A minute later, Hana saw a shuttle landing in the outer part of the bay. The shuttle bay was divided in two areas, one that could be opened to space, and the other closed off. Hana looked at the alien shuttle, it was sleek, light gray in color and smaller than human shuttles by half. After it landed the bay outer doors closed, and air was pumped back into the area. A minute later green light flashed above, and Hana and their welcoming committee entered and took positions in front of the shuttle. Their group was made up of five people, including Hana. The other members of their group were her High Prime Rolland Ricks, her Security Chief Manu Akins, Chief Diplomat Park Chung-Ah and her aide Giles Nast. Niri was of course monitoring everything. Each of them wore a device equipped with a speaker on their shoulders and an earpiece. The earpiece was a misdirection, and served no purpose, it was supposed to insinuate that the humans got a translation of the Nel language through it, while they really got it directly through their implants. Every person on the ship had the translating software uploaded to their implants. The speakers on their shoulders on the other hand would translate human speech.
A moment later the shuttle door lowered and three figures walked out. They got to the bottom of the platform and froze, just like the humans did. In the alien database that was recovered from the ship on Earth there were many records of alien races. Humans had studied them all in great detail. They learned that life in the universe varied, and was vastly different. There were cases where a few races looked similar, but even those similarities were small. There were only three races in the alien database that were bipedal. One of those was the race that operated the ship they found, their name was unpronounceable by human mouth so they just called them Jings which was the closest thing to their real name they could come up with. The Jings had two legs and four arms, triangular heads with four curving hornlike protrusions on their top and six eyes. They had no nose, but two slits, and their mouth had no lips. They were the only race that resembled humans in any way that they found in the database.
Hana looked at the Nel in disbelief. They were dressed in form fitting clothes that Hana believed to be a part of some kind of safety suit. Their skin was in various shades of gray. They had thick tails dragging behind them, about as thick as a human forearm, they varied in length, but were all approximately around a meter and a half long. Their fingers ended in short small, and deadly looking claws. The lead Nel had black claws while the rest had dark gray. They had hair on top of their heads, like humans did, but no hair on their faces. No eyebrows or eyelashes, their eyes had no pupil, but only an iris that was filled with small black dots that constantly moved. They were a bit taller than an average human, around two meters tall. And that was where the differences ended. The rest of them looked exactly like a human did, their faces, their body structure, everything. Hana could see that the leading Nel was female, it was obvious because the others didn’t have breasts. And she had longer black hair. The males had their hair cut short, just like most human men did.
After no one moved for a few more moments, Hana took a breath and stepped forward. She approached the leading Nel and spoke.
“I am in charge of this ship. My name is Kisaragi Hana, I welcome you to my ship.” Hana said. Immediately after she finished the device on her shoulder started producing the translation in Nel, with Hana’s voice. She didn’t identify herself as a Ship Master, they didn’t know how they named their commanders and didn’t want to confuse them, their translators weren’t perfect just yet. When the translation finished the lead Nel seemed to regain her composure and she took a step forward and spoke.
“Ru talla denure Oferani Esama, Ru etaro Uru lesavo.” She said, and bowed her head shallowly. Immediately after she finished the translation was produced in Hana’s implant.
“I am named Oferani Esama, I accept your welcome.” Hearing the translation Hana smiled, relaxing a bit. After that first shock of looking at an alien that looked so remarkably close to a human, she forgot that her first worry was not being able to communicate properly. Hana’s smile was returned by the leading Nel, Oferani Esama. She still didn’t know which was her first and which last name, if that was even what those words meant. They could be a title or something else entirely.
Hana then introduced the rest of her party, with the Nel then doing the same.
“I believe that it would be best if we move to a more comfortable location, we have a meeting room ready, if you would follow me?” Hana said. And after her words were translated the Nel agreed. Hana led them to room one level above the shuttle bay. A few minutes later they were all sitting around a table, the Nel had to sit on the chairs sideways as their tails interfered.
After they all settled comfortably Hana took the lead.
“I must say that we were very surprised by the resemblance between us.” Hana said.
After her words were translated the Nel looked among themselves and then responded.
“We were surprised as well.” Hana’s implant translated Oferani Esama’s words.
“Perhaps we would be able to investigate further in the future, and determine if there is any connection? We have always believed that our race evolved on our own home world.” Hana said.
“As did we.” Oferani Esama said.
Hana nodded. No matter how curious she was, they couldn’t push for too much too fast. She glanced at Chief Diplomat Park Chung-Ah, signaling that she should take the lead from now on. Hana turned to Oferani Esama. “Park Chung-Ah, is in charge of our diplomatic matters, and she will be in charge of any talks from now on.”
Nel nodded and turned to Park Chung-Ah. “We look to the future.” The translation said.
Hana then excused herself and left for the bridge, no matter how much she wanted to be there, it was not her job.
A few hours later, Hana was in her office with Diplomat Park Chung-Ah, and her Chief Medical officer Travis Hughes. The Traveler already continued towards the planet with its two escorts. The Nel diplomatic team elected to stay on board.