The humans are exploring Earth's neighbouring star systems, and while alien life is not rare, they have not found any intelligent beings until stumbling over an alien explorer in the outskirts of known space.
By the terms of the unknown entity, a singular ambassador is sent to a first contact meeting. It quickly turns out that the alien species has little in common with humans but in a sincere effort ambassador Samantha Neil and the initaurii explorer Nyar-Ent-Hep try to learn about each other and create a foundation for an alliance.
They work through misconceptions and language barriers to teach each other about the fundamentals of their technology level, biology and culture.
As Nyar-Enth-Hep needed to return personally with her knowledge about the exchange, they parted ways with the plan to bring together more of their respective species for further meetings.
---
“Why did it take so long?”
“Technical difficulties. The pressurization process was interrupted a few times and we had to re-do some checks.”
“Thanks Rory. Was it another fault with the station?”
Engineer Rory continued his work on the console beside the airlock door while replying: “Could have been a sensor feedback issue in the airlock chamber.”
“I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore. Will it be fine now? No sudden depressurization or anything?”
“Yeah, it’s fine - it stabilized okay, no worries. Plus, you’ve got your suit.”
“I’d rather not need it. Anyway, please open the doors.”
“Sure. Good luck, Samantha.”
The airlock double door slid away, revealing a small chamber and a single, sturdy outer door. The curly-haired woman wearing a compact all-purpose pressure suit entered the airlock and then stepped outside after cycling the doors.
It was her second time seeing it, but she was still amazed how the alien ship was connected to the human-made docking tunnel. The metallic ring seamlessly joined the organic material the initaurii used to build their creations.
She followed the well lit corridor. The design was different to what she had encountered when she had made first contact with the initaurian species nearly two months ago. Nyar-Enth-Hep had been the first and only individual Sam - and with her all of humankind - had met this far.
The corridor had rounded walls with a fine ripple structure and a uniformly light grey colour that had a slight pink hue. It went deep into the ship until it opened up to a large chamber that continued the design. Most of the floor space was taken by a dome in the middle that had steep walls and reached about twice the height of Samantha.
Before she could ponder what it was for, it began to change its colour from its previous opaque white to slowly become transparent. Simultaneously, a silvery and pleasantly modulated voice emanating from no clear point of origin spoke loudly.
“Hello Samantha Daniella Neil.”
The dome turned out to be a cover over a wide well in which stood an individual of the initaurian species. Despite the floor being deep down and her resting relaxed on her tail and arms, her triangular head reached up higher than Sam stood.
This unknown initaurii appeared larger than Nyar-Enth-Hep had been, and Samantha guessed her to be close to fifteen meters long. Between the pair of large arms that were close to two-thirds the length of the legless body were two much smaller pairs of arms held in a prayer-like pose with the three-fingered hands interlocked.
The alien’s skin had a pearlescent white colouration with a violet sheen, which made the jet black eyes stand out starkly. Sam mentally noted that though initaurii had four eyes, they seemed to look at things in a sideways glance, always using one side’s eye pair.
The voice spoke up again: “I am happy to meet you. My name is Potato.”
“Your- what?”
Sam blinked a few times in surprise. Had this initaruii just really introduced herself as Potato?
“Hello, I am also overjoyed that you have come. Thank you for your visit, I hope we can continue weaving a band of friendship between our species.”
“The one you know as Nyar-Enth-Hep brought back impressive knowledge from the first meeting.”
“Nyar taught us much about your species, it is good to hear you are impressed by what she has learned.”
The meeting chamber offered a walkway circling the barrier between her and the initaurii, inviting her to start pacing. Sam stopped after walking a few steps.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Could you please tell me your name again, I am unsure if I understood you correctly the first time.”
“My name is Potato.”
Potato’s unblinking stare met Samantha’s gaze.
“You have chosen a name from our language?”
“Yes.”
Sam made another few steps. Why was it bugging her how unconventional that name was? There were much more important matters to focus on.
“Then I’d like to say; hello Potato. You can call me Sam if you want.”
She waited for a reply that didn’t come and then skipped to the first question that burned on her tongue.
“Did Nyar share her experience of the first meeting with you?”
“We synchronized our memories when we met twenty-six days ago. I know everything she has experienced up to that time.”
“So you know all that we had talked about?”
“Yes.” Turning her head, Potato continued: “I want to remark on the size of your new spaceship, it is exceptional.”
The voice came from everywhere in the room. Each time Potato spoke, Sam had to suppress the urge to look around.
