there objects…, sorry, ideas. I will teach you my writing too. I enjoy trading at subtle cost…, sharing ideas.”
The next couple of hours passed with learning the alphabet and beginning to construct a written translation dictionary. Andrea recorded all of their work on the slates as they mutually educated each other in their respective written and spoken languages. At the pace Andrea was progressing she anticipated being nearly fluent in their spoken language within a couple more weeks. Already she was more than able to handle everyday conversation, mainly coming up short on more technical or philosophical topics, and that was usually down to an ignorance of the appropriate vocabulary.
They had paused for a break, setting the slates aside, and were chatting about the wildlife they’d encountered in the region. When Andrea mentioned the strange wasp-like insects. Unla-Ela asked them to point out where it was located. As Andrea pointed in the direction of the nest Unla-Ela made a quick note on one of the slates before saying. “From what you describe it sound…, sounds like you avoided something the local people call the silent death. Their bodies eat…, consume?, noise around them. People who are ambushed by them find their screams are also eaten, never to reach their fellows ears. They are dangerous, but only if location…, their location is unknown.”
At Unla-Ela’s mention of local people Andrea perked up with interest. “Are you not a local Unla-Ela?” With a nod Unla-Ela gestured towards themself, then their students and the camp. “Many of us are from another location group…, country, not all, some are local. Our countries trade people of learning to study each other’s lands and people while sharing culture and knowledge. Exemplar organizers…, leaders in both countries want trade and peace, knowing each other is first step…, is the first step.” Andrea’s excitement was palpable, while she was in a more complex political environment than she’d first thought, it seemed that the attitude, at least on the surface, of these two countries was ideal for her mission. A desire for, and active practice of, diplomacy through sharing mutual learning was just about the best possible environment, since it matched the Surveyor Corps’ first contact plans perfectly.
This brought Lin’s earlier sighting to mind. “Which of your countries uses this flag?” asking this Andrea began to draw the rampant spider-wasp creatures she’d observed on the ship’s flag. Unla-Ela and their student’s expressions darkened before Andrea had even finished her sketch of the second creature. Unla-Ela asked with uncharacteristic urgency. “Where did you learn this flag?” Andrea pointed in the direction of the ship Lin had detected and replied, “Scouting with flying animal tool, saw ship…, I saw a ship in the river with this flag, a large group is leaving…, disembarking the ship. They gave the appearance…, appeared to be coming this way.” Unla-Ela's concerned expression had transfigured into one of alarm. “The flag of twin rampant defilers doesn’t belong to either of our countries and means…, and it means trouble is coming.”