It might have been a pretty humorous situation to an outsider. This Meldren named Milli, whose name I'd gleaned during the trio's conversation, finally found the resolve to walk towards me and ended up tripping over herself after a couple steps. I could tell that it was going to happen before she even stumbled, but rushing in to catch her too early would probably just cause a headache of a misunderstanding in what was already a delicate situation. I wasn't so cruel as to let her fall on her face; I'm sure it would hurt a lot more considering the shape of her nose. What I hadn't expected was just how delicate these Meldren were.

I took the physical contact of catching her as an opportunity to take a quick blood sample and a body scan. Nothing she would notice outside of maybe a sore shoulder where the needle pricked her, but the data I saw honestly shocked me. A few things were strange but inconsequential, like Meldren blood being yellow like lemonade due to a few unique proteins that doubled as dyeing agents. The crazy part was her skeleton; instead of a strong skeleton that outlined the shape of the body like a human's did, Meldren had almost a thousand thin bones connected by soft tissue that made them more flexible than a cat. This had the downside of making them extremely fragile, like a plastic bag filled with thin strands of pasta.

Milli had been a bit of a ways away when she started falling so I ended up moving at a pretty high speed to make it in time. To me, it had been a leisurely pace but if I had exerted even a bit more force or grabbed on to her a bit harder, there was a pretty high chance that I would have snapped a few bones. I loosened my grip after realizing I was probably hurting her which she took as the chance to lurch back from me. The other two behind her hadn't moved, but one of them was turning to run back into the building which was pretty annoying since I needed the chance to explain myself.

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I'm way out of my element here. I'm supposed to be the type that sits behind a desk all day, typing away at a computer and tying up any loose ends that my clumsy, but kind to a fault, friend made. Normally a job like this would be left to Dayna but he had to be rushed off to the on-site hospital after going unresponsive during the call. The two bozos behind me weren't going to be of any help, but they were the highest ranked representatives on site and demanded to come with me. They were blind to the reality of the situation and probably just looking to line their pockets by getting the first crack at trade deals with the new exo. Well, news flash, this thing was a walking apocalypse and it just grabbed me hard enough to make my arms go numb. In a perfect world, it was just trying to be friendly and used a bit too much force when it saw me trip, but I doubt I'm that lucky. And the speed at which it moved? That thing was out for blood, maybe it only stopped because it got notified by its higher ups that I wasn't the main target.

Help was on the way and my job was to buy time. The House of Rule was pretty far away from any actual urban areas, only a few highrises peek over the edge of the horizon past the frankly stupid amount of greenery surrounding us. Everyone here that understood what the situation was had accepted that they might be fulfilling their greatest duty as a civil servant: dying for the sake of their people. My current objective was to lead this thing into the building and get it talking. As soon as we lose control of it, the building would go on full lockdown and be effectively encased in a [5 meter] thick box of tungsten. This system was normally meant to prevent large-scale attacks on the planet leader, but we weren't going to bother taking any chances.

"Did I hurt you? I'm sorry, you're so small and..."

Seems like it's still trying to keep up appearances after what just happened, making my job a bit easier. I'm small? To you, sure. I'm actually pretty above average when it comes to height and pride myself greatly in that, so what would you know? And yeah, it hurts to the point where I can't feel my arms and my vision is getting wavy, but I need to grit my teeth and get this done so I can get you out of my care and into someone else's.

"No, I'm fine. Can you please follow me?"

I know tempting fate is the last thing I should be doing right now, but it's taking most of what I have to not faint twice in the same hour. The alien started walking so I turned around and began trudging towards the entrance just to notice that one of the reps that followed me was nowhere to be found. That guy was as spineless as they come so I really wasn't surprised. The other representative was kind enough to help me walk to the entrance, and I could feel the alien's hungry eyes drilling into the back of my head, likely realizing that I had just lied to its face. While the rep's gesture of helping me walk was nice, he was shivering in fear and it was really uncomfortable considering he was supporting me by my now terrifyingly bruised shoulder, causing my vision to flash white every now and then.

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By some miracle we got inside the building and the alien was sent to an office where it would be talking with some politicians. I got placed on a stretcher and was rushed off to the hospital to get my bruises checked for bone splinters and possible nerve cord damage. When I got there I saw Dayna hooked up to a life sensor with a couple doctors huddled over him, muttering to themselves. I also spotted my best friend, Destra Sind, Governor of the planet, pacing around in the far end of the room like she had just gotten into another mess that I needed to bail her out of. Unfortunately this time, the situation wasn't as simple as blackmail or career-ending accusations, and I really had no way of helping her outside of what I had already done.

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I don't think a single thing has gone the way it was meant to according to the very rough diplomatic training I'd received. Fumbled the greeting, couldn't manage communication on an equal level, rushed things that should have taken time and now I've injured a secretary of the governor. It's been a couple minutes now and I haven't picked up any vibrations signifying people walking towards the room I'm in, but the last thing I want to do is add any more oil to this dumpster fire of a situation, so I'll just wait. Technically speaking, I had a year or two to make things happen before the colony ship arrived so for now I just needed to focus on fixing my mistakes and showing that I mean no harm.

The room I was guided to was very nice, it reminded me of one of those old offices that they had on Earth. There was a large circular table in the center made of polished dark red and brown wood with chairs that were a bit too small for me surrounding it. There was a larger chair made of metal that had some rough cushioning bolted on it and it was probably thrown together very recently, impressive considering we were at a governor's mansion meaning that all those materials and the means to make it were on site or nearby. While I appreciated the gesture, I wouldn't actually be putting my full weight on it since it would probably get flattened if the metal frame was hollow.

More minutes pass, I decide to try listening in on stuff around the building, trying to get a feel for what's going on. The walls are incredibly thick and lined with heavy metals, making any sounds I can pick up really difficult to parse. I manage to put together a few fragments:

"ships on the way... hours until... in need of aid..."

Is the planet in danger? Considering the Meldren's behavior towards outsiders like me, I doubt they have many extraterrestrial friends. They had to have some allies if they were mentioning aid, and I found the lack of orbital defense systems a bit strange... maybe they were relying on those allies for providing defense since they couldn't manage it themselves, so they were on constant edge since they weren't ever truly safe?

I've been selling the convenience of this system to myself ever since I entered its sphere of influence, and I really wanted to make this happen since I was getting paid based on the amount of land I secured and prepared for the colony ship. Even if it wasn't for that, these Meldren people had started growing on me and I wanted to make peaceful relations a reality... or maybe I'm just clinging to the first thing that killed my loneliness. Either way, this could be my chance to show that I'm on their side. The ship that I came in, small as it might be, was bursting at the seams with not only planet sowing tools but also an arsenal of nasty weaponry, ranging from annihilating a specific grain of sand in a desert to turning an ocean into a cloud of steam.

The plan was coming together. In these upcoming talks, if they ever happened, I'd assure them that I'm on their side and would offer protection from anything that wishes to harm them. If they told me about the incoming ships, I could give them a direct illustration of my protective capabilities, though I won't fish for that situation since I don't want them to know that I've been eavesdropping. On the chance that their allies make it in time, a pretty low one unless these guys figured out FTL travel, I wouldn't raise my hand outside of picking up where the defense might be inadequate. All in all, I've got a pretty good feeling about this and started patting myself on the back for just how resourceful I could be at times.

My glee was put on hold when I noticed footsteps finally making their way to my room. It's showtime.