“Thank you. We made it so it would offer space for many of us and, when we expand it, many initaurii as well.”
“You can reshape this spaceship?”
“Oh. Not as you can, no. We made this-” Sam stopped herself. “Let me begin first by clarifying that this structure has no means to travel anywhere, it is a space station. And it is made from modular, prefabricated parts that were brought here by a special transportation system.
“We are not done building the station and will add more modules in the future - like special-built compartments big enough for you to move in. That is how we will expand it.”
Potato shifted forwards. The pearlescent effect of her skin gave her movement an entrancing effect.
“Your space station is unfinished? Are you safe there?”
The unexpected question made Sam pause. She had never thought about the circumstances under which one of these organic initaurian spaceships was built. As they seemed to have no other protection in space besides their ships, they probably didn’t build them there and could only leave a safe environment once they were finished building it.
“I am. The station has everything necessary to provide a safe living space.”
“But you have not finished building it to the designed shape?”
“True, but our technology is not reliant on its overall shape to deliver its function. As I said; this station is made from modular parts, and each of those would be capable of supporting human life on its own. We just haven’t had anything for your size pre-built, that’s why we are waiting on those modules.”
Potato moved her massive head away, standing up a bit taller in the process. A long moment of silence followed that made Sam think she wouldn’t say anything else. So she flinched in surprise on hearing the loud voice speak up.
“I do not understand.”
“Do you mean you don’t understand the building process?”
“You talk of pre-built parts. So these have existed before you designed the space station? And the space station does not move? You have built it here for the purpose of this meeting?”
Samantha waved her hands while explaining: “We have certain modular parts for the construction of any off-planet structure that are standardized. These are used in nearly every design, so there are always some in storage that can be used in time-sensitive projects - like this one.
“But we still need additional modules so the station can become a place of diplomacy between humans and initaurii and these were designed and built with this purpose in mind.”
This time Potato remained silent.
“Could you tell me how you made your spaceship, maybe I can explain better when I understand the differences.”
“Gladly, but I am unsure of how to put it in words.”
“You don’t need to mention specifics. Just leave out anything you cannot explain and tell me the rough steps of design and creation, and maybe also the timeframes.”
Potato turned her head and fixed one of her black eye-pairs on Samantha.
“I have built my ship to carry me off my cradle planet and enable me to travel the great distance to the origin world. I knew of this designated purpose from the first moment of my independent life and worked on learning the governing laws of the universe during my growth phase. This had taken me thirty-nine years.
“Then I began designing the spaceship's necessary shape so it would be able to fulfill its purpose within the given constraints of the environment. I had found a viable design after eight years of simulations and built it to completion within eleven years.”
This had indeed been a very rough description and it left Sam with a myriad of questions. But more adamant than these was the mental picture she had of this initaurii working on building a spaceship several times even her massive size, layering it up from the ground in tiny increments like a living 3D printer and working tirelessly through changing seasons.
She had seen Nyar-Enth-Hep creating a relatively small hollow cube seemingly out of thin air between the dancing fingertips of her smaller arms. But she couldn’t think of how this would work on something as sizable as a spaceship.
For now she decided to skip the questions about such technicalities and concentrate on the part that could explain Potato’s confusion.
“You build your ship for yourself and with a specific purpose in mind. When humans create complex vehicles, these are seldom tailored for individual use. We also rarely travel alone through space and my trip here alone to meet Nyar was only because of the exceptional circumstances.
“So building a spaceship, we always have to keep to a broad standard of usability to cover the varieties in human physiology. Added to that is the actual utilization of the ship - there are many different missions besides just plain space travel.”
Samantha unconsciously had slowly begun walking along the dome without breaking her flow of words.
“Some of those are covered by purposeful design, but most specializations are made through add-ons and later modifications. We build spaceships - actually most complex structures, like this space station as well - for long-term and varied use, and adaptability to future technologies.
“That’s why building a ship or parts of a station can come before finishing the final design and we can quickly put together something if needed by taking it from surplus or repurposing whatever is available.”
She stopped moving when she finished her explanation, having reached a quarter of the way around the dome. Potato had firmly kept her eyes on Sam.
“How long did it take to build your space station?”
“I’m not too sure about the construction times of the modules-”
“From the design of the space station to this current state, how long did that take?”
“Well, planning started immediately after Nyar left, modules and constructor ships started coming in a few days later, and the last large part was added a week ago. So, forty-five days.”
The following silence somehow felt much heavier than Potato's previous pauses